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Hi!
I am searching for a partner with whom I can write a story that is based on characters from the show The Gilded Age. I would like the story to be specifically about George and Bertha Russell and the beginning of their relationship. We don't really know much about them beyond Bertha coming from a poor/working class background and being of Irish descent, and George being a self-made millionaire. Their backgrounds have been left mostly vague, so I feel that there is lots of room to kind of do what we please with them. They're portrayed (for the most part) as deeply in love and are each, in their own way, working towards propelling themselves to the top. He's ruthless in business, and she's cunning in her social climb, and I think that it would just be so much fun writing those two meeting and forming the partnership and relationship that we get to witness in their future.
If you've never seen the show, that's honestly fine! Since we would be going into a past that is not really discussed in the show, there's not much to get right or wrong for their characters, and I'm happy to share the need-to-know bits.
The show is currently set in the early 1880s, and the Russells are probably in their early 40s. Since they've been married for around 20 years (their oldest son is like 20-22...?), getting to the beginning of their relationship would mean going back to the late 1850s to early 1860s. I'm not looking for anyone to be an expert-level historian about this point in time— I'm certainly not!— but I am looking for someone who knows enough not to sound ridiculous and/or is willing to look something up if they aren't sure.
I have been writing fairly consistently for more than 10 years. I work from home and am on my own schedule, so that does give me a decent amount of freedom. I can usually post 1-2 times a day, sometimes less, sometimes more. If I am going to be longer than expected with a response, I do my best to let my partners know. I know this is not one of our main priorities in life, so I do not expect completely constant and/or immediate replies to my posts every time I write. I do ask, though, that you generally be able to respond at least once every 1-2 days simply to keep interest alive in our story. Life happens, and there are always exceptions, of course, but I think you know what I'm getting at.
I prefer to write in third person in the past tense. I am a teeny bit of a grammar freak. Don't get me wrong, we're all human and everyone has slip-ups; I know that I certainly do (I will proofread this post and there is still likely to be a mistake here or there), so I am not talking about the occasional mess-up. I'm talking about those who never use capital letters, commas, periods, and quotation marks, or the folks who still don't know the differences between the most basic homophones (there, there, their, wear, where, weigh, way, whole, hole, too, to, two, etc.) It just immediately takes me out of the story, and I can't focus on what you wrote, but on how badly you wrote it. I'm sorry!
When it comes to the length of my replies, I can crank out 3-10 paragraphs, but my average post is usually 3-4. For those of you who are able to type out novella-like messages every time, I just don't have that in me. I always do my best to write out my character's thoughts and emotions, and describe the scene while trying to match my partner's efforts, but to give 15+ paragraph replies every single time is just not something I have the brain capacity to do. When we really get into the heart of the story, my replies can get a bit shorter just because something I struggle with is one of us typing out a wall of text where our character does things A-F, setting it in stone and forcing the other one of us into a corner where we can't properly react to thing B like we want to because it might ruin thing D. (I hope that makes sense!) Basically, I do my best with my responses, and I ask for you to do the same!
I'm personally not into the easy and simple lovey-dovey stories. I'm not anti-romance; I'm all for it, but adding conflict and drama or bringing darker themes into the mix makes it all the more interesting. I don't want cliché and sappy. I want dark and twisty, drama and conflict!!
I enjoy smut as much as the next person, and it will always have a place in the stories that I take part in. With that said, I like to make it clear that I'm not looking for stories that are just sex. Too much sex and it gets boring, repetitive, and leaves no room for other interesting plot points. I think that smut is important to the stories I like to write, but the platonic interactions are just as important. I don't like to give a smut-to-story ratio because not every writer or every story needs the same parameters; I think that with a fellow mature writer, we can come together and create a good story with the right balance for us and our plot.
If you're interested, please reach out! Thanks for reading!
Young Mr. & Mrs. Russell
I am searching for a partner with whom I can write a story that is based on characters from the show The Gilded Age. I would like the story to be specifically about George and Bertha Russell and the beginning of their relationship. We don't really know much about them beyond Bertha coming from a poor/working class background and being of Irish descent, and George being a self-made millionaire. Their backgrounds have been left mostly vague, so I feel that there is lots of room to kind of do what we please with them. They're portrayed (for the most part) as deeply in love and are each, in their own way, working towards propelling themselves to the top. He's ruthless in business, and she's cunning in her social climb, and I think that it would just be so much fun writing those two meeting and forming the partnership and relationship that we get to witness in their future.
If you've never seen the show, that's honestly fine! Since we would be going into a past that is not really discussed in the show, there's not much to get right or wrong for their characters, and I'm happy to share the need-to-know bits.
The show is currently set in the early 1880s, and the Russells are probably in their early 40s. Since they've been married for around 20 years (their oldest son is like 20-22...?), getting to the beginning of their relationship would mean going back to the late 1850s to early 1860s. I'm not looking for anyone to be an expert-level historian about this point in time— I'm certainly not!— but I am looking for someone who knows enough not to sound ridiculous and/or is willing to look something up if they aren't sure.
About Me:
I have been writing fairly consistently for more than 10 years. I work from home and am on my own schedule, so that does give me a decent amount of freedom. I can usually post 1-2 times a day, sometimes less, sometimes more. If I am going to be longer than expected with a response, I do my best to let my partners know. I know this is not one of our main priorities in life, so I do not expect completely constant and/or immediate replies to my posts every time I write. I do ask, though, that you generally be able to respond at least once every 1-2 days simply to keep interest alive in our story. Life happens, and there are always exceptions, of course, but I think you know what I'm getting at.
Writing Style:
I prefer to write in third person in the past tense. I am a teeny bit of a grammar freak. Don't get me wrong, we're all human and everyone has slip-ups; I know that I certainly do (I will proofread this post and there is still likely to be a mistake here or there), so I am not talking about the occasional mess-up. I'm talking about those who never use capital letters, commas, periods, and quotation marks, or the folks who still don't know the differences between the most basic homophones (there, there, their, wear, where, weigh, way, whole, hole, too, to, two, etc.) It just immediately takes me out of the story, and I can't focus on what you wrote, but on how badly you wrote it. I'm sorry!
When it comes to the length of my replies, I can crank out 3-10 paragraphs, but my average post is usually 3-4. For those of you who are able to type out novella-like messages every time, I just don't have that in me. I always do my best to write out my character's thoughts and emotions, and describe the scene while trying to match my partner's efforts, but to give 15+ paragraph replies every single time is just not something I have the brain capacity to do. When we really get into the heart of the story, my replies can get a bit shorter just because something I struggle with is one of us typing out a wall of text where our character does things A-F, setting it in stone and forcing the other one of us into a corner where we can't properly react to thing B like we want to because it might ruin thing D. (I hope that makes sense!) Basically, I do my best with my responses, and I ask for you to do the same!
I'm personally not into the easy and simple lovey-dovey stories. I'm not anti-romance; I'm all for it, but adding conflict and drama or bringing darker themes into the mix makes it all the more interesting. I don't want cliché and sappy. I want dark and twisty, drama and conflict!!
I enjoy smut as much as the next person, and it will always have a place in the stories that I take part in. With that said, I like to make it clear that I'm not looking for stories that are just sex. Too much sex and it gets boring, repetitive, and leaves no room for other interesting plot points. I think that smut is important to the stories I like to write, but the platonic interactions are just as important. I don't like to give a smut-to-story ratio because not every writer or every story needs the same parameters; I think that with a fellow mature writer, we can come together and create a good story with the right balance for us and our plot.
If you're interested, please reach out! Thanks for reading!
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