RARELY WRITTEN: DEAR AUTHOR
Helloooo rarelywritten writer! I'm already so excited about whatever you're going to write me. This is my first time ever doing this exchange and I don't really have a ton of specific asks or suggestions, I hope this letter is helpful though. I like everything from plot-driven to shippy to introspective character fic.
GENERAL LIKES:
Canon compliant. Stealing this from a past Yuletide letter but I enjoy fic that fills in blanks -- backstories, future stories, "missing scenes" we didn't get onscreen, giving characters a chance to interact who don't share enough screentime. Gen fic (that said het, slash, femslash are okay). Bonding and friendship. Hurt/comfort. Unreliable POVs. Creative fic format or structure. Slice-of-life moments.
GENERAL DISLIKES:
AUs (branching out of a change in canon = fine!, totally different universe/genre/time period = no). Excessive scenes/dialogue lifted straight from canon. Character bashing. (I think the 'if you can't say something nice...' rule applies well to fanfic -- better to leave characters you hate out of a story entirely.)
FANDOMS:
Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Caprica Six, Natalie, D'Anna Biers, Sharon Valerii, Anastasia Dualla, Diana Seelix
I mean is it weird to just say "you have my free rein to write whatever" because BSG LADIES ARE MY FAVORITE LADIES? I am especially attached to the Cylons, and Sixes in particular. I ship Caprica/Gaius and Caprica/D'Anna very much. I love the New Caprica arc more than everything. I don't dislike the series ending despite agreeing with a lot of people's criticisms of it, so wouldn't mind fic incorporating that or not. The only thing I'd rather avoid is the Pegasus arc, which is why I didn't request those characters but just making another note of it here.
On Boomer- ALL THE BOOMER, poor girl never had a goddamn chance. I'd like to see her relationship with other Cylons and her own identity issues, I'm of the unpopular opinion that her villain-ish turn in the later seasons was an interesting one and made sense to me, it just could've used a lot more development?
On Dee - MOST UNDERUTILIZED CHARACTER TO EVER, I'd just like any fic about her. Something the show really didn't explore enough IMO is her complicated relationship with her Sagittaron background. Forget for a moment what I said about canon compliant: a fix-it/AU where she doesn't die or has a different/more visible role in events is encouraged. :)
Also I like Seelix! And she's one of the only ones here who actually survived to the end! How does she get along after that? Alternately, more about her history before the attacks.
Blade Runner
any [Pris, Zhora, Rachael]
So if it wasn't clear from the BSG request, I AM VERY INTRIGUED BY ROBOTS and female-bodied robots especially, who tend to be ~weaponized and sexualized and empathized with simultaneously. Pris is such a strange and oddly sympathetic character to me, Zhora we really don't see enough of at all, I want to know how they navigate the world and humanity, what makes them rebel and fight for their lives. With Rachael, how does she deal with the whole false memories/whole life being a lie thing? What does being alive mean for them.
(Note: I am aware via wikipedia that there was some later unauthorized retcon that Pris was not actually a replicant. Idk if it goes without saying but: no nopey nope. I do however subscribe to the theory that Deckard is a replicant and it's pretty much the only way I can tolerate and ship him with Rachael.)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Amy Santiago, Rosa Diaz
AMY IS MY GIRL, and essentially me (in some alternate universe where I became a cop for some godforsaken reason). I love her straight-laced, awkward, desperate over-achievingness, her relationship with Captain Holt, and that despite their mismatched personalities Amy and Rosa actually do have each other's backs and are friends. Any kind of shenanigans with them on the job or off would be great. (Gina and other characters can be involved if you want! But I was narrowing it down to my favorites.)
No Rosa/Boyle (unless just friends/over the obsession thing), other pairings including Rosa/Marcus and Amy/Jake are okay.
How To Get Away With Murder
any [Annalise Keating, Laurel Castillo, Michaela Pratt, Rebecca Sutter, Hannah Keating]
ANYTHING BECAUSE THIS SHOW NEEDS MORE FIC THAN JUST CONNOR/OLIVER (even if I do in fact ship them).
What I enjoy about these characters, especially the women, is their complexity and moral ambiguity; that they do for the most part have a sense of right and wrong but they also have a lot of flaws and can rationalize terrible actions out of ambition or necessity/survival.
One thing I'd possibly like to see is Laurel/Michaela fic (whether femslash or just as unlikely allies/friends) - anything with them interacting after the crazy murder-covering-up bonds them together. Another prompt: how Anna Mae became Annalise, and what is it that makes her go to such lengths to protect the Murder Babies?
Mass Effect
Kasumi Goto, Morinth
I'd really like to see Kasumi centric fic! I love her, I want to see her bonding with the crew, pulling off a heist, a time she got caught or nearly did, her history with Keiji, anything.
Or: evvverything about Morinth's life, her id-driven amorality that's in such stark contrast to her mother. How SHE views the events leading to her death or the scenario where Shep lets her survive and pose as her mother. (Which I, uh, totally did on one of my playthroughs.) Does that experience change her at all, does she have any shot at redemption or is she just doomed?
For the record my main Shepard is female, renegade-leaning, romanced Traynor, but it won't really pull me out of a fic.
A Song of Ice and Fire
Asha Greyjoy, Jeyne Poole
Seeing Jeyne on the character list made me think about what a heartrending character she is. ADWD did what seemed impossible at the time and made me feel terrible for Theon, but doubly terrible for her. She was just a normal carefree girl who had her whole life turned upside down to an even greater degree than Sansa. May go without saying I'd rather not have graphic descriptions of rape/abuse but would like her surviving and healing in the aftermath and dealing with her fractured identity. And I'd like to see Asha involved with that to some degree. After the moment where she first sees them, thinks they are a little girl and an old man, how does she react to her?
(If you matched on just Asha and not Jeyne, I'd be happy with that too! Asha is a total badass and I'd like to see her just being unapologetically herself and commanding in a male-dominated world.)
GENERAL LIKES:
Canon compliant. Stealing this from a past Yuletide letter but I enjoy fic that fills in blanks -- backstories, future stories, "missing scenes" we didn't get onscreen, giving characters a chance to interact who don't share enough screentime. Gen fic (that said het, slash, femslash are okay). Bonding and friendship. Hurt/comfort. Unreliable POVs. Creative fic format or structure. Slice-of-life moments.
GENERAL DISLIKES:
AUs (branching out of a change in canon = fine!, totally different universe/genre/time period = no). Excessive scenes/dialogue lifted straight from canon. Character bashing. (I think the 'if you can't say something nice...' rule applies well to fanfic -- better to leave characters you hate out of a story entirely.)
FANDOMS:
Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Caprica Six, Natalie, D'Anna Biers, Sharon Valerii, Anastasia Dualla, Diana Seelix
I mean is it weird to just say "you have my free rein to write whatever" because BSG LADIES ARE MY FAVORITE LADIES? I am especially attached to the Cylons, and Sixes in particular. I ship Caprica/Gaius and Caprica/D'Anna very much. I love the New Caprica arc more than everything. I don't dislike the series ending despite agreeing with a lot of people's criticisms of it, so wouldn't mind fic incorporating that or not. The only thing I'd rather avoid is the Pegasus arc, which is why I didn't request those characters but just making another note of it here.
On Boomer- ALL THE BOOMER, poor girl never had a goddamn chance. I'd like to see her relationship with other Cylons and her own identity issues, I'm of the unpopular opinion that her villain-ish turn in the later seasons was an interesting one and made sense to me, it just could've used a lot more development?
On Dee - MOST UNDERUTILIZED CHARACTER TO EVER, I'd just like any fic about her. Something the show really didn't explore enough IMO is her complicated relationship with her Sagittaron background. Forget for a moment what I said about canon compliant: a fix-it/AU where she doesn't die or has a different/more visible role in events is encouraged. :)
Also I like Seelix! And she's one of the only ones here who actually survived to the end! How does she get along after that? Alternately, more about her history before the attacks.
Blade Runner
any [Pris, Zhora, Rachael]
So if it wasn't clear from the BSG request, I AM VERY INTRIGUED BY ROBOTS and female-bodied robots especially, who tend to be ~weaponized and sexualized and empathized with simultaneously. Pris is such a strange and oddly sympathetic character to me, Zhora we really don't see enough of at all, I want to know how they navigate the world and humanity, what makes them rebel and fight for their lives. With Rachael, how does she deal with the whole false memories/whole life being a lie thing? What does being alive mean for them.
(Note: I am aware via wikipedia that there was some later unauthorized retcon that Pris was not actually a replicant. Idk if it goes without saying but: no nopey nope. I do however subscribe to the theory that Deckard is a replicant and it's pretty much the only way I can tolerate and ship him with Rachael.)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Amy Santiago, Rosa Diaz
AMY IS MY GIRL, and essentially me (in some alternate universe where I became a cop for some godforsaken reason). I love her straight-laced, awkward, desperate over-achievingness, her relationship with Captain Holt, and that despite their mismatched personalities Amy and Rosa actually do have each other's backs and are friends. Any kind of shenanigans with them on the job or off would be great. (Gina and other characters can be involved if you want! But I was narrowing it down to my favorites.)
No Rosa/Boyle (unless just friends/over the obsession thing), other pairings including Rosa/Marcus and Amy/Jake are okay.
How To Get Away With Murder
any [Annalise Keating, Laurel Castillo, Michaela Pratt, Rebecca Sutter, Hannah Keating]
ANYTHING BECAUSE THIS SHOW NEEDS MORE FIC THAN JUST CONNOR/OLIVER (even if I do in fact ship them).
What I enjoy about these characters, especially the women, is their complexity and moral ambiguity; that they do for the most part have a sense of right and wrong but they also have a lot of flaws and can rationalize terrible actions out of ambition or necessity/survival.
One thing I'd possibly like to see is Laurel/Michaela fic (whether femslash or just as unlikely allies/friends) - anything with them interacting after the crazy murder-covering-up bonds them together. Another prompt: how Anna Mae became Annalise, and what is it that makes her go to such lengths to protect the Murder Babies?
Mass Effect
Kasumi Goto, Morinth
I'd really like to see Kasumi centric fic! I love her, I want to see her bonding with the crew, pulling off a heist, a time she got caught or nearly did, her history with Keiji, anything.
Or: evvverything about Morinth's life, her id-driven amorality that's in such stark contrast to her mother. How SHE views the events leading to her death or the scenario where Shep lets her survive and pose as her mother. (Which I, uh, totally did on one of my playthroughs.) Does that experience change her at all, does she have any shot at redemption or is she just doomed?
For the record my main Shepard is female, renegade-leaning, romanced Traynor, but it won't really pull me out of a fic.
A Song of Ice and Fire
Asha Greyjoy, Jeyne Poole
Seeing Jeyne on the character list made me think about what a heartrending character she is. ADWD did what seemed impossible at the time and made me feel terrible for Theon, but doubly terrible for her. She was just a normal carefree girl who had her whole life turned upside down to an even greater degree than Sansa. May go without saying I'd rather not have graphic descriptions of rape/abuse but would like her surviving and healing in the aftermath and dealing with her fractured identity. And I'd like to see Asha involved with that to some degree. After the moment where she first sees them, thinks they are a little girl and an old man, how does she react to her?
(If you matched on just Asha and not Jeyne, I'd be happy with that too! Asha is a total badass and I'd like to see her just being unapologetically herself and commanding in a male-dominated world.)