DEAR YULETIDE WRITER
Happy Holidays in advance! I hope you have a great Yuletide. Apparently we share a love of something small and under-appreciated, so I’m very pleased to make your acquaintance. This is a sampler of things I’d love to see, in fandoms I dearly wish had more fic and more fans, but I'm sure I'll be delighted by wherever the muse takes you. (For the record, I’m arysteia at AO3 as well. And also on twitter if you’re into that sort of thing.)
My greatest loves in fan fiction - and in canon, to be honest - are character development and relationships. I do enjoy well-plotted stories, of course, but I get a lot of emotional satisfaction out of seeing the plot show me new things about characters that I love. My favourite tropes tend to centre round things like found family, undying loyalty, you and me against the world vows, nemeses turned sworn comrades, reconciliations after rifts, and identity porn.
I dislike mundane AUs, so please keep the characters in their own settings and retain their own backstories and abilities/powers. Also, please, no non-con, no infidelity, no unasked for kinks. I do enjoy reading explicit sex scenes in fic, though as a general rule as part of character development rather than pure PWP, so if you enjoy writing them please go ahead. If you prefer lower ratings then super intense feelings and emotions tickle my id just as well.
My tastes in sex scenes are fairly vanilla, though I do like to read explicit fic. Exceptions would be rough sex, fighting leading to fucking, and one partner holding the other down/using their full strength on them (consensually). [That said, if you're into that sort of thing, feel free to have a look at my letter for Smut Swap earlier this year. I'm talking about completely different pairings, but most of the non-AU stuff in the first couple of sections is fairly generally applicable. I know I'm contradicting myself a bit here, so feel free to clarify via anon comment if you want to.]
I have a basic preference for third person narration, and also for a fairly tight POV, rather than an omniscient narrator. That’s not a hard and fast rule though, so don’t feel bound by it if it doesn’t suit the story you want to tell.
Good Will Hunting (1997) - Will Hunting, Chuckie Sullivan
I love this film so much, and more than anything I adore Will and Chuckie's relationship. Chuckie's part in the movie is comparatively small, but he speaks a thousand words with every grin, smirk, and glare, and I am an absolute sucker for his brand of love and loyalty combined with straight talking and the ability to give a shove where required. It seems very obvious, without much exposition, that he and Will have known each other forever, and always been there for each other through thick and thin. He's also a big enough person to let Will go - heck, make him go - though of course I am selfishly asking you to undo that somehow and get them back together. Sorry, not sorry.
Sean summed it up well when Lambeau was complaining about Will's choice to hang out with a "retarded gorilla" and he responded, "That retarded gorilla would take a bat to your head if he asked him to." [We've come quite some way in understanding inappropriate slurs since 1997 but I think the sentiment is still clear.] Likewise when one of the other boys hesitates about getting into a fight to support Will, and Chuckie says something to the effect, "When I'm done with them I'm coming for you." It's like catnip to my love of found family, "you and me against the world" friendships, and undying loyalty in the face of all common sense.
Anyway, there is so little fic available featuring these two that pretty much anything you can come up with would be very welcome indeed. As far as my preferences go, obviously I do ship it and would love to receive a fic where Will and Chuckie are together, whether they get together before, during, or after the film. I'd prefer for them not to break up, though I'm more than happy for them to make up or get back together after a separation. I'd prefer Skylar be dealt with as briefly and respectfully as possible, whether via off screen break up or simple, time honoured, assuming that's been dealt with and moving forward.
I guess my major question is: where to from the end of the movie? What happens next? Given that Chuckie was so set on Will leaving, and more importantly not wasting his gifts and opportunities, it seems like he wouldn't accept Will just giving up on California and coming home to the same old same old. So what changes? Does Chuckie follow him out there? Does Will come home but to a new life in Boston? Can Will help Chuckie realise a few dreams of his own? What kind of life can they build together? Is it, by choice or necessity, a closeted life? When and how does that change?
That brings me to one of the other things that intrigues me, namely how much the world has and hasn't changed between 1997 and 2016. [I can't believe this film will be twenty years old next year! Where did the time go???] So I'm interested in that too. If you want to set your fic in 1997 or shortly thereafter, great; if you want to look in at what the guys are doing now, that'd also be awesome. Please, please, don't write them as having not spoken or seen each other for huge chunks of time in those intervening years though, I can't bear that thought.
Thanks very much in advance, and I can't wait to see what you come up with.
Takers (2010) - Gordon Cozier, John Rahway
Honesty compels me to agree that this movie is not exactly a cinematic masterpiece, but I love it a lot anyway. The protagonists are handsome and charming and impeccably dressed. They all seem to love each other a lot, and any one of them would risk his life for the rest. There is honour among thieves. They pull off brilliantly planned, flawlessly executed heists. Until the last one. I still shake my fist at the screen when Ghost appears, and demand to know why they trust him. Oh, well. So goes the world.
We know next to nothing about anybody's backstory, with the obvious exception of Gordon's childhood with Naomi in the Caribbean, so there's a totally blank slate to work with there, but I thought the film did a good job of setting up Gordon and John's friendship especially, and they do basically drive off into the sunset together at the end, so I'd love any kind of fic that explores their relationship, whether before, during, or after the film. I do ship it quite hard, despite the veritable non-existence of fic.
Where and when and how did Gordon and John meet? Where did they pick up their unique skill sets? Why are they so loyal to each other? How did they put the gang together? Do the rest of the guys know about their relationship, or is that just one more secret in a life chock full of them? Where do they go after the movie ends? Do they make it to a well-earned retirement on some tropical island, or are they on the run somewhere? I'd love anything along these lines, be it prequel or sequel.
Thanks very much in advance, and I can't wait to see what you come up with.
Green Arrow (Comics) - Roy Harper, Connor Hawke, Oliver Queen
I should probably be clear right off the bat that I’m looking for pre-DCNu/Nu52 characterisation here. I haven’t read the latest run of Green Arrow, and wouldn’t know where to begin with fic set there. To the best of my knowledge it wouldn’t have anything like the character dynamics or interaction I’m looking for anyway, even if it’s great in its own right. That said, I'm not a stickler for the minutiae of continuity here, so I'd be happy to have interesting bits and pieces of all three characters' back stories pulled in from their own individual runs pre-reboot.
I know there wasn’t a huge amount of interaction between all three characters even in the glory days of Green Arrow Vol 3, but I always felt like there should have been. The whole Arrow Clan was in a pretty great space for a while - or maybe that’s just in contrast to the Bats - and it really tickled my found families id. For better or for worse, these guys chose each other, and they had some terrible fights and rifts and upheavals, but I like to think they’d always get back together.
Ollie is a pretty terrible father most of the time - let’s not even touch on his failings as a husband - but it felt like he was trying. I really liked the idea of an Ollie who was older, and just a little wiser, trying to rebuild some bridges, or kickstart some relationships with his sons as adults that hadn’t existed/worked earlier. It’s really hard to be a father to an adult man if you fucked it up when he was a boy, but it’s fertile ground for fic exploration.
I ship Roy/Connor pretty hard too, for all that there’s maybe a dozen fics in existence. Obviously if you don’t like incest pairings then there’s no need to go that way. Roy and Connor weren’t raised together, and don’t think of each other as brothers in anything but the most metaphorical sense. Instead, it’d be great to explore the unique and awkward position these guys find themselves in vis a vis Ollie - the ward that he was never really a very good parental figure to, and the son that he abandoned/ignored. Where to, then, when they meet as adults? Bonding after a good cathartic moan about absent fathers, rivalry/scrambling for position, the classic posturing between two heroes on the same turf, or a sense of instant rightness, a missing piece come home? Whatever way you want to take this would be cool.
If you do like incest pairings though, feel free to play that up as much or as little as you like. I can certainly imagine Ollie having something to say about his worldly son debauching his virginal one, and both of them in their own unique and distinctive ways telling him to take a long walk off a short pier. Or would they pre-empt that awkwardness in the first place by trying to keep things very much on the QT?
Use your discretion as to how best to include all three characters. I feel like this might be a great opportunity for an external POV - Ollie’s perspective on the relationship and how he feels when he finds out about it; equally a fic centred on Roy and Connor where they talk about/worry about/argue about Ollie would work too. If you had a great idea that only involved Roy and Connor I'd be fine with that as well. Obviously if you're writing sex scenes I don't want Ollie to be present!
I don’t really have any specific plot prompts, other than maybe Three Idiots Go on a Road Trip Together and Fail to Talk About Their Feelings (With or Without Bonus Sneaking Around Hotel Rooms). I’m sure that anything you come up with that incorporates some of these general requests would make me very happy though.
Thanks very much in advance, and I can't wait to see what you come up with.
My greatest loves in fan fiction - and in canon, to be honest - are character development and relationships. I do enjoy well-plotted stories, of course, but I get a lot of emotional satisfaction out of seeing the plot show me new things about characters that I love. My favourite tropes tend to centre round things like found family, undying loyalty, you and me against the world vows, nemeses turned sworn comrades, reconciliations after rifts, and identity porn.
I dislike mundane AUs, so please keep the characters in their own settings and retain their own backstories and abilities/powers. Also, please, no non-con, no infidelity, no unasked for kinks. I do enjoy reading explicit sex scenes in fic, though as a general rule as part of character development rather than pure PWP, so if you enjoy writing them please go ahead. If you prefer lower ratings then super intense feelings and emotions tickle my id just as well.
My tastes in sex scenes are fairly vanilla, though I do like to read explicit fic. Exceptions would be rough sex, fighting leading to fucking, and one partner holding the other down/using their full strength on them (consensually). [That said, if you're into that sort of thing, feel free to have a look at my letter for Smut Swap earlier this year. I'm talking about completely different pairings, but most of the non-AU stuff in the first couple of sections is fairly generally applicable. I know I'm contradicting myself a bit here, so feel free to clarify via anon comment if you want to.]
I have a basic preference for third person narration, and also for a fairly tight POV, rather than an omniscient narrator. That’s not a hard and fast rule though, so don’t feel bound by it if it doesn’t suit the story you want to tell.
Good Will Hunting (1997) - Will Hunting, Chuckie Sullivan
I love this film so much, and more than anything I adore Will and Chuckie's relationship. Chuckie's part in the movie is comparatively small, but he speaks a thousand words with every grin, smirk, and glare, and I am an absolute sucker for his brand of love and loyalty combined with straight talking and the ability to give a shove where required. It seems very obvious, without much exposition, that he and Will have known each other forever, and always been there for each other through thick and thin. He's also a big enough person to let Will go - heck, make him go - though of course I am selfishly asking you to undo that somehow and get them back together. Sorry, not sorry.
Sean summed it up well when Lambeau was complaining about Will's choice to hang out with a "retarded gorilla" and he responded, "That retarded gorilla would take a bat to your head if he asked him to." [We've come quite some way in understanding inappropriate slurs since 1997 but I think the sentiment is still clear.] Likewise when one of the other boys hesitates about getting into a fight to support Will, and Chuckie says something to the effect, "When I'm done with them I'm coming for you." It's like catnip to my love of found family, "you and me against the world" friendships, and undying loyalty in the face of all common sense.
Anyway, there is so little fic available featuring these two that pretty much anything you can come up with would be very welcome indeed. As far as my preferences go, obviously I do ship it and would love to receive a fic where Will and Chuckie are together, whether they get together before, during, or after the film. I'd prefer for them not to break up, though I'm more than happy for them to make up or get back together after a separation. I'd prefer Skylar be dealt with as briefly and respectfully as possible, whether via off screen break up or simple, time honoured, assuming that's been dealt with and moving forward.
I guess my major question is: where to from the end of the movie? What happens next? Given that Chuckie was so set on Will leaving, and more importantly not wasting his gifts and opportunities, it seems like he wouldn't accept Will just giving up on California and coming home to the same old same old. So what changes? Does Chuckie follow him out there? Does Will come home but to a new life in Boston? Can Will help Chuckie realise a few dreams of his own? What kind of life can they build together? Is it, by choice or necessity, a closeted life? When and how does that change?
That brings me to one of the other things that intrigues me, namely how much the world has and hasn't changed between 1997 and 2016. [I can't believe this film will be twenty years old next year! Where did the time go???] So I'm interested in that too. If you want to set your fic in 1997 or shortly thereafter, great; if you want to look in at what the guys are doing now, that'd also be awesome. Please, please, don't write them as having not spoken or seen each other for huge chunks of time in those intervening years though, I can't bear that thought.
Thanks very much in advance, and I can't wait to see what you come up with.
Takers (2010) - Gordon Cozier, John Rahway
Honesty compels me to agree that this movie is not exactly a cinematic masterpiece, but I love it a lot anyway. The protagonists are handsome and charming and impeccably dressed. They all seem to love each other a lot, and any one of them would risk his life for the rest. There is honour among thieves. They pull off brilliantly planned, flawlessly executed heists. Until the last one. I still shake my fist at the screen when Ghost appears, and demand to know why they trust him. Oh, well. So goes the world.
We know next to nothing about anybody's backstory, with the obvious exception of Gordon's childhood with Naomi in the Caribbean, so there's a totally blank slate to work with there, but I thought the film did a good job of setting up Gordon and John's friendship especially, and they do basically drive off into the sunset together at the end, so I'd love any kind of fic that explores their relationship, whether before, during, or after the film. I do ship it quite hard, despite the veritable non-existence of fic.
Where and when and how did Gordon and John meet? Where did they pick up their unique skill sets? Why are they so loyal to each other? How did they put the gang together? Do the rest of the guys know about their relationship, or is that just one more secret in a life chock full of them? Where do they go after the movie ends? Do they make it to a well-earned retirement on some tropical island, or are they on the run somewhere? I'd love anything along these lines, be it prequel or sequel.
Thanks very much in advance, and I can't wait to see what you come up with.
Green Arrow (Comics) - Roy Harper, Connor Hawke, Oliver Queen
I should probably be clear right off the bat that I’m looking for pre-DCNu/Nu52 characterisation here. I haven’t read the latest run of Green Arrow, and wouldn’t know where to begin with fic set there. To the best of my knowledge it wouldn’t have anything like the character dynamics or interaction I’m looking for anyway, even if it’s great in its own right. That said, I'm not a stickler for the minutiae of continuity here, so I'd be happy to have interesting bits and pieces of all three characters' back stories pulled in from their own individual runs pre-reboot.
I know there wasn’t a huge amount of interaction between all three characters even in the glory days of Green Arrow Vol 3, but I always felt like there should have been. The whole Arrow Clan was in a pretty great space for a while - or maybe that’s just in contrast to the Bats - and it really tickled my found families id. For better or for worse, these guys chose each other, and they had some terrible fights and rifts and upheavals, but I like to think they’d always get back together.
Ollie is a pretty terrible father most of the time - let’s not even touch on his failings as a husband - but it felt like he was trying. I really liked the idea of an Ollie who was older, and just a little wiser, trying to rebuild some bridges, or kickstart some relationships with his sons as adults that hadn’t existed/worked earlier. It’s really hard to be a father to an adult man if you fucked it up when he was a boy, but it’s fertile ground for fic exploration.
I ship Roy/Connor pretty hard too, for all that there’s maybe a dozen fics in existence. Obviously if you don’t like incest pairings then there’s no need to go that way. Roy and Connor weren’t raised together, and don’t think of each other as brothers in anything but the most metaphorical sense. Instead, it’d be great to explore the unique and awkward position these guys find themselves in vis a vis Ollie - the ward that he was never really a very good parental figure to, and the son that he abandoned/ignored. Where to, then, when they meet as adults? Bonding after a good cathartic moan about absent fathers, rivalry/scrambling for position, the classic posturing between two heroes on the same turf, or a sense of instant rightness, a missing piece come home? Whatever way you want to take this would be cool.
If you do like incest pairings though, feel free to play that up as much or as little as you like. I can certainly imagine Ollie having something to say about his worldly son debauching his virginal one, and both of them in their own unique and distinctive ways telling him to take a long walk off a short pier. Or would they pre-empt that awkwardness in the first place by trying to keep things very much on the QT?
Use your discretion as to how best to include all three characters. I feel like this might be a great opportunity for an external POV - Ollie’s perspective on the relationship and how he feels when he finds out about it; equally a fic centred on Roy and Connor where they talk about/worry about/argue about Ollie would work too. If you had a great idea that only involved Roy and Connor I'd be fine with that as well. Obviously if you're writing sex scenes I don't want Ollie to be present!
I don’t really have any specific plot prompts, other than maybe Three Idiots Go on a Road Trip Together and Fail to Talk About Their Feelings (With or Without Bonus Sneaking Around Hotel Rooms). I’m sure that anything you come up with that incorporates some of these general requests would make me very happy though.
Thanks very much in advance, and I can't wait to see what you come up with.