Yuletide Treasure
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Yay, you have been assigned to me! Hopefully writing for me will be a fun experience for you. First of all: don't panic! I always feel absurdly touched when someone goes to the effort of writing me fic, so honestly, don't let the experience stress you out.If you want to learn more about me, this journal is friends locked but I do have a fanfic journal - rachelsfic - which may prove of use.
Things I like
Before we get to the specific fandoms I requested, I figured it might be useful to know a bit about the things I like (and don't). I guess for me fanfic I enjoy tends to fall into three categories: "filling in the blanks", "wish fulfilment", "what happens next?" "Filling in the blanks" are fics that enrich our canon knowledge by filling in missing scenes, providing additional character history etc. "Wish fulfilment" are those fics I read because they provide me with scenarios that haven't (and probably won't) be provided by canon. "What happens next?" are speculative fics for fandoms in which I'm waiting for the next book/film/season, or for fandoms that finished in an open-ended sort of way. The first two categories are probably the kind I like best, though, which you'll see reflected in my prompts!
Characterisation is really the key thing for me rather than plots. I like thinking about what makes characters tick. I like being made to think again about moments that we saw in canon, to see them from a new perspective. I love good dialogue and atmospheric pieces - it's great to read a fic and get a sense of place and time. Basically, if you have awesome plot ideas, I'd love to read them, but if you end up writing an introspective 1000 word character study where hardly anything happens, I will be absolutely fine with that!
In terms of style, I like lots of things. I'd rather not read something entirely bleak and dark, but gritty fic works for me. I enjoy hard realism and I also enjoy whimsical fics. I enjoy fluff - if it's in character, and I prefer the fuzziness to come with a dose of realism rather than out-and-out schmaltz. (I realise what this could mean is open to interpretation, so here's an example from a well-known fandom: if I was reading a fic where Sherlock from the BBC Sherlock realised he had ~feelings~ for John, I would rather he then awkwardly invited John to an autopsy-and-a-movie rather than plying him with champagne and declaring his love.) I love sexual tension! And if it can be resolved eventually after a nice build up, great - though that can be onscreen or offscreen. I'm generally not a huge fan of AUs, but I make an exception for cracktastic AUs (a friend and I wrote a fairly popular high school Game of Thrones fic where Jon Snow wrote bad poetry, so I'm all for taking a loving dig at canon from time to time), or for AUs that make use of different, interesting genres, such as noir.
I like fics that give women agency, and that treat minorities with as much respect as male characters in a particular fandom, and I would love fics that give more page-time to characters who are underrepresented in canon.
Things I don't want
Write as much sexy stuff as you want, but I'd rather it wasn't PWP: if I feel like I could replace the character names with anyone else's and the only thing that would change would be how athletic the sex was, that's not really me. I am pretty hard to squick and I have few triggers but I do not want noncon, dubcon, domestic violence, or watersports. Otherwise, knock yourself out, and a bit of kink can be fun!
I'm not really into darkfic, so extreme violence, psychological torture and killing off my favourite characters are not things I tend to look for. Basically, whilst some of the fandoms I list below have dark, bleak aspects I like to see represented realistically, I don't enjoy fics that wallow in misery! So for example, in Homeland a fic that dealt with Brody's internal conflict while being tortured by Al-Qaeda would be fine and interesting, a fic that spent pages detailing exactly how he was tortured would just make me uncomfortable.
The fandoms
Enough flim-flam, onto the real meat! Here are my requested fandoms, with a bit of blather about why I love them and a few prompt suggestions. Remember they are only suggestions! If you have awesome inspiration, run with it.
Homeland
This show is so extraordinarily rich, and I love the way no decisions are easy, nothing comes without consequences, and no one has the moral high ground. I think it deals very sensitively with mental health issues and with the complexities of the Middle East and fundamentalism. My favourite characters are: Brody, because he is at heart such a decent man and it is so hard not to root for him even if he may end up doing terrible things (and I love his interactions with his daughter Dana); Carrie, because she is brilliant and selfish and sometimes surprisingly kind, and she is a tough and resourceful woman in a very macho world; Saul, because he is so dedicated and caring and open-minded, yet he has given up so much because of his tunnel vision about his job. (And what is going ON with him this season? What is going to happen to him? Is he going to give up all his integrity to save the CIA? Aah.) I'm totally into Quinn right now! I was cautiously fond of him in season 2, but with this new season I have totally fallen for him. I'd love to know more about him! I ship Carrie/Brody, because they're both damaged but they seem to understand how each other work, and I love the father-daughter relationship Saul and Carrie have.
Prompts
The English have a great hunger for desolate places. Perhaps this is true of me; in any case, I was born in a desert country, and though I have not lived there since I was a tiny child, part of me dreams of sand dunes and the great skies of my birth place. So in this great film I have found some deep affinity, not just for Lawrence but also for the landscapes. As far as I'm concerned, you could just write me a word-picture of some of those astonishing David Lean desertscapes and I'd probably be quite content. One of my favourite moments is when, after speaking to Feisal, Lawrence walks out into the desert to think. In the twilight, sky and sand blur into greys and blues, and the wind makes the sand in the air shimmer like a veil between Lawrence and the camp behind him. Sky and sand are one, you see; in this place, the horizon blurs, becoming like water, rippling away certainties of anything but the ultimate power of the desert. Feisal observes, "There is nothing in the desert and no man needs nothing", and Lawrence is caught in the paradox buried within the heart of that statement. He rides the whirlwind, but it also rides him.
I find it difficult to provide prompts per se for this film, as I'm less interested in what happens than in the atmosphere. But I would be fascinated by fic that captures more of T.E. Lawrence's quixotic, inscrutable nature. Peter O'Toole's extraordinary Lawrence is a man who is both repulsed and fascinated by violence, and who is both hopelessly entangled in his own mythology and disturbed by what it has made him. Like most people who love this film, I ship Lawrence/Ali (in so far as I ship anything beyond THE DESERT!!1!), but whether or not you do anything with that is entirely up to you. If it is a consummated love, I'd like it to reflect the very complex cultural difficulties a homosexual relationship that crossed ethnic boundaries would come up against in this period.
Legend
I just love the atmosphere of this film. I am familiar with the European cut of this movie, not the US version, though I think that mostly just affects the soundtrack. And ever since I was a kid, a little part of me always kind of wanted Lili (I notice in the Yuletide tagset this is listed as Lily, but the movie lists Lili... Doesn't really matter!) to let herself be seduced by Darkness. What would have happened if Lili had given herself over to Darkness? Would she have regretted it, or embraced the sensuality of the dark? Or what about after Jack has saved the kingdom, and he and Lili go off together. Would they really be happy? Would Jack long for adventure, and the sweet wickedness that Oona offered? Would Jack's pure love thrill Lili now that her innocence has been lost?
Maurice
I first read this novel when I was fifteen. It was the first book I read - and possibly the first media I consumed - where a gay couple had a happy ending. It has a huge place in my heart because of that. But despite my gladness for Alec/Maurice, the couple I really ship are Clive and Maurice. I am firmly convinced that at the end of the book, Clive regrets his decision to choose a "normal" life. A couple of prompt ideas:
Forbrydelsen
Oh, this show! Oh, Sarah Lund. What a fascinating character she is, and how frustrating. It's hard to imagine any fic giving Sarah a happy ending... But I would prefer a resolution for her that is a little less bleak than the ending of the final series! I found the ultimate resolution of the show to be rather unsatisfying, so if you wanted to revisit the choices she made there, that would be great. Or I'd be interested in fic set earlier in Sarah's career, so we can see how she ends up as the brilliant but dysfunctional detective she is today. If you would not like to write a Sarah POV fic, one of my favourite characters is Troels Hartmann, and I'd be quite interested to see how his career is coming along - I think the first series did the most successful job of drawing out the intricacies of Danish politics, and Troels' journey was brilliant. I also thought he and Sarah had fantastic chemistry, so feel free to go somewhere with that!
Yay, you have been assigned to me! Hopefully writing for me will be a fun experience for you. First of all: don't panic! I always feel absurdly touched when someone goes to the effort of writing me fic, so honestly, don't let the experience stress you out.If you want to learn more about me, this journal is friends locked but I do have a fanfic journal - rachelsfic - which may prove of use.
Things I like
Before we get to the specific fandoms I requested, I figured it might be useful to know a bit about the things I like (and don't). I guess for me fanfic I enjoy tends to fall into three categories: "filling in the blanks", "wish fulfilment", "what happens next?" "Filling in the blanks" are fics that enrich our canon knowledge by filling in missing scenes, providing additional character history etc. "Wish fulfilment" are those fics I read because they provide me with scenarios that haven't (and probably won't) be provided by canon. "What happens next?" are speculative fics for fandoms in which I'm waiting for the next book/film/season, or for fandoms that finished in an open-ended sort of way. The first two categories are probably the kind I like best, though, which you'll see reflected in my prompts!
Characterisation is really the key thing for me rather than plots. I like thinking about what makes characters tick. I like being made to think again about moments that we saw in canon, to see them from a new perspective. I love good dialogue and atmospheric pieces - it's great to read a fic and get a sense of place and time. Basically, if you have awesome plot ideas, I'd love to read them, but if you end up writing an introspective 1000 word character study where hardly anything happens, I will be absolutely fine with that!
In terms of style, I like lots of things. I'd rather not read something entirely bleak and dark, but gritty fic works for me. I enjoy hard realism and I also enjoy whimsical fics. I enjoy fluff - if it's in character, and I prefer the fuzziness to come with a dose of realism rather than out-and-out schmaltz. (I realise what this could mean is open to interpretation, so here's an example from a well-known fandom: if I was reading a fic where Sherlock from the BBC Sherlock realised he had ~feelings~ for John, I would rather he then awkwardly invited John to an autopsy-and-a-movie rather than plying him with champagne and declaring his love.) I love sexual tension! And if it can be resolved eventually after a nice build up, great - though that can be onscreen or offscreen. I'm generally not a huge fan of AUs, but I make an exception for cracktastic AUs (a friend and I wrote a fairly popular high school Game of Thrones fic where Jon Snow wrote bad poetry, so I'm all for taking a loving dig at canon from time to time), or for AUs that make use of different, interesting genres, such as noir.
I like fics that give women agency, and that treat minorities with as much respect as male characters in a particular fandom, and I would love fics that give more page-time to characters who are underrepresented in canon.
Things I don't want
Write as much sexy stuff as you want, but I'd rather it wasn't PWP: if I feel like I could replace the character names with anyone else's and the only thing that would change would be how athletic the sex was, that's not really me. I am pretty hard to squick and I have few triggers but I do not want noncon, dubcon, domestic violence, or watersports. Otherwise, knock yourself out, and a bit of kink can be fun!
I'm not really into darkfic, so extreme violence, psychological torture and killing off my favourite characters are not things I tend to look for. Basically, whilst some of the fandoms I list below have dark, bleak aspects I like to see represented realistically, I don't enjoy fics that wallow in misery! So for example, in Homeland a fic that dealt with Brody's internal conflict while being tortured by Al-Qaeda would be fine and interesting, a fic that spent pages detailing exactly how he was tortured would just make me uncomfortable.
The fandoms
Enough flim-flam, onto the real meat! Here are my requested fandoms, with a bit of blather about why I love them and a few prompt suggestions. Remember they are only suggestions! If you have awesome inspiration, run with it.
Homeland
This show is so extraordinarily rich, and I love the way no decisions are easy, nothing comes without consequences, and no one has the moral high ground. I think it deals very sensitively with mental health issues and with the complexities of the Middle East and fundamentalism. My favourite characters are: Brody, because he is at heart such a decent man and it is so hard not to root for him even if he may end up doing terrible things (and I love his interactions with his daughter Dana); Carrie, because she is brilliant and selfish and sometimes surprisingly kind, and she is a tough and resourceful woman in a very macho world; Saul, because he is so dedicated and caring and open-minded, yet he has given up so much because of his tunnel vision about his job. (And what is going ON with him this season? What is going to happen to him? Is he going to give up all his integrity to save the CIA? Aah.) I'm totally into Quinn right now! I was cautiously fond of him in season 2, but with this new season I have totally fallen for him. I'd love to know more about him! I ship Carrie/Brody, because they're both damaged but they seem to understand how each other work, and I love the father-daughter relationship Saul and Carrie have.
Prompts
- More on Brody's perspective about his time as a prisoner, particularly his conversion to Islam.
- Peter Quinn! Tell me more about him. He has a fascinating, alarming past that we know basically nothing about. Give me some background!
- Carrie's recruitment by Saul when she was at Princeton: what made him notice her? What made her say yes?
- Carrie's diagnosis with bipolar disorder when she was 22 - how did she react in light of knowing her own father's history? How did she tell her sister?
- What if Saul had called Carrie about Tom Walker before she confronted Brody at the cabin? Would they have continued their affair?
- As a complete change of pace, the characters of Homeland in, say, a 40s noir setting. Because noir is great for moral ambiguity. And I like the hats.
The English have a great hunger for desolate places. Perhaps this is true of me; in any case, I was born in a desert country, and though I have not lived there since I was a tiny child, part of me dreams of sand dunes and the great skies of my birth place. So in this great film I have found some deep affinity, not just for Lawrence but also for the landscapes. As far as I'm concerned, you could just write me a word-picture of some of those astonishing David Lean desertscapes and I'd probably be quite content. One of my favourite moments is when, after speaking to Feisal, Lawrence walks out into the desert to think. In the twilight, sky and sand blur into greys and blues, and the wind makes the sand in the air shimmer like a veil between Lawrence and the camp behind him. Sky and sand are one, you see; in this place, the horizon blurs, becoming like water, rippling away certainties of anything but the ultimate power of the desert. Feisal observes, "There is nothing in the desert and no man needs nothing", and Lawrence is caught in the paradox buried within the heart of that statement. He rides the whirlwind, but it also rides him.
I find it difficult to provide prompts per se for this film, as I'm less interested in what happens than in the atmosphere. But I would be fascinated by fic that captures more of T.E. Lawrence's quixotic, inscrutable nature. Peter O'Toole's extraordinary Lawrence is a man who is both repulsed and fascinated by violence, and who is both hopelessly entangled in his own mythology and disturbed by what it has made him. Like most people who love this film, I ship Lawrence/Ali (in so far as I ship anything beyond THE DESERT!!1!), but whether or not you do anything with that is entirely up to you. If it is a consummated love, I'd like it to reflect the very complex cultural difficulties a homosexual relationship that crossed ethnic boundaries would come up against in this period.
Legend
I just love the atmosphere of this film. I am familiar with the European cut of this movie, not the US version, though I think that mostly just affects the soundtrack. And ever since I was a kid, a little part of me always kind of wanted Lili (I notice in the Yuletide tagset this is listed as Lily, but the movie lists Lili... Doesn't really matter!) to let herself be seduced by Darkness. What would have happened if Lili had given herself over to Darkness? Would she have regretted it, or embraced the sensuality of the dark? Or what about after Jack has saved the kingdom, and he and Lili go off together. Would they really be happy? Would Jack long for adventure, and the sweet wickedness that Oona offered? Would Jack's pure love thrill Lili now that her innocence has been lost?
Maurice
I first read this novel when I was fifteen. It was the first book I read - and possibly the first media I consumed - where a gay couple had a happy ending. It has a huge place in my heart because of that. But despite my gladness for Alec/Maurice, the couple I really ship are Clive and Maurice. I am firmly convinced that at the end of the book, Clive regrets his decision to choose a "normal" life. A couple of prompt ideas:
- In the novel, Clive's sickness is a turning point. My theory is that, because his illness makes him more aware of his physical body (which he so carefully ignores, most of the time), his self-revulsion manifests as disinterest in continuing his relationship with Maurice. It would be interesting to take this in another direction, and have him rethink the narrow parameters he's set around his relationship with Maurice.
- A slight AU where Clive and Maurice are at school together. Clive understands his own desires better than Maurice does, but the younger, more physically vigorous boy makes it hard for Clive to keep his feelings within the safe confines of Greek poetry.
Forbrydelsen
Oh, this show! Oh, Sarah Lund. What a fascinating character she is, and how frustrating. It's hard to imagine any fic giving Sarah a happy ending... But I would prefer a resolution for her that is a little less bleak than the ending of the final series! I found the ultimate resolution of the show to be rather unsatisfying, so if you wanted to revisit the choices she made there, that would be great. Or I'd be interested in fic set earlier in Sarah's career, so we can see how she ends up as the brilliant but dysfunctional detective she is today. If you would not like to write a Sarah POV fic, one of my favourite characters is Troels Hartmann, and I'd be quite interested to see how his career is coming along - I think the first series did the most successful job of drawing out the intricacies of Danish politics, and Troels' journey was brilliant. I also thought he and Sarah had fantastic chemistry, so feel free to go somewhere with that!