Here’s a few thoughts on the next thing I’m working on (albeit VERY slowly – writer’s block is seriously well established in the Clegg office, I fear).
While I was researching detail (oh yes, this stuff isn’t just thrown together, you know!) for the story Shabtis, I came across Lucie Duff-Gordon’s Letters from Egypt. During the second half of the nineteenth century, Lucie spent time in Egypt and wrote to her husband in England. The letters give a unique view of life there at the time.
It seemed to me that the format of just having the letters of one writer would be an interesting way to explore telling a story. I thought the one person’s viewpoint of the diary worked well in “Year One” and this seemed to be another way to explore the same perspective.
Using this, I’ve been working on something that tries this using as a backdrop, a slightly altered “steam punk” vision of an Edwardian Britain with a female-led society.
I quite like the idea of using one person’s letters but I’m not sure how well it really works, and I’m also not sure where it is going. I think readers must be getting tired of stories that don’t really do much more than describe characters in a landscape.
Anyway, I’m going to keep plugging on at it and maybe it will turn into something worth posting. We’ll see. (now sorted: see the tale as it is being posted)
Read on here: Amelia’s Letter from a Femdom Britain
Freddie's Tales 
Interesting. Looking forward to it.
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Very difficult to get started on something new. I write short TV/CD/Trans stories. I can just rattle those off. Difficult to write your genre and make it believable. I didn’t have to with my Order of Eve stories as they were based on you stories, a political takeover.
I read a story story set in victorian britain where women rule. No s&m. men had few rights and wives could have them imprisoned by say they had been beaten. Young women were unhappy as all the attractive men were married off to powerful old ladies. In the end the men fight back and a king rules.
One way would be a virus that physically weakens men. The main problem is that men do the jobs that keep the power running and the water flowing. If men were relegated to menail jobs, society would grind to a halt. Women are doing technical jobs yes, but the physical technology jobs are nearly inclusively male. Women account for 2% of car mechanics in the UK. 1% are HGV drivers.
If you said men were not educated or not allowed to drive. The country would not function.
Needs to be thought out. What if this alternative universe men craved the sexual dominance of women? Women could despense or withhold this by choice.
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Sorry for not responding sooner – there are some interesting ideas here. I especially like your last point as it seems to me to be an amplification of the situation some find themselves in already…. thought needed… 🙂
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I find I can only really get down to writing when The Muse strikes me. But with the right Muse, that’s not a problem.
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That’s why I’ve chosen the Edwardian rather than the Victorian era in the hope of inspiration. After all, the didn’t the Queen say, “We are not a muse”?
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On which subject I see that, amongst the classic Greek muses, Clio is the so-called Muse of History. Which is presumably why Renault are turning back the clock to the 1990’s with their new series of Papa & Nicole adverts.
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Dear Abi, don’t think me precocious
But young Cleggie’s puns are atrocious
We are hardly amused
So he needs to be bruised
Could you strike him, o muse most ferocious?
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It is true that his jokes all need banning.
But that’s what you get with a man in
Charge of the blog.
His back needs a flog
And his arse needs a really good tanning.
,
Sent on Abi’s behalf……
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Hi Freddie, this may interest you and your readers.
I was going through Neflix last night and came across a gender role reversal film. I Am Not an Easy Man 2018.
it is a French romantic comedy directed by Éléonore Pourriat. If it is dubbed it is done very well.
Synopsis
Damien is a shameless chauvinist who has all the benefits of living in a patriarchal society. After a bump to the head, Damien passes out. When he wakes up, he finds himself in what seems to be an alternate universe where gender roles are reversed and women have the power. Damien feels confused: now that he experiences sexism he struggles to find his place in this foreign new world. He meets and seduces Alexandra, an influential novelist who is herself a chauvinist.
Men do not dress as women, but they shave off nearly all their body hair. They wear shorts to expose their legs and feminine-style flat shoes. Women wear styled men’s clothes. When the main character complains he is asked if his hormones are off. Women are sexual predators, men are worried about being raped (not sure how that would work).Males are ballet dancers etc.
There is hint of why the world is different. The male lead tells the female lead. In my world, men are stronger, early men fed women only a little from the hunt to keep you weak. (that’s not why women are weaker in real life). The female lead tells him that Women were stronger so they made males stay home and look after the babies. There are some funny masculinist demonstration scenes.
What I liked about it was that it didn’t show a utopia, as most feminist films would. This world shows women to be as bad as men. I think the idea is to show men what it is like being on the other side of the fence.
I think it would have worked better had they used larger, taller actors for the female parts and smaller slighter for the males. There was also a scene in what I assume is a gay or crossdressing club. There, women and some men were wearing skirts and heels and makeup. This made no sense as men nor women wore any of that in the “real” world.
The film has quite a good ending.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA60i4TfKLQ(link is external)
This is a review on Youtube.
This is really an expanded version of a short film she did earlier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4UWxlVvT1A(link is external)
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