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Lovely author, here is my theory about letters: how much detail people want in a letter is HIGHLY variable. Some people (such as myself) prefer if their recip gives LOTS of guidance on their wishes. Some prefer as little as possible so they can be free as a bird. Most are somewhere in between. So! Here's everything including the kitchen sink if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am just not inspired that way."
I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for over a decade and am very rarely disappointed with my gifts. 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 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. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.
Please no incest.
Here are some other things to keep in mind (not all of which will apply to all fandoms): I don't like it when characters of color are pushed aside so that white characters can take center stage. I love the acknowledgment that female 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 please don't exoticize anything. 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.
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 like AUs, but not complete AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, and especially not mundane AUs--nothing where you keep characters but drop most of the worldbuilding). 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 a ludicrous situation, that's great. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me. I like historical AUs, but only when the author actually knows the history period in question and does thoughtful worldbuilding to meld actual culture of the time with the canon--Regency AUs where everyone's attitude is modern but with a Regency #aesthetic drive me batty. ("But entailments didn't work that way!") I like angst, but not complete and unrelieved angst, and not angst of the type that people cause themselves. While things can get dark or angsty in the middle, I prefer happy endings.
I love alien culture worldbuilding. I love boldly going and exploring and wacky science hijinks and time travel and alternate universe shenanigans. I love the hopeful attitude that we can become better than we are. All my feelings about Star Trek in general can be summed up with this vid. I love cross-cultural romance (especially when it deals realistically with having to figure out what compromises each is going to make on what they expect out of a relationship--love is not all you need, you also need a lot of hard work and communication). My headcanon on Vulcans was shaped by 80s Trek novels (especially Spock's World and the Rihannsu books by Diane Duane, but also the Vulcan Academy Murders and the IDIC Epidemic by Jean Lorrah). If you know those books, great; if not, don't worry about it. I also love Klingons, and PARTICULARLY when they are not written as one-dimensional fighters. Like, yes, the warrior ethos shapes their entire culture, but it's not the only thing about them.
On to the prompts! Please feel free to use these as jumping off points, or ignore if you have an idea that inspires you more.
DS9
I love DS9, for how complex the characters were, for the way they dealt with consequences in a way no other Trek did, for the way they handled religious questions. There was good and evil, there was black and white, but there was also a whole spectrum of colors and shades of grey in between, and I loved that. Specifically on the question of religion, what I liked was that they didn't always default to the assumption that all religions must be like Christianity, and also that they never really came down with an answer on the question of whether the Prophets were gods or aliens or both. I love how well they handled issues of violence and oppression and violent resistance to oppression, when dealing with Bajor and Cardassia and Kira's past as a terrorist. Violence was never good, and never easy, but there were times it was necessary, and then the question was how do we move on and heal from what happened, what the characters did and what was done to them.
Kira and Sisko: SO MANY POSSIBILITIES. There's two main things that fascinate me about their relationship. The first is that Sisko is the Emmissary, and thus a religious figure to Kira, and how they both handle that, which the show touched on but didn't go into detail. A deep dive into the religious aspects could be fascinating, as long as you don't use Christianity as the default pattern of "what a religion is like." (Also, I've never read the books but apparently after the show ended Kira became a vedek and then Kai, and that transition would also be really interesting to explore.) The second thing that fascinates me is the huge difference in their training. Starfleet is highly academic in its training; Kira was basically apprenticed to a terrorist cell and learned everything about tactics and strategy and leadership the hard way, and may not know much else because when would she have had time? So you could do something about what qualifications she needed to pass to serve as his first officer, or what qualifications she needed to pass to get a commission in Starfleet later, or a time when one or both of their approaches/skillsets was really wrong for the situation.
Benjamin & Jake, I love that father-son relationship, and if you wanted to throw Joseph in there, that would be awesome too. Benjamin is such a great dad! If you want to pull in the topic of how the Prophets manipulated their family and possessed Ben's mother Sarah to make sure Ben was born, that would be great, but please handle it with more sensitivity to the whole rape angle than the show did.
Kira & Opaka: maybe Kira has visions about Opaka from one of the Orbs? Maybe Opaka is how the Prophets appear to Kira?
I love the other relationships but have no specific prompts for them.
Crossover
Sulu/Tuvok: I love Vulcans, and the idea of a young, angry, confused Tuvok looking up to Sulu as a mentor and possibly hooking up with him is really interesting to me.
T'Pol and the House of Sarek: So many possibilities! T'Pol has a very unique understanding of and relation to humans, and so do the House of Sarek, it would be really interesting to see them interact with T'Pol as the wise old matron (and remember that we seldom see old Vulcan women, but when we do, they are HELLA powerful and respected). Feel free to ignore the last episode of Enterprise. No really. Please ignore it.
TNG
Deanna Troi/Worf: Talk about culture clash, but I'd love to see their relationship explored and given more time and not just used as shock material. And I'd love it to be a relationship built on mutual respect. Feel free to bring in the perspective Martok and the others had on mental illness when they were trapped in that Dominion prison camp, that mental illness is an enemy to fight and it takes a lot of strength to fight an enemy in your own head. From that perspective, Deanna is a weapons trainer for the mind.
Toreth/Deanna: Maybe Deanna goes undercover again (though hopefully with a bit more prep), or maybe they meet during the Dominion War when they're all on the same side.
Guinan is awesome and I love her, but please tone down the Magical Negro stereotype--she's a person, not just The Wise Magic Therapist/Advisor.
Data and Lal were so sweet together, and I'd love to see more of them being sweet. Also, I don't like the way people treat Data as either childlike or as someone who doesn't really get it. His poetry's actually pretty good, but they all treat it like it's a trial to be endured. Geordi's the only one who doesn't do that, and that's one thing I appreciate about his friendship with Data. Another plot idea, what would have happened to the court case and Lal's custody if she hadn't died?
Picard/Ro: oh, the possibilities! Either a relationship while she's on board the Enterprise, or maybe an AU where Earth was the one conquered by the Cardassians and Bajor is the perfect paradise world that's the founder of the Federation and provides most of the people for Starfleet. How would Starfleet be different? How would Ro be different? How would PICARD be different if he was from a conquered people and had a background in terrorism before joining Starfleet?
TOS
Anything that explores Vulcan culture would be awesome. I love both Sarek and Amanda, but Sarek in particular is a terrible Dad and I'd like to know more about Amanda. And more about Sybok before he got religious delusions. And more about Saavik.
David/Saavik: what would have happened had he lived (especially if, as in the original idea, Saavik got pregnant from Spock's Pon Farr? How did they get along on before they ended up stranded on a planet together and then he died?
Uhura and Rand have a cute friendship in the show, and I'd love to see that explored. Maybe Uhura giving Rand career advice as she decides what she wants to do besides being a yeoman and starts training to be a communications officer?
I love Spock/Uhura, they had such great chemistry in TOS (better, actually, than in the AOS). There's such mutual respect and such playfulness, it's wonderful.
I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for over a decade and am very rarely disappointed with my gifts. 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 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. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.
Please no incest.
Here are some other things to keep in mind (not all of which will apply to all fandoms): I don't like it when characters of color are pushed aside so that white characters can take center stage. I love the acknowledgment that female 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 please don't exoticize anything. 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.
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 like AUs, but not complete AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, and especially not mundane AUs--nothing where you keep characters but drop most of the worldbuilding). 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 a ludicrous situation, that's great. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me. I like historical AUs, but only when the author actually knows the history period in question and does thoughtful worldbuilding to meld actual culture of the time with the canon--Regency AUs where everyone's attitude is modern but with a Regency #aesthetic drive me batty. ("But entailments didn't work that way!") I like angst, but not complete and unrelieved angst, and not angst of the type that people cause themselves. While things can get dark or angsty in the middle, I prefer happy endings.
I love alien culture worldbuilding. I love boldly going and exploring and wacky science hijinks and time travel and alternate universe shenanigans. I love the hopeful attitude that we can become better than we are. All my feelings about Star Trek in general can be summed up with this vid. I love cross-cultural romance (especially when it deals realistically with having to figure out what compromises each is going to make on what they expect out of a relationship--love is not all you need, you also need a lot of hard work and communication). My headcanon on Vulcans was shaped by 80s Trek novels (especially Spock's World and the Rihannsu books by Diane Duane, but also the Vulcan Academy Murders and the IDIC Epidemic by Jean Lorrah). If you know those books, great; if not, don't worry about it. I also love Klingons, and PARTICULARLY when they are not written as one-dimensional fighters. Like, yes, the warrior ethos shapes their entire culture, but it's not the only thing about them.
On to the prompts! Please feel free to use these as jumping off points, or ignore if you have an idea that inspires you more.
DS9
I love DS9, for how complex the characters were, for the way they dealt with consequences in a way no other Trek did, for the way they handled religious questions. There was good and evil, there was black and white, but there was also a whole spectrum of colors and shades of grey in between, and I loved that. Specifically on the question of religion, what I liked was that they didn't always default to the assumption that all religions must be like Christianity, and also that they never really came down with an answer on the question of whether the Prophets were gods or aliens or both. I love how well they handled issues of violence and oppression and violent resistance to oppression, when dealing with Bajor and Cardassia and Kira's past as a terrorist. Violence was never good, and never easy, but there were times it was necessary, and then the question was how do we move on and heal from what happened, what the characters did and what was done to them.
Kira and Sisko: SO MANY POSSIBILITIES. There's two main things that fascinate me about their relationship. The first is that Sisko is the Emmissary, and thus a religious figure to Kira, and how they both handle that, which the show touched on but didn't go into detail. A deep dive into the religious aspects could be fascinating, as long as you don't use Christianity as the default pattern of "what a religion is like." (Also, I've never read the books but apparently after the show ended Kira became a vedek and then Kai, and that transition would also be really interesting to explore.) The second thing that fascinates me is the huge difference in their training. Starfleet is highly academic in its training; Kira was basically apprenticed to a terrorist cell and learned everything about tactics and strategy and leadership the hard way, and may not know much else because when would she have had time? So you could do something about what qualifications she needed to pass to serve as his first officer, or what qualifications she needed to pass to get a commission in Starfleet later, or a time when one or both of their approaches/skillsets was really wrong for the situation.
Benjamin & Jake, I love that father-son relationship, and if you wanted to throw Joseph in there, that would be awesome too. Benjamin is such a great dad! If you want to pull in the topic of how the Prophets manipulated their family and possessed Ben's mother Sarah to make sure Ben was born, that would be great, but please handle it with more sensitivity to the whole rape angle than the show did.
Kira & Opaka: maybe Kira has visions about Opaka from one of the Orbs? Maybe Opaka is how the Prophets appear to Kira?
I love the other relationships but have no specific prompts for them.
Crossover
Sulu/Tuvok: I love Vulcans, and the idea of a young, angry, confused Tuvok looking up to Sulu as a mentor and possibly hooking up with him is really interesting to me.
T'Pol and the House of Sarek: So many possibilities! T'Pol has a very unique understanding of and relation to humans, and so do the House of Sarek, it would be really interesting to see them interact with T'Pol as the wise old matron (and remember that we seldom see old Vulcan women, but when we do, they are HELLA powerful and respected). Feel free to ignore the last episode of Enterprise. No really. Please ignore it.
TNG
Deanna Troi/Worf: Talk about culture clash, but I'd love to see their relationship explored and given more time and not just used as shock material. And I'd love it to be a relationship built on mutual respect. Feel free to bring in the perspective Martok and the others had on mental illness when they were trapped in that Dominion prison camp, that mental illness is an enemy to fight and it takes a lot of strength to fight an enemy in your own head. From that perspective, Deanna is a weapons trainer for the mind.
Toreth/Deanna: Maybe Deanna goes undercover again (though hopefully with a bit more prep), or maybe they meet during the Dominion War when they're all on the same side.
Guinan is awesome and I love her, but please tone down the Magical Negro stereotype--she's a person, not just The Wise Magic Therapist/Advisor.
Data and Lal were so sweet together, and I'd love to see more of them being sweet. Also, I don't like the way people treat Data as either childlike or as someone who doesn't really get it. His poetry's actually pretty good, but they all treat it like it's a trial to be endured. Geordi's the only one who doesn't do that, and that's one thing I appreciate about his friendship with Data. Another plot idea, what would have happened to the court case and Lal's custody if she hadn't died?
Picard/Ro: oh, the possibilities! Either a relationship while she's on board the Enterprise, or maybe an AU where Earth was the one conquered by the Cardassians and Bajor is the perfect paradise world that's the founder of the Federation and provides most of the people for Starfleet. How would Starfleet be different? How would Ro be different? How would PICARD be different if he was from a conquered people and had a background in terrorism before joining Starfleet?
TOS
Anything that explores Vulcan culture would be awesome. I love both Sarek and Amanda, but Sarek in particular is a terrible Dad and I'd like to know more about Amanda. And more about Sybok before he got religious delusions. And more about Saavik.
David/Saavik: what would have happened had he lived (especially if, as in the original idea, Saavik got pregnant from Spock's Pon Farr? How did they get along on before they ended up stranded on a planet together and then he died?
Uhura and Rand have a cute friendship in the show, and I'd love to see that explored. Maybe Uhura giving Rand career advice as she decides what she wants to do besides being a yeoman and starts training to be a communications officer?
I love Spock/Uhura, they had such great chemistry in TOS (better, actually, than in the AOS). There's such mutual respect and such playfulness, it's wonderful.
