Yuletide letter
Dear Yuletide author,
Hello! This is my first Yuletide, and I’m thrilled at the idea of getting something for any of these fandoms. I mean all of this as more suggestion than guideline, so feel free to adopt or discard at your leisure!
General likes:
Always-a-girl genderswap is probably my favourite device in fandom; always-a-boy is okay, too (especially together!). I love troubled but devoted family relationships - uncle-aunt and nephew-niece, and sibling, relationships are my favourite, particularly brother-sister pairs. I also love romantic friendship as a genre, particularly with cross-gender friendships. I prefer gen, but I’m fond of het and femslash, and I’m okay with slash, too. I tend to be more interested in major characters than minor ones, but I like outsider perspectives on the major characters. I like stories that fill in the blanks of canon, continue afterwards, explore the background, as well as AUs of most kinds (fusions, canon with more dragons/lasers/zeppelins, what-ifs, etc - the changes can be dramatic or slight). I like political shenanigans, even if the canon doesn’t suggest any. I love world-building. I like social commentary, as long as it’s not terribly forced. I like magical powers, whether they exist in the canon or not. I’m always hoping for more incidentally asexual characters, where it’s not the main point of the story. I prefer happy endings, but I’m happy with plenty of angst on the way there, and I have a weakness for OTT emotional porn - hurt/comfort is a guilty pleasure (but low-drama stories are good, too).
I prefer fic to be heavy on the characterization (I don’t much care if there’s a plot or not!). I really, really love fic that comments on canon - it doesn’t need to be subversive, I just like the close engagement. I like looking at characters in wider context (historical, whatever), but I prefer characterization to be based more on individual characteristics than group tendencies.
General dislikes:
I don’t want to read non-con and most dub-con. I don’t like intergenerational incest of any kind, and generally incest that’s written as healthy (I can deal with same-generation if it’s treated carefully). I don’t like gender essentialism. While I’m okay with deconstructions, subversions, fix-fic, or just adding a few drops of reality, I strongly dislike grimdark anything, and I don’t care for hatefic/revengefic/character bashing generally. I also dislike large age gaps when it comes to romance, and most PWPs.
Requests!
ONE
Fandom: Mansfield Park
Characters: Mary Crawford, Henry Crawford
Optional details: Mansfield Park is the problem novel to a lot of people, but I love it. I don’t mind the ending, but the Crawfords are the main fascination for me - the mix of charm, intelligence, kindness and massive selfishness, their relationships with their uncle and aunt, their half-sister, Edmund and Fanny, but particularly with each other. They seem to understand and accept one another more easily than anyone else, to confide virtually everything in each other, even tag-team their respective love interests, without ever being particularly sentimental. I’d love something that explored their relationship: the effects of their upbringing on them - or what happens to them after the novel - or how Henry/Fanny, Mary/Edmund would pan out for them (I’d particularly like it if Mary/Edmund worked out better). Really, though, I just want the Crawfords being a charismatic, morally ambiguous sibling duo.
TWO
Fandom: The Hollow Crown
Characters: Henry V
Optional details: Hal is absolutely my favourite character in Shakespeare, and I’d love to see something that explored his character - I definitely prefer with the understanding that his scapegrace persona is part of his overall plot to construct a glorious myth for himself. My particular interest is in Hal as Harry Plantagenet, Henry’s son and John’s brother - the ways in which he’s the pinnacle of a long line of cool-headed, scheming Plantagenets, and the ways in which he has distinct, genuinely-felt emotions and motivations. I’m also interested in his relationships with the other Plantagenets: Henry, John, and Richard, who he is still mourning years later. I’m not particularly picky about where you go in terms of canon - feel free to borrow from Shakespeare’s play and from history (especially with Richard). I would prefer it if you used relatively modern English - though do whatever feels best to you!
THREE
Fandom: The Foundling
Characters: Gilly Ware, Gideon Ware
Optional details: Oh, Heyer. I’d heard that her men tended towards the slasheriffic, but personally, I tend to find her romantic relationships the most compelling. Except in this one. I love Gilly and Gideon’s relationship. I love Gilly’s hero-worship. I love the way that Gideon so evidently would be a hero in another book but holds himself back here, I love his ridiculous endearments, and his outrage when Gilly is threatened. So I’d like something about Gilly and Gideon as devoted cousins and friends. Feel free to go with gen or slash (I’d prefer slash, actually), canon-compliant or AU, set before, during, or later than the novel, I just want something focusing on them.
FOUR
Fandom: Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Characters: the Beast, Belle
Optional details: I’d really like something that took the ten years between the Beast’s enchantment and his twenty-first birthday entirely literally. Why was the enchantress going around cursing an entire household because an eleven-year-old boy was snotty to her - is she a sort of sparklier Maleficent, violently overreacting to minor slights, or something else? Where were/are his parents? He’s a prince - is he the son of a king/queen, or a ruling prince? What was it like to go through puberty as the Beast - is that why he’s so poorly socialized? How does it affect him as an adult sovereign? Really, any of these in any combination or anything else that addresses how very young he was/is would be great.
Alternatively, if you’d prefer to focus on Belle, I’d love to see something about Belle adapting to her position. She’s the first princess I remember who was a princess-consort, not one by birth. I don’t see her taking a purely decorative role - what does she do? What authority and responsibilities does she have? How does she interact with her native village now? Again, any of these or something else - I’d just like something about what it means for Belle to be a princess. Feel free to include the prince if you’d like, but I’m equally happy either way.
Hello! This is my first Yuletide, and I’m thrilled at the idea of getting something for any of these fandoms. I mean all of this as more suggestion than guideline, so feel free to adopt or discard at your leisure!
General likes:
Always-a-girl genderswap is probably my favourite device in fandom; always-a-boy is okay, too (especially together!). I love troubled but devoted family relationships - uncle-aunt and nephew-niece, and sibling, relationships are my favourite, particularly brother-sister pairs. I also love romantic friendship as a genre, particularly with cross-gender friendships. I prefer gen, but I’m fond of het and femslash, and I’m okay with slash, too. I tend to be more interested in major characters than minor ones, but I like outsider perspectives on the major characters. I like stories that fill in the blanks of canon, continue afterwards, explore the background, as well as AUs of most kinds (fusions, canon with more dragons/lasers/zeppelins, what-ifs, etc - the changes can be dramatic or slight). I like political shenanigans, even if the canon doesn’t suggest any. I love world-building. I like social commentary, as long as it’s not terribly forced. I like magical powers, whether they exist in the canon or not. I’m always hoping for more incidentally asexual characters, where it’s not the main point of the story. I prefer happy endings, but I’m happy with plenty of angst on the way there, and I have a weakness for OTT emotional porn - hurt/comfort is a guilty pleasure (but low-drama stories are good, too).
I prefer fic to be heavy on the characterization (I don’t much care if there’s a plot or not!). I really, really love fic that comments on canon - it doesn’t need to be subversive, I just like the close engagement. I like looking at characters in wider context (historical, whatever), but I prefer characterization to be based more on individual characteristics than group tendencies.
General dislikes:
I don’t want to read non-con and most dub-con. I don’t like intergenerational incest of any kind, and generally incest that’s written as healthy (I can deal with same-generation if it’s treated carefully). I don’t like gender essentialism. While I’m okay with deconstructions, subversions, fix-fic, or just adding a few drops of reality, I strongly dislike grimdark anything, and I don’t care for hatefic/revengefic/character bashing generally. I also dislike large age gaps when it comes to romance, and most PWPs.
Requests!
ONE
Fandom: Mansfield Park
Characters: Mary Crawford, Henry Crawford
Optional details: Mansfield Park is the problem novel to a lot of people, but I love it. I don’t mind the ending, but the Crawfords are the main fascination for me - the mix of charm, intelligence, kindness and massive selfishness, their relationships with their uncle and aunt, their half-sister, Edmund and Fanny, but particularly with each other. They seem to understand and accept one another more easily than anyone else, to confide virtually everything in each other, even tag-team their respective love interests, without ever being particularly sentimental. I’d love something that explored their relationship: the effects of their upbringing on them - or what happens to them after the novel - or how Henry/Fanny, Mary/Edmund would pan out for them (I’d particularly like it if Mary/Edmund worked out better). Really, though, I just want the Crawfords being a charismatic, morally ambiguous sibling duo.
TWO
Fandom: The Hollow Crown
Characters: Henry V
Optional details: Hal is absolutely my favourite character in Shakespeare, and I’d love to see something that explored his character - I definitely prefer with the understanding that his scapegrace persona is part of his overall plot to construct a glorious myth for himself. My particular interest is in Hal as Harry Plantagenet, Henry’s son and John’s brother - the ways in which he’s the pinnacle of a long line of cool-headed, scheming Plantagenets, and the ways in which he has distinct, genuinely-felt emotions and motivations. I’m also interested in his relationships with the other Plantagenets: Henry, John, and Richard, who he is still mourning years later. I’m not particularly picky about where you go in terms of canon - feel free to borrow from Shakespeare’s play and from history (especially with Richard). I would prefer it if you used relatively modern English - though do whatever feels best to you!
THREE
Fandom: The Foundling
Characters: Gilly Ware, Gideon Ware
Optional details: Oh, Heyer. I’d heard that her men tended towards the slasheriffic, but personally, I tend to find her romantic relationships the most compelling. Except in this one. I love Gilly and Gideon’s relationship. I love Gilly’s hero-worship. I love the way that Gideon so evidently would be a hero in another book but holds himself back here, I love his ridiculous endearments, and his outrage when Gilly is threatened. So I’d like something about Gilly and Gideon as devoted cousins and friends. Feel free to go with gen or slash (I’d prefer slash, actually), canon-compliant or AU, set before, during, or later than the novel, I just want something focusing on them.
FOUR
Fandom: Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Characters: the Beast, Belle
Optional details: I’d really like something that took the ten years between the Beast’s enchantment and his twenty-first birthday entirely literally. Why was the enchantress going around cursing an entire household because an eleven-year-old boy was snotty to her - is she a sort of sparklier Maleficent, violently overreacting to minor slights, or something else? Where were/are his parents? He’s a prince - is he the son of a king/queen, or a ruling prince? What was it like to go through puberty as the Beast - is that why he’s so poorly socialized? How does it affect him as an adult sovereign? Really, any of these in any combination or anything else that addresses how very young he was/is would be great.
Alternatively, if you’d prefer to focus on Belle, I’d love to see something about Belle adapting to her position. She’s the first princess I remember who was a princess-consort, not one by birth. I don’t see her taking a purely decorative role - what does she do? What authority and responsibilities does she have? How does she interact with her native village now? Again, any of these or something else - I’d just like something about what it means for Belle to be a princess. Feel free to include the prince if you’d like, but I’m equally happy either way.