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DON'T PANIC.
This is a very long letter with lots of stuff, but DO NOT PANIC. I'm actually fairly easy to please; I am very rarely disappointed with a ficathon story. I write long and detailed Dear Author letters because I find such things helpful when I'm writing for other people; if you are like me, here you go! If your style is different and a detailed letter makes you feel hemmed-in, feel free to do what works for you.
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 everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.
One thing: I do have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable because I identify too much with the person getting laughed at, so instead of being funny it is squicky. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.
Pride and Prejudice
Darcy, Mr. Bennet
I could see either of these guys as on the spectrum. Darcy, because he is so awkward most of the time, and Mr. Bennet because he hides in his book room sarcastically observing the world from afar. Seriously, he *rarely* goes anywhere, even to visit his neighbors, which was terribly unusual. And we so rarely get any fic about Mr. Bennet, and Darcy is usually the Byronic Hero type in fic (thank you, 1995 wet t-shirt contest), when he's really not in the book. This could be both of them as on the spectrum and enjoying, possibly for the first time in their lives, contact with someone who MAKES SENSE to them and they can communicate easily with. It could be one of them autistic and the other thinking they're kind of eccentric and both figuring out how to get along. Bonus points for involving other family members.
I read So Odd A Mixture: Along the Autism Spectrum in Jane Austen when I was learning I was on the spectrum and figuring things out about what that meant for me. There's a lot of things I don't agree with in that book, but also a lot of stuff that really made me see the characters in a new light. Darcy, for example. He's at his best when there is a script to follow, he doesn't like new places/new people but is very warm when he's at his home base with people he knows (even after he and Elizabeth are together he's still stiff and awkward at her place). And we always take Mr. Bennett's comments as sarcasm, but what if not all of them are? What if, for example, when he asks at the beginning what difference it makes to their daughters that a new rich guy has moved into the neighborhood, he's not trying to wind up Mrs. Bennett, he's being serious? Pretty much any fic where one or the other or both is on the spectrum will be great for me.
RCN Series--David Drake
Adele Mundy, Daniel Leary
In this series, I want an autistic Adele where her autism is what powers her badass librarian thing. I want to explore the ways she and Daniel fit together as BFFs who are very different but just click. This could either be them out in space on adventures, or back on Cinnabar dealing with political/social shenanigans or anything at all, really. In this series, it's not the plots that get me, it's the characters, their loyalty to each other and the fact that their diversity of neural types is treated as normal.
Seriously, Adele is so autistic. The way she focuses on being a librarian and information-gathering no matter WHAT else is going on around her--it really, really screams "spectrum" to me. The way she's a pretty odd duck compared to everyone around her--but I love the way Daniel and his crew just accept her as she is (and Tovera, too, who isn't on the spectrum but obviously is some other flavor of neurodiverse).
Vorkosigan Series
Enrique Borgos, Martya Koudelka
Enrique and Martya! I would love to see their relationship from his POV, but hers would be great, too. It's so challenging for an autistic person and an allistic person to build a relationship together. It can be done, and done well (my parents are proof of that), but it involves a lot of negotiation and the allistic person figuring out how to fit at least partly into autistic ways of being. If romance isn't your thing, Enrique's perspective on Barrayar and "his girls" would also be great.
I love the Vorkosiverse. I love the characters, I love the worldbuilding, I love all of it. In this case, this is a great opportunity to explore Barrayaran culture as regards neurodiversity (and contrasted with Escobaran takes on it). Barrayar has had LOTS of quirky/eccentric people throughout its history (witness the Lord Midnight the Horse incident and other stories), so it could be that they just go with it and accept neurodiversity as another eccentricity (particularly when it's coming from an offworlder). OTOH, it could be that such lenience is only for Vor, and that the Barrayaran fear of mutations makes anything that might be close to "madness" looked very down on. You don't have to explore this issue or make a big deal out of it, but it's one I would find interesting.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Julian Bashir, Sarina Douglas
I want fixit fic with this one. The show implies that the "problem" that Julian's parents "corrected" genetically was that he had a low-IQ, but it could also have been that he was a nonverbal autistic. (I love, love, LOVE Hannah's fic "Stubborn Mouths: Humans in Translation.") And then there's Sarina Douglass, who could very well be a nonverbal autistic person that they "help" by rewiring her brain so she comes out of her shell and becomes "normal." FLAMES. FLAMES, ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE. I would love something where they are NOT FIXED but allowed to be their autistic selves (though possibly with some assistive technology--this is the Federation, could nobody figure out how to give her a PADD to write on?) and hopefully something that deals with THE ETHICAL ISSUES that the show just merrily trampled over with those storylines. Like, they were so focused on "genetic engineering as evil bc of the Eugenics Wars" that they didn't even THINK ABOUT "genetic engineering of children is wrong because WHEN YOU REWIRE A PERSON'S BRAIN YOU ARE EFFECTIVELY KILLING THAT PERSON AND CREATING SOMEONE NEW LIVING IN THEIR SKIN, AND CHILDREN CAN'T CONSENT TO THAT.
Ahem. Yes. I have all the feels on this one, most of them fueled by rage at canon. (I love DS9, but the older I've gotten and the more I've learned about myself and autism, the more infuriated I have gotten by the Sarina plotline and the genetic manipulation of Julian.) I asked for this because I want fixit fic, but if this is all we match on and you can't write that, it would be okay to just do something with Julian Bashir as autistic and ignore Sarina altogether. There are probably a lot of other angles you could take, too, and that would be okay. As long as you deal with the terrible ethics of any genetic "fixing" or brain rewiring that happens. (Seriously, I CANNOT STAND THIS PLOTLINE, IT MAKES ME WANT TO STAB WHOEVER WROTE IT. I would write it myself, but I am so overwhelmed by feels that I don't know if I could produce anything coherent.)
This is a very long letter with lots of stuff, but DO NOT PANIC. I'm actually fairly easy to please; I am very rarely disappointed with a ficathon story. I write long and detailed Dear Author letters because I find such things helpful when I'm writing for other people; if you are like me, here you go! If your style is different and a detailed letter makes you feel hemmed-in, feel free to do what works for you.
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 everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.
One thing: I do have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable because I identify too much with the person getting laughed at, so instead of being funny it is squicky. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.
If you want to make me the happiest recipient ever, here are some other things to keep in mind (not all of which will apply to all fandoms): I like strong women, and 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 unreliable narrators. 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, particularly when it's just thrown in for teh porn. 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 generally prefer no slash.
I love worldbuilding. Sometimes I find exploring the corners of a world or universe to be as fun (or sometimes more fun) than reading stories set in it. I want to know what's behind the curtain. I love hearing about the economics, the politics, the religion, the clothing, the history, all of that kind of stuff. And I want to know why it matters--how is all this cultural background stuff affecting the characters, the plot, everything. You don't have to do deep worldbuilding, but I'll probably enjoy it if you do.
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 through a portal/wormhole/whatever, I tend to spend most of the fic going "wait, what?" instead of enjoying it.
I like AUs, but not complete AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, etc.). I like fork-in-the-road type AUs, where one thing is different and the changes all result from that one thing, and you explore what might have been if such-and-such happened. Crackfic is really hit and miss for me, sometimes I love it and sometimes I can't stand it. Basically, if it's the characters we know and love in an insane situation, that's okay. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me. I like angst, but not complete and unrelieved angst, and not angst of the type that people cause themselves, i.e. "I love him/her/it but he/she/it could never love me, so I will go off in a corner and cry rather than talk about it and take a chance on a possibility of relationship!" just makes me roll my eyes. Yes, I know people do it in real life, but it annoys me there too. Please no apocafic.
I like plotty, gen stories, and plotty stories in general, but I don't like explicit sex, particularly when it's just thrown in for teh porn. 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 generally prefer no slash.
I love worldbuilding. Sometimes I find exploring the corners of a world or universe to be as fun (or sometimes more fun) than reading stories set in it. I want to know what's behind the curtain. I love hearing about the economics, the politics, the religion, the clothing, the history, all of that kind of stuff. And I want to know why it matters--how is all this cultural background stuff affecting the characters, the plot, everything. You don't have to do deep worldbuilding, but I'll probably enjoy it if you do.
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 through a portal/wormhole/whatever, I tend to spend most of the fic going "wait, what?" instead of enjoying it.
I like AUs, but not complete AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, etc.). I like fork-in-the-road type AUs, where one thing is different and the changes all result from that one thing, and you explore what might have been if such-and-such happened. Crackfic is really hit and miss for me, sometimes I love it and sometimes I can't stand it. Basically, if it's the characters we know and love in an insane situation, that's okay. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me. I like angst, but not complete and unrelieved angst, and not angst of the type that people cause themselves, i.e. "I love him/her/it but he/she/it could never love me, so I will go off in a corner and cry rather than talk about it and take a chance on a possibility of relationship!" just makes me roll my eyes. Yes, I know people do it in real life, but it annoys me there too. Please no apocafic.
Pride and Prejudice
Darcy, Mr. Bennet
I could see either of these guys as on the spectrum. Darcy, because he is so awkward most of the time, and Mr. Bennet because he hides in his book room sarcastically observing the world from afar. Seriously, he *rarely* goes anywhere, even to visit his neighbors, which was terribly unusual. And we so rarely get any fic about Mr. Bennet, and Darcy is usually the Byronic Hero type in fic (thank you, 1995 wet t-shirt contest), when he's really not in the book. This could be both of them as on the spectrum and enjoying, possibly for the first time in their lives, contact with someone who MAKES SENSE to them and they can communicate easily with. It could be one of them autistic and the other thinking they're kind of eccentric and both figuring out how to get along. Bonus points for involving other family members.
I read So Odd A Mixture: Along the Autism Spectrum in Jane Austen when I was learning I was on the spectrum and figuring things out about what that meant for me. There's a lot of things I don't agree with in that book, but also a lot of stuff that really made me see the characters in a new light. Darcy, for example. He's at his best when there is a script to follow, he doesn't like new places/new people but is very warm when he's at his home base with people he knows (even after he and Elizabeth are together he's still stiff and awkward at her place). And we always take Mr. Bennett's comments as sarcasm, but what if not all of them are? What if, for example, when he asks at the beginning what difference it makes to their daughters that a new rich guy has moved into the neighborhood, he's not trying to wind up Mrs. Bennett, he's being serious? Pretty much any fic where one or the other or both is on the spectrum will be great for me.
RCN Series--David Drake
Adele Mundy, Daniel Leary
In this series, I want an autistic Adele where her autism is what powers her badass librarian thing. I want to explore the ways she and Daniel fit together as BFFs who are very different but just click. This could either be them out in space on adventures, or back on Cinnabar dealing with political/social shenanigans or anything at all, really. In this series, it's not the plots that get me, it's the characters, their loyalty to each other and the fact that their diversity of neural types is treated as normal.
Seriously, Adele is so autistic. The way she focuses on being a librarian and information-gathering no matter WHAT else is going on around her--it really, really screams "spectrum" to me. The way she's a pretty odd duck compared to everyone around her--but I love the way Daniel and his crew just accept her as she is (and Tovera, too, who isn't on the spectrum but obviously is some other flavor of neurodiverse).
Vorkosigan Series
Enrique Borgos, Martya Koudelka
Enrique and Martya! I would love to see their relationship from his POV, but hers would be great, too. It's so challenging for an autistic person and an allistic person to build a relationship together. It can be done, and done well (my parents are proof of that), but it involves a lot of negotiation and the allistic person figuring out how to fit at least partly into autistic ways of being. If romance isn't your thing, Enrique's perspective on Barrayar and "his girls" would also be great.
I love the Vorkosiverse. I love the characters, I love the worldbuilding, I love all of it. In this case, this is a great opportunity to explore Barrayaran culture as regards neurodiversity (and contrasted with Escobaran takes on it). Barrayar has had LOTS of quirky/eccentric people throughout its history (witness the Lord Midnight the Horse incident and other stories), so it could be that they just go with it and accept neurodiversity as another eccentricity (particularly when it's coming from an offworlder). OTOH, it could be that such lenience is only for Vor, and that the Barrayaran fear of mutations makes anything that might be close to "madness" looked very down on. You don't have to explore this issue or make a big deal out of it, but it's one I would find interesting.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Julian Bashir, Sarina Douglas
I want fixit fic with this one. The show implies that the "problem" that Julian's parents "corrected" genetically was that he had a low-IQ, but it could also have been that he was a nonverbal autistic. (I love, love, LOVE Hannah's fic "Stubborn Mouths: Humans in Translation.") And then there's Sarina Douglass, who could very well be a nonverbal autistic person that they "help" by rewiring her brain so she comes out of her shell and becomes "normal." FLAMES. FLAMES, ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE. I would love something where they are NOT FIXED but allowed to be their autistic selves (though possibly with some assistive technology--this is the Federation, could nobody figure out how to give her a PADD to write on?) and hopefully something that deals with THE ETHICAL ISSUES that the show just merrily trampled over with those storylines. Like, they were so focused on "genetic engineering as evil bc of the Eugenics Wars" that they didn't even THINK ABOUT "genetic engineering of children is wrong because WHEN YOU REWIRE A PERSON'S BRAIN YOU ARE EFFECTIVELY KILLING THAT PERSON AND CREATING SOMEONE NEW LIVING IN THEIR SKIN, AND CHILDREN CAN'T CONSENT TO THAT.
Ahem. Yes. I have all the feels on this one, most of them fueled by rage at canon. (I love DS9, but the older I've gotten and the more I've learned about myself and autism, the more infuriated I have gotten by the Sarina plotline and the genetic manipulation of Julian.) I asked for this because I want fixit fic, but if this is all we match on and you can't write that, it would be okay to just do something with Julian Bashir as autistic and ignore Sarina altogether. There are probably a lot of other angles you could take, too, and that would be okay. As long as you deal with the terrible ethics of any genetic "fixing" or brain rewiring that happens. (Seriously, I CANNOT STAND THIS PLOTLINE, IT MAKES ME WANT TO STAB WHOEVER WROTE IT. I would write it myself, but I am so overwhelmed by feels that I don't know if I could produce anything coherent.)
