Yuletide placeholder!
Yay, you've been assigned me for Yuletide! I hope after reading my letter that fills you with excitement rather than dread. Thank you so much for writing for me! I'm sure I'll love whatever you do, so please see this letter as some suggestions, not rules! This letter is ridiculously long, but I hope that's useful rather than off-putting.
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 like AUs that are about settings that don't take a huge twist away from the original setting but use a slightly different setting to bring out something fresh and interesting (so Game of Thrones set in real medieval European history, or True Detective as 50s noir, as random examples).
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!
Now on to the specific fandoms!
Abarat
Clive Barker's astonishingly rich universe dazzled me when I picked up the first book several years ago and continues to dazzle me now. The Abarat series is, as far as I'm concerned, one of the best conceived YA series ever. I love the extraordinarily detailed world Barker invented, and honestly, if you spent a whole fic just describing one of the islands we haven't had much chance to see, I would be happy with that. I love the way Barker marries playfulness with emotional intensity and real darkness. I've asked for Abarat a couple of times before but it's never happened - could this be the year?!
I love love love Christopher Carrion - he is the most fascinating kind of monster. His vulnerabilities, his cruelty, his desires, his bleak childhood, his relationships with Mater Motley and Candy - there's so much scope here. I ship him with Candy, because I find the strange mutual sympathy they've found despite their antagonisms to be truly fascinating. But I am very open to receiving fic about any and all characters in this wonderful, perplexing universe.
Prompts:
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
I've recently finished reading this trilogy by Laini Taylor, and I really enjoy the world she's created. I'm not entirely sure whether the Yuletide category is just for book 1 or for the whole series... I would be happy with stories based on either, though the following info makes most sense if you've read all three books.
I'm sure many people are big, big Karou/Akiva fans, but in some ways for me that's a less convincing part of the trilogy since I'm not really into love-at-first-sight kind of stories. BUT they do have phenomenal chemistry, and so I'd really enjoy reading fic that thought about how, after they finally get to be together, they negotiate their extremely complicated history (including Karou also being Madrigal...) and sexual chemistry with the fact that in a lot of ways they are complete strangers. Or what about a world where Madrigal wasn't executed and they stayed together in a very hostile world - what then?
Having read the latest book, I would love to see more of Liraz and Ziri's relationship! Liraz is a fascinating character, and although we get glimpses of her vulnerability, I wish we'd been able to get more impression of her personality beyond super-tough-emotionally-damaged-fighter-angel. I think Ziri would be good at bringing that out. And how would their society react to that? It's still pretty taboo, after all, for chimera and angels to fall in love. Ziri is also pretty adorable - but given his time impersonating Thiago, we also see how clever and brave he is, and it would be nice to see more of that.
I'm really not into fic that romanticises relationships with abusers - BUT I do find Thiago a fascinating character, because as well as being a warrior it's clear he's cultured and very politically-savvy, and his interactions with Madrigal/Karou are always highly charged. So while I don't want romance between them (unless you're starting afresh with their story and their horrible history no longer exists), I would be interested in seeing them interact.
Brimstone - brilliant character with very little backstory. Fill it in? Please? I'm totally open to all ideas here. Bring me your head canon.
As with Abarat, I'd be quite happy to have fic that includes any or none of the major characters and primarily explored the world the author has created. I'd really like to see more of chimera society and learn about how it operates on a day-to-day level, since most of what we see of it is just about war.
Great British Bake-Off
I nominated this because I thought it was an opportunity for cracktastic fun. I'm really, really not interested in serious GBBO fic, though if the idea of writing funny/cracky fic gives you hives, then cute, fluffy fic with plenty of baking in it is also fine. My husband and I loved watching the latest series and creating ridiculous back stories for people. So here are a couple of silly prompt ideas.
A note - in general I don't request RPF as I feel a bit weird about writing/reading fic about real, living people - so I would really prefer this to stay out of X-rated territory, remains focused on fun, and basically avoids anything that seriously maligns characters' personalities or whatnot. (So, for instance, in my criminal prompt, Mary as a Bond-style villain would be amazing, but Mary as a current day human trafficker would just be fairly gross to me!)
Lawrence of Arabia
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.
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:
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 like AUs that are about settings that don't take a huge twist away from the original setting but use a slightly different setting to bring out something fresh and interesting (so Game of Thrones set in real medieval European history, or True Detective as 50s noir, as random examples).
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!
Now on to the specific fandoms!
Abarat
Clive Barker's astonishingly rich universe dazzled me when I picked up the first book several years ago and continues to dazzle me now. The Abarat series is, as far as I'm concerned, one of the best conceived YA series ever. I love the extraordinarily detailed world Barker invented, and honestly, if you spent a whole fic just describing one of the islands we haven't had much chance to see, I would be happy with that. I love the way Barker marries playfulness with emotional intensity and real darkness. I've asked for Abarat a couple of times before but it's never happened - could this be the year?!
I love love love Christopher Carrion - he is the most fascinating kind of monster. His vulnerabilities, his cruelty, his desires, his bleak childhood, his relationships with Mater Motley and Candy - there's so much scope here. I ship him with Candy, because I find the strange mutual sympathy they've found despite their antagonisms to be truly fascinating. But I am very open to receiving fic about any and all characters in this wonderful, perplexing universe.
Prompts:
- Christopher Carrion had his lips sewn together by his grandmother for daring to speak the word love. I want to know more about how it happened, how he dared defy Mater Motley, and what those stitches cost him. (If it's helpful, my head canon is that Christopher was once not as physically grotesque as he is now, but that his transformation into Prince of Midnight was a gradual result of his increasing corruption.)
- How did Zephario Carrion, after he was blinded, find he had a gift for reading tarot cards? And what sort of things has he seen in them, over the years?
- Anything with Candy and Christopher having to form an uneasy alliance that makes them uncomfortably aware of their complex feelings for each other.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
I've recently finished reading this trilogy by Laini Taylor, and I really enjoy the world she's created. I'm not entirely sure whether the Yuletide category is just for book 1 or for the whole series... I would be happy with stories based on either, though the following info makes most sense if you've read all three books.
I'm sure many people are big, big Karou/Akiva fans, but in some ways for me that's a less convincing part of the trilogy since I'm not really into love-at-first-sight kind of stories. BUT they do have phenomenal chemistry, and so I'd really enjoy reading fic that thought about how, after they finally get to be together, they negotiate their extremely complicated history (including Karou also being Madrigal...) and sexual chemistry with the fact that in a lot of ways they are complete strangers. Or what about a world where Madrigal wasn't executed and they stayed together in a very hostile world - what then?
Having read the latest book, I would love to see more of Liraz and Ziri's relationship! Liraz is a fascinating character, and although we get glimpses of her vulnerability, I wish we'd been able to get more impression of her personality beyond super-tough-emotionally-damaged-fighter-angel. I think Ziri would be good at bringing that out. And how would their society react to that? It's still pretty taboo, after all, for chimera and angels to fall in love. Ziri is also pretty adorable - but given his time impersonating Thiago, we also see how clever and brave he is, and it would be nice to see more of that.
I'm really not into fic that romanticises relationships with abusers - BUT I do find Thiago a fascinating character, because as well as being a warrior it's clear he's cultured and very politically-savvy, and his interactions with Madrigal/Karou are always highly charged. So while I don't want romance between them (unless you're starting afresh with their story and their horrible history no longer exists), I would be interested in seeing them interact.
Brimstone - brilliant character with very little backstory. Fill it in? Please? I'm totally open to all ideas here. Bring me your head canon.
As with Abarat, I'd be quite happy to have fic that includes any or none of the major characters and primarily explored the world the author has created. I'd really like to see more of chimera society and learn about how it operates on a day-to-day level, since most of what we see of it is just about war.
Great British Bake-Off
I nominated this because I thought it was an opportunity for cracktastic fun. I'm really, really not interested in serious GBBO fic, though if the idea of writing funny/cracky fic gives you hives, then cute, fluffy fic with plenty of baking in it is also fine. My husband and I loved watching the latest series and creating ridiculous back stories for people. So here are a couple of silly prompt ideas.
- Paul is Mary's secret love child (check out their ridiculously blue eyes!), conceived in her wild youth, and the show has reunited them.
- Mary as some kind of criminal mastermind, Sue and Mel as bumbling/wisecracking detectives who are going to bring her down.
- Some kind of caper where Paul, Mary, Sue and Mel get into scrapes, classic screwball comedy-style. Hopefully Paul will learn a Valuable Lesson.
A note - in general I don't request RPF as I feel a bit weird about writing/reading fic about real, living people - so I would really prefer this to stay out of X-rated territory, remains focused on fun, and basically avoids anything that seriously maligns characters' personalities or whatnot. (So, for instance, in my criminal prompt, Mary as a Bond-style villain would be amazing, but Mary as a current day human trafficker would just be fairly gross to me!)
Lawrence of Arabia
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.
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.