Yuletide.
Hello, future Yuletide author! Many pre-emptive thanks for writing whichever fic you decide to write, and please, please, please, consider the following remarks as fully optional: if you already have an idea you want to tackle that matches these fandoms, there's a 99% chance I will love it.
I'm fallingvoices on AO3 and nuitdenovembre over on tumblr, where I'm most active these days.
As far as general preferences go, I'm fond of introspective pieces and stories that focus on character development and relationship development; a focus on emotional and sensory experiences tends to make me invest myself fast, so that's a plus, too. That being said, plotty pieces are fantastic, especially if the plot furthers all of these things - I'm not big on action for action's sake, at least in written media, but I love stories that play around with canon concepts and canon elements. I adore canon divergences, time travel stories, and I quite like AUs. Meta/mediafic is a huge weakness of mine. Subverted tropes are excellent.
In fandoms where it works, I will eat up codependent and/or unhealthy relationships with a spoon. Misunderstandings, lack of communication, pining, h/c, friends or lovers who lose each other and find each other again - all great. Found family stories will make me cry every single time. You definitely don't need to go the shippy way if you don't want to, but I will love it if you do. Porn is welcome; gen is welcome; slash and femslash and het are all welcome.
I don't have any serious triggers, but generally speaking, I like to be warned for major character deaths and non-con. I'm also not hugely fond of infidelity. On the other hand, I don't object to violent situations or dub-con at all, so feel free to knock yourself out if you find yourself in such a situation where they could be required.
NIMONA | Nimona, Ballister Blackheart, Ambrosius Goldenloin
»» What I love about this comic is how open it has been from beginning to end, and the result of that is I want to know everything. Honestly, at this point, you can do whatever you like: there are so many ambiguities left in Nimona's backstory, so many scenes we never get to see about her and Ballister's father-daughter shenanigans, about Ballister and Goldenloin's childhood and young adulthood, and so many possibilities introduced by the ending that there are very few ways of making me unhappy, if any. Go missing scenes, go canon divergence, go Gay Dads AU, go pre- or post-canon, go anywhere.
Some thoughts:
»» I won't lie, I ship Millie/Susan like Fedex. However, I'm just hugely fond of these women in general, how smart and careful and human they are, and their relationships are so diverse and interesting that I would love anything focused on the found family part of their little group, on the moral conflicts that they encounter, on the dangers they're willing (and unwilling) to take.
A few ideas:
»» This beautiful, amazing show. I love so much about it - its mood, its cinematography, its unrepentant moral ambiguity, its complex, fascinating characters, its beautiful closure. SO:
»» Trope subversion and deconstruction are a huge weakness of mine, and DWJ does an amazing job of jugging fairy tale elements, pastiche, plot, believable romance, and an incredibly fond, warm, affectionate narrative style. I love flawed characters who fall in love because - not in spite - of their flaws, and Sophie and Howl are one prime example of that: they get on each other's nerves 90% of the time, and they're going to spend the rest of their lives complaining about each other to each other. So on that note:
»» OH BOY. OH EMMA. I've just (juuuuust) finished rereading it, so I've been very lately reminded how much I love this book. I adore Emma most of all, who manages to be so true to her name - who combines every flaw, every quality; she has ultimate potential for both goodness and cruelty in all of Austen's books, and I adore her. Writing an Emma-centric fic is one of the surest ways to my heart that exist. A few ideas:
I'm fallingvoices on AO3 and nuitdenovembre over on tumblr, where I'm most active these days.
As far as general preferences go, I'm fond of introspective pieces and stories that focus on character development and relationship development; a focus on emotional and sensory experiences tends to make me invest myself fast, so that's a plus, too. That being said, plotty pieces are fantastic, especially if the plot furthers all of these things - I'm not big on action for action's sake, at least in written media, but I love stories that play around with canon concepts and canon elements. I adore canon divergences, time travel stories, and I quite like AUs. Meta/mediafic is a huge weakness of mine. Subverted tropes are excellent.
In fandoms where it works, I will eat up codependent and/or unhealthy relationships with a spoon. Misunderstandings, lack of communication, pining, h/c, friends or lovers who lose each other and find each other again - all great. Found family stories will make me cry every single time. You definitely don't need to go the shippy way if you don't want to, but I will love it if you do. Porn is welcome; gen is welcome; slash and femslash and het are all welcome.
I don't have any serious triggers, but generally speaking, I like to be warned for major character deaths and non-con. I'm also not hugely fond of infidelity. On the other hand, I don't object to violent situations or dub-con at all, so feel free to knock yourself out if you find yourself in such a situation where they could be required.
NIMONA | Nimona, Ballister Blackheart, Ambrosius Goldenloin
»» What I love about this comic is how open it has been from beginning to end, and the result of that is I want to know everything. Honestly, at this point, you can do whatever you like: there are so many ambiguities left in Nimona's backstory, so many scenes we never get to see about her and Ballister's father-daughter shenanigans, about Ballister and Goldenloin's childhood and young adulthood, and so many possibilities introduced by the ending that there are very few ways of making me unhappy, if any. Go missing scenes, go canon divergence, go Gay Dads AU, go pre- or post-canon, go anywhere.
Some thoughts:
- look to the future. Whether it's a happy fix-it where Nimona sometimes drops in to tea in between having wacky adventures of her own, or the more gruesome process of recovery, rebuilding, and reconciliation, there's a full spectrum of possibilities left open. I would particularly love to see how Nimona and Goldenloin deal with the fact that they're both important to Ballister.
- Nimona's backstory. Go nuts. The canon supports everything you can imagine, anyway.
- father-daughter bonding! This may include anything from having a quiet night in with pizza and a movie to setting mechanical dragons loose upon their town.
- Ballister and Goldenloin's past friendship and relationship. I mentioned above that I'm very fond of stories about lovers who lose/betray each other and then find each other again, and I really, really do: I would love anything that portrays their early years together, whether as best friends or as lovers.
- relatedly, a canon divergence AU where Goldenloin gets over himself earlier in the story and actively tries to mend things with Ballister instead of shirking his responsibilities would make my day.
»» I won't lie, I ship Millie/Susan like Fedex. However, I'm just hugely fond of these women in general, how smart and careful and human they are, and their relationships are so diverse and interesting that I would love anything focused on the found family part of their little group, on the moral conflicts that they encounter, on the dangers they're willing (and unwilling) to take.
A few ideas:
- I love WWII narratives, so I would absolutely adore a fic set while they actually are working at Bletchley. They're just getting to know each other, working under Jean's orders, maybe working secret missions (why not? diverge from canon if you want to), cracking codes, dealing with blackouts and bombings, dreaming about the future in that little bedroom - I want to know more about these young women when they were so bright and angry and doggedly working away at the enemy's codes.
- Susan comes back post-canon. One of my biggest beefs with S2 (apart from the fact that it was tragically axed) is that she never got to come back. I think she got a great exit, and I loved what they did to her marriage and her dilemma re: the danger they were placed into, but I would like to see what would happen if she came back, even if that were years in the future.
- honestly, anything Susan/Millie (whether it's unrequited on Millie's side, an AU where they do in fact leave together on that trip, an AU where they fall in love during the war, or post-canon pining, hopefully with Susan having left her husband with no hard feelings, etc., etc.) would make my year.
»» This beautiful, amazing show. I love so much about it - its mood, its cinematography, its unrepentant moral ambiguity, its complex, fascinating characters, its beautiful closure. SO:
- John and Alice post-canon. Where do they go? What do they do? Neither of them seems the type to settle down nicely. I'm mostly interested in how they change each other, and how much they … bleed off on each other, I suppose. How well or how badly they work as a couple. These two people are nothing alike and yet couldn't be more similar, are both too full-tempered to really give way to the other, and I'm very invested in whether they would learn to make compromises, or if they'd go all-out, presumably until they either break each other or the rest of the world.
- I'd want to know what happens to Erin post-canon. How do the events of S3 change her, and her perspective as a police officer? Does she stay a police officer? Does she try to find Luther? What were her feelings for Justin, really? How well does she cope with his death? (And if you want to magically bring him back to life, I wouldn't say no, truth be told.)
- likewise, Jenny. I loved that girl, and it always saddened me that she didn't get to come back in S3, especially since she'd gotten the last word at the end of S2 - and her relationship with Luther seemed to be going very interesting places. Mostly I would love to see her grow into an adult, to see her gain agency and a place in the world; whether she ever reconnects with her mother; whether she stayed in touch with Mark or with John.
»» Trope subversion and deconstruction are a huge weakness of mine, and DWJ does an amazing job of jugging fairy tale elements, pastiche, plot, believable romance, and an incredibly fond, warm, affectionate narrative style. I love flawed characters who fall in love because - not in spite - of their flaws, and Sophie and Howl are one prime example of that: they get on each other's nerves 90% of the time, and they're going to spend the rest of their lives complaining about each other to each other. So on that note:
- post-Howl's Moving Castle domesticity, just as they're in the beginning of their relationship, would be amazing. I'd love to see little scenes without much meaning to them - breakfast with two highly powerful magic users, one of whom is incredibly arrogant about his skills and the other just learning what to do with hers; arguing about magic treatises and commissions and Howl's latest experiment with hair dye by the fireplace at night; and so on. What's their sex life like? How does Howl deal with Sophie's family invading his castle on a regular basis? How does Sophie deal with her newfound magic?
- I'd love something about storytelling in this setting, especially since Sophie's magic is spell-(and therefore word-)based. She relies so heavily on books and stories from the very, very start of her own story, and the fact that she slowly grows into the person who writes her own life, rather than lets it be written for her, is one of the best narratives about agency I know. Go as meta as you like (or not meta at all).
- the disconnect between both of their words, and Sophie and Michael's little trek into Wales, is one of my favorite parts of the books, and I'd love to see more of it.
»» OH BOY. OH EMMA. I've just (juuuuust) finished rereading it, so I've been very lately reminded how much I love this book. I adore Emma most of all, who manages to be so true to her name - who combines every flaw, every quality; she has ultimate potential for both goodness and cruelty in all of Austen's books, and I adore her. Writing an Emma-centric fic is one of the surest ways to my heart that exist. A few ideas:
- canon divergences! Instead of waffling about and then bolting at the end of his first fortnight in Highbury, Frank tells Emma about Jane, drama and conspiracies and secret correspondences follow. Emma realizes her feelings about Mr Knightley earlier. Emma and Jane's places are switched. Frank is never taken into custody by the Churchills, and instead it's Mr George Knightley, who has been managing Donwell Abbey by proxy from London, who shakes up the little town by returning to his childhood estate that spring. And so on.
- I would kill for an apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic Highbury; shake that set-in-its-ways town a little! It could be anything - a flood (!!), a zombie invasion, an enormous earthquake, aliens. Does Emma's possessive vein come to light when she has to make sure the inhabitants of Highbury are safe and fed and protected? Who makes loyalties with who? Can they contact anyone in the outside, or are they cut off from the rest of the world? Do they have to defend themselves?
- character pieces, whatever the period, whether it's pre-novel or post-novel, are always loved. I'd especially love something about the "puzzles/codes" theme in the novel: about decoding the people around you, their motivations, their letters - and, by the same token, your own. Self-discovery and self-enjoyment.
- honestly, if there's any of my Yuletide fandoms where a PWP would be received not just with pleasure but with shrieks of happiness, it's probably this one. I'm sayin'.