Dear Yuletide Writer
Yuletide Dear Author Letter 2012
Dear Yuletide Author:
Firstly, thanks for writing! This is my first ever Yuletide and I’m really excited to be a part of it, and even though I included some prompts for inspiration, I’m completely OK with you not using them and writing something else entirely! I’ve divided this up into general notes and then by fandom so I hope you can easily find what you need - the fandoms are all in alphabetical order and even though I know I write more about some than others, that’s not a reflection of how much I like them. Some things just feel as though they require more explanation than others.
General notes:
I enjoy reading strange adventures, wacky hijinks, political intrigue and all that, but I’m also a big fan of stories where you get to learn more about individual characters. As much as I do love casefic - because I really do - I know it’s difficult to write, and while each of these fandoms drew me in with the promise of hijinks I stayed because I came to care about these characters as people, so I promise that I’ll love reading something which explores the individuals and feels quite introspective. I’m not really interested in pwp but sex as part of a fic can be awesome, as is fading to black if that’s what you would prefer to write.
I’d rather not read any crossovers or fusions, and when it comes to AUs I’m a little funny - I rarely enjoy the very domestic ones (the coffee shop or high school AUs). Apart from the cases where the AU departs from canon at some point within the series to explore another way it could have been (for example, “what would have happened if HG Wells had succeeded in her plot to unleash the supervolcano? Discuss!” type fics), all of which are brilliant, then I generally like my AUs to be fantastic in nature. Make Joan a fallen angel, have each of the Mysteries Inc. gang be one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, put anything into a setting inspired by magical realism and I’ll love it - if you’re familiar with the idea of 17th Precinct, for example, which is set place in an alternate reality which works on magic rather than science? Yeah, that’s the kind of thing I adore. I’m just not a big fan of very domestic AUs.
Likes: Awesome ladies being awesome; awesome queer characters being awesome; identity porn; casefic; SCIENCE (especially when done with a complete disregard for ethics & professional standards); competence porn; friendships; poly and/or queer relationships.
Dislikes: Pregnancy and babies; domesticity to the point where it feels almost as though characters don’t have a life outside their little domestic unit; hurt/comfort as a means of commencing a romantic relationship; incest, whether it is consensual or not; fetishisation of power imbalances (even though I love exploring them within all kinds of relationships, I’m uncomfortable with wholly positive portrayals of an unequal dynamic).
And lastly, if you do choose to write non-con or dub-con, I’d really appreciate a warning first. I’m not saying I won’t read it, and I’m not saying I wouldn’t enjoy it - I just need to make sure I’m in the right headspace sometimes to avoid getting triggered.
Adventure Time
I really love this cartoon - I love the aesthetic of the show, I love the humour, I love the cartoon physics, and I enjoy just how goofy everyone is. It’s a show about being a dork and having fun and solving problems by looking at them sideways and squinting a bit; it’s exactly the kind of thing I love, and then I really came to care about the characters, too. I’m slightly over-invested in Marceline and the Ice King’s story - I wasn’t expecting this show to ever become so heartbreaking - and I really love all the potential for strange quests this fandom offers, so anything which dealt with either would be wonderful. Marceline has a thousand years of history to play with and I’d really love to read something which dealt with her backstory if that’s more up your street, or maybe seeing more of Princess Bubblegum as the mad scientist. Or perhaps you’d like to write a quest - maybe following a treasure map takes Finn and Jake back to Lumpy Space? Or anything about the politics between the particular kingdoms - does being ‘Vampire Queen’ actually mean anything in terms of diplomacy, or to what extent does the tension between Marceline and Princess Bubblegum have political repercussions? Or anything where Finn and Jake return to the Nightosphere to play some cool tunes and lead another revolution? I’m a sucker for the moments when the show spears the traditional trajectory of the heroic quest - like Finn and Jake learning Dustomancy while they train to become master wizards - so I’m down with anything ridiculous, and if you managed to write something about the applications of Dustomancy I would be delighted.
If you want to bring in any other characters, go for it because I love them all! This is one fandom where I wouldn’t mind getting something a bit more shippy (for any combination of characters, really; I’m not fussy), but I’d feel uncomfortable with any pwp as most of the characters feel very young. Also, I’m only just caught up on the first four seasons and it’s not looking like I can watch the next season until late December, so I’d appreciate you avoiding any major spoilers. I’m OK with small spoilers - for example, Marceline’s past with the Ice King is a major spoiler in my opinion, but the fact that the Ice King came to ask her for song-writing advice isn’t. If it’s part of the plot for that episode without drastically changing the way we see certain characters, or playing a part in a wider story arc, then that’s fine.
Changeling: the Lost
I love the whole WoD setting (so if you wanted to incorporate elements from, say, Mage or Geist or whatever, feel free; there’s always been a lot of crossover in our gaming group anyway, so I’m familiar with a lot of things outside Changeling too), but the concept of Changeling has always really appealed to me - I’m a huge fan of fairytales, so seeing a game which builds on all the whimsy and all the horror they can contain is pretty cool. I like the way Changeling emphasises subjectivity, and there’s the constant threat of illusion - even when our ST doesn’t follow through on all the hints, it’s enough of a mindfuck just knowing that your perceptions and memories can be tampered with. There’s a real sense of impotence in the whole set-up (being kidnapped and taken away to fairyland, the hints that your escape might have been part of a wider plan, the impossibility of fighting against the Fae and finding your way back to your own life - I just love how melancholic it all is, because the setting is so very bleak and then there’re elements of real beauty, especially if you play a Fairest Seeming) and all the potential for trickery through the Contracts mean I have a lot of fun.
For this setting, I’d love to read something about the use of Contracts, or anything more about the politics of the setting - whether you want to focus on a specific Freehold, Arcadia itself, or the Goblin Market. I’d be really interested in reading some world-building - or if you’re looking for a more specific prompt, what is the cautionary tale of New Lyonesse? Anything which went more into sworn promises would be awesome, so what about a character learning to use this to their advantage (or trying, anyway)? I love the idea of Talecrafting and also Pledgecraft, so if you feel like writing something a bit meta, I’d be interested to see characters experimenting with those - or maybe even a Changeling AU for traditional fairy tales and legends? As you may have guessed, I’m a big fan of quests and mystery stories too, so any fic in which characters got to show off their powers to accomplish some goal - maybe the escape away from their master, maybe someone from a rival Court winds up dead inside their freehold and the characters need to prove their innocence before his friends come looking for revenge - would also be very welcome. Failing that, friendship/romance between characters who are used to watching their words and exploiting every loophole they can find - how would it even work? If you wanted something with less angst-potential, how does normal life even work? What would happen if, for example, a fire elemental got a job as a stage magician? I know I’ve referred to a lot of mechanical details, but please don’t worry about including them - I really love the setting, but as I’ve only ever played in it instead of written for it, I’m used to talking about it as a tabletop first.
Elementary
Elementary is an adaption of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ novels, starring Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Watson. It is also flawless. At the time of writing this, it’s only 3 episodes long, so I may well be eating those words by next week - but in the meantime, I love this show. I love that it shows New York as though it might be a real city, I love the clever references to ACD canon (the violin serenading Watson to sleep, “I hate it when I’m right”, the tattoos being the ink on his arms yes please), I love how everyone is competent and nobody makes other characters less so in order to make Sherlock look good, I love how Joan is clear about her boundaries and how the show codes Sherlock’s infringements on these boundaries as unacceptable, and I love most of all how Sherlock’s abuse is framed as unacceptable. A lot of shows with characters who are supposedly more intelligent than the rest often frame abuse and bullying as acceptable or even laudable when the genius hero does it; Elementary knows better, and it shows it - every week.
I love Joan and Sherlock best as friends, but shipping any of the characters would definitely not make me sad, and please feel free to introduce any other characters from ACD canon if you’re familiar with it- some of the characters I’d love to see include Moriarty, Irene Adler, Mary Morstan (Marty’s younger sister? I live in hope!) and Inspector Baynes. As for other suggestions, I really love the dynamic Sherlock has with the officers on the force and I’d love to read something about them interacting. How about a conversation while they work a scene, and the professional respect coming from both sides? Or learning more about Joan’s decision to work as a sober companion? Or even her past as a surgeon? I’d be interested in learning more about Bell and Gregson, and how they view Holmes - we’ve already seen some of Gregson’s relationship with him but I’m greedy for more, and I’m down with pretty much any ship if that’s what you’d like to write. If you’d like to write a casefic, that would be awesome; I’d also love to see more of the baseball games and operas Joan takes Sherlock to in the name of friendship, and how much he complains about them all afterwards. If you want to explore Sherlock’s experiences with D/s, or even show elements of that dynamic between him and Joan, or if you want to write me some backstory about the times Sherlock was right and hated it, or talk more about the decision to make Watson an Asian-American woman, this would all be wonderful!
Honestly, I just love all the characters, so anything where they interact or just exist while being awesome will make me love whatever you write.
There is one thing I’ve seen from some discussion of Elementary that does bug me, though - people occasionally talk about how “human” JLM’s Sherlock is, especially compared to Cumberbatch’s, as shorthand for “neurotypical”. I certainly agree that the canon in both is kind of fucked-up with regards to neurodiversity (I know ‘Elementary’ does have the lovely takedown of “insane”, but at the same time, I’m not happy about everything with Adam - because no matter whether or not he is neurotypical, and no matter whether or not he is a criminal, he is also the victim, and I don’t think that duality was conveyed particularly well), but I’d really rather not read that sort of thing in my fic. Any use of ‘human’ to mean ‘displays emotions in a way which is consistent with neurotypical expectations’ or whatever just feels really icky to me. I don’t mind spoilers for this fandom.
Scooby Doo Mystery Inc.
This is probably my favourite version of Scooby Doo - I love how the show itself deals with character arcs that last for more than one episode, I love how they spend more time developing the characters as people outside the mysteries, and I really enjoy the parodies and subtler jokes (Professor Hatecraft, anyone?). I don’t enjoy how most interpersonal drama comes from romantic relationships though, especially for the girls, so I’d rather not read anything shippy for this fandom (unless, you know, it’s about them becoming that amazing platonic poly mess S1!Fred seems to want them all to be :D ) unless everyone had their own things going on outside of any relationship drama. For example, if you really want to write that Velma/Hot Dog Water epic love story and queer coming-of-age drama you’ve been planning, go right ahead and I will love it but I would also enjoy seeing references to Marcy’s experiments with human cloning or Velma’s ongoing quest to become Natasha Romanoff. I enjoy seeing them as teenagers with lives outside the Mysteries Inc. gang, such as Velma’s friendship with Marcy.
I’d really love to read something which filled in the blanks a little more about the time between S1 and S2, especially about either Shaggy’s time at military school or Velma’s transformation into Rorshach. I’d also enjoy seeing some of the training I’m sure Fred puts them all through - how to use the crossbows as Velma and Fred do in 2.01, for example, or practice putting together, and escaping from, traps. Or, if it strikes your fancy, I’d love to read something more from the perspective of a villain - I know they always explain their reasoning when the gang traps them, but looking at some of the planning behind their decisions in more detail would be wonderful. If you’re up for something a little strange though, and you don’t mind deviating from the tone of the original, then I have been wanting to read a film noir AU of this show for a while.
If you’re interested in something more shippy, any human/Scooby would bother me, as would any sex due to the underage thing, but anything else is fine. I like Fred/Daphne and I think the show codes Velma as queer (being read as a boy in a few different episodes, the French moustache, her crush on the Hex Girls...) but, at the same time, I know that’s not the way everyone sees her so don’t worry about it if you disagree! I love all the characters, so if you do want to include anyone who isn’t a nominated character, go right ahead! You don’t need to worry about spoilers for this fandom.
Of course, optional details are optional so if you’ve got an idea you think is better than any of mine, go for it and I’m sure to love it - after all, I just want to read even more fic in each of these fandoms anyway! Thank you, you wonderful person, and I hope you have a very lovely Yuletide yourself!
-Tin