Yuletide 2019: Dear Author- draft
Hark! Yuletide author!
As a quick introduction, here is my tumblr, and my pinboard (i read A Lot of fic, so perhaps we have some overlapping interests that can help spark something.
As I write this during the dark and spooky month of Halloween, the holiday month for my kind (goths), it brings just cheer and coziness to know we share some of the same loves, that you enjoyed something I love enough to write for it. Or. You're familiar with the canon and it writing style intrigues you. Or. You panicked during signups and now you're here. Or you're one of those wizards who's trying something new for the first time. ANYWAY. Love to see you here.
I'm excited with whatever your mind can conjure up, but we're in the same boat here, (hopefully) looking at a dear author letter, and I always feel the terror when there's too many or too unconnected fic ideas floating around and not knowing what to write. Perhaps guidelines help you as much as they help me?
Broadly,
Feel free to write at whatever rating you like, and I don't have any trigger points, so nothing off limits there.
For yuletide, I prefer canon or canon adjacent settings rather an other-world AUs. (Like, soulmates or magic powers or daemons yay, coffeeshop or highschool noooo). If you wanna do pairings, go for it. But also, gen is great!
Things I Love include: competence-porn, snarky author/narrator voice (when tonally appropriate), found families, angry stabby women, morally grey-to-dark characters, & deep dives into a character's POV.
Things I do not love include: fic entirely that's hurt/comfort from beginning to end, schmoopy fluff (this feels ~unlikely~ considering my fandom picks),
So, I wish upon you no writers block, easy typing, and a fun time. Happy writing!
My Fandom Picks
Gideon the Ninth
Thing I am: bi goth trash. Thing this book is: Everything. *Stefon Gif*
If I could find the words to describe how much I love this book, I'd could have written a whole novel. This book made my whole goth life. What don't I love about this world. I loveeee the necromancy,. I love the crumbling fortress filled with skeletons and servants, I love the spaceships and the world universe out there in the dark, I love the Undying God and the kingdoms he's built. I love all the side characters to pieces, with maybe one exception (*squints at 8th house) I love Harrow and she can do whatever she wants with my remains, I'd be honored. I love this goth princess and everything her grumpy nerd self chooses to be. But I have such a need for Gideon to murder me with her two-hander. However she's in the mood to. I love Gideon.
So. Now that I've spewed all these feels out here. I'd love to see a moment. Or a series of shorter moments. For some character development, character development or world building/exploring. Heck. Have someone walk through that goth castle, I'd be riveted. Gideon practicing with her sword. Harrow doing research. Them having to interact with the other Houses or each other. I would love to see these characters living Life among all the cool dead things surrounding them.
Tempur-Pedic "Agent of Sleep" Commercial
This spec commercial someone made and put on the internets is 58 seconds of pure uncut high octane enemies to lovers. The good shit.
It's fantastically done action with an immediate hairpin turn to soft cuddling and spooning and I need this in my veins. The only character backstory I could extrapolate is that leather-jacket wearing guy is clean cut and has a ear piece. So- he's probably the agent/cop/sanctioned spy.
And the hoodie+canvas jacket guy has scruff and bangs. The ?bad guy? The anti hero??? The actually-good-guy-but-framed-so-on-the-run-and-not-shaving? guy? Imagine whatever backstory works best for you. Go hog wild. I need the enemies to lovers thing played out and massaged to the extent this trope can be worked. What's the emotional beat after they wake up pressed together head to toe? Do they fight some more and fall asleep on more amazing mattresses anda just naturally cuddle on instinct? Do amazing mattresses and the power of this trope save the world??? If you like this commercial, I fee like you like this trope, so do your worst. :D
Poppy War
Full disclosure. At this time of writing, (pre-Holloween), I have not read Dragon Republic, but I have November scheduled for it and I WILL get to it before yuletide fic reveals. I read the last chapter of it standing in a corner in a bookstore. I'm not unfamiliar where it goes.
That's just to say, my prompt here is from Book 1 only pov, and if that's all you read too, yay we're still on the same page here, but if you have read more, feel free to bring it all in.
I Love Rin. If Gideon hadn't come into my life, Rin could have been the character I've fallen the most in love with in the past 5 years. I fucking love how angry Rin is. And I find it completely justifiable. (Knowing what I know of the history, I could see her being even more angry and it'd be utterly believable). I love there's a character out there who experiences so many injustices and unfairnesses and horrors and is motivated and pushed by it, but allowed to resent it and fight it and be angry about and let all her rage out to direct at people responsible.
I'd love a character exploration of Rin. At any point in her life from the books, from the school to the army to the battlefield. And if you're the kind of writer who need characters to play off with each other, I'd love to see anyone else there. Nezha would be amazing but I'd love to see others as well since Rin's dynamic with everyone around her is so different.
Study in Emerald
As trash for gothic victorian literature, and trash for Sherlock Holmes, trash for villains, and filthy trash for eldritch nonsense, this short story is MY JAM, and I'm always eager to read more fic in this universe.
I love following Holmes and Watson as rebels in this flipped universe fighting eldritch gods. And, in accordance with my lifelong weakness for villain protagonists, I love Moriarty + Moran as main characters serving the Crown and the Old Gods wearing them. I'd love to follow any of the characters, in any configuration, loving through this dark world. Heck, another one of the Mysteries (besides Study), overlain with the eldritch darkness and ooziness and tentacles would scratch the itch.
As a quick introduction, here is my tumblr, and my pinboard (i read A Lot of fic, so perhaps we have some overlapping interests that can help spark something.
As I write this during the dark and spooky month of Halloween, the holiday month for my kind (goths), it brings just cheer and coziness to know we share some of the same loves, that you enjoyed something I love enough to write for it. Or. You're familiar with the canon and it writing style intrigues you. Or. You panicked during signups and now you're here. Or you're one of those wizards who's trying something new for the first time. ANYWAY. Love to see you here.
I'm excited with whatever your mind can conjure up, but we're in the same boat here, (hopefully) looking at a dear author letter, and I always feel the terror when there's too many or too unconnected fic ideas floating around and not knowing what to write. Perhaps guidelines help you as much as they help me?
Broadly,
Feel free to write at whatever rating you like, and I don't have any trigger points, so nothing off limits there.
For yuletide, I prefer canon or canon adjacent settings rather an other-world AUs. (Like, soulmates or magic powers or daemons yay, coffeeshop or highschool noooo). If you wanna do pairings, go for it. But also, gen is great!
Things I Love include: competence-porn, snarky author/narrator voice (when tonally appropriate), found families, angry stabby women, morally grey-to-dark characters, & deep dives into a character's POV.
Things I do not love include: fic entirely that's hurt/comfort from beginning to end, schmoopy fluff (this feels ~unlikely~ considering my fandom picks),
So, I wish upon you no writers block, easy typing, and a fun time. Happy writing!
My Fandom Picks
Gideon the Ninth
Thing I am: bi goth trash. Thing this book is: Everything. *Stefon Gif*
If I could find the words to describe how much I love this book, I'd could have written a whole novel. This book made my whole goth life. What don't I love about this world. I loveeee the necromancy,. I love the crumbling fortress filled with skeletons and servants, I love the spaceships and the world universe out there in the dark, I love the Undying God and the kingdoms he's built. I love all the side characters to pieces, with maybe one exception (*squints at 8th house) I love Harrow and she can do whatever she wants with my remains, I'd be honored. I love this goth princess and everything her grumpy nerd self chooses to be. But I have such a need for Gideon to murder me with her two-hander. However she's in the mood to. I love Gideon.
So. Now that I've spewed all these feels out here. I'd love to see a moment. Or a series of shorter moments. For some character development, character development or world building/exploring. Heck. Have someone walk through that goth castle, I'd be riveted. Gideon practicing with her sword. Harrow doing research. Them having to interact with the other Houses or each other. I would love to see these characters living Life among all the cool dead things surrounding them.
Tempur-Pedic "Agent of Sleep" Commercial
This spec commercial someone made and put on the internets is 58 seconds of pure uncut high octane enemies to lovers. The good shit.
It's fantastically done action with an immediate hairpin turn to soft cuddling and spooning and I need this in my veins. The only character backstory I could extrapolate is that leather-jacket wearing guy is clean cut and has a ear piece. So- he's probably the agent/cop/sanctioned spy.
And the hoodie+canvas jacket guy has scruff and bangs. The ?bad guy? The anti hero??? The actually-good-guy-but-framed-so-on-the-run-and-not-shaving? guy? Imagine whatever backstory works best for you. Go hog wild. I need the enemies to lovers thing played out and massaged to the extent this trope can be worked. What's the emotional beat after they wake up pressed together head to toe? Do they fight some more and fall asleep on more amazing mattresses anda just naturally cuddle on instinct? Do amazing mattresses and the power of this trope save the world??? If you like this commercial, I fee like you like this trope, so do your worst. :D
Poppy War
Full disclosure. At this time of writing, (pre-Holloween), I have not read Dragon Republic, but I have November scheduled for it and I WILL get to it before yuletide fic reveals. I read the last chapter of it standing in a corner in a bookstore. I'm not unfamiliar where it goes.
That's just to say, my prompt here is from Book 1 only pov, and if that's all you read too, yay we're still on the same page here, but if you have read more, feel free to bring it all in.
I Love Rin. If Gideon hadn't come into my life, Rin could have been the character I've fallen the most in love with in the past 5 years. I fucking love how angry Rin is. And I find it completely justifiable. (Knowing what I know of the history, I could see her being even more angry and it'd be utterly believable). I love there's a character out there who experiences so many injustices and unfairnesses and horrors and is motivated and pushed by it, but allowed to resent it and fight it and be angry about and let all her rage out to direct at people responsible.
I'd love a character exploration of Rin. At any point in her life from the books, from the school to the army to the battlefield. And if you're the kind of writer who need characters to play off with each other, I'd love to see anyone else there. Nezha would be amazing but I'd love to see others as well since Rin's dynamic with everyone around her is so different.
Study in Emerald
As trash for gothic victorian literature, and trash for Sherlock Holmes, trash for villains, and filthy trash for eldritch nonsense, this short story is MY JAM, and I'm always eager to read more fic in this universe.
I love following Holmes and Watson as rebels in this flipped universe fighting eldritch gods. And, in accordance with my lifelong weakness for villain protagonists, I love Moriarty + Moran as main characters serving the Crown and the Old Gods wearing them. I'd love to follow any of the characters, in any configuration, loving through this dark world. Heck, another one of the Mysteries (besides Study), overlain with the eldritch darkness and ooziness and tentacles would scratch the itch.