Dear Yuletide Writer
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Firstly, I already adore you and I just know that I will love whatever you write! I am thrilled to find someone else who likes one of my tiny little fandoms!
Optional prompts are optional, of course - please write the story that is in your heart! We both love this tiny fandom, and I want to know why you love it too.
But, on the off-chance that you’ve wandered here because you’re looking for inspiration or like writing from a prompt, I hope that some of this letter may be helpful. (Absolutely do ignore it if it’s not helpful!)
Some of my general fannish likes/dislikes:
Hurt/comfort
Relationship angst (infidelity, jealousy, possessiveness, break-ups/unrequited love, forced bonding, misunderstandings)
Exploring the limits of unconditional love, obsessive love. Sacrifice and redemption. Character-driven plot.
AU, or unusual settings that play with the boundaries of the universe. time travel (especially if it is to an unusual time). stories set after canon/in the margins, stories set in unusual locations, characters with unusual careers
realistic happy endings, hopeful endings, ambiguous endings
intelligent dialogue, geekiness, accurate science. Characters being clever and figuring things out.
In terms of relationships/sex (if you feel like you want to include anything like that in the story - but by no means feel obliged to! I love gen just as well as shippy fics!)
UST, tenderness, first time, flirtation, courtship/seduction
wall!sex, public or semi-public sex (voyeurism), sex in unusual places or at inappropriate times in public
light bondage, sex toys, mistaken/disguised identity
Some of my general dislikes:
established relationships
Magic or deus ex machina as a plot device
sappy or saccharine endings, extreme fluff
Curtain fics
excessive internal monologues and over-explanation
crack
suicide and self-harm, lots of pain, torture, unrelenting angst
Non-con or dub-con, power imbalances, student/teacher, chan, age play
Mpreg
incest
Hate-sex
heavy BDSM, torture, watersports, scat, beastiality
Some notes of the specific fandoms I requested:
The Bedlam Stacks
The world-building here is amazing and the magical realism is imho perfect. I love all of the little touches like the description of coffee, the Tremayne home being at Heligan (the Lost Gardens! swoon!), the exploding trees, the Martayuk. I love the moral complexity that isn’t simplified: the dealings of the East India Company, the decision that Merrick makes about Clem, the shades of gray. I am absolutely in love with Merrick and Raphael, and the slow burn of their relationship, and the angst behind Merrick having to leave Raphael and wait so long for him.
College of Magics
I love this world for the magic in it, and the intrigue and politics, and the blend of historical countries with imaginary ones. I love Faris’s doubt about magic and the way that magic here is not flashy or obvious, that her disbelief is possible. I love the study, and the plum cake, and the three volume novels, and Faris’s time at Greenlaw generally. I love the masquerade, the hat-that-is-a-bomb, Paris, the train trip, the garden. I have a huge competent!Tyrian kink and for the moment when Faris calls him “glove to my hand. Everything.” Not a huge fan of Menary and her sub-plot.
Exiles Saga and Galactic Milieu (Marc Remillard)
There is just something so romantic about Marc's character and the way he spent six million years atoning for the mistakes that he made. What I'd love to see is a glimpse of that time, but I'd love anything focused on Marc, really. Bonus points for including Catholicism and the Remillards speaking French, because <3333.
I am also not a really huge fan of incest, so it would be okay by me if we didn't have to think too much about Marc/Cynthia. Also not a super-huge fan of Hydra, Fury, Victor, or any of the ways of killing people with your brain. :P I do love Denis/Lucille, Paul/Teresa, and Marc/Elizabeth - there's something about the way the Remillard men deal with their sexuality that's kind of fascinating to me, from Denis's cluelessness to Paul's promiscuity and Marc's repression. I love the Remillards in general, though, so any fic focused on them would make me happy, too.
I really hope you have fun writing for me! If you find that you're not having fun, then please just burn this list and throw it out the window, and just write something that you love. If you love it, I am quite sure that I will too! Thank you for sharing a fandom love with me and I hope you really, really enjoy Yuletide this year!