This has basically become a DYW letter repository
Dear Yuletide Writer 2021,
Bear with me, I almost missed this deadline, and I have a sprained finger so I am mostly typing this on my phone! I flat-out missed nominations, and a couple fandoms I would’ve loved to play with this year aren’t in the tags. From those that were, my “do i want to write it or read it” debates were intense, because I’m weird and don’t double up requests and offers. ANYWAY here is my letter:
I’m bi, with a deeply abiding love for f/f fic. I definitely have het ships that I’ll fill you in on, but I still love stories where those ladies interact with their female friends. I’m very pro kid!fic, I adore time stamps, alternate POVs, epistolary fic, social media fic, anything that explores the world that an author has already built. I wasn’t ever the kid simply rubbing their Barbies together, I acted out Barbie and Ken meeting while they babysat Kelly and Tommy. (True story: these stories were also written down in a notebook I carried around at school. Basically, I started writing Barbie fanfic at the age of eight.)
Basic DNW:
Total PWP - I don’t mind sex being a part of the fic, but I’d prefer it not totally revolve around it. If there is sex, please no watersports, no feces (in general). not into girl!penis unless the character is actually trans, or mpreg. No ABO dynamics.
Vampire Academy (2014):
it’s strange to me that the film was nominated here and not the books, but so it goes. I basically just think there should be more Lissa/Rose fic in the world. Any AU I’d prefer to be spun-off canon (like, keeping the vampire element), not a totally different universe (not space!Lissa/Rose). There’s so much tension between the two of them, especially at the start when they’re in Portland. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good friendship between girls, but I think there’s something more between them.
I’m also not against exploring the darkness of their world that the movie kind of brightens. my favorite book is Blood Promise, if that helps.
Lock-In:
I’m one of the people who is thrilled by the world building tag being introduced. That’s usually my primary prompt for YT: can you explore more about this world? I’ve read the novella about the onset of Haden’s as much as I’ve read the first book, and that’s a bunch of times. I’d be happy with anything you want to explore, but my particular curiosity at the moment is how all the Haden’s concessions affected people with other disabilities. The question of the cyborg and what it means about “ability” is big in crip theory, and I feel like there’s research going on about giving people with varying levels of paralysis Haden’s to allow them to use Threeps and huge fights against it.
If that’s not your jam, there’s a ton of issues that could be gone into deeper in this world. gender, how the navajo nation seems to have gained way more autonomy, race, what is sci-fi like now that cyborgs are real… i’ll be happy with anything!
That Inevitable Victorian Thing:
Literally anything. This world is so complex, and I love the book so much. A few of the topics I’m most interested in are:
How Imperial-Chinese relations got to where they are.
what does Dr. Marcus do exactly. Is it genetic engineering/gene therapy? if so, how is disability treated in this world? Was it at all inspired by the hemophilia gene that ran in Victoria’s bloodline and had such a huge influence in our world?
At Anne of Green Gables Margaret asks “Was adoption in Canada this worrisome in the past?…. is the story simply set too early?” What does she mean? Is she just mistaken about the speed of reform? she just mean that she thought reforms started with Victoria II? What is adoption like in the “present” of the novel?
If there’s a specific historical incident you’d like to explore in this world, or a location outside of Canada, or a political movement, that’s cool. Canon characters, OCs, whatever. Please just expand this cool world.
Oxford Time Travel:
i love these books, specifically the parts that take place in Oxford. I’d be cool with a time-travel adventure, but I’d also like a slice of life story with Colin and Dunworthy. however, the world building tag opens up a lot more possibilities. Feel free to take the opportunity to create a character and look at how time travel works in a different country.
Is it all academics? Was there a fight to get it centered in the academy at the initial discovery? We see a little bit of it in the books, but not much.
there’s also the fact that these books are set an alternate world that could be explained more, like Colin basically being a YouTuber at the start, the underground going all the way to Oxford, any other little details that you want to look into and either connect (or not!) to the discovery of time travel.
Motherland: Fort Salem
Literally anything in this world. I included Rae and Scylla because I love their dynamic, but if you use them I’d like it to be them exploring more of The dynamics of this world. I have so many questions, about the alternate timeline, about Native American issues, about how the fact that women have this power would have affected world history. The show touches on it, but there is a lot more that could be explored. For instance, sexual mores are obviously looser, in some ways, but bloodlines matter a lot. how did the lgbt movement play out? What events made the map into what it is? I included Adler because hers is a good point of you to look at this through, but I’m absolutely fine with original characters. There is so much alternate history in this, and there’s so much that could be done with the perspective of witches and non-witches and boys and people who are gender nonconforming, and it’s so rich that I am up for anything. It’s such an underrated show.
Carmilla:
I came to Carmilla through the web series, but although there’s a ton of fic that resulted from that, almost none of it is horror. I love dark!fic. Blood, fear in the village, etc. I also like how in the novella all the men are more or less clueless because they have no belief in the power of women-but they’re also terrified of women’s love for each other.
Preferably Laura reciprocates Carmilla’s feelings, but she’s a vampire, so there could be non-consensual activities. Blood play is fine. It doesn’t have to be set during/around canon. basically anything you want, just creepy, lesbian vampire goodness.
Thank you so much, and happy Yuletide!
Bear with me, I almost missed this deadline, and I have a sprained finger so I am mostly typing this on my phone! I flat-out missed nominations, and a couple fandoms I would’ve loved to play with this year aren’t in the tags. From those that were, my “do i want to write it or read it” debates were intense, because I’m weird and don’t double up requests and offers. ANYWAY here is my letter:
I’m bi, with a deeply abiding love for f/f fic. I definitely have het ships that I’ll fill you in on, but I still love stories where those ladies interact with their female friends. I’m very pro kid!fic, I adore time stamps, alternate POVs, epistolary fic, social media fic, anything that explores the world that an author has already built. I wasn’t ever the kid simply rubbing their Barbies together, I acted out Barbie and Ken meeting while they babysat Kelly and Tommy. (True story: these stories were also written down in a notebook I carried around at school. Basically, I started writing Barbie fanfic at the age of eight.)
Basic DNW:
Total PWP - I don’t mind sex being a part of the fic, but I’d prefer it not totally revolve around it. If there is sex, please no watersports, no feces (in general). not into girl!penis unless the character is actually trans, or mpreg. No ABO dynamics.
Vampire Academy (2014):
it’s strange to me that the film was nominated here and not the books, but so it goes. I basically just think there should be more Lissa/Rose fic in the world. Any AU I’d prefer to be spun-off canon (like, keeping the vampire element), not a totally different universe (not space!Lissa/Rose). There’s so much tension between the two of them, especially at the start when they’re in Portland. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good friendship between girls, but I think there’s something more between them.
I’m also not against exploring the darkness of their world that the movie kind of brightens. my favorite book is Blood Promise, if that helps.
Lock-In:
I’m one of the people who is thrilled by the world building tag being introduced. That’s usually my primary prompt for YT: can you explore more about this world? I’ve read the novella about the onset of Haden’s as much as I’ve read the first book, and that’s a bunch of times. I’d be happy with anything you want to explore, but my particular curiosity at the moment is how all the Haden’s concessions affected people with other disabilities. The question of the cyborg and what it means about “ability” is big in crip theory, and I feel like there’s research going on about giving people with varying levels of paralysis Haden’s to allow them to use Threeps and huge fights against it.
If that’s not your jam, there’s a ton of issues that could be gone into deeper in this world. gender, how the navajo nation seems to have gained way more autonomy, race, what is sci-fi like now that cyborgs are real… i’ll be happy with anything!
That Inevitable Victorian Thing:
Literally anything. This world is so complex, and I love the book so much. A few of the topics I’m most interested in are:
How Imperial-Chinese relations got to where they are.
what does Dr. Marcus do exactly. Is it genetic engineering/gene therapy? if so, how is disability treated in this world? Was it at all inspired by the hemophilia gene that ran in Victoria’s bloodline and had such a huge influence in our world?
At Anne of Green Gables Margaret asks “Was adoption in Canada this worrisome in the past?…. is the story simply set too early?” What does she mean? Is she just mistaken about the speed of reform? she just mean that she thought reforms started with Victoria II? What is adoption like in the “present” of the novel?
If there’s a specific historical incident you’d like to explore in this world, or a location outside of Canada, or a political movement, that’s cool. Canon characters, OCs, whatever. Please just expand this cool world.
Oxford Time Travel:
i love these books, specifically the parts that take place in Oxford. I’d be cool with a time-travel adventure, but I’d also like a slice of life story with Colin and Dunworthy. however, the world building tag opens up a lot more possibilities. Feel free to take the opportunity to create a character and look at how time travel works in a different country.
Is it all academics? Was there a fight to get it centered in the academy at the initial discovery? We see a little bit of it in the books, but not much.
there’s also the fact that these books are set an alternate world that could be explained more, like Colin basically being a YouTuber at the start, the underground going all the way to Oxford, any other little details that you want to look into and either connect (or not!) to the discovery of time travel.
Motherland: Fort Salem
Literally anything in this world. I included Rae and Scylla because I love their dynamic, but if you use them I’d like it to be them exploring more of The dynamics of this world. I have so many questions, about the alternate timeline, about Native American issues, about how the fact that women have this power would have affected world history. The show touches on it, but there is a lot more that could be explored. For instance, sexual mores are obviously looser, in some ways, but bloodlines matter a lot. how did the lgbt movement play out? What events made the map into what it is? I included Adler because hers is a good point of you to look at this through, but I’m absolutely fine with original characters. There is so much alternate history in this, and there’s so much that could be done with the perspective of witches and non-witches and boys and people who are gender nonconforming, and it’s so rich that I am up for anything. It’s such an underrated show.
Carmilla:
I came to Carmilla through the web series, but although there’s a ton of fic that resulted from that, almost none of it is horror. I love dark!fic. Blood, fear in the village, etc. I also like how in the novella all the men are more or less clueless because they have no belief in the power of women-but they’re also terrified of women’s love for each other.
Preferably Laura reciprocates Carmilla’s feelings, but she’s a vampire, so there could be non-consensual activities. Blood play is fine. It doesn’t have to be set during/around canon. basically anything you want, just creepy, lesbian vampire goodness.
Thank you so much, and happy Yuletide!