Fiction Fridays with the Bookworm and the Misfit

Hello everyone!

Time flies! We are celebrating the first anniversary of this fan blog meeting fan fiction created by two extremely talented fan fiction writers Bookworm and Misfit. Here is their first ever post with some brilliant Homeland fan fiction — hey, Brody may be dead on screen but lives on in Fan Fiction. ENJOY and please go read other brilliant fan fiction varying from Brody and Carrie having a life together to a wonderful crossover fan fiction with Brody and Bobby to a “missing” scene or two from Billions digging into Wendy’s or young Bobby’s mind. Cheers to many many more with Bookworm and Misfit!

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March 20, 2015

I am extremely happy today to introduce yet another section on the blog with two new brilliant bloggers: Welcome to Fiction Fridays with Bookworm and Misfit!

Bookworm and Misfit are two brilliant Fan Fiction (FanFic) writers that have been writing and publishing on www.fanfiction.net; and starting today, they will share their work — inspired by and based on Damian Lewis characters we love — here once a month.

Fan Fiction is a completely new world to me and it makes me think about a play called “Constellations” that I have recently seen on Broadway. In the play, one character explains to the other “every decision you’ve ever and never made exists in an unimaginably vast ensemble of parallel universes.” Take this and apply to fiction: A character makes a decision that takes him through some certain path, but there is, in fact, a number of alternative paths that he could have taken. I believe FanFic just does open our eyes to that “unimaginably vast ensemble of parallel universes” where, for example, my beloved Brody may be alive. I am not giving up, am I? 🙂

Welcome, Bookworm and Misfit, and cheers to sharing the FUN together for a long, long time!

Damianista

Hi everyone,

I’m Bookworm and one half of the blog’s fiction team. TV fandom is passionate and obsessive.  We all have our favourite characters.  We are  not happy when matters do not go our way and we’re not slow to say so, passionate about the subject as we are. Which brings us to Fan Fiction.

I can think of no better word to describe Fan Fiction than therapeutic. It is a tonic when you tune in to find that your favourite show just won’t cut it for you anymore, because they have gone off in a direction you don’t like and you feel like the hitch hiker by the roadside who can’t get a lift. So maybe something has happened that you do not like or is there something you wanted to happen that didn’t? Why not give Fan Fiction a go and write it yourself, the way you want it?

I have been reading Fan Fiction for years, but in late November 2013, I was inspired to start writing it and that inspiration came in the form of Nicholas Brody (“Brody”). He is a complex and compelling character, made all the more so because of the wonderful way in which Damian brought him to life.

Brody demands that you take a good look at the questions you do not want the answers to. He demands that you keep an open mind. Brody’s was a war fought inside a cell and his own mind for 8 years. When he returned home he brought the tragedy his own life had become back with him. It eventually destroyed him and those he loved. If you watch Homeland, you will see many shots of Brody’s various scars, the evidence of his captivity. However, it’s not the scars that you can see that are doing the damage to him. The scars that do most damage to Brody are the ones you can’t see and that is the key to writing him.

source: Showtime
source: Showtime

Hi all,

I’m Misfit and the other half of the blog’s fiction team. As a tv obsessive and a self proclaimed Tumblr addict, I am familiar with fandoms and have considered myself a part of many of them. To me fan fiction is one of the best perks of being involved in a fandom.

By reading it you get to see alternate paths your beloved characters can take that may not have occurred to you. By writing your own fics, you can create those paths yourself.

After the Homeland season two finale I was at a loss for words. Not only was this show I’d binged and obsessed over on hiatus after an explosive, gut wrenching finale, but my favorite couple had parted ways at the Canadian border.

I was heartbroken and in order to cope, I decided rather than merely reading alternate paths for Carrie and Brody, I’d write one of my own.

I didn’t anticipate when I started Homeland that I’d come to be so invested in Nicholas Brody. But Damian’s amazing portrayal coupled with the ambiguity of the character reeled me in and did not let go.

Feeling complex emotions about a character means that the character was written complexly. With depth and layers and in shades of grey as opposed to strictly black and white.

Sergeant Nicholas Brody is the embodiment of all of those things, and while trying to reflect that in writing isn’t easy, it definitely makes for a fun challenge.

source: Showtime

We aim to encourage you to read and write Fan Fiction and with that in mind, we’ve chosen a story each from our own collection to share.

I have to say by Bookworm.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9880016/1/I-have-to-say

This was my first Homeland Fan Fiction. I started writing it near the end of S3, in total denial at what I knew was coming in the S3 finale. It takes place between S2 and S3 when Brody is on the run. It was intended to give a platform for Brody to vent his anger, lament his losses and finally accept his own part. Hopefully I managed to get that across.

Suddenly by Misfit

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8902744/1/Suddenly

This is the first Homeland fan fiction I ever wrote and I’m still working on it today. I started it after season two, and while it opens focusing on Carrie and an alternate path for her, Brody comes into the picture in a big way and gets to explore a new, not as dark path as a result.

Having this fic to fall back on was about all that got me through the nightmarish arc he went through in season three, and explores a lot of elements to Brody and to Homeland in general that I feel the writers barely scratched the surface of, especially in later chapters.

As this is a Damian Lewis blog, naturally we encourage you to think about characters Damian has played. Why not have a go at Charlie Crew’s outlook on ‘Life’ or maybe you want have a go at writing for Soames from the Forsyte Saga. Of course Fan Fiction does not have to be limited to TV shows. There is a whole section dedicated to movies and Damian has been in quite a few.

We would like to thank Damianista for inviting us to be involved on the blog. A big thank you also to Damian for being such an inspiration.

Please let us know of any Fan Fiction related ideas/suggestions you may have and of course let us know if you are reading and/or writing. We want as many people to get involved as possible.

Please join us on 25 April for more Fiction Friday. In the meantime we hope you will join in with the reading and writing.

Bookworm and Misfit.

10 thoughts on “Fiction Fridays with the Bookworm and the Misfit”

  1. In ‘Barrie’ we write the life of Brody and Carrie! It was much better than the story in section 3 of the show! I would dismiss the writers of Homeland! Haha.

    1. Ah, so you also write fan fiction. Love it! Hope you also enjoy the brilliant fan fiction Bookworm and Misfit do.

  2. I must admit I had never heard of fan fiction. Learn something new every day. I see it has become a big thing. I will try to keep up with all the writing here – so much is added so quickly it’s a lot! But it gives us a lot to come back to again and again. Thanks for all the hard work!

    1. Thank you. I stumbled across it by accident myself, but it is good as it encourages us all to be creative and share with each other…and fan fiction does incorporate wide range of genres.

  3. All I’ve ever written are comic parodies of Homeland. Short scenes. I can share those if you ever want to see them. Some of them I am going to have to go back and watch the show again to remind myself what I was parodying. They are a bit in the vein of SNL. I guess I was being a bit sacrilegious.

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