OptionalFiction

I've been keeping a list with some bullet points of inspiration as that's often the hardest thing for me. Today I mashed up two of them, “letter” and “pirate.” What I associate most with pirate stories is the element of (mis-)taken identity. Like in the films The Pirate (1948) and The Princess Bride (1987). The Pirates of the Caribbean films are (as I recall) a notable exception to this. The Man In The Iron Mask (1998) also has these vibes though there's no explicit pirate in that story. The second thing that I associate with pirates is queerness. I'm unsure how correct that is but my mind is telling me that a pirate life provided some affordances in the form of freedoms that society under some kings rule did not provide. I don't really care how accurate that is as writing this story has demonstrated to me that this really isn't a setting that I enjoy writing in.