Not Ready for Prime Time Player Letter
Dear Not Ready for Prime Time Player
First off, Thank You. Thank you for writing, thank you for participating, thank you for loving something (or things!) I also love. I hope you will enjoy writing this piece, and what ever it is, I am sure I will enjoy reading it.
General thoughts/preferences on what I like in fic -
The thing that draws me to and brings me back to all of my fandoms (big and little) is Strength of Character wound about with Vulnerability - brilliance with fragility, knowledge/wisdom/power with geasa/restrictions, grace under strain, extraordinary capabilities under constraint. And when it is self-restraint, that is all the more wonderful. Nearly every fandom and character I deeply love contains this idea to a greater or lesser extent.
I adore hurt-comfort with a passion, and the comfort does not have to be passionate - backrubs, hair-combing, just holding on can be so, so lovely. It's the emotional intimacy that truly does it for me, physical is nice but not essential. Plus, the part of the 'hurt' half of that equation that I find compelling is not the physical ouchies, but the vulnerability/internal distress/pain-and-coping&failing-to-cope thing.
Many of my favorite and perennial re-reads are stories about intelligent, capable, sensitive people sustaining damage while doing what they needs-must do, and then coping with that damage. This element/idea will get me sucked in and committed to a story faster than just about any other thing. That damage can be very subtle: the sheer weight of time, memory, loss (The Doctor, Methos, Captain Jack Harkness); one-of-a-kindness, hybrid, fish out of water (James Watson, Spock, Avon, Steel);-- variably subtle: PTSD and its ilk, mental/emotional trauma (Lord Peter, TELawrence, Lymond, ) -- or not subtle at all: crippling physical injury/illness (Gen, Raistlin, Gerald Tarrant, Tony Stark, Archibald Craven); catastrophic loss, displacement in space/time (Jessex Yron, beauty and the beast, Thomas the Rhymer).
And then there are the intelligent, capable people who are not so much with the nerve-endings but still feel things deeply, and get to cope with extraordinary circumstances - Declan MacRae, Sarek (yes, I know he's a Vulcan, but there is no denying the passion and intensity that Mark Lenard brought to the part - and even more apparently to the First Romulan Commander), Vethulf and Skjaldwulf (and to reach back a ways -- Qui-Gon Jinn.)
I also appreciate language, and the way stories are put together. This is not meant to be a scary thing! I love transparent story-telling as well as lyrical and poetic atmospheric stuff.
I like plot, I like adventure, conversation, action, all sorts of things. Character interaction, introspection, all that. I also have a competence kink - not that the characters I love never make mistakes or mess up, but that they are all bright, and skilled and good at what they do. Fish out of water is lovely, but I do prefer when they then *cope* with that. I like stories that understand the canon they are working with - missing scenes, extrapolations, things like that; but I also like things that branch off from canon, "what might have beens," even alternate universe/alternate reality type things, though in general I'd rather within (or not contradicting) canon than otherwise.
Slash is yummy. Gen is also yummy. Femme-slash does nothing for me, and het needs to be very carefully integrated into the story, as it is all too often a turn-off for me.
I like angst and depth and emotion, but I really like them to have happy endings, and I'd just as soon not have any major character death. Non-consensual stuff is really not a favorite.
But above all, have fun, go with your muses and ideas. I'm sure I'll love it no matter what.
Highlander
Request 1: Methos
Optional Details are Optional:
I am a Methos girl. I love Methos, Adam Pierson, Dr. Adams, and explorations of other personas he has lived. One of the most important things for me is that he really is that old. Methos has been, and done, not done and done again differently for so long - what keeps him going? What keeps him (most of the time) sane?
More words -
I also really like Joe, and Duncan, and will happily read stories with just about anyone, as long as they have Methos in them (Darius, Rebecca, Fitz, Amanda, Matthew, etc. Not really feeling the Horsemen right now, though, not as a focus anyway.
Watcher-fic is one of my favorites - Methos and Joe before Methos, Methos at the Academy, and I also love historical/flashback scenes and stories. Future-fic is also very neat, original or crossed into another future-fandom such as Star Trek ToS or Melissa Scott's Roads of Heaven-verse. Immortals in Space!
For crossovers - which I do like, though not more than HL-verse only - I prefer the focus to be on the character interaction, and, on how Methos (and the other HL characters, if present) deal/fit into/don't fit with the other universe, with some essentially Highlander elements present in the story-engine (I hope that makes sense).
Sanctuary
Request 2: Declan, James
Optional Details are Optional:
how is Declan dealing with the new order of things? A day in the life of the London Sanctuary (either under James or Declan), How did Declan come to be involved with the Sanctuary in the first place?
I really love the world of Sanctuary, and the possibilities in it. Adventure, science, drama, intimacy, all available to be mined. Please, no non-canonical character death (and for this story, I'd just as soon there not be dwelling on the canonical ones either).
More words --
Declan and James are my two most favorite characters. I will be delighted with gen with any or all (though James & Kate could be an interesting challenge....) James/Declan is the pairing of my heart, but I consider James/John & James/Helen canon (and really The Five in every possible combination is not unlikely), and am fine with implied Declan/Kate. Kate is awesomesauce.
Other characters I would be happy to see in the mix include but are not limited to Ashley, Helen, John, Nikola, Biggie, Henry and Squishy the curious slime-mold. I am willing to be sold on Will's awesomeness, but I would rather he not be a focus of the story.
Penknife said:
I love all of the Five, and I think the Helen/James/John/Nikola relationship can probably best be described as "it's complicated" in any era, so I am fine with sexual tension existing in any direction among those four; I'd just particularly like to see something focusing on James/John or James/Nikola, or on James/Declan in the present. If you get stuck and can't write any of these pairings, James and Declan gen would also be really entertaining, or James and John and/or Nikola getting into trouble in their student days.
I have written ... umm, way too much ... in this fandom, and you can check out my stories through tags or on AO3 if you want. I like sexual tension, I like banter, I like complicated relationships, I like playing with history. Really, I am easy to please when it comes to the Five; have fun and write something you enjoy!
Only I haven’t written a fraction of what Penknife has. Still, I do tend to write what I like, and I have everything I have written up on AO3.
As an aside, it occurs to me that the character-type space that Declan falls into is the same one Qui-Gon Jinn does - grounded, self-aware, centered and ‘strong’ (in the Japanese samurai sense of the word: in chi, in will, physically and mentally disciplined, a flaily-hand thing that English doesn’t have good words for), but also of deep feeling, awareness of more than the day-to-day, moved by beauty and wonder and love. He’s not wounded by the world, (though he is not insensitive to pain) nor is he at odds with it as much as James or even Will.
Star Trek (the Original Series)
Request 3: Sarek
Optional Details are Optional: I have loved Sarek since I first laid eyes on him as a young person in "Journey to Babel." I would love to have pretty much anything featuring him. What happens in sickbay after the credits run? At the Babel Conference? I'd be delighted with appearances by Amanda, McCoy, Spock, or Kirk, but interior monologue/meditation/contemplation would please me too.
If you want to go way out there, how about Sarek is tasked with dealing with the discovery that the Romulans are very much like the Vulcans, or opening negotiations with the Romulan Empire?
More words -
Star Trek TOS is my original fandom (quite literally - I remember watching it first run, and playing it in the back yard with my siblings, using the jungle-gym as the Enterprise) and really, I am easy to please here. I consider the movie appearances of Sarek canon, but not what happens to him in Next Gen.
(in way-way-way out there land, I have wanted a story of Sarek and the First Romulan Commander having to deal with each other for many moons. AU, pre-canon, dream-sequence, whatever.)
The Dreamwidth entries tagged "Dear Writer" which give my (somewhat repetitive) thoughts from previous challenges.
This entry was originally posted at http://lferion.dreamwidth.org/231833.html, where there are currently
comments. Please comment there using OpenID.
First off, Thank You. Thank you for writing, thank you for participating, thank you for loving something (or things!) I also love. I hope you will enjoy writing this piece, and what ever it is, I am sure I will enjoy reading it.
General thoughts/preferences on what I like in fic -
The thing that draws me to and brings me back to all of my fandoms (big and little) is Strength of Character wound about with Vulnerability - brilliance with fragility, knowledge/wisdom/power with geasa/restrictions, grace under strain, extraordinary capabilities under constraint. And when it is self-restraint, that is all the more wonderful. Nearly every fandom and character I deeply love contains this idea to a greater or lesser extent.
I adore hurt-comfort with a passion, and the comfort does not have to be passionate - backrubs, hair-combing, just holding on can be so, so lovely. It's the emotional intimacy that truly does it for me, physical is nice but not essential. Plus, the part of the 'hurt' half of that equation that I find compelling is not the physical ouchies, but the vulnerability/internal distress/pain-and-coping&failing-to-cope thing.
Many of my favorite and perennial re-reads are stories about intelligent, capable, sensitive people sustaining damage while doing what they needs-must do, and then coping with that damage. This element/idea will get me sucked in and committed to a story faster than just about any other thing. That damage can be very subtle: the sheer weight of time, memory, loss (The Doctor, Methos, Captain Jack Harkness); one-of-a-kindness, hybrid, fish out of water (James Watson, Spock, Avon, Steel);-- variably subtle: PTSD and its ilk, mental/emotional trauma (Lord Peter, TELawrence, Lymond, ) -- or not subtle at all: crippling physical injury/illness (Gen, Raistlin, Gerald Tarrant, Tony Stark, Archibald Craven); catastrophic loss, displacement in space/time (Jessex Yron, beauty and the beast, Thomas the Rhymer).
And then there are the intelligent, capable people who are not so much with the nerve-endings but still feel things deeply, and get to cope with extraordinary circumstances - Declan MacRae, Sarek (yes, I know he's a Vulcan, but there is no denying the passion and intensity that Mark Lenard brought to the part - and even more apparently to the First Romulan Commander), Vethulf and Skjaldwulf (and to reach back a ways -- Qui-Gon Jinn.)
I also appreciate language, and the way stories are put together. This is not meant to be a scary thing! I love transparent story-telling as well as lyrical and poetic atmospheric stuff.
I like plot, I like adventure, conversation, action, all sorts of things. Character interaction, introspection, all that. I also have a competence kink - not that the characters I love never make mistakes or mess up, but that they are all bright, and skilled and good at what they do. Fish out of water is lovely, but I do prefer when they then *cope* with that. I like stories that understand the canon they are working with - missing scenes, extrapolations, things like that; but I also like things that branch off from canon, "what might have beens," even alternate universe/alternate reality type things, though in general I'd rather within (or not contradicting) canon than otherwise.
Slash is yummy. Gen is also yummy. Femme-slash does nothing for me, and het needs to be very carefully integrated into the story, as it is all too often a turn-off for me.
I like angst and depth and emotion, but I really like them to have happy endings, and I'd just as soon not have any major character death. Non-consensual stuff is really not a favorite.
But above all, have fun, go with your muses and ideas. I'm sure I'll love it no matter what.
Highlander
Request 1: Methos
Optional Details are Optional:
I am a Methos girl. I love Methos, Adam Pierson, Dr. Adams, and explorations of other personas he has lived. One of the most important things for me is that he really is that old. Methos has been, and done, not done and done again differently for so long - what keeps him going? What keeps him (most of the time) sane?
More words -
I also really like Joe, and Duncan, and will happily read stories with just about anyone, as long as they have Methos in them (Darius, Rebecca, Fitz, Amanda, Matthew, etc. Not really feeling the Horsemen right now, though, not as a focus anyway.
Watcher-fic is one of my favorites - Methos and Joe before Methos, Methos at the Academy, and I also love historical/flashback scenes and stories. Future-fic is also very neat, original or crossed into another future-fandom such as Star Trek ToS or Melissa Scott's Roads of Heaven-verse. Immortals in Space!
For crossovers - which I do like, though not more than HL-verse only - I prefer the focus to be on the character interaction, and, on how Methos (and the other HL characters, if present) deal/fit into/don't fit with the other universe, with some essentially Highlander elements present in the story-engine (I hope that makes sense).
Sanctuary
Request 2: Declan, James
Optional Details are Optional:
how is Declan dealing with the new order of things? A day in the life of the London Sanctuary (either under James or Declan), How did Declan come to be involved with the Sanctuary in the first place?
I really love the world of Sanctuary, and the possibilities in it. Adventure, science, drama, intimacy, all available to be mined. Please, no non-canonical character death (and for this story, I'd just as soon there not be dwelling on the canonical ones either).
More words --
Declan and James are my two most favorite characters. I will be delighted with gen with any or all (though James & Kate could be an interesting challenge....) James/Declan is the pairing of my heart, but I consider James/John & James/Helen canon (and really The Five in every possible combination is not unlikely), and am fine with implied Declan/Kate. Kate is awesomesauce.
Other characters I would be happy to see in the mix include but are not limited to Ashley, Helen, John, Nikola, Biggie, Henry and Squishy the curious slime-mold. I am willing to be sold on Will's awesomeness, but I would rather he not be a focus of the story.
Penknife said:
I love all of the Five, and I think the Helen/James/John/Nikola relationship can probably best be described as "it's complicated" in any era, so I am fine with sexual tension existing in any direction among those four; I'd just particularly like to see something focusing on James/John or James/Nikola, or on James/Declan in the present. If you get stuck and can't write any of these pairings, James and Declan gen would also be really entertaining, or James and John and/or Nikola getting into trouble in their student days.
I have written ... umm, way too much ... in this fandom, and you can check out my stories through tags or on AO3 if you want. I like sexual tension, I like banter, I like complicated relationships, I like playing with history. Really, I am easy to please when it comes to the Five; have fun and write something you enjoy!
Only I haven’t written a fraction of what Penknife has. Still, I do tend to write what I like, and I have everything I have written up on AO3.
As an aside, it occurs to me that the character-type space that Declan falls into is the same one Qui-Gon Jinn does - grounded, self-aware, centered and ‘strong’ (in the Japanese samurai sense of the word: in chi, in will, physically and mentally disciplined, a flaily-hand thing that English doesn’t have good words for), but also of deep feeling, awareness of more than the day-to-day, moved by beauty and wonder and love. He’s not wounded by the world, (though he is not insensitive to pain) nor is he at odds with it as much as James or even Will.
Star Trek (the Original Series)
Request 3: Sarek
Optional Details are Optional: I have loved Sarek since I first laid eyes on him as a young person in "Journey to Babel." I would love to have pretty much anything featuring him. What happens in sickbay after the credits run? At the Babel Conference? I'd be delighted with appearances by Amanda, McCoy, Spock, or Kirk, but interior monologue/meditation/contemplation would please me too.
If you want to go way out there, how about Sarek is tasked with dealing with the discovery that the Romulans are very much like the Vulcans, or opening negotiations with the Romulan Empire?
More words -
Star Trek TOS is my original fandom (quite literally - I remember watching it first run, and playing it in the back yard with my siblings, using the jungle-gym as the Enterprise) and really, I am easy to please here. I consider the movie appearances of Sarek canon, but not what happens to him in Next Gen.
(in way-way-way out there land, I have wanted a story of Sarek and the First Romulan Commander having to deal with each other for many moons. AU, pre-canon, dream-sequence, whatever.)
The Dreamwidth entries tagged "Dear Writer" which give my (somewhat repetitive) thoughts from previous challenges.
This entry was originally posted at http://lferion.dreamwidth.org/231833.html, where there are currently
comments. Please comment there using OpenID.