Will you laugh at the enthusiasm I express concerning this divine wanderer? […] Yet, if you will, smile at the warmth of my expressions, while I find every day new causes for repeating them.
— Robert Walton to Margaret Saville, August 13th, 17—
WALTONSTEIN WEEK is a week-long fan event celebrating the relationship between Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein from Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus ⚗️⚓️
You can find all of the current information on the event below, but if you have any questions please send us an ask and we’ll do our best to answer!
August 13th to August 19th 2026 — in honour of the day that Walton writes that letter to Margaret, and the day that Victor begins to tell his story.
This event encourages the creation of a wide variety of fan content: writing of any length and type (e.g. fanfic, poetry, or meta analysis), fanart (doodles are just as good as a fully rendered piece!), edits, playlists… whatever else you can think of, go wild!
Headcanons and original character designs are also encouraged — these guys have no fixed descriptions, after all! We want to see what YOUR Waltons and Victors look like!
When it comes to “the waltonstein of it all”, this is also completely up to interpretation — romantic, platonic, secret third thing, (un)requited, canon, AU — whatever floats your Arctic exploration vessel! Just make sure the relationship and/or both characters are at least alluded to in your work. Other ships and characters may be included or mentioned but should not be the central focus of the work.
All works (especially explicit content) must be tagged, warned for and posted appropriately both on the host platform and any other platforms they are cross-posted to (for example, using the correct tags/rating/archive warning on AO3 or adding a mature content label for Tumblr posts). This helps to keep the event as safe and accessible as possible, for anyone who chooses to participate.
Reposting older works is also permitted — not all works need to be created specifically for this event. If you would like to submit any older work already posted to Tumblr, simply reblog it and tag us here (@waltonsteinweek) so we can see it!
As we all know, Frankenstein as a property has many iterations, all of which have their own merits and place in the broader frankenfan space. Though taking inspiration from other works’ depictions of Walton and Victor is absolutely allowed, this event is focused on the characters and relationship as presented in the original 1818 text and its 1831 revised edition, and we kindly ask that submitted works do not rely heavily on the plot or characterisation of other adaptions.
All work should be 100% your own, and absolutely no generative AI use of any kind will be accepted. Keep the slop away!!!!
There will be a set of prompts for each of the seven day (see below) but there is no pressure to adhere to them strictly — use them as a guide for creativity, or not at all! You can even combine prompts from different days, if they take your fancy.
There are also no expectations for participants to create something for each day (I’m the organiser and I certainly won’t be, lol). This is a small fandom and an even smaller ship popularity-wise so whatever anyone decides to create for this will be very much welcomed and appreciated!
Posting will begin on Thurday 13th of August at 4pm GMT (12pm EST) and run for seven days, until the 19th of August at 4pm GMT. That said, in the interest of keeping this event as low-stakes and approachable as possible we won’t be super strict about when things are posted — late submissions are still welcome! Just glad to have you on board 🫡
When posting, make sure to tag this account (@waltonsteinweek) and use the tag #WaltonsteinWeek so it can be reblogged here. Works can also be posted on Twitter using the same hashtag.
An AO3 collection will be created for gathering fics or any other works that can be posted there — check back soon for the link!
That’s all for now! Feel free to post any WIPs in the #WaltonsteinWeek tag and tag us here at @waltonsteinweek. Reblogs are also much appreciated to get the word out, even if you don’t intend to participate :-)
Cannot wait to see what monstrous creations you all bring to life!
Your affectionate event mod,
@fandomweeks @faneventstation
gummygunk
blakekathryn
