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rarewomen and it was tough! You only get three fandoms (up to five women per fandom), and I really really wanted a fourth--New Who, with Jenny (The Doctor's Daughter), Idris, Liz X, and Joan Redfern as my character picks. But, alas, it was not to be, and I chose BSG, SG-1, and TNG as my fandoms not necessarily because I wanted to see those more than New Who, but because New Who is bigger and so I have a better chance of getting fic for those people outside this ficathon than I do the ones I picked.
General Notes:
The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks just don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a good story with good spelling and grammar and everyone in character and I will almost certainly love what you come up with. I don't like darkfic, or (generally) apocalypse fic, but I do enjoy some tragedy and such as long as there is some sort of happy or redemptive end.
If you want to make me the happiest recipient ever, here are some other things to keep in mind: I love the acknowledgment that strength comes in many forms, of which the kinds put forward by modern western feminism are only a few. I like cultural diversity, and to know that culture matters to people, but I don't like it when non-western culture is fetishized or exoticised. I like quirky characters. I like acknowledgment that different people can have different points of view without either of them being wrong. I like stories that engage with problematic aspects of the source, and which deal with privilege in one way or another. If you don't know what I mean by privilege, here are a few links: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, and possibly the Spock/Uhura Racefail Prevention Post and associated links.
I like plotty, gen stories, and plotty stories in general, but I don't like explicit sex of any kind, nor sex thrown in just because. If there's going to be sex, there needs to be a reason for it within the story--it advances the plot, or characterization, or something (and, again, if you have to do it, please don't make it explicit). I'm asexual; a lot of the time I don't even bother to read the sex scenes. Romance is awesome (as long as both are in character and the romantic plot doesn't hinge on one or both of them being an idiot), but sex-for-the-sake-of-sex is pretty boring to me.
I love history and religion and faith and worldbuilding. (Seriously, I've written stories to have an excuse to plot out the background bits.) I love being shown the depth and diversity in a fictional world, how things fit together. I am deeply religious myself, and so I appreciate it when a) characters have a faith and faith practices that are important to them and b) religious characters aren't bashed. Too often in fic, either faith is irrelevant or the characters with strong beliefs/practices are either idiots, bigots, or both.
I enjoy crossovers, if you would like to write one, but prefer them with fandoms I'm familiar with (check my tags). I have kind of a high bar for crossovers, though. Either the two universes have to fit together very well or it should be hilarious crackfic. Examples: I can buy Jack O'Neill finding out about slayers and paying Rupert Giles a visit. I can buy the Criminal Minds team investigating "notorious terrorist" Sarah Connor. I can buy the Doctor showing up just about anywhere. I don't buy B5 suddenly appearing next to DS9 because the Star Trek universe and the B5 universe are just too different from one another. If it's not plausible that the two fictional universes coexist or (within the world of the two universes) that they could meet, I tend to spend most of the fic going "wait, what?" instead of enjoying it.
BSG: Boomer, Athena, Anastasia Dualla, Caprica Six, Tory Foster
As you can probably tell, I like Cylons! Particularly the interplay between identity and memory, and the differences and similarities between Boomer and Athena. I think Dee was jerked around by the writers and got a bad deal. I'm interested in Boomer and Caprica's relationship. I'm also interested in Caprica Six and Tigh's relationship, and Tory and Tigh, and the mythology and history of the Final Five. Battlestar Galactica is one of those shows where I'm fascinated by might-have-beens and AUs, as you can probably tell from my fic list (I've written several five things and AUs in this fandom, which you can check out for inspiration if you want). In fact, I'd almost rather an AU, particularly one that fixes or redeems some of the things that happen to these women, or that they do. Please no depressing endings. If you want to write a massive epic AU where the Fleet and the Rebel Cylons go back in time and stop the genocide of the colonies, or where the Rebel Cylons win, or where Dee is one of the Final Five, etc, that would be awesome, but a smaller character piece would also be loved. Also, I suspect that the reasons Cylons have fertility problems is because Cavil laces the water on the basestars with contraceptives, just to be a manipulative bastard and keep people running around in circles dancing to his tune. And I think giving up technology was the stupidest thing ever. If you want something pre-series with the Final Five before they left Earth or something that connects with Caprica, that would be cool too.
Boomer: I like that she was redeemed in the end. I hate that we saw so little of her struggle. I hate that she let herself become Cavil's pawn. What I find interesting about her is the warring between the two personalities, the original Cylon and the human programming, and how they conflict and collide and are integrated.
Athena: I love her relationship with Adama, taking tea together while she was in a cell, debating ethics. I love her relationship with Helo, how close the two of them are. It's not perfect, but it is good, and they're both committed to making it work.
Dee: I can't stand the suicide. They fridged her to give Lee some angst, and it bugs me. I don't really like her relationship with Billy; her relationship with Lee might have had potential if he were willing to get his head out of his ass, and if she were willing to stop playing the martyr about him and Kara. If ever any couple needed counseling, it was them. Something about her relationship with her father-in-law might be interesting, or an AU where she and Lee get it together, or where they get back together instead of her committing suicide, or where she agrees to be his XO on Pegasus but not marry him, or where the Pegasus survived New Caprica and so they weren't right there on the same ship with Kara. I also like the friendship between her and Gaeta.
Caprica: Caprica had so many missed opportunities, when she did something (or didn't do something) and she thought it was for the best but it really, really wasn't. I wrote a Five Things fic about her expressing that. She spent her whole life trying to do the right thing, but was so twisted by Cavil's plots and deceptions that it was really, epically, not right. In a lot of ways, Caprica is the linchpin of the series, the pivot point. It would be interesting to see that explored. Gaius annoys me, so please keep him to a minimum if possible. Also, her and Tigh: that was screwed up in interesting ways. Neither of them really understood what love is, and neither of them were really seeing the other for who they were. It was a trainwreck, but a fascinating one. What if she hadn't lost the baby? What if Ellen hadn't come back? What if Ellen had come back not wanting anything to do with Tigh for killing her?
Tory: my least favorite of the characters here (largely because we see the least of her onscreen and until she goes Evol she's pretty much a background character), but she has so many fascinating untapped opportunities. What was she like on Earth before it was destroyed? What was her role in creating the Cylons we know and love? What was her life like in the Colonies? What is her relationship with the other Cylons like? What if it had been her instead of Ellen resurrecting on Cavil's ship? So much could be done with her.
SG-1: Sha're, Drey'auc.
Both of these women were treated kind of like props or like extensions of their husbands. Both were fridged. Both had the potential to be really interesting. Both are strong women from non-Western cultures, so please take that into account. If you need help with Egyptian stuff, quarryquest has helped me in the past. Basically, the world needs more Sha're and more Drey'auc, so have fun. For both of them, I would be interested in AUs where they didn't die and/or they came to Earth. I would also be interested in backstory and explorations of their character and history. Also, issues of religion. How did Sha're realize that Ra was not a god? Did Drey'auc ever truly come to believe that the Goa'uld were not gods, or did she just go along with it because it wasn't like she and her son could go back to Chulak?
TNG: Ro, Guinan, Keiko, Deanna.
Star Trek, for me, is mostly about the aliens. (Remember, I love worldbuilding and backstory and all that jazz, and alien species give lots of scope for that sort of thing.) I'm less interested in AUs in this fandom. I don't like the standard Star Trek attitude toward religion ("how primitive! We've evolved past that!).
Ro Laren is awesome, and I love that she's not a perfect Star Trek officer. Bajoran history, politics, and religion are fascinating to me, and Laren's relationship with them is complicated. I like that it's allowed to be complicated, and I like that she was allowed to make a choice that was directly opposite that of the other characters (leave Starfleet to join the Maquis, the ostensible 'bad guys') and that it was both in character and she wasn't shown as a villain for doing it. I'd love to see just about anything from her history: growing up in the camps, joining Starfleet, the mission that got her court-martialed, life on Enterprise, the aftermath of her affair with Riker in that episode where they all lost their memory, her time in that special training course she went to (tactics?) before her promotion to Lieutenant, her time with the Maquis after Starfleet. I haven't read any of the more recent books that chronicle her time after the Dominion War (joining the Bajoran Militia and getting posted to DS9) but if you want to incorporate details from that be my guest.
Guinan is way cool, and I love that she's an alien, but I kinda hate how well she fits the "magical negro" stereotype. Feel free to take that and complicate it. I'd love to hear more about her past, and her people: where do they come from, what were they like, and why did she go adventuring through the stars? What about her history with Q? What about watching the Borg destroy her world? What about her second meeting with Picard, where she knew him from that time travel episode but he didn't know her yet? What about her time on the Enterprise? Lots of possibility there.
Keiko O'Brien is interesting and I love the actor who plays her. What is it that drew her to Miles? I'd be interesting in something that also deals with her giving up her career to follow Miles to DS9. Just about anything that doesn't treat her as nothing more than "Chief O'Brien's wife". Also, backstory. Where is she from? What are her dreams? Was she raised with traditional Japanese culture, and what does that look like by the time of Star Trek?
Deanna Troi, I hate the way she was written mostly because the writers had absolutely no clue about the ethical code required for a therapist. I wish they'd had less emphasis on eye candy and more on professional, competent officer. (Note that I'm not saying make her less girly, I'm saying I'd like to see something that integrates both the girly stuff and the professional stuff, i.e. being girly and liking dresses and such doesn't make her any less professional.) Also, I hate that in seven years we didn't learn much about Betazoid culture besides 'they wear shiny clothes' and 'they get married naked.' (Ok, we also learned that they betroth their children and a couple of other things, but it's still not much. Tell me more! Tell me what it's like to be half-human, an empath in a world of telepaths. I'd prefer that she and Riker are friends and not lovers (The show tried to sell us that it was a grand passion that determined (or should have) their life, which really, there was a lot less chemistry between the two of them than I'd expect between a Great Romance/Love Of Their Lives). I liked her relationship with Worf, even though in the end I liked him with Jadzia better. (Oooh. Deanna and Jadzia, that would be awesome. Or Deanna and Ezri, with Troi being a professional mentor would be awesome too.) What was it like to grow up with Lwaxanna for a mother? What if her older sister Kestra had lived? What about a fic showing her competence as an officer, where it's her psych training that saves the day and not her abilities as an empath and emotional thermometer? What about something that actually deals with the code of ethics for therapists and how that is supported by and conflicts with her duty as an officer?
rarewomen and it was tough! You only get three fandoms (up to five women per fandom), and I really really wanted a fourth--New Who, with Jenny (The Doctor's Daughter), Idris, Liz X, and Joan Redfern as my character picks. But, alas, it was not to be, and I chose BSG, SG-1, and TNG as my fandoms not necessarily because I wanted to see those more than New Who, but because New Who is bigger and so I have a better chance of getting fic for those people outside this ficathon than I do the ones I picked.General Notes:
The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks just don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a good story with good spelling and grammar and everyone in character and I will almost certainly love what you come up with. I don't like darkfic, or (generally) apocalypse fic, but I do enjoy some tragedy and such as long as there is some sort of happy or redemptive end.
If you want to make me the happiest recipient ever, here are some other things to keep in mind: I love the acknowledgment that strength comes in many forms, of which the kinds put forward by modern western feminism are only a few. I like cultural diversity, and to know that culture matters to people, but I don't like it when non-western culture is fetishized or exoticised. I like quirky characters. I like acknowledgment that different people can have different points of view without either of them being wrong. I like stories that engage with problematic aspects of the source, and which deal with privilege in one way or another. If you don't know what I mean by privilege, here are a few links: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, and possibly the Spock/Uhura Racefail Prevention Post and associated links.
I like plotty, gen stories, and plotty stories in general, but I don't like explicit sex of any kind, nor sex thrown in just because. If there's going to be sex, there needs to be a reason for it within the story--it advances the plot, or characterization, or something (and, again, if you have to do it, please don't make it explicit). I'm asexual; a lot of the time I don't even bother to read the sex scenes. Romance is awesome (as long as both are in character and the romantic plot doesn't hinge on one or both of them being an idiot), but sex-for-the-sake-of-sex is pretty boring to me.
I love history and religion and faith and worldbuilding. (Seriously, I've written stories to have an excuse to plot out the background bits.) I love being shown the depth and diversity in a fictional world, how things fit together. I am deeply religious myself, and so I appreciate it when a) characters have a faith and faith practices that are important to them and b) religious characters aren't bashed. Too often in fic, either faith is irrelevant or the characters with strong beliefs/practices are either idiots, bigots, or both.
I enjoy crossovers, if you would like to write one, but prefer them with fandoms I'm familiar with (check my tags). I have kind of a high bar for crossovers, though. Either the two universes have to fit together very well or it should be hilarious crackfic. Examples: I can buy Jack O'Neill finding out about slayers and paying Rupert Giles a visit. I can buy the Criminal Minds team investigating "notorious terrorist" Sarah Connor. I can buy the Doctor showing up just about anywhere. I don't buy B5 suddenly appearing next to DS9 because the Star Trek universe and the B5 universe are just too different from one another. If it's not plausible that the two fictional universes coexist or (within the world of the two universes) that they could meet, I tend to spend most of the fic going "wait, what?" instead of enjoying it.
BSG: Boomer, Athena, Anastasia Dualla, Caprica Six, Tory Foster
As you can probably tell, I like Cylons! Particularly the interplay between identity and memory, and the differences and similarities between Boomer and Athena. I think Dee was jerked around by the writers and got a bad deal. I'm interested in Boomer and Caprica's relationship. I'm also interested in Caprica Six and Tigh's relationship, and Tory and Tigh, and the mythology and history of the Final Five. Battlestar Galactica is one of those shows where I'm fascinated by might-have-beens and AUs, as you can probably tell from my fic list (I've written several five things and AUs in this fandom, which you can check out for inspiration if you want). In fact, I'd almost rather an AU, particularly one that fixes or redeems some of the things that happen to these women, or that they do. Please no depressing endings. If you want to write a massive epic AU where the Fleet and the Rebel Cylons go back in time and stop the genocide of the colonies, or where the Rebel Cylons win, or where Dee is one of the Final Five, etc, that would be awesome, but a smaller character piece would also be loved. Also, I suspect that the reasons Cylons have fertility problems is because Cavil laces the water on the basestars with contraceptives, just to be a manipulative bastard and keep people running around in circles dancing to his tune. And I think giving up technology was the stupidest thing ever. If you want something pre-series with the Final Five before they left Earth or something that connects with Caprica, that would be cool too.
Boomer: I like that she was redeemed in the end. I hate that we saw so little of her struggle. I hate that she let herself become Cavil's pawn. What I find interesting about her is the warring between the two personalities, the original Cylon and the human programming, and how they conflict and collide and are integrated.
Athena: I love her relationship with Adama, taking tea together while she was in a cell, debating ethics. I love her relationship with Helo, how close the two of them are. It's not perfect, but it is good, and they're both committed to making it work.
Dee: I can't stand the suicide. They fridged her to give Lee some angst, and it bugs me. I don't really like her relationship with Billy; her relationship with Lee might have had potential if he were willing to get his head out of his ass, and if she were willing to stop playing the martyr about him and Kara. If ever any couple needed counseling, it was them. Something about her relationship with her father-in-law might be interesting, or an AU where she and Lee get it together, or where they get back together instead of her committing suicide, or where she agrees to be his XO on Pegasus but not marry him, or where the Pegasus survived New Caprica and so they weren't right there on the same ship with Kara. I also like the friendship between her and Gaeta.
Caprica: Caprica had so many missed opportunities, when she did something (or didn't do something) and she thought it was for the best but it really, really wasn't. I wrote a Five Things fic about her expressing that. She spent her whole life trying to do the right thing, but was so twisted by Cavil's plots and deceptions that it was really, epically, not right. In a lot of ways, Caprica is the linchpin of the series, the pivot point. It would be interesting to see that explored. Gaius annoys me, so please keep him to a minimum if possible. Also, her and Tigh: that was screwed up in interesting ways. Neither of them really understood what love is, and neither of them were really seeing the other for who they were. It was a trainwreck, but a fascinating one. What if she hadn't lost the baby? What if Ellen hadn't come back? What if Ellen had come back not wanting anything to do with Tigh for killing her?
Tory: my least favorite of the characters here (largely because we see the least of her onscreen and until she goes Evol she's pretty much a background character), but she has so many fascinating untapped opportunities. What was she like on Earth before it was destroyed? What was her role in creating the Cylons we know and love? What was her life like in the Colonies? What is her relationship with the other Cylons like? What if it had been her instead of Ellen resurrecting on Cavil's ship? So much could be done with her.
SG-1: Sha're, Drey'auc.
Both of these women were treated kind of like props or like extensions of their husbands. Both were fridged. Both had the potential to be really interesting. Both are strong women from non-Western cultures, so please take that into account. If you need help with Egyptian stuff, quarryquest has helped me in the past. Basically, the world needs more Sha're and more Drey'auc, so have fun. For both of them, I would be interested in AUs where they didn't die and/or they came to Earth. I would also be interested in backstory and explorations of their character and history. Also, issues of religion. How did Sha're realize that Ra was not a god? Did Drey'auc ever truly come to believe that the Goa'uld were not gods, or did she just go along with it because it wasn't like she and her son could go back to Chulak?
TNG: Ro, Guinan, Keiko, Deanna.
Star Trek, for me, is mostly about the aliens. (Remember, I love worldbuilding and backstory and all that jazz, and alien species give lots of scope for that sort of thing.) I'm less interested in AUs in this fandom. I don't like the standard Star Trek attitude toward religion ("how primitive! We've evolved past that!).
Ro Laren is awesome, and I love that she's not a perfect Star Trek officer. Bajoran history, politics, and religion are fascinating to me, and Laren's relationship with them is complicated. I like that it's allowed to be complicated, and I like that she was allowed to make a choice that was directly opposite that of the other characters (leave Starfleet to join the Maquis, the ostensible 'bad guys') and that it was both in character and she wasn't shown as a villain for doing it. I'd love to see just about anything from her history: growing up in the camps, joining Starfleet, the mission that got her court-martialed, life on Enterprise, the aftermath of her affair with Riker in that episode where they all lost their memory, her time in that special training course she went to (tactics?) before her promotion to Lieutenant, her time with the Maquis after Starfleet. I haven't read any of the more recent books that chronicle her time after the Dominion War (joining the Bajoran Militia and getting posted to DS9) but if you want to incorporate details from that be my guest.
Guinan is way cool, and I love that she's an alien, but I kinda hate how well she fits the "magical negro" stereotype. Feel free to take that and complicate it. I'd love to hear more about her past, and her people: where do they come from, what were they like, and why did she go adventuring through the stars? What about her history with Q? What about watching the Borg destroy her world? What about her second meeting with Picard, where she knew him from that time travel episode but he didn't know her yet? What about her time on the Enterprise? Lots of possibility there.
Keiko O'Brien is interesting and I love the actor who plays her. What is it that drew her to Miles? I'd be interesting in something that also deals with her giving up her career to follow Miles to DS9. Just about anything that doesn't treat her as nothing more than "Chief O'Brien's wife". Also, backstory. Where is she from? What are her dreams? Was she raised with traditional Japanese culture, and what does that look like by the time of Star Trek?
Deanna Troi, I hate the way she was written mostly because the writers had absolutely no clue about the ethical code required for a therapist. I wish they'd had less emphasis on eye candy and more on professional, competent officer. (Note that I'm not saying make her less girly, I'm saying I'd like to see something that integrates both the girly stuff and the professional stuff, i.e. being girly and liking dresses and such doesn't make her any less professional.) Also, I hate that in seven years we didn't learn much about Betazoid culture besides 'they wear shiny clothes' and 'they get married naked.' (Ok, we also learned that they betroth their children and a couple of other things, but it's still not much. Tell me more! Tell me what it's like to be half-human, an empath in a world of telepaths. I'd prefer that she and Riker are friends and not lovers (The show tried to sell us that it was a grand passion that determined (or should have) their life, which really, there was a lot less chemistry between the two of them than I'd expect between a Great Romance/Love Of Their Lives). I liked her relationship with Worf, even though in the end I liked him with Jadzia better. (Oooh. Deanna and Jadzia, that would be awesome. Or Deanna and Ezri, with Troi being a professional mentor would be awesome too.) What was it like to grow up with Lwaxanna for a mother? What if her older sister Kestra had lived? What about a fic showing her competence as an officer, where it's her psych training that saves the day and not her abilities as an empath and emotional thermometer? What about something that actually deals with the code of ethics for therapists and how that is supported by and conflicts with her duty as an officer?
