Cool Bits meme & Yuletide
So, I finally crushed my doubt underfoot, took the plunge and signed up for Yuletide!
Still quaking a bit with excitement - it's my first big ficathon complete with deadlines and secrecy! - but honestly, I think it'll be a great experience. Apart from that one fic I'm working on (don't worry, maspalio, your Lyta & G'Kar is in the making!) I've been a bit stumped for inspiration lately, so I figured I needed a kick in the, ah, shins, in order to maybe write in a different fandom for once! Of course, I still requested and offered Babylon 5, too. *g*
(Question: are there any other multifandom fic exchanges that are not restricted to rare fandoms, and don't focus on crossovers? I'd love to write some Trek or maybe Stargate or something else, but I'm thinking I'll need a kick in the shins for that, too.)
Anyway, this reminded me of this meme-ish thing I picked up from mithen, which involves listing one's Cool Bits (aka things you love in fic) in one's journal. And what better occasion to post this list than as a prelude to a Dear Yuletide Author letter? I had fun coming up with my list, so please, y'all tell me yours!
Amatara's Cool Bits
I love gen. Gen is wonderful, and you can never go wrong with it with me. The same goes for ensemble fic: I have a boundless admiration for authors who have the patience and skill and love for a show necessary to pull it off. I'm not a rabid shipper mostly; on the other hand, the pairings I do ship, I ship with all the impetuousness of a cartload of starved puppies being offered a bone, so het and slash for those pairings I will devour with a passion! Still, there isn't a pairing I love of which I don't also love genfics - I'm pretty easy there.
Specific favorites? Now, let's see. Angst, for one, especially if it ties in with canon. Dark stories with just a pinprick of joy to make the unbearable bearable. Characters being forced to do things they didn't think themselves capable of, and having to live with the consequences. Misunderstandings. Relationships that don't come easy. Fragile friendships, strained to breaking point, that eventually get mended again. Backstories. Missing scenes. Character building. Teensy details about a character's past, no matter how inconsequential, giving you a glimpse of how they've become who they are.
Elaborate costumes. Gloves. Glasses. Not-so-young and not-so-lovely characters that make up for it with enthusiasm and flirtatiousness. Naive, enthusiastic characters getting under gruff, bitter characters' skins. Nightfall. Sunrise. Metaphors. Darkness and weirdness. Characters waxing poetic. Science geeks. Smart women with and without personal lives. Characters doing foolish things to protect someone, even when they can hardly defend themselves.
Gallows' humor. Witty dialogues. Snark as camouflage for caring. Jokes so dry it's painful. People finding love at a moment where everything's falling apart, and going on with it regardless. People drawing together in the face of despair. Fic that lacks plot but reads like poetry. Hurt/comfort of the understated kind, where the hurt one does not panic or whine, and the comforting one does not wipe sweat off fevered brows, but where the hurt is real and mostly hidden, and the comfort is grudging or awkward or slow to come. Tropes used skillfully and in character. Concussion. Poison. Hypothermia. Confessions made while delirious or drunk. Characters getting locked up together in tiny spaces, being forced to cooperate in order to live.
Just-below-the-surface sexual tension. Muted shipping. Muted yearning. Anything muted, really. Sweet PG-13, involving kissage and fondling and foreplay and fades to black. Vague descriptions of sexual acts, that for all their vagueness still manage to be hot. Fumbling, imperfect sex. Unplanned sex in impractical locations. Aborted sex. Sex that fails to solve any problems. Those other erogenous zones: throat, hands, stomach, thighs. Alien sex being completely different and totally surprising.
Characters making love for all the wrong reasons. Characters on the verge of breaking down, but refusing to show it. Weeping behind closed doors. Laughter in the face of despair. Unnoticed heroism. Deaths that are good and right and fitting and sad.