About Optional Details (Which are Optional!)
OPTIONAL DETAILS
While you don't have to include any optional details in your requests, these can be very helpful in letting your author know what kinds of stories you like, and what kinds of stories you don't like. Each year I act as a go-between to help some Yuletide writers get additional information from their recipients, and the most common requests for info are things like:
Please find out anything you can about my recipient's likes and dislikes/ask my recipient to do a Dear Yuletide Author letter!
Please ask my recipient to unlock/actually post their Yuletide Author letter they linked to in their optional details!
Do they like/prefer not to get holiday stories?
Do they like/prefer not to get crossovers/AUs/gender-bending?
Do they want dark/fluff/relationship/action adventure?
Are they familiar with the whole series/do they mind spoilers?
ETA: Do they really want/need all of their requested characters in the story? Note: this arises when the details of the optional details only mention some of the characters and/or seem incompatible with including all the characters (if they don't co-exist in the same timeline, for instance, or never meet in the source, etc.)
If you can include some of your general tastes for each of your fandoms, that may make things much easier for your writer (and hey, maybe for me! *g*)
OPTIONAL DETAILS ARE NOT THE PLACE TO REQUEST CHARACTERS THAT WERE NOT NOMINATED
You can absolutely say "I like all the characters in this source, so if you want to include other characters who weren't nominated, that's fine with me!" However, you can't use the optional details to say that you really wanted to request Fred&George, only they weren't nominated, but you'd really prefer to have a story with them. Not only is that not fair to your writer in general, but if you chose "0" characters and then ask for Fred&George, while your author specifically offered Sam&Dean, you've pretty much told them they can't make you happy, and you don't want what they offered to write.
OPTIONAL DETAILS ARE OPTIONAL, BUT
You can ignore the specifics of optional details, but please don't directly contradict them, as long as they're not asking for anything outside the bounds of Yuletide. If they want fluff, please don't write dark and grim; if they say they don't like a particular pairing, please don't write that pairing for them.
While you don't have to include any optional details in your requests, these can be very helpful in letting your author know what kinds of stories you like, and what kinds of stories you don't like. Each year I act as a go-between to help some Yuletide writers get additional information from their recipients, and the most common requests for info are things like:
ETA:
If you can include some of your general tastes for each of your fandoms, that may make things much easier for your writer (and hey, maybe for me! *g*)
OPTIONAL DETAILS ARE NOT THE PLACE TO REQUEST CHARACTERS THAT WERE NOT NOMINATED
You can absolutely say "I like all the characters in this source, so if you want to include other characters who weren't nominated, that's fine with me!" However, you can't use the optional details to say that you really wanted to request Fred&George, only they weren't nominated, but you'd really prefer to have a story with them. Not only is that not fair to your writer in general, but if you chose "0" characters and then ask for Fred&George, while your author specifically offered Sam&Dean, you've pretty much told them they can't make you happy, and you don't want what they offered to write.
OPTIONAL DETAILS ARE OPTIONAL, BUT
You can ignore the specifics of optional details, but please don't directly contradict them, as long as they're not asking for anything outside the bounds of Yuletide. If they want fluff, please don't write dark and grim; if they say they don't like a particular pairing, please don't write that pairing for them.