![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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 or darkfic.
Star Wars Original Trilogy
Lando/Han, Lando/Leia/Han, Lando/Luke
I love Lando because he is a deeply pragmatic and principled man (who was right to put the welfare of his citizens above that of a couple of old friends he hadn't seen in years), who will do the right thing even if it's hard, but who does his bit for the Grand Cause when necessary and then goes back to real life. While the old EU was a bit of a mess, I liked it better than the ST. You can bring in ST details if you want to, but please no Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, and please don't destroy the New Republic. From the EU, please no Yuuzhan Vong. Any PT or Clone Wars details are fine to include, if you want. I'm not terribly fond of the whole "princesses are just damsels waiting for prince charming, therefore Leia can't be a princess anymore, she's a general which is much better!" idea. Princesses (and queens) literally rule. Which can include leading their troops in battle, but also includes politics and diplomacy and everything else rulers do.
In ESB, Lando was in an impossible situation, and he was right to put his citizens first. He is the respectable one, and his past as a con artist (but one with ethics) and a businessman and an administrator would make him an ideal ally for Leia as they are building the New Republic. Han would probably be quite happy to be free to roam with Chewie and then come home to Leia and Lando, and be a bit freer and not have to do with all the politics. I would love something focused on political worldbuilding, either "how do they build a New Republic" or "what all happens with Leia's role as Princess of Alderaan". For Lando/Luke, I could see Lando helping Luke build/fund his school, maybe as a sideline, or just enjoying dressing Luke up and Luke discovering he has his mother's fashion sense.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AUs, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, New Republic destroyed.
Star Trek: TOS
David/Saavik, Spock/Saavik, Saavik/Uhura, OMVulcan/OMC, OFVulcan/OFC
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. 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 headcanons about Vulcans were 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. One thing I will point out, though, is that while there are a lot of things about Vulcan culture that seem/are sexist, the most powerful Vulcans we see throughout the series are elderly women. Discuss. I love Pon Farr, but mostly dealing with the implications of it (both before and after) and not the sex part.
As for plot ... it's Star Trek. If you want to play it serious and show them falling in love in between missions, go for it. If you want to AU Amok Time, or have Spock going through another Pon Farr later, go for it. And if you want to lean into the wacky tropes Star Trek was known for, that's great too. As long as everyone is in character, feel free to go as cracktastic as you want with the time travel and travel to alternate universes and weird missions. David/Saavik: what would have happened had he lived (especially if, as in the original idea for STIV, 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?
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AUs, darkfic, a Saavik/Spock relationship that started while she was his ward.
Battlestar Galactica
Lee "Apollo" Adama/Sam Anders/Anastasia "Dee" Dualla/Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, Galen/Boomer, Caprica/Tigh
I love this show, but boy howdy do I want people to learn to deal with their shit. They all need so much therapy. If you want to deal with the various traumas, PTSD, anxieties, and other mental health issues most of them have, I would love it, but if that's not your thing that's fine too. Also, I like the shenanigans over Cylon/Human hybrid children, and my headcanon is that the reasons Cylons couldn't procreate biologically is because the Ones were lacing the water supply on Cylon ships with birth control.
When I watched Caprica, and saw that the Colonies had polygamy, I was even more disgusted with the adultery/angst of the Lee/Kara/Sam/Dee foursome. Why didn't they just all get married instead of angsting over who loved who? Of course, a poly marriage requires even more communication than a mono marriage, and they all suck at communication ... if you go that route, some angst is fine but please not too much, and don't let Kara hog the spotlight. (My two favorites in that foursome are Dee and Sam.) You could do interesting stuff on New Caprica with two on the surface and two in orbit, or you could do "dealing with the revelation that half the spouses are cylons," or you could do "how did they negotiate the arrangement to begin with" or any number of other ideas. Caprica/Tigh was so deliciously fucked up, and yet I was rooting for them to get it together and figure out what to do with each other and with a kid. Galen/Boomer has so many possibilities. Were they somehow drawn together because they were both Cylons in a Human world, not really knowing why they felt out of place? Was there some subconscious memories going on? What would have happened if Cally hadn't killed Boomer? (I mean, if nothing else ... no Boomer on Caprica means no Caprica Six and Boomer starting an alliance ...) What would have happened if Boomer had sought Galen out on New Caprica? Would she have ended up helping the Resistance? What would have happened if Boomer hadn't joined the Ones during the Cylon Civil War and she and Galen met up after he knew he was a Cylon?
Fixit AUs are GREAT.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AUs, darkfic, settling on Earth and giving up technology
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Jadzia/Benjamin, Kira/Sisko
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. 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). One of the things I appreciated about DS9 was the delicate way religion was (usually) handled, where despite the fact that the show (mostly) believed the Prophets were just aliens, it never called the Bajorans stupid or misguided for believing in them.
Prompts: Consequences! That was one of my favorite things about DS9, it dealt with consequences. So if you want to take a canon event that you think didn't get enough exploration, that would be awesome. Stuff dealing with the religious aspect of the Prophets and the Celestial Temple and choosing an alien as the Emissary. Sisko's position is endlessly fascinating to me, and how it shaped his relationship with Kira, and how he came to be more comfortable with it as the show went on. I haven't read the novels, but if you want to take the idea that after the show ended Kira eventually became a Vedek and later Kai and explore her faith and relationship with the Prophets, I think it would be fascinating.
And I love Dax's relationship with Sisko, it was strong enough to last through three hosts. What was it that brought (and kept) them together? Their dynamics were fascinating, any exploration of that would be awesome.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AUs, darkfic,
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 or darkfic.
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--and women can be compelling and interesting without being "strong". I like cultural diversity, and to know that culture matters to people, and to see how different cultures interact and where the clashes are. 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. 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).
I love outsider perspectives and academic takes on things. In-universe meta (newspaper articles, academic monographs--especially with the sort of snarky feuding common in actual real-world academia, social media feeds in current day or future worlds) is awesome.
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. 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).
I love outsider perspectives and academic takes on things. In-universe meta (newspaper articles, academic monographs--especially with the sort of snarky feuding common in actual real-world academia, social media feeds in current day or future worlds) is awesome.
Star Trek: TNG
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. 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. And we learned so little about Guinan and her culture that I could cry--I want to know more! I haven't seen anything from Discovery or Picard; you can bring in stuff from those shows, but also feel free to ignore them.
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.
I love Guinan, but canon treats her too much like a Magical Negro, and giving her some depth and context and complicating that would be awesome. I'd love to see more depth to her and Picard's friendship. Riker flirting with her in that one episode as a lesson for Wesley was the smoothest thing I've ever seen, and while I can't see them in a serious long-term relationship I think they could have so much fun together.
Or you can go the Vulcan route: I love me some Vulcans, and have many Thoughts on the Subject, but I always am interested in other takes on Vulcans, too.
I love Ro Laren, she was such a different character and was a catalyst for a lot of different types of interaction that the crew didn't normally have. (With her, you can go either canon or an AU where she never joins the Maquis, or post-canon using the idea from the books that she ended up with the Bajoran militia and got folded back into Starfleet when they did.)
For Kamala/Picard, the thing I am most interested in is something post TNG--what would happen if the dude she had to marry for politics died somehow, and she could do whatever she wanted? (Although I wouldn't want "getting together with Picard" to be the only thing she wants to do with her life)
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AUs, darkfic
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. 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. And we learned so little about Guinan and her culture that I could cry--I want to know more! I haven't seen anything from Discovery or Picard; you can bring in stuff from those shows, but also feel free to ignore them.
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.
I love Guinan, but canon treats her too much like a Magical Negro, and giving her some depth and context and complicating that would be awesome. I'd love to see more depth to her and Picard's friendship. Riker flirting with her in that one episode as a lesson for Wesley was the smoothest thing I've ever seen, and while I can't see them in a serious long-term relationship I think they could have so much fun together.
Or you can go the Vulcan route: I love me some Vulcans, and have many Thoughts on the Subject, but I always am interested in other takes on Vulcans, too.
I love Ro Laren, she was such a different character and was a catalyst for a lot of different types of interaction that the crew didn't normally have. (With her, you can go either canon or an AU where she never joins the Maquis, or post-canon using the idea from the books that she ended up with the Bajoran militia and got folded back into Starfleet when they did.)
For Kamala/Picard, the thing I am most interested in is something post TNG--what would happen if the dude she had to marry for politics died somehow, and she could do whatever she wanted? (Although I wouldn't want "getting together with Picard" to be the only thing she wants to do with her life)
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AUs, darkfic
Star Wars Original Trilogy
Lando/Han, Lando/Leia/Han, Lando/Luke
I love Lando because he is a deeply pragmatic and principled man (who was right to put the welfare of his citizens above that of a couple of old friends he hadn't seen in years), who will do the right thing even if it's hard, but who does his bit for the Grand Cause when necessary and then goes back to real life. While the old EU was a bit of a mess, I liked it better than the ST. You can bring in ST details if you want to, but please no Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, and please don't destroy the New Republic. From the EU, please no Yuuzhan Vong. Any PT or Clone Wars details are fine to include, if you want. I'm not terribly fond of the whole "princesses are just damsels waiting for prince charming, therefore Leia can't be a princess anymore, she's a general which is much better!" idea. Princesses (and queens) literally rule. Which can include leading their troops in battle, but also includes politics and diplomacy and everything else rulers do.
In ESB, Lando was in an impossible situation, and he was right to put his citizens first. He is the respectable one, and his past as a con artist (but one with ethics) and a businessman and an administrator would make him an ideal ally for Leia as they are building the New Republic. Han would probably be quite happy to be free to roam with Chewie and then come home to Leia and Lando, and be a bit freer and not have to do with all the politics. I would love something focused on political worldbuilding, either "how do they build a New Republic" or "what all happens with Leia's role as Princess of Alderaan". For Lando/Luke, I could see Lando helping Luke build/fund his school, maybe as a sideline, or just enjoying dressing Luke up and Luke discovering he has his mother's fashion sense.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AUs, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, New Republic destroyed.
Star Trek: TOS
David/Saavik, Spock/Saavik, Saavik/Uhura, OMVulcan/OMC, OFVulcan/OFC
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. 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 headcanons about Vulcans were 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. One thing I will point out, though, is that while there are a lot of things about Vulcan culture that seem/are sexist, the most powerful Vulcans we see throughout the series are elderly women. Discuss. I love Pon Farr, but mostly dealing with the implications of it (both before and after) and not the sex part.
As for plot ... it's Star Trek. If you want to play it serious and show them falling in love in between missions, go for it. If you want to AU Amok Time, or have Spock going through another Pon Farr later, go for it. And if you want to lean into the wacky tropes Star Trek was known for, that's great too. As long as everyone is in character, feel free to go as cracktastic as you want with the time travel and travel to alternate universes and weird missions. David/Saavik: what would have happened had he lived (especially if, as in the original idea for STIV, 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?
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AUs, darkfic, a Saavik/Spock relationship that started while she was his ward.
Battlestar Galactica
Lee "Apollo" Adama/Sam Anders/Anastasia "Dee" Dualla/Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, Galen/Boomer, Caprica/Tigh
I love this show, but boy howdy do I want people to learn to deal with their shit. They all need so much therapy. If you want to deal with the various traumas, PTSD, anxieties, and other mental health issues most of them have, I would love it, but if that's not your thing that's fine too. Also, I like the shenanigans over Cylon/Human hybrid children, and my headcanon is that the reasons Cylons couldn't procreate biologically is because the Ones were lacing the water supply on Cylon ships with birth control.
When I watched Caprica, and saw that the Colonies had polygamy, I was even more disgusted with the adultery/angst of the Lee/Kara/Sam/Dee foursome. Why didn't they just all get married instead of angsting over who loved who? Of course, a poly marriage requires even more communication than a mono marriage, and they all suck at communication ... if you go that route, some angst is fine but please not too much, and don't let Kara hog the spotlight. (My two favorites in that foursome are Dee and Sam.) You could do interesting stuff on New Caprica with two on the surface and two in orbit, or you could do "dealing with the revelation that half the spouses are cylons," or you could do "how did they negotiate the arrangement to begin with" or any number of other ideas. Caprica/Tigh was so deliciously fucked up, and yet I was rooting for them to get it together and figure out what to do with each other and with a kid. Galen/Boomer has so many possibilities. Were they somehow drawn together because they were both Cylons in a Human world, not really knowing why they felt out of place? Was there some subconscious memories going on? What would have happened if Cally hadn't killed Boomer? (I mean, if nothing else ... no Boomer on Caprica means no Caprica Six and Boomer starting an alliance ...) What would have happened if Boomer had sought Galen out on New Caprica? Would she have ended up helping the Resistance? What would have happened if Boomer hadn't joined the Ones during the Cylon Civil War and she and Galen met up after he knew he was a Cylon?
Fixit AUs are GREAT.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AUs, darkfic, settling on Earth and giving up technology
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Jadzia/Benjamin, Kira/Sisko
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. 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). One of the things I appreciated about DS9 was the delicate way religion was (usually) handled, where despite the fact that the show (mostly) believed the Prophets were just aliens, it never called the Bajorans stupid or misguided for believing in them.
Prompts: Consequences! That was one of my favorite things about DS9, it dealt with consequences. So if you want to take a canon event that you think didn't get enough exploration, that would be awesome. Stuff dealing with the religious aspect of the Prophets and the Celestial Temple and choosing an alien as the Emissary. Sisko's position is endlessly fascinating to me, and how it shaped his relationship with Kira, and how he came to be more comfortable with it as the show went on. I haven't read the novels, but if you want to take the idea that after the show ended Kira eventually became a Vedek and later Kai and explore her faith and relationship with the Prophets, I think it would be fascinating.
And I love Dax's relationship with Sisko, it was strong enough to last through three hosts. What was it that brought (and kept) them together? Their dynamics were fascinating, any exploration of that would be awesome.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AUs, darkfic,
