Hey James and Beth,
I hope you’re both doing well! I really wanted to write the News x Stranded fanfic for the Cringe Issue but unfortunately I don’t think I have the time to write it :( But what I do have for you is a list of tropes/ideas that I’ve been compiling over the past few weeks. Even if we end up throwing it in the trash where it belongs, I hope you’ll at least enjoy reading through it:
A list that I’ve found myself writing over way too many 2ams:
– I guess this kinda has to be an ENEMIES TO LOVERS story
– Gotta use the word “orbs” instead of “eyes”
– “They chuckled,” “They smirked” — overuse of gradually more absurd dialogue tags
– Stranded wears their hair in a messy bun
– Meet cute — News drops their stack of newspapers and Stranded helps pick them up and their hands touch (uwu)
– Or Stranded spills their coffee on News and then News has to take their shirt off to change and Stranded is in awe because how come the nerd has such a great body and they’re about to fuck but then all of a sudden President RawBenz walks into The Strand office
– They end up going to NASH with the rest of the masthead but OH NO there’s been a booking error and the hotel only has ONE room left and they have to share it together because Arts and Science are in one room because they’re “lowkey” fucking, Opinions and Features were also accidentally booked into the same room because everyone thinks they’re the same person, and so Stranded and News are the only ones left. And to make matters WORSE there’s only ONE BED in the room.
– Harry Styles shows up (or any member of One Direction or all of them) and they kidnap Stranded because that’s just how it goes
– Write Harry Styles’s dialogue as a really bad British accent — “it’s erry stoyles innit luv. yeah ye mum asked me to dilly dally on down ere to come get ya becoz I’m kidnappin ya” — hoping to make it even more incoherent as it goes on
– News has to come to terms with their feelings about Stranded (cringe)!! They go to rescue them and then they have an argument about why News has always been so cold towards Stranded and in the middle of the argument News yells “BECAUSE I LOVE YOU” because News is a little toxic and I’m a basic bitch
– Add two-page-long author’s note at the end
Xoxo,
_strand_luvr_69_ on Wattpad Khadija