Dear Yuletide Writer...
Hey, you...yes, you.
First, a few things I like...
World-building. I'm a junkie. I just can't get enough of it!
Apocalypses. The End Times have captivated us since, well, when we first came up with (or were given, according to our respective philosophies) the idea. Recently, many of us have embraced The End of the World as We Know it, sometimes to the point of buying a tract of land out in BFE Wyoming and plopping down a trailer there. But most of us call it good if we have a few gallons of back-up water for when "The Big One" hits, and proceed to curl up with some halfway-decent fiction about it. Why? Boy, we could probably fill entire pages with answers to that. For myself, I can probably boil it down to the appeal of starting over, hitting some big RESET button. It's the kind of adventure we could theoretically have in the real world (Frodo's Quest? Not so much. Surviving the aftermath of a regional EMP? Totally plausible.). Nevermind that adventures are full of hardship and heartache. Anyway, turn the story into an apocalypse, and I'll be happy. My favorite apocalypses, in no particular order: zombies (No idea why. They're gross, and a truly staggering number of people have to die in these scenarios. Maybe they're like a train wreck?); technopocalypse (My term for a scenario in which technology stops working on some level. This could be anything from the more plausible EMP and we-just-plain-run-out-of-fossil-fuels-before-we-get-our-collective-heads-out-of-our-butts-about-that to the decidedly less plausible Emberverse [brought to us by the indomitable S.M. Stirling].); the Biblical Apocalypse (Which some of us believe and some don't.); Ragnarok (Because, really, who doesn't at least appreciate the Norse?).
Crossovers. I've long found these to be entirely too much fun. Who among us hasn't imagined what might ensue by putting a character from such-and-such fandom into someone else's universe? The surprisingly well-done film "Star Wreck" comes immediately to mind. Sure, it tends to help if the reader is at least passingly familiar with all the fandoms involved. On the other hand, an unfamiliar fandom could be a good excuse for a reader to branch out a little. (Of course, the more different fandoms one tries to cram together, the weirder it tends to be and the harder it is to achieve cohesion and continuity.)
AUs. While there's a certain amount of overlap with crossovers, that's not necessarily the case. Tweak one aspect of a fandom's basic premise, and voila! I'm particularly fond of alternate history, whether this is the result of different choices made by the characters, or putting them into the distant past or distant future, or a different kind of world altogether.
Right, so, onward....
Modest Medusa. This thing is just so quirky, adorable, and sometimes cringe-worthy, not to mention unapologetically meta! The author has on occasion drawn his title character as an X-Wing pilot, a Jedi Knight, a Starfleet officer, and The Doctor, among others, so the crossover potential is not only limitless, but (presumably) encouraged by Jake himself.
Austin-Murry-O'Keefe Family (aka the Time Quintet). By the time I finished with the first book, I just couldn't help but think of Charles Wallace as Jedi material. Is Kamazotz part of that galaxy? Perhaps someone makes a navigational error whilst tessering and our characters wind up in the Star Wars galaxy? If not, I imagine that at the very least, CW's psychic abilities give him a certain amount of trouble as he continues growing up (Perhaps L'Engle has explored this later, but since as of this writing, I've only read the first book in the series, you need not worry about running afoul of canon divergence.).
Moana. I have this head-canon wherein Moana winds up with hydrokinesis. Another idea--we don't know for sure just when the story is intended to take place, so perhaps Moana and her associated people eventually clash with Cpt. Cook and/or other European explorers. Or combine the two--her hydrokinetic powers enable her to successfully resist attempts at European colonization, resulting in a persistently independent Polynesian political entity.
Sleeping Beauty. When I first saw the film, I didn't like it. I had trouble getting past Aurora's reaction to the revelation concerning her birthright, with Maleficent's decision to target an innocent infant in retribution for her father's misstep, and with the apparent quantum leap to the happily-ever-after. It's eventually grown on me, especially after reading other versions, from Jim Hinz' Princess series, to the wide range of regional variants of the tale. Turns out, there's a lot one can do with it. I'd like to see some sort of AU.
Now for those pesky DNWs. Fortunately, I don't have many. In no particular order: Siblings dying (My younger brother passed away last February. These will be the first holidays without him, so it's going to be pretty rough as it is.); non-con & dub-con; non-canon relationships; explicit sexual acts (I realize this is unhelpfully vague, and I apologize in advance. I hope my writer will forebear my reluctance to go combing through the Urban Dictionary. Otherwise, it's hard to go wrong with fade-to-black or simply giving the reader just enough to help them fill in the juicy blanks.)