Dead Yuletide Writer (2015)
Dear Yuletide Writer,
I'm thrilled that there will be a story in one of my favourite tiny fandoms, so thank you for offering them! Since we've already matched on at least one of them, I'm sure whatever you come up with will be awesome, so don't despair if none of my optional details strike your fancy. I'm going to be delighted to get a story in those fandoms no matter which direction you decide to take it. I hope that my writing a letter longer than a Yuletide assignment doesn't make you run for the hills. ;) I promise I don't bite and I'm extremely easy to please, story-wise. Gen would be great - and so would het, slash or femslash. I don't really have OTPs, so if you're writing a relationship, feel free to sell me on your pairing of choice. :) And although it may not seem so, judging from the lack of nsfw prompts, I’m also open to porny stories - I’m just terrible at thinking up prompts for those.
If you'd like a general idea of what I enjoy in fic, below I've included some of my likes and dislikes as well as some fandom-specific prompts. As always, feel free to come up with different plot bunnies, if what I mention below doesn't appeal to you.
Some of my favourite story elements:
As for dislikes: I'd rather not read character-bashing; non-con/dub-con; partner abuse, be it physical or emotional; or killing off a requested character. I'd also like to ask you to keep gunplay (in a sexual context) out of the story.
[Competent handling of firearms in a professional setting, on the other hand, is awesome. Here is an excellent primer on all kinds of firearms, ballistics and safety measures around them - it was written for the Inception, but makes excellent points applicable for any other fandom.]
Fandoms presented in alphabetical order. Some of these are shorter than the others -- it doesn't mean I want them any less, but rather that the canon itself is also much shorter and there's less to say about it.
(Warning: the letter includes spoilers for the requested fandoms.)
Anthony Zimmer (2005)
Characters: Chiara, François
I'd love to get either a glimpse at their past, since we only have some hints about it, or at what happened after they left at the end of the film, because he was such a masterful con artist that it would be a shame for all that talent to go to waste in retirement.
In case we didn't match on this one: this is a brilliant French mystery/thriller that was terribly remade by Hollywood (and we will not speak of that one again. Ever.)
This film lulls you into a false sense of boredom ("Gee, a meet-cute, really?") and then it repeatedly hits you over the head. The plot-twist worked because, as brilliant as Zimmer had to be at money laundering and creative accounting, as a con man he was a mastermind. I find all secret-identity tropes fascinating, so watching those two play each other was a bit like my personal catnip. (Story idea: did she really only realize who he was at the very end or was she playing all the people involved as well? And if yes, what was her endgame?)
Throughout the whole film Zimmer's motivations were shown from either outsider's POV (Chiara's) or by an unreliable narrator (Taillander), so there are so many ways the events and the ending can be interpreted. Was he really going to quit the criminal business or was it all just a gambit to get a clean slate? Was the romance with Chiara a long con to get away from the police and the criminals he laundered the money for?
If you'd prefer, you could write a story focusing on just one of the characters, either Chiara or Zimmer. There's a lot of backstory to flesh out--how did they meet? What did they do before that? Alternatively, you could write about what happened after the credits rolled--neither of them strikes me as a "settle down and enjoy the retirement/a 9-to-5 job" person, so even if that would be their initial plan, it would probably go sideways very soon.
Common Law
Characters: Wes, Travis
My favourite aspect of this show is the dynamic between Wes and Travis, so I’d like to see more of it, and I’m fine with either gen or slash. I'd love to read a story about a plan going hilariously wrong -- maybe so wrong it comes right back around to being accidentally amazing. Or a road trip, either for a case or as another mostly-failed attempt to make them work out their issues.
This is a fandom where I mostly want something fun: it can be a tropey shippy fic, or gen about them having a ridiculous bet and getting terribly competitive on it. Outsider POV on their antics. Prank was at the precinct that starts with two mostly even sides and end with Wes & Travis against everyone else. Or pretenting to be married for ridiculous case reasons, or doing it to show in therapy how they can act like two functional adults who definitely don't hold grudges and can communicate properly with each other.
Or a case fic that starts with the world's most boring stakeout, and ends with them taking an involuntary road trip handcuffed together in the boot of the suspect's car. Things probably tend to spiral when those two are both involved.
Scandal
Character: Olivia
This show is always such a rollercoaster, you never know what will happen next (except Fitz, you can always count on him being manipulative and an overall horrible human being). My OTP in this fandom in Olivia/Healthy relationship (or at the very least, a functional one). The show is very good at providing h/c, both emotional and physical, but I could always read some more. :)
I've only chosen Olivia here, because that's the character I'm most interested in, but I also love her relationships with the other people at OPA and the White House, and it's quite fascinating to consider how different some of them might be if most characters on this show did not insist to make the worst possible decisions most of the time.
Imagine if her and Mellie worked together, instead of being at odds most of the time? If the two of them had the affair, instead of Olivia and Fitz? Or if Mellie was the one running for office with Olivia as her right hand? I also love Olivia's relationship with Abby, how they can sometimes communicate almost without words, and how their friendship is one of the only constant things about this show -- and I wouldn't say no to Olivia/Abby either. I'd also enjoy Olivia and Jake, either romantically or as partners-in-crime: it's not exactly a healthy relationship, or a functional one, but in this case, they're both people who'd never last in a white picket fence type of relationship. Also, at this point this is nowhere near the manupulative and controlling relationship Fitz has with her.
If you have any more questions that I've failed to touch upon here, I often hang out in the #yuletide irc channel ( what is it and how to get there), where you can get a hippo to poke me and get you the answers you're looking for without revealing yourself.
This entry was originally posted at http://moriann.dreamwidth.org/13360.html.
I'm thrilled that there will be a story in one of my favourite tiny fandoms, so thank you for offering them! Since we've already matched on at least one of them, I'm sure whatever you come up with will be awesome, so don't despair if none of my optional details strike your fancy. I'm going to be delighted to get a story in those fandoms no matter which direction you decide to take it. I hope that my writing a letter longer than a Yuletide assignment doesn't make you run for the hills. ;) I promise I don't bite and I'm extremely easy to please, story-wise. Gen would be great - and so would het, slash or femslash. I don't really have OTPs, so if you're writing a relationship, feel free to sell me on your pairing of choice. :) And although it may not seem so, judging from the lack of nsfw prompts, I’m also open to porny stories - I’m just terrible at thinking up prompts for those.
If you'd like a general idea of what I enjoy in fic, below I've included some of my likes and dislikes as well as some fandom-specific prompts. As always, feel free to come up with different plot bunnies, if what I mention below doesn't appeal to you.
Some of my favourite story elements:
- crossovers and fusions - if you're considering this and would like to check which fandoms I'm familiar with, my pinboard is here and here’s my tumblr. However, in the past I've also enjoyed crossovers with fandoms unfamiliar to me as well - and even got sucked into new ones this way - so you don't have to feel in any way limited by that list;
- female characters being awesome (not necessarily meaning they have to spend their time kicking ass and taking names; all kinds of awesomeness are welcome);
- chosen families;
- unreliable narrators;
- passing the Broccoli Test (or failing it spectacularly);
- humour - be it in the form of funny banter, terrible puns or any other;
- clichés and other assorted tropes (Amnesia! Zombies! Blessed with suck/Cursed with awesome! Apocafic! Groundhog Day! Time Loops!).
As for dislikes: I'd rather not read character-bashing; non-con/dub-con; partner abuse, be it physical or emotional; or killing off a requested character. I'd also like to ask you to keep gunplay (in a sexual context) out of the story.
[Competent handling of firearms in a professional setting, on the other hand, is awesome. Here is an excellent primer on all kinds of firearms, ballistics and safety measures around them - it was written for the Inception, but makes excellent points applicable for any other fandom.]
Fandoms presented in alphabetical order. Some of these are shorter than the others -- it doesn't mean I want them any less, but rather that the canon itself is also much shorter and there's less to say about it.
(Warning: the letter includes spoilers for the requested fandoms.)
Anthony Zimmer (2005)
Characters: Chiara, François
I'd love to get either a glimpse at their past, since we only have some hints about it, or at what happened after they left at the end of the film, because he was such a masterful con artist that it would be a shame for all that talent to go to waste in retirement.
In case we didn't match on this one: this is a brilliant French mystery/thriller that was terribly remade by Hollywood (and we will not speak of that one again. Ever.)
This film lulls you into a false sense of boredom ("Gee, a meet-cute, really?") and then it repeatedly hits you over the head. The plot-twist worked because, as brilliant as Zimmer had to be at money laundering and creative accounting, as a con man he was a mastermind. I find all secret-identity tropes fascinating, so watching those two play each other was a bit like my personal catnip. (Story idea: did she really only realize who he was at the very end or was she playing all the people involved as well? And if yes, what was her endgame?)
Throughout the whole film Zimmer's motivations were shown from either outsider's POV (Chiara's) or by an unreliable narrator (Taillander), so there are so many ways the events and the ending can be interpreted. Was he really going to quit the criminal business or was it all just a gambit to get a clean slate? Was the romance with Chiara a long con to get away from the police and the criminals he laundered the money for?
If you'd prefer, you could write a story focusing on just one of the characters, either Chiara or Zimmer. There's a lot of backstory to flesh out--how did they meet? What did they do before that? Alternatively, you could write about what happened after the credits rolled--neither of them strikes me as a "settle down and enjoy the retirement/a 9-to-5 job" person, so even if that would be their initial plan, it would probably go sideways very soon.
Common Law
Characters: Wes, Travis
My favourite aspect of this show is the dynamic between Wes and Travis, so I’d like to see more of it, and I’m fine with either gen or slash. I'd love to read a story about a plan going hilariously wrong -- maybe so wrong it comes right back around to being accidentally amazing. Or a road trip, either for a case or as another mostly-failed attempt to make them work out their issues.
This is a fandom where I mostly want something fun: it can be a tropey shippy fic, or gen about them having a ridiculous bet and getting terribly competitive on it. Outsider POV on their antics. Prank was at the precinct that starts with two mostly even sides and end with Wes & Travis against everyone else. Or pretenting to be married for ridiculous case reasons, or doing it to show in therapy how they can act like two functional adults who definitely don't hold grudges and can communicate properly with each other.
Or a case fic that starts with the world's most boring stakeout, and ends with them taking an involuntary road trip handcuffed together in the boot of the suspect's car. Things probably tend to spiral when those two are both involved.
Scandal
Character: Olivia
This show is always such a rollercoaster, you never know what will happen next (except Fitz, you can always count on him being manipulative and an overall horrible human being). My OTP in this fandom in Olivia/Healthy relationship (or at the very least, a functional one). The show is very good at providing h/c, both emotional and physical, but I could always read some more. :)
I've only chosen Olivia here, because that's the character I'm most interested in, but I also love her relationships with the other people at OPA and the White House, and it's quite fascinating to consider how different some of them might be if most characters on this show did not insist to make the worst possible decisions most of the time.
Imagine if her and Mellie worked together, instead of being at odds most of the time? If the two of them had the affair, instead of Olivia and Fitz? Or if Mellie was the one running for office with Olivia as her right hand? I also love Olivia's relationship with Abby, how they can sometimes communicate almost without words, and how their friendship is one of the only constant things about this show -- and I wouldn't say no to Olivia/Abby either. I'd also enjoy Olivia and Jake, either romantically or as partners-in-crime: it's not exactly a healthy relationship, or a functional one, but in this case, they're both people who'd never last in a white picket fence type of relationship. Also, at this point this is nowhere near the manupulative and controlling relationship Fitz has with her.
If you have any more questions that I've failed to touch upon here, I often hang out in the #yuletide irc channel ( what is it and how to get there), where you can get a hippo to poke me and get you the answers you're looking for without revealing yourself.
This entry was originally posted at http://moriann.dreamwidth.org/13360.html.