here’s the last line i wrote for a summer in mariengard:
Maybe it was the early strains of nostalgia seeping through her, but the estate seemed grander in the unforgiving afternoon sun, the walls whiter and more immaculate, the gilded ornaments shinier. It reminded Nadine of her first impression of Mariengard, so long ago, back when she still had hopes for a great summer.
if you think it sounds nostalgic, it actually is. the summer is ending and nadine is about to leave the estate……*sobs*
Four students living together in Sheffield uncover secrets about themselves whilst attempting to navigate adulthood and an unknown girl who wants to know everything about them.
I’ve been dying to work on this project (I can finally start at the end of this week!) so this was my way of visualising my thoughts! I think Patchwork would suit a Netflix series the best out of my projects; I can imagine it being a weird twist between Sex Education andThe End of the F***ing World. Funny, emotional, sometimes a bit ~dramatic~ and very British at times. Maybe a dash of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia but only the meme elements, not them being absolute horrible people. Hopefully it’d have a FAR better logo than that but I am very sleepy and not great at Photoshop lol. Honestly though trying to figure out how it would work in a five episode season - what the key points and what the “finale” would entail really helped me understand the structure of Patchwork’s start! Not all the episodes reflect one chapter strictly, but adapting that for suitable episodes was fun too. They are all named after chapters though - and the episode synopsis’ can give you a hint about what’s to come in the actual updates.
(I like how all the images fit an aesthetic except for Witching Hour, which suits the intention of that chapter itself! It’s a very strange moment in the story where a lot of things change.)
Episode 1. Lucid Dreams
After waking up in a field an hour away from home, Thomas - with the help of Junie - tries to recount what happened the night before. Kristen tasks himself with figuring out Manon.
Episode 2. Big Arcade
The semester begins in full swing and Kristen already feels over his head, until he meets his new seminar partner. Junie and Manon bond. Thomas begins to slip.
Episode 3. Witching Hour
The semester begins in full swing and Kristen already feels over his head, until he meets his new seminar partner. Junie and Manon bond. Thomas begins to slip.
Episode 4. Welcome Home, Son.
Junie accompanies Thomas home for reading week and the two of them finally open up about their demons. With the house to themselves, Kristen finally figures out Manon.
Episode 5. Roll the Dice
The holidays are approaching and everyone’s desperate to find some spirit. Junie and Kristen convince Manon to go decoration hunting with them, and Thomas bumps into someone he never thought he’d see.
I loved making this, and it motivates me to keep going with the project and keep my enthusiasm up for it. No, Karmen doesn’t really look like that. No, Jamie and Damian don’t have last names yet. No, I won’t be fixing it anytime soon.
*in Austin’s character summary there is a “he” in one of the last sentences. They weren’t nb at first but after doing some character work it made the most sense, so that’s a leftover mistake from when I had first written it out.
This is great! I love it!! Could you add me to the taglist please? You had me at mountains, rivers, oceans and moors in close vicinity for nice scenery descriptions haha.
“I tried to support you. I tolerated everything you threw at me.”
ABOUT
Maximilian von Erbe, or Max, seems to have it all. He gets 15′s* at school as easily as he breathes. He can charm a chair into sentience. He is everyone’s dream person, as kind as a warm breeze and so arrestingly pretty you forget to breathe when you look at him.
And, to Nadine’s annoyance, he really is as nice and softhearted as he seems. So nice that he’s willing to tolerate everything thrown at him no matter how hurtful. So nice he can bleed himself dry for his aloof, volatile father’s approval and so nice one can almost ignore the mass of insecurities beneath under his perpetual serene smile. And Max intends to keep it that way, until an unexpected decision and the Arlt’s arrival in Mariengard force him to rethink his entire life…
(* From Grade 11 until graduation in Grade 12 or 13, German Gymnasiums—they’re kind of like prep schools—grade from 0 to 15, 0 being the worst grade and 15 being the best.)
“See that big building behind you? It’s the root of all sin. Both your uncles want it even though Helmut’s supposed to have it. They’ll drag everyone down if it means winning. You two are lucky you aren’t entitled to this mess, but keep your head above water. Be very, very careful, Ilka and you.”
GENRE:ya, slice of life, coming of age, family drama
POV:3rd person limited
STATUS: 1st draft
THEMES & TROPES:dysfunctional families, not so beautiful elites in their ivory castles, wealth, privilege, keeping face even when it doesn’t matter anymore, the ever-presence of the past and how to let go
SYNOPSIS:
All Nadine Arlt wants is a drama-free vacation, even though she’s stuck with her parents and older sister at a lavish estate in rural Germany with no-wifi, beds too expensive to sleep on, and only her snobbish, aristocratic maternal relatives for company.
Nadine soon discovers that all is not well in the shining estate of Mariengard. Her relatives’ already frayed bonds are unwinding at alarming speeds, shameful secrets are being aired out, and, as one half of her family slowly tears itself apart, can she keep her sanity in a summer gone mad?
TAGLIST:@teriwrites (pls reblog or send me an ask to be tagged!)
Could you add me to the taglist, please? I just read all posts in your WIP tag and I’m sold. This sounds so cool :O
gonna include some wips that i haven’t formally posted about yet.
Stairway to the stars
at the advent of the forties, two young jewish people find themselves going underground in the third reich; effectively hiding in plain sight.
Trophy wives
after moving in with her new husband, a young woman begins to realise that things aren’t as perfect as they seem once she begins to see the ghosts of his murdered wives.
currently unnamed short story lmao
after finding the names of her childhood neighbours on a list of known SOE agents, the narrator reminisces on her postwar childhood and the obsession she developed on the couple when they first moved in next door.
I had originally shelved STTS last year as I felt I wasn’t in the right mindset to be writing it at the time. It was, and still is, an incredibly taxing subject to be writing about but as someone with a Jewish grandpa; it was still a story I felt needed to be written.
Status: First draft.
Genre:Historical Fiction.
Setting: Berlin, Germany. 1938-1946.
Warnings:i know these are probably a given but antisemitism, death, mentions of murder/genocide and nazism.
Stairway To The Starsis a novel which follows two young Jewish people as they go underground in Nazi Germany; effectively hiding in plain sight. Otto, a young man who uses his experience from art school to forge passports and Fritzi, a young seamstress who uses a book club as a front for the resistance.
Her real name is Felicia, but she goes by Fritzi for most of the novel.
In her early twenties. Most likely around twenty-one.
Naturally dark haired with blue eyes, but she dyes her hair blonde early on in the novel. This is something which was actually quite common in Nazi Germany.
She used to study Literature until she was banned from attending university.
Works as a seamstress for a catholic woman who helps her change her name and appearance.
She honestly doesn’t look much like Lily James at all so take the picture with a grain of salt. It was close as I could get.
Okay so, Otto’s character is inspired by a Jewish Graphic artist who actually lived illegally in Berlin during world war two.
Personally one of my favourite characters I’ve ever written.
He’s in his early to mid twenties. Around twenty three or twenty four.
Graduated from art school.
He specialises in life drawing and does photography on the side.
He originally forges his own papers so he can avoid deportation.
Stairway To The Stars is only a working title and definitely won’t be the title of the actual novel. I only named it as such so I’d have something to tag updates with. That being said, I’m not sure if I’ll really be publicly posting many updates for this particular project.
Do you have a taglist for this story?? It sounds amazing!
