Rewatch A Scandal in Belgravia, because it is lovely. In particular, rewatch the Battersea scene. See John get passionately dickish defensive on Sherlock’s behalf. Watch the fire in his eyes, the quiet assessing on Irene’s part, the class and poise.
Watch Sherlock stumble back to Baker Street (not at all drug-addled, no, not one bit). Watch the clues slide into place too slowly, and the viciousness. And then watch the aftermath, with Sherlock tucking into her treat with gusto, and then John gone all soft back in their flat, drink in hand as he first tries to Talk It Through, the relaxes back into his armchair as he listens to Sherlock ring in the new year.
This is apparently where live. I suggest you do the same, just for a bit. There are worse domiciles.
We are so excited to be among such a talented and inspiring group of young filmmakers as winners of this year’s Student Academy Awards! SO honored to receive this recognition!! ❤
if nothing else like, johnlock and tjlc specifically really stretched the bounds of my own creativity made the idea of “what’s possible” virtually meaningless in terms of crafting layered and multidimensional and relatable and important stories, and even if i didn’t explore that freedom and create stories myself as a result, i think that in and of itself was worth every single minute i’ve spent here. to stop asking what’s possible and instead ask what’s imaginable, and to discuss how i might see my imagination brought to life, has been profoundly powerful.
This has warmed my heart to multiple levels and beyond. It’s so lovely that people who are in love with the Twitter accounts @ContactSH and @ContactJHW can collaborate and do such an amazing thing like this, despite knowing that the said accounts are not real at all.
100% fan created, imagined, supported and funded. This is what I’m here for. Fans inspiring other fans to spread love, and light, and good in the world. Beautiful.
sherlock fandoms been the absolute wildest most intense unbelievable thing ive ever seen/been involved with in my life and im hanging on for dear life loving every minute of it
Pretty sad about it tbh. We lost A LOT of folks after the dumpster fire of s4. It felt a bit like a post-apocalyptic AU the week after TFP aired. We the survivors picked ourselves up, dusted off our knees, and set to work rebuilding what was left of the Sherlock fandom. I miss so many artists who have moved on to other things, and the talented writers who are now doing fantastic work for other fandoms.
Still, not all of this migration was due to S4. Some folks will naturally drift off to new passions, but others left the fandom because they were harassed and hounded and that REALLY saddens me. When TJLC was going strong, a small angry group seemed intent on policing how others did fandom, going after anyone they thought were being heretical against the church of Johnlock. Sigh
Still, new people will always be coming in. New voices and talents can grow in the gaps left in the forest when old trees fall over. Everything has a life span, and things will wax and wane in the Sherlock fandom, though I see this group could last a looooong time if the ACD canon fans are any indication. Holmes and Watson seem to continue, born again and again with new faces in new situations, ready to right the wrongs, solve the crimes, and delight in each other.
Whoops, tumblr went all wonky on me. Ignore my prior reply… as I was saying, sad to hear about such exoduses in the fandom. So maybe it will help if I share
my story: I’m a complete newcomer who didn’t watch a single episode
of Sherlock until March 2017. Was utterly impressed
by the passion, creativity & inventiveness of the fandom when I
checked it out. Took several wks for the s4 DVDs to arrive at
my public library & make their way thru the queue to me. (goodness, I can’t imagine having been a fan from the start, all those years of waiting…what stamina and love y’all have!) Now I am
working on a s4 fic of my own….and looking forward to starting
Granada Holmes & delving deeper into the ACD stories…so…ray of hope…? Us new fans do exist, and we’re awfully excited to be here!
So I have something to talk about with you guys, and I hope you’ll be excited about it. Confession: I am super nervous about doing this, and about announcing it.
After a long time, and a LOT of internal debate, I have decided to begin the process of editing “Performance in a Leading Role” into an original manuscript.
Many of you have urged me to do this in the past. I’ve been hesitant, and I wanted to be sure that I had completed all I wanted to do in the fannish incarnation of the story first. It’s been seven years since the story was first released (whoa), and I don’t plan to write any more fanfiction in the Sherlock fandom, so I think it’s time.
Another reason I was hesitant is that I’ve always been so honored and touched by the fandom response to this story. You’ve all taken it to your hearts in a way that I never anticipated, but which made the whole process of writing it a joy and one of the most rewarding writing experiences of my life. In a way, the story is as much the fandom’s as it is mine.
But that will never change (I hope). And in the end, it’s a piece of writing I’m proud of and I think I’d like the chance to share it with a wider audience, and hopefully use it to help me build my own writing career.
Initially, I had thought to offer it to the publisher who released “Zero at the Bone,” Dreamspinner Press, which is a fantastic gay romance publisher. But then my illustrious beta tzikeh said “You know, publishing has changed a lot since 2009. I think you could sell it to a mainstream publisher.” I consulted with another published-novelist friend who agreed, so…I am going to swing for the fences on this one.
So, you may have questions. Let me attempt to answer them.
Q: What does this mean for the story’s presence on AO3 and other fandom archives?
A: Honestly, I don’t know. Any change in its status is pretty far in the future (like, years, probably, if it changes at all). For now, nothing will happen. Everything will remain exactly where it is. If it were up to me, the fannish version would be able to remain posted (perhaps locked to registered AO3 users?). That might not be possible. I doubt it’ll be up to me. But if the story is removed from its current archives, you will have TONS of advance notice. And I will be generating a nicely-formatted PDF of the entire series plus all the extras, which will be available for free download.
In point of fact, you can do that anytime! Any work on AO3 can be downloaded in several formats, including pdf. There’s a “download” button in the upper right of every story. It’s always a good idea to save offline copies of your favorite fics, because stories come and go all the time. I’ve often been glad I saved so many BBM fanfics, as most of them are now unavailable.
Q: Will you need to get an agent for this?
A: Yes. If I’m going to shop Big Five publishers I need representation. That’ll be my first step – well, the first step is to complete an edit of the manuscript.
Q: What are you going to change when you edit?
A: Aside from the names, I’ll need to massage the Sherlock character to be less – shall we say, Sherlocky. Luckily being a frigid, difficult jerk isn’t unique to him. The John character will be American and bisexual from the start (not out publicly, but to himself and those close to him). The reason for that is I’m leery of the “gay for you” trope. I will likely downplay or eliminate the Moriarty character. He really never worked very well in the story and the only reason he’s even there at all was that readers sort of expected an appearance. “Sherlock” may still have an acting rival but it won’t be as ominous. I may make a few cuts or even additions to the story as I go along – there are a lot of things that could have used better build-up in previous chapters, but that’s the hazard of publishing serially. I won’t have that problem now, so I can make some changes to help the emotional arcs track better.
Q: What about the sequel and the extras? Will those be incorporated?
A: I don’t know! “Lifetime Achievement” isn’t quite long enough to be a bona fide sequel as it stands but it’s something to think about.
Q: Will you change all the real-people references to fake people?
A: Not right off the bat. I will make some changes needed by an updated timeline (Letterman isn’t on the air anymore, for example, and Alan Rickman has passed away). But it’s not illegal to reference real people in fictional works. It’s possible that if I can sell the manuscript an editor may want some changes, but for now I’m going to leave all those real-Holllywood references as they are.
Q: What about the sexytimes?
A: I may…tone that down a bit. But a lot of the sexy bits in the story do important character work, so I don’t anticipate cutting everything.
Q: Will you change the title?
A: I don’t plan to. I like it. I didn’t change the title of “Zero at the Bone” from its fannish incarnation.
Q: People will be able to figure out that it used to be fanfiction.
A: Probably. It won’t be the first (by a long shot). I’m not ashamed of the story’s origins.
Q: What about works based on it?
A: I don’t have jurisdiction over anyone who’s done fics inspired by or based off of the story. Where it gets uncertain for me is in the realm of translations and podfics. I don’t think it’s my place to ask someone who put in a great deal of work on a translation or a podfic to remove it. I don’t know the right answer to this.
Q: Can we see the new version?
A: Okay, so. I will post general updates about my progress here on my Tumblr, but I am also going to be conducting a lot of the work of editing the manuscript using my Patreon as a workspace. I would love to share some of the process and get input on it from readers, but obviously I can’t do that work publicly. So if you’re interested, becoming a patron there is the way to go.
I have no guarantee that any publisher will want to buy it, of course. But hopefully, someday you’ll all be able to buy the new version!
But again, if you want in on the process and to see the edited material ahead of time, Patreon.
Okay. If there are more questions, please send me an Ask. I probably won’t begin serious work on this editing until I’ve at least finished my rewrite of “Flagstaff,” although I’ve taken a bit of a crack at chapter 1. This won’t be happening overnight, that’s for sure.
I’m excited about the possibilities, and I hope you will be excited about them, too.
@madlori Congrats on this huge step! I absolutely loved Performance in a Leading Role, and I anxiously await the published version (I have no doubt there will be one).
Thank you for sharing your time, talent, and passion with us. We will all be here cheering you on. Cheers!
john, shy and cautious and doubtful that sherlock wants him to be romantic, unsure if sherlock will think it’s a waste of time, remembering if i wanted poetry i’d read john’s emails to his girlfriends with all its careless derision. being so full up of things he wants to say and do that he can’t stop them spilling over, hesitant but determined to show sherlock anyway, as much as sherlock will let him.
john, feeling out the edges with one little gesture at a time, waiting to see if sherlock will accept them, tiny offerings held gently like trembling birds in the palms of his hands. making sherlock’s favourite pasta for dinner, lighting candles in petri dishes. bringing him a slew of tabloids from the newsagents when he’s bored. curling up with him on the sofa late at night, letting sherlock pick the channel and keeping track of how many right or wrong deductions he can make.
and sherlock, bright brilliant beautiful terribly in love with john sherlock, sees each and every hesitation, and kisses each offering out of john’s hands with an ache in his heart that swells underneath his ribs, though he’s not perfect so sometimes sherlock misses them on the first go-round and has to go back later and kiss john again and again and again so john knows how much sherlock loves him and his romances, and the swell in both their chests dissipates with every exchange of smiles and every bubbling laughter, and the ache heals. bit by bit, the ache heals.
and john flourishes, and sherlock flourishes, and their romance is one for the ages, john says, one for the books, and he sheds his hesitations like a butterfly’s cocoon, emerging into a kind of soft delightedness at being in love that he has never felt.
and yes, he’s romantic. he leaves bits of love poems on post-it notes around the flat, finds spicy chocolates and unusual honeys to feed to sherlock in bed on sleepy saturday mornings, croons love songs and kisses sherlock’s fingertips, trailing down to his wrist while naming all the muscles and the bones. he holds sherlock’s hand in the back of cabs or in the hallways of the yard, calls sherlock names like lovey and sweetheart and bumble, takes him to bed and kisses him softly and threads their fingers together and asks, always asks, are you all right, is this okay, tell me everything you’re thinking, i want to know it all. i love you. i love you. i’m so in love with you.
he wants to take sherlock to all the beautiful places in the world and whisper all the beautiful words he can say, and he wants to protect sherlock and to free sherlock and to watch him soar and fly and laugh and breathe and know everything he could possibly want to know. he wants sherlock to know, unequivocally and without question, that he is loved and that he is wanted and that he is good.
and sherlock looks at john, love lighting up his eyes like the sun filtering through the surface of the ocean, and takes all the love john gives him and pours all the love he can back, kissing the imprints of his love to john’s forehead and temples and collarbones and palms and belly, making john laugh and making john safe and making john understand that he will accept any beautiful thing john could hope to give him but that he doesn’t need them, he doesn’t need a single one, because he already has the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen, and that is john himself.
and sometimes, it’s sherlock that brings john roses, just to see the beauty that is a happy confident comfortable loved loved loved john watson.
Ok if you’re looking for me you can find me at the morgue
In 1885, upon getting married, Conan Doyle purchased “an immense leather-bound scrap-book, inscribed [with the wedding date] for press-cuttings and notes of the hopeful future.” (The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Carr).
In A Study in Scarlet, which Conan Doyle wrote the next year, Watson started a scrap-book in which he pasted “numerous clippings and extracts” about the first case with his new flatmate.
“So spoke Sherlock Holmes and turned back to the great scrapbook in which he was arranging and indexing some of his recent material.” (The Adventure of the Red Circle)
The two dorks….. are they sharing a scrapbook? Imagine they bickering over where certain clippings should go……
Oh wait.
🤣 🤣 🤣
Love this! Is this where they got the idea for Sherlock’s ‘folder’ on John and the Vitruvian Man image? @darlingtonsubstitution
Maybe? Which means… could John have one of Sherlock, too? That’s cute.
(ok now I’m thinking “Mycroft has a file”…… the mirroring is getting out of hand)
OMG, the idea that they could BOTH have one in this verse hadn’t even crossed my mind??? Now, I won’t be able to forget it. I need this in my life.
I… would happily take a 2-hour special of just them giggling over the stuff they have on each other in those folders…… 😭
Absolutely! Sherlock would get stroppy about a photo of him with a soaking wet scowl-
“John, you can’t have that photo in there! Look at me. I look like a drowned rat!”
“Sherlock, if you think I’m not preserving, for posterity, the time you fell into the Thames thinking you’d seen a submarine periscope, you are nuttier than a fruitcake.”
“But, John-”
“A SUBMARINE, Sherlock. In. The. Thames.”
“Stranger things have happened, John.” Sherlock steps onto the table and over, stomping off to the kitchen in a snit.
“Yep. Like a consulting detective who believe he’d found a submarine. IN THE THAMES.” John collapses against the sofa in a fit of rib-cracking laughter.
YOU DID NOT JUST DO THIS. I CAN’T. WHY.
(then Sherlock starts humming yellow submarine and John nearly died laughing)
All the negativity in the Sherlock fandom has really gotten to me, and I think a lot of people can agree on this. For me it feels really difficult to find appropriative Sherlock related blogs that still love the show, so now I’m looking for kind Sherlock blogs to follow. If you’re one of them, please like or reblog this post so more people than I can surround theirself with a better Sherlock fandom atmosphere. Thank you!
(I’m not saying you can’t criticise the show but I just don’t want the hatred that’s circled around since s4 came out, thank you for understanding)
This is a 100% positive Sherlock blog. 🙂
I’m mostly positive 😀 I like discussing/disecting/arguing/debating about the show, but not in a negative way – I still love it, even with all its flaws. And while I don’t start wank, I do answer it, but that’s easily avoided by blocking the w@ank and fandom w@ank tags I place on all those posts.
Hope you find what you’re looking for!
I still adore the show! I’m more than happy to talk about anything and everything about it. I get into fussy posts from time to time, but it’s usually only about shippy junk, and I always tag it with ‘wank’. I’m a Sherlolly shipper, so you’ll have to block that if you don’t dig it, but other than that I just, LOVE this show. I will always love it. ❤
Hi! I’ve got two sideblogs that are totally safe spaces: @rememberthemaidofthemill where I reblog fic and recs, and @sherlocksaestheticblog (what it says on the tin, Sherlock has a tumblr aesthetic blog, because of course he does)
I also try to be positive on my main, @artfulkindoforder, but sometimes saltiness with s4 can creep in
Sherlock Fandom Archive 