it's beginning to feel a lot like....
to my dearest, beloved yuletide writer....
so i’m going to paraphrase from my past yuletide letters here, and start by saying that if you're as excited about any of these fandoms as i am, i'll love what you write me no matter what. that said, i'm a fan of giving more information in the hopes that it will give you greater freedom in your writing, and because i know i'm going to want to know as much about the person i'm writing for as possible and figure i should give what i hope to get. :D so here are some paragraphs of perhaps tl;dr-level specificity, and please feel free to ignore all of it if there's a story in any of these fandoms that you really, really want to write. i trust you. XD
i like slash or het or gen. characterization is my weak spot; show me the nuances of a character i love, show me a secret side of them i've never seen before. i love worldbuilding; expand on the setting and expand the world as it’s described in canon. if you write sex, awesome; it’s definitely not a requirement by any means, but i certainly wouldn't say no to it. and to borrow a clarification phrase straight from someone else's letter, When I say "explicit" I mean "I have a good idea who's doing what to whom," and not so much paragraph-long descriptions of penises. i'm all about the emotions; as you'll see from my rec list, any fic that packs an emotional punch is guaranteed to win me over.
as far as genre goes, it's kind of up to you. i love action and mystery, i like ship-centered fic as much as fic where the ship is a sidebar to the plot, i like happy or serious or funny or sad. i would definitely prefer a hopeful ending to whatever you write, if an actual happy ending isn't appropriate or fitting; however if your story is leading you toward a waterfall of angst that'll end with an emotional sucker punch, go for it! wow me with angst, show me just how evil the bad guy really is, scare the crap out of me if you want. some of my all-time favorite fics are pieces that i would never have guessed i'd enjoy, so please surprise me!
stuff i love in fic / kinks :
slash, femmeslash, interesting het, worldbuilding / strong sense of the world, strong friendships/partnerships, snarky partnerships with lots of ust, angst with a happy ending, angst with sex and a we-don't-ever-talk-about-it ending, hurt/comfort, stories where they've been sleeping together and not talking about their feelings but they secretly love each other (♥), snarky banter, collective / ensemble badassery, fight scenes, people bandaging each other up after a battle, surprising each other with badassery, forbidden attraction, old friends and inside jokes, past history, magic, illusion spells, misunderstandings / misdirection through magic, travel, spy/undercover deception, long plotty stories where the ship is a slow build (though definitely not expecting a long fic, just saying i do enjoy them), plot twists, long-suffering irritation (especially as a mask for growing fondness or attraction), stories where person a can't have person b so they start something up with person c to distract themselves (and either make person a jealous or actually end up falling for person c), physical altercations that highlight attraction, origin stories, flashbacks, first times, emotional first times, power play / bdsm fun, wit and snark and people being smart, flirting, drawn-out seduction, women being awesome, happy endings.
squicks : mpreg, hardcore fetishes and heavy bdsm, humiliation, rape/noncon, extreme gore.
and now onto the specific requests!
fandom : kraken (billy, dane, collingswood, wati)
details : sincerely, any fic from this book will make me a happy woman, but my preference is strongly for dane/billy. i would love a fic exploring their relationship while they were on the run; was there more there that the book didn't tell us about, or not? after the end of the book, how does billy deal with dane being gone? and of course, being a sap, i would love a fic reinterpreting dane’s demise, or billy using the more unconventional means now available to him to try and get dane back. A+ for collingswood and wati cameos, cus i love both of them to bits.
so let me repeat last year’s letter and say that if you have not read this book yet and you’re thinking of choosing it to write for me, i promise you will not regret it. this book is incredible and you should read it. the end. :D i'll have a download link put up for it ASAP.
however. let me repeat last year again and say that f we did get matched on this request, AHHHHHH, and let me translate that to mean sincerely whatever you write me, i will LOVE. the worldbuilding, this version of london, completely enthralls me, so you can feel free to explore that if you’d like. write me a story about one of the cults if you want, about the londonmancers, the worshippers of the great flood. but if you do go the dane/billy route, there is honestly no way for you to go wrong. i love the relationship between these two whether the ship is explicit or not-- the closeness and the rapport between them makes me wibble, the way they fixate on each other and are always so focused on getting back to the other, how they keep saving each other’s lives, anything. the line right as they’re going into battle at the end, “they looked something at each other”-- there’s so much unspoken between them, and i would love love love a further exploration of that. and if you do give me a fic explaining how billy goes about getting dane back i will probably cry of joy. make it as weird and twisty and angsty as you want, as sexy or angsty or sappy as you like, i promise i will love whatever you do.
fandom : jaws (martin brody, matt hooper)
details : In the book, hooper has an affair with brody's wife, but i would love to see a story set in movie-verse where after they get back from killing the shark, hooper ends up having an affair with the chief instead. maybe something constructed as a series of letters between the two, interspersed with scenes of them meeting up in the months/years post-movie.
i’m definitely looking more for plot, less for porn on this one. it’s the fraught quality of their relationship that gets me-- they’re not close, not friends, and i definitely don’t see them having feelings for each other during the movie. but living through something like that binds people together, and i’ve always been interested in the exploration of what comes of that bond afterward. i've only seen the first jaws movie and read the book, so feel free to ignore the rest of the movies when you're writing if you like, but use them if it suits you. this would probably also be an easy one to pick up if you're stumped for what to write for me. the movie is short, and amazing.
fandom : myst (atrus, catherine, yeesha, saveedro)
details : i would love to see pretty much any sort of genfic you want to write me here (atrus/catherine is fine but no other 'ships please). i'm fascinated by everyone in this universe, so any story you want to tell me is awesome. what was catherine's life with the d'ni like after she left riven? what does saavedro find when he flies out of the safe house on narayan? tell me about sirrus and achenar's relationships with yeesha; do they take her to myst, riven or the ages of exile while she's growing up? and what leads achenar to eventually change his mind and try to help her, while sirrus is still so bent on destruction? any or all of these would be stories I'd love to hear told, as well as anything of your own dreaming.
as an addendum, i'd also love it if you created some new ages to go along with it, or explored what goes on in the ones we see in the games. i wouldn't say no to backstory or futurefic with original characters either, maybe exploring the legacy of atrus' children or a story about atrus when he was young. i've played the first four games and exile is my favorite, if that helps. but honestly anything in this fandom would be amazing. if you've never played a myst game before, i highly recommend them, but it wouldn't be the easiest fandom to pick up on a whim (unless you're a very dedicated gamer with a lot of time on your hands) but if you are both of those things... what are you waiting for? XD
fandom : how to train your dragon (astrid, hiccup)
details : at one point in the movie, astrid tells hiccup, “our parents’ war is about to become ours”. i’ve always been interested in her reasons for saying that, and in everything else about her. she’s such a badass at such a young age-- clearly way better than all the other kids at the fighting dragons business. i love hiccup as well so feel free to include lots of him and the other kids-- the ensemble dynamic is one of my favorite parts of the movie, so go to town with it, as long as astrid is the focus. :)
i have so many thoughts and questions about astrid!! we never see her parents in the movie; where are they? what’s astrid’s home life like? she’s friendly with the other kids; what are those friendships like? her affection for hiccup obviously surprises her-- is her disdain for him a teenage thing or has she teased him all their lives? if you’re going to write about the other kids, awesome! i love them all to bits. i’ve always sort of gotten a kick out of the “what if” scenario of ruffnut and fishlegs ending up dating, similarly with snotlout and tuffnut. opposites attract and all. XD basically i’d love a story that has all the whimsy and humor of the movie, with a heaping dose of astrid backstory and some fleshed-out looks at the other kids as the icing on the cake. this would probably be the easiest of my four canons to get into if you aren't sure what to write for me. the movie is adorable and genuinely entertaining as hell, and if you like funny kids and cute animals, you basically can't go wrong.
i also love crossovers, so if you want to tie any of these into any of my other fandoms (which you can find a list of here) that would rule.
despite the verbosity of this, i will (again!) paraphrase my past yuletide letters and say that if we got matched on any of these fandoms, and you love any of them as much as i do, whatever you write will make my yuletide. i’m already so excited to read whatever you come up with. XD
<3 emily
This post crossposted from Dreamwidth (
comments)
so i’m going to paraphrase from my past yuletide letters here, and start by saying that if you're as excited about any of these fandoms as i am, i'll love what you write me no matter what. that said, i'm a fan of giving more information in the hopes that it will give you greater freedom in your writing, and because i know i'm going to want to know as much about the person i'm writing for as possible and figure i should give what i hope to get. :D so here are some paragraphs of perhaps tl;dr-level specificity, and please feel free to ignore all of it if there's a story in any of these fandoms that you really, really want to write. i trust you. XD
i like slash or het or gen. characterization is my weak spot; show me the nuances of a character i love, show me a secret side of them i've never seen before. i love worldbuilding; expand on the setting and expand the world as it’s described in canon. if you write sex, awesome; it’s definitely not a requirement by any means, but i certainly wouldn't say no to it. and to borrow a clarification phrase straight from someone else's letter, When I say "explicit" I mean "I have a good idea who's doing what to whom," and not so much paragraph-long descriptions of penises. i'm all about the emotions; as you'll see from my rec list, any fic that packs an emotional punch is guaranteed to win me over.
as far as genre goes, it's kind of up to you. i love action and mystery, i like ship-centered fic as much as fic where the ship is a sidebar to the plot, i like happy or serious or funny or sad. i would definitely prefer a hopeful ending to whatever you write, if an actual happy ending isn't appropriate or fitting; however if your story is leading you toward a waterfall of angst that'll end with an emotional sucker punch, go for it! wow me with angst, show me just how evil the bad guy really is, scare the crap out of me if you want. some of my all-time favorite fics are pieces that i would never have guessed i'd enjoy, so please surprise me!
stuff i love in fic / kinks :
slash, femmeslash, interesting het, worldbuilding / strong sense of the world, strong friendships/partnerships, snarky partnerships with lots of ust, angst with a happy ending, angst with sex and a we-don't-ever-talk-about-it ending, hurt/comfort, stories where they've been sleeping together and not talking about their feelings but they secretly love each other (♥), snarky banter, collective / ensemble badassery, fight scenes, people bandaging each other up after a battle, surprising each other with badassery, forbidden attraction, old friends and inside jokes, past history, magic, illusion spells, misunderstandings / misdirection through magic, travel, spy/undercover deception, long plotty stories where the ship is a slow build (though definitely not expecting a long fic, just saying i do enjoy them), plot twists, long-suffering irritation (especially as a mask for growing fondness or attraction), stories where person a can't have person b so they start something up with person c to distract themselves (and either make person a jealous or actually end up falling for person c), physical altercations that highlight attraction, origin stories, flashbacks, first times, emotional first times, power play / bdsm fun, wit and snark and people being smart, flirting, drawn-out seduction, women being awesome, happy endings.
squicks : mpreg, hardcore fetishes and heavy bdsm, humiliation, rape/noncon, extreme gore.
and now onto the specific requests!
fandom : kraken (billy, dane, collingswood, wati)
details : sincerely, any fic from this book will make me a happy woman, but my preference is strongly for dane/billy. i would love a fic exploring their relationship while they were on the run; was there more there that the book didn't tell us about, or not? after the end of the book, how does billy deal with dane being gone? and of course, being a sap, i would love a fic reinterpreting dane’s demise, or billy using the more unconventional means now available to him to try and get dane back. A+ for collingswood and wati cameos, cus i love both of them to bits.
so let me repeat last year’s letter and say that if you have not read this book yet and you’re thinking of choosing it to write for me, i promise you will not regret it. this book is incredible and you should read it. the end. :D i'll have a download link put up for it ASAP.
however. let me repeat last year again and say that f we did get matched on this request, AHHHHHH, and let me translate that to mean sincerely whatever you write me, i will LOVE. the worldbuilding, this version of london, completely enthralls me, so you can feel free to explore that if you’d like. write me a story about one of the cults if you want, about the londonmancers, the worshippers of the great flood. but if you do go the dane/billy route, there is honestly no way for you to go wrong. i love the relationship between these two whether the ship is explicit or not-- the closeness and the rapport between them makes me wibble, the way they fixate on each other and are always so focused on getting back to the other, how they keep saving each other’s lives, anything. the line right as they’re going into battle at the end, “they looked something at each other”-- there’s so much unspoken between them, and i would love love love a further exploration of that. and if you do give me a fic explaining how billy goes about getting dane back i will probably cry of joy. make it as weird and twisty and angsty as you want, as sexy or angsty or sappy as you like, i promise i will love whatever you do.
fandom : jaws (martin brody, matt hooper)
details : In the book, hooper has an affair with brody's wife, but i would love to see a story set in movie-verse where after they get back from killing the shark, hooper ends up having an affair with the chief instead. maybe something constructed as a series of letters between the two, interspersed with scenes of them meeting up in the months/years post-movie.
i’m definitely looking more for plot, less for porn on this one. it’s the fraught quality of their relationship that gets me-- they’re not close, not friends, and i definitely don’t see them having feelings for each other during the movie. but living through something like that binds people together, and i’ve always been interested in the exploration of what comes of that bond afterward. i've only seen the first jaws movie and read the book, so feel free to ignore the rest of the movies when you're writing if you like, but use them if it suits you. this would probably also be an easy one to pick up if you're stumped for what to write for me. the movie is short, and amazing.
fandom : myst (atrus, catherine, yeesha, saveedro)
details : i would love to see pretty much any sort of genfic you want to write me here (atrus/catherine is fine but no other 'ships please). i'm fascinated by everyone in this universe, so any story you want to tell me is awesome. what was catherine's life with the d'ni like after she left riven? what does saavedro find when he flies out of the safe house on narayan? tell me about sirrus and achenar's relationships with yeesha; do they take her to myst, riven or the ages of exile while she's growing up? and what leads achenar to eventually change his mind and try to help her, while sirrus is still so bent on destruction? any or all of these would be stories I'd love to hear told, as well as anything of your own dreaming.
as an addendum, i'd also love it if you created some new ages to go along with it, or explored what goes on in the ones we see in the games. i wouldn't say no to backstory or futurefic with original characters either, maybe exploring the legacy of atrus' children or a story about atrus when he was young. i've played the first four games and exile is my favorite, if that helps. but honestly anything in this fandom would be amazing. if you've never played a myst game before, i highly recommend them, but it wouldn't be the easiest fandom to pick up on a whim (unless you're a very dedicated gamer with a lot of time on your hands) but if you are both of those things... what are you waiting for? XD
fandom : how to train your dragon (astrid, hiccup)
details : at one point in the movie, astrid tells hiccup, “our parents’ war is about to become ours”. i’ve always been interested in her reasons for saying that, and in everything else about her. she’s such a badass at such a young age-- clearly way better than all the other kids at the fighting dragons business. i love hiccup as well so feel free to include lots of him and the other kids-- the ensemble dynamic is one of my favorite parts of the movie, so go to town with it, as long as astrid is the focus. :)
i have so many thoughts and questions about astrid!! we never see her parents in the movie; where are they? what’s astrid’s home life like? she’s friendly with the other kids; what are those friendships like? her affection for hiccup obviously surprises her-- is her disdain for him a teenage thing or has she teased him all their lives? if you’re going to write about the other kids, awesome! i love them all to bits. i’ve always sort of gotten a kick out of the “what if” scenario of ruffnut and fishlegs ending up dating, similarly with snotlout and tuffnut. opposites attract and all. XD basically i’d love a story that has all the whimsy and humor of the movie, with a heaping dose of astrid backstory and some fleshed-out looks at the other kids as the icing on the cake. this would probably be the easiest of my four canons to get into if you aren't sure what to write for me. the movie is adorable and genuinely entertaining as hell, and if you like funny kids and cute animals, you basically can't go wrong.
i also love crossovers, so if you want to tie any of these into any of my other fandoms (which you can find a list of here) that would rule.
despite the verbosity of this, i will (again!) paraphrase my past yuletide letters and say that if we got matched on any of these fandoms, and you love any of them as much as i do, whatever you write will make my yuletide. i’m already so excited to read whatever you come up with. XD
<3 emily
This post crossposted from Dreamwidth (
comments)