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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.
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 with mostly non-Yuletide fandoms: 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.
Donovan's Reef
Amelia Deham, Lelani Dedham, gen preferred.
At the end of the movie, Amelia has accepted her siblings, but she's still a privileged Boston upper-class woman, with no real understanding of the gap between her experience and theirs. I'd love some exploration of the relationship between the two of them. And, you know, I love all of the other characters too, so any of them you want to include would be wonderful.
This request is a long shot, and I know it, but it would be so awesome, because to the best of my knowledge there exists NO FIC WHATSOEVER for this movie and thus Yuletide is my only hope. (I keep hoping because it is a single movie and thus easier to pick up if you matched on something else but didn't like my request for it--I've asked for it every year for YEARS.) Here is my picspam/pimp post from a few years ago. Please be very careful with this story. I love the movie, I grew up watching it regularly, but it has problems. For all its progressive (for its day) handling of the situation with the Dedham children, it handled the Asian characters poorly. Also, it was fairly misogynist in its treatment of Amelia. I would absolutely adore fic that handled the issues the film raised (and didn't raise) with more delicacy than was possible in a John Wayne action comedy of the early 1960s. Also, there really isn't much chemistry between Amelia and Gunns in the movie, so if you want to make their romance a major point you're going to have to work to convince me that they're in love, or find other reasons for them to be getting married. The Duke is a lot of fun, but my absolute favorite character is Lelani. She's young, but she's very intelligent, and very sensitive, and can stand up for herself when she has to. (I love the scene where Amelia mocks her for giving thanks to the goddess of the canyon for the Christmas tree, and Lelani quietly puts her in her place.)
Caprica
Tamara Adama.
Things what I would love: something exploring Tauron culture, and culture clashes thereof. We know all about Joseph and Sam Adama's delicate relationship with their homeland, and a little bit about the first William Adama's relationship with all things Tauron, but not much about Tamara and Tauron. So, that would be great. Also! Cylons! I want to know what happens with the Cylons! We know (basically) what happened with Lacy and Zoe after the show ended, and their interaction with Cylons, but Tamara didn't get a new body and she didn't become the Reverend Mother, so what happened to her? Was she still around during the Cylon War, and if so what was her role? Was she still there, a ghost in the machine, when the Final Five showed up? What was her role in the Cylon culture? Not to mention, what does she think of her Dad and his new family?
There cannot be too much Tamara fic. I LOVE her, and wish the show had focused on her and her family more than on the Graystones and Sister Clarice. (Lacy, also, is awesome, and I suppose Zoe wasn't bad either, if she hadn't been the focus.) This was truly the show of the awesome girls, and it had potential if it hadn't been cancelled. (If you wanted to do something about her and Bill Adama from BSG meeting--particularly in some kind of complicated plot involving the Rebel Cylons and the Final Five--that would probably not be in the spirit of Yuletide but I would not complain. At all.)
Metropolis: The Chase Suite--Janelle Monae
Any characters. I love these three albums and the associated art and videos. I don't have any specific prompts or plot bunnies, but here are some things to think about:
The worldbuilding is exquisite, and makes me hunger for more. We only get a taste of this future. I want to know what makes it tick. I want to know about race relations, and the way human-droid relations map (or don't) onto modern white-black relations. I want to know how the economy works--these droids have some measure of autonomy and money, obviously, DJ Crash-Crash's primary audience seems to be his fellow droids. How does that work, and how did it develop? I want to know about computers and the differences (and similarities) between how droids think and how humans think. I want to know about Cindi's relationship with Anthony Greendown, how it developed and what happened to it once she goes on the run. I want to know about Cindi's relationship to her fellow droids (particularly the others of her model) and what it means to her (and to them) for her to be the Archandroid. I want to know about DJ Crash-Crash and his radio show. I want to know about the nightclub Cindi works in in Prime Time. I want to know about all the backstage stuff at the Metropolis Droid Auctions. I want to know about that button at the side of the droids' heads, and what it means that when they push it they turn Black, but they also seem to become freer/switch on. Feel free to explore any or none of these ideas.
Bride & Prejudice
Georgiana Darcy, Kiran Baljraj, Lalita Bakshi
So the wedding happens. And then what? In movies that's the end, but in real life it's just the beginning. William and Lalita come from two very different cultures, and neither of them is going to just give up their culture. And Darcy suffers from foot-in-mouth and Lalita's not the type to just let him get away with it. There will be some big adjustments for both. Then there's Balraj and Jaya--less culture gap, but still a big gap in experience, and how does all of that affect Kiran? What's she getting up to? The "Caroline Bingley" character is unfairly villainized and disregarded in most fanfic of ANY adaptation--she' s not nice, but she's not stupid and she's not evil, either, and she's got reasons for what she does that are very understandable (her position is pretty vulnerable, as a social-climbing money-from-trade heiress in the novel, as a woman of color in English high society in Bride and Prejudice). Then there's Chandra, whom I'd love to see more of even though she wasn't nominated (though please as little Mr. Kohli as possible). There are so many possibilities. (You don't have to have all three if you don't want.
Again, think of the characters as a suggestion, not a hard-and-fast rule. I love this movie, I love (most) of the characters, just about anything with "what happens next" will make me happy.
Star Wars Legends: Thrawn Trilogy
Mara Jade
Mara is awesome, we all agree on that, right? Of course right. And while I like her relationship with Luke, that's (for me) the least important thing about her. I want to know how Palpatine found her, and what her training was like, and what the early days after Palpatine's death was like, and how she was breaking her conditioning without knowing it to get from "the Emperor's Hand" to loyal to Karrde and able to ignore Palpatine's dictate to kill Luke Skywalker because Karrde wanted her to. I want to see how she rethinks her life after the trilogy, how she starts re-thinking what she knows of the Force and how to use (and not use) Palpatine's training and figure out her own path. I don't tend to be too interested in fics about her assassination missions or life at the Imperial Court as much as the period before (training) and after (smuggler).
Please be careful with Mara. I have seen way too many Luke/Mara fics where she turned into some kind of sweet romantic thing, or where she gets mysteriously squeamish or incompetent for plot purposes. And I HATE the NJO stuff where Mara's experiences and actions were all there to further other characters' stories (Luke, Jacen, etc.) PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS. Mara is prickly, even with those she trusts and cares about. (Her name, after all, means "bitter".) Mara is sharp. Mara is a survivor. Mara is COMPETENT LIKE BURNING. She's not nice, she's not tame, but she's honorable and good.
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 with mostly non-Yuletide fandoms: 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.
Donovan's Reef
Amelia Deham, Lelani Dedham, gen preferred.
At the end of the movie, Amelia has accepted her siblings, but she's still a privileged Boston upper-class woman, with no real understanding of the gap between her experience and theirs. I'd love some exploration of the relationship between the two of them. And, you know, I love all of the other characters too, so any of them you want to include would be wonderful.
This request is a long shot, and I know it, but it would be so awesome, because to the best of my knowledge there exists NO FIC WHATSOEVER for this movie and thus Yuletide is my only hope. (I keep hoping because it is a single movie and thus easier to pick up if you matched on something else but didn't like my request for it--I've asked for it every year for YEARS.) Here is my picspam/pimp post from a few years ago. Please be very careful with this story. I love the movie, I grew up watching it regularly, but it has problems. For all its progressive (for its day) handling of the situation with the Dedham children, it handled the Asian characters poorly. Also, it was fairly misogynist in its treatment of Amelia. I would absolutely adore fic that handled the issues the film raised (and didn't raise) with more delicacy than was possible in a John Wayne action comedy of the early 1960s. Also, there really isn't much chemistry between Amelia and Gunns in the movie, so if you want to make their romance a major point you're going to have to work to convince me that they're in love, or find other reasons for them to be getting married. The Duke is a lot of fun, but my absolute favorite character is Lelani. She's young, but she's very intelligent, and very sensitive, and can stand up for herself when she has to. (I love the scene where Amelia mocks her for giving thanks to the goddess of the canyon for the Christmas tree, and Lelani quietly puts her in her place.)
Caprica
Tamara Adama.
Things what I would love: something exploring Tauron culture, and culture clashes thereof. We know all about Joseph and Sam Adama's delicate relationship with their homeland, and a little bit about the first William Adama's relationship with all things Tauron, but not much about Tamara and Tauron. So, that would be great. Also! Cylons! I want to know what happens with the Cylons! We know (basically) what happened with Lacy and Zoe after the show ended, and their interaction with Cylons, but Tamara didn't get a new body and she didn't become the Reverend Mother, so what happened to her? Was she still around during the Cylon War, and if so what was her role? Was she still there, a ghost in the machine, when the Final Five showed up? What was her role in the Cylon culture? Not to mention, what does she think of her Dad and his new family?
There cannot be too much Tamara fic. I LOVE her, and wish the show had focused on her and her family more than on the Graystones and Sister Clarice. (Lacy, also, is awesome, and I suppose Zoe wasn't bad either, if she hadn't been the focus.) This was truly the show of the awesome girls, and it had potential if it hadn't been cancelled. (If you wanted to do something about her and Bill Adama from BSG meeting--particularly in some kind of complicated plot involving the Rebel Cylons and the Final Five--that would probably not be in the spirit of Yuletide but I would not complain. At all.)
Metropolis: The Chase Suite--Janelle Monae
Any characters. I love these three albums and the associated art and videos. I don't have any specific prompts or plot bunnies, but here are some things to think about:
The worldbuilding is exquisite, and makes me hunger for more. We only get a taste of this future. I want to know what makes it tick. I want to know about race relations, and the way human-droid relations map (or don't) onto modern white-black relations. I want to know how the economy works--these droids have some measure of autonomy and money, obviously, DJ Crash-Crash's primary audience seems to be his fellow droids. How does that work, and how did it develop? I want to know about computers and the differences (and similarities) between how droids think and how humans think. I want to know about Cindi's relationship with Anthony Greendown, how it developed and what happened to it once she goes on the run. I want to know about Cindi's relationship to her fellow droids (particularly the others of her model) and what it means to her (and to them) for her to be the Archandroid. I want to know about DJ Crash-Crash and his radio show. I want to know about the nightclub Cindi works in in Prime Time. I want to know about all the backstage stuff at the Metropolis Droid Auctions. I want to know about that button at the side of the droids' heads, and what it means that when they push it they turn Black, but they also seem to become freer/switch on. Feel free to explore any or none of these ideas.
Bride & Prejudice
Georgiana Darcy, Kiran Baljraj, Lalita Bakshi
So the wedding happens. And then what? In movies that's the end, but in real life it's just the beginning. William and Lalita come from two very different cultures, and neither of them is going to just give up their culture. And Darcy suffers from foot-in-mouth and Lalita's not the type to just let him get away with it. There will be some big adjustments for both. Then there's Balraj and Jaya--less culture gap, but still a big gap in experience, and how does all of that affect Kiran? What's she getting up to? The "Caroline Bingley" character is unfairly villainized and disregarded in most fanfic of ANY adaptation--she' s not nice, but she's not stupid and she's not evil, either, and she's got reasons for what she does that are very understandable (her position is pretty vulnerable, as a social-climbing money-from-trade heiress in the novel, as a woman of color in English high society in Bride and Prejudice). Then there's Chandra, whom I'd love to see more of even though she wasn't nominated (though please as little Mr. Kohli as possible). There are so many possibilities. (You don't have to have all three if you don't want.
Again, think of the characters as a suggestion, not a hard-and-fast rule. I love this movie, I love (most) of the characters, just about anything with "what happens next" will make me happy.
Star Wars Legends: Thrawn Trilogy
Mara Jade
Mara is awesome, we all agree on that, right? Of course right. And while I like her relationship with Luke, that's (for me) the least important thing about her. I want to know how Palpatine found her, and what her training was like, and what the early days after Palpatine's death was like, and how she was breaking her conditioning without knowing it to get from "the Emperor's Hand" to loyal to Karrde and able to ignore Palpatine's dictate to kill Luke Skywalker because Karrde wanted her to. I want to see how she rethinks her life after the trilogy, how she starts re-thinking what she knows of the Force and how to use (and not use) Palpatine's training and figure out her own path. I don't tend to be too interested in fics about her assassination missions or life at the Imperial Court as much as the period before (training) and after (smuggler).
Please be careful with Mara. I have seen way too many Luke/Mara fics where she turned into some kind of sweet romantic thing, or where she gets mysteriously squeamish or incompetent for plot purposes. And I HATE the NJO stuff where Mara's experiences and actions were all there to further other characters' stories (Luke, Jacen, etc.) PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS. Mara is prickly, even with those she trusts and cares about. (Her name, after all, means "bitter".) Mara is sharp. Mara is a survivor. Mara is COMPETENT LIKE BURNING. She's not nice, she's not tame, but she's honorable and good.
