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hopefulnebula) wrote2017-10-06 11:49 am
hopefulnebula) wrote2017-10-06 11:49 am
Entry tags:
Dear Yuletide Writer, 2017
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Thank you so much for writing for me! You clearly have the best taste in all of Yuletide. My letter, with prompts and general likes/dislikes included, is behind the cut. As usual, much of this is copy/pasted from previous letters, so if you get the feeling you've read this before, you're probably right.
(Also of note, this letter isn't in the same order as my signup proper -- I edited one of my prompts in after signing up and I don't want to risk screwing things up by reordering the signup to make it alphabetical.)
As a fan, I'm pretty easygoing. I love quite a lot of things, and I'm not squicked out by a lot. I have some issues regarding characters with disabilities, though, which I trust won't be problematic given the nature of my requests. Please, don't "cure" or otherwise erase the disabilities/differences of characters, and don't resort to problematic tropes ("Rain Man" is not research), and you're good. :) In each of my requests, I love the way these characters are portrayed in their respective canons, so if you stay true to that, I'll be happy.
Other things I don't like: glorification of the nasty things people do to each other (if you're going to have them in the story, that's fine, but please treat them like the terrible things they are) and gratuitous gore.
Now that that's out of the way, a non-exhaustive list of the general things I like:
- Fiction that's in the spirit of the source material. I love me some "original flavor" fic (not linking to the TVTropes page because then you'll never get anything written). Explore the things that the canon doesn't explore in a way that the canon would do it, and I'll be a happy camper.
- Non-human/human-but-neurologically-atypical characters not thinking the way neurotypical humans do, without being caricatures of themselves.
- Unexpected/odd POVs (external POVs of relationships, for instance).
- Epistolary fiction (that is, stories told in the form of letters/e-mails/telegrams/smoke signals/notes sent by carrier pigeon sent between characters)
- Strong character voices (I love hearing the characters speak the lines I read in my head).
- Stories that explore the characters' reactions to things around them (what makes them who they are? How does that relate to how they react to things now?)
- Anything that passes the Bechdel test (has at least two female main characters who communicate with each other about something other than a man)
- Past-fic, future-fic, missing scenes, sets of vaguely connected drabbles, weirdly formatted fics, plotless "slice of life" fics, fix-it fics, and probably about a hundred other things I could think of.
- AUs, particularly of the "what-if" variety.
- I like happy endings, but I also like it when things don't end exactly as the protagonist plans. I like bittersweet and even sad endings. But please don't make it a "rocks fall, everyone dies" ending. There should be something happy or hopeful to grab onto.
I'm open to all ratings, so write whatever you're comfortable writing, and while my prompts tend to lean toward gen-ness, I do like to read romance as well, so if you're a shipper of any sort, please don't feel obligated to avoid it for my sake.
As always, please take these prompts as suggestions and starting points. Don't be compelled to address every aspect of them, and if your muse takes you in a direction I don't foresee, so much the better! These are meant primarily for inspiration. Also don't be alarmed by the giant wall of text or the varying lengths of my writing about these fandoms. I don't have favorites here, it's just that my squee for some things produces more words than my squee for others. (And also there's the fact that some fandoms have more nominated characters than others...)
One other note: I'm fully up to date on all the canons mentioned herein. No need to worry about spoiling me. (The other side of this: this letter is seriously spoilery in places, so read carefully.)
Alphas (Anna Levy, Gary Bell)
I've loved Anna since the second they introduced her.
I love antagonists who aren't necessarily wrong (though I obviously don't condone Red Flag's methods). I love that they make her relatable, but obviously very different from "normal" humans. I even love that she's been misdiagnosed all her life because none of her doctors knew about alphas. I love how sympathetic she is. I love that she and Gary bonded so quickly.
One thing that fascinates me as well is the possibility that her ability might allow her to understand what people mean versus what they actually say.
(From a Watsonian perspective, I hate how she died. From a Doylian perspective, I totally understand it and am fascinated by the implications. This isn't to say I desperately want an AU where she lives, though I'm definitely open to that possibility, and I'd be kind of fascinated to see what Anna-ten-years-from-now would be up to.)
And then there's Gary. Gary, Gary, Gary. I love how they (both the showrunners and the characters) treat Gary as an individual. His autism is an integral part of who he is, but he's not the token oddball or the savant or the Very Special Episode The Writers Put In So Neurotypical Viewers Can Feel Good About Themselves. (And speaking of which, this show is literally the only time I've encountered the word "neurodiversity" in mass media. Which says quite a lot.) Sometimes it's helpful, and sometimes it's debilitating. He does get the lion's share of the funny moments, but it's not in an exploitative way.
In short: Anna and Gary are both the best. If you can make them be the best together, all the better. If not, they're still the best! (Best-ness is not zero sum.)
Black Mirror (Blue Colson)
Sooooo my sister got me in to Black Mirror last year, and it took me a while to get through all of it. And I'm so glad I did, because by I spent "Hated in the Nation" entirely captivated, and Blue was my favorite part. The contrast and interplay between her and Karin was something I especially enjoyed.
I work in community moderation and I deal with a lot of the same nastiness Blue did, and it warms the shattered remains of the cockles of my heart to see the people who post such things come to justice. But at the same time, is what Blue does in the end justice? How does she come to decide it is, herself? What's her endgame, and what part is Karin playing in it? What happens after the very end of the episode -- what does she do to Garrett? Does she reveal herself to him, or to the rest of the world? What's her plan for a year after she finds him? Five years?
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (any)
I've loved these books since I was 13, and they are one of the fandoms of my deepest heart. Worldbuilding is an amazing thing when there are so many different worlds to work with, but since that's quite expansive, some suggestions for the nominated characters follow:
- Balthamos, Baruch, Xaphania: It fascinates me that the angels in HDM are essentially byproducts of sentient thought. What is living like for them? How do angels manipulate the worlds to their gain? We know humans can become angels; how and why does that happen?
- Iorek: Polar bears usually give birth to twins. Discuss. Or: returning to the North after the barriers between worlds are sealed. Or: How has panserbjørne society related to humans over the years? How is Iorek a different leader than his predecessors?
- Lord Asriel, Lyra, Marisa Coulter: I'd love to see backstory on any or all of these three -- Mrs. Coulter as a child/teenager would be fascinating, or Lyra figuring out what parts of her story to reveal to whom later in life, or Lord Asriel working with the Gyptians and gaining their trust.
- Mary Malone (+daemon), Will: Getting to know their daemons. Or: Mary's history as a nun (and her departure). Or: Will discovering the things he missed out on in his own world while he was taking care of his mother. (Does he choose to tell his mother about meeting his father?)
- Serafina Pekkala: Witch lore! Romance! Politics! Intrigue! How do the witches on both sides of the war recover from their immense losses?
Sunshine (2007) (Corazon)
This is one of the movies of my heart. I love the characters, I love that they all face consequences for everything they do, I even love the off-the-rails ending. But what I don't love is the fact that Corazon isn't in every single scene (and honestly, even that might not be enough. ;) ) She's such a complex character -- full of compassion, but equally willing to make the hard decisions when it clearly serves the greater good. So anything that explores how she became the person she is would be amazing.
Another thing I love is the interactions between the crew members -- their dynamics shift greatly after each crisis, and Corazon is almost a constant between these. That's got to take a toll on her; what's that like for her? How do things change between her and the rest of the crew, even when it doesn't appear they have?
Thank you so much for writing for me! I hope you have lots of fun. As usual, feel free to contact the mods if you have any questions; they'll pass them along and preserve your anonymity.
<3,
Neb.
Thank you so much for writing for me! You clearly have the best taste in all of Yuletide. My letter, with prompts and general likes/dislikes included, is behind the cut. As usual, much of this is copy/pasted from previous letters, so if you get the feeling you've read this before, you're probably right.
(Also of note, this letter isn't in the same order as my signup proper -- I edited one of my prompts in after signing up and I don't want to risk screwing things up by reordering the signup to make it alphabetical.)
As a fan, I'm pretty easygoing. I love quite a lot of things, and I'm not squicked out by a lot. I have some issues regarding characters with disabilities, though, which I trust won't be problematic given the nature of my requests. Please, don't "cure" or otherwise erase the disabilities/differences of characters, and don't resort to problematic tropes ("Rain Man" is not research), and you're good. :) In each of my requests, I love the way these characters are portrayed in their respective canons, so if you stay true to that, I'll be happy.
Other things I don't like: glorification of the nasty things people do to each other (if you're going to have them in the story, that's fine, but please treat them like the terrible things they are) and gratuitous gore.
Now that that's out of the way, a non-exhaustive list of the general things I like:
- Fiction that's in the spirit of the source material. I love me some "original flavor" fic (not linking to the TVTropes page because then you'll never get anything written). Explore the things that the canon doesn't explore in a way that the canon would do it, and I'll be a happy camper.
- Non-human/human-but-neurologically-atypical characters not thinking the way neurotypical humans do, without being caricatures of themselves.
- Unexpected/odd POVs (external POVs of relationships, for instance).
- Epistolary fiction (that is, stories told in the form of letters/e-mails/telegrams/smoke signals/notes sent by carrier pigeon sent between characters)
- Strong character voices (I love hearing the characters speak the lines I read in my head).
- Stories that explore the characters' reactions to things around them (what makes them who they are? How does that relate to how they react to things now?)
- Anything that passes the Bechdel test (has at least two female main characters who communicate with each other about something other than a man)
- Past-fic, future-fic, missing scenes, sets of vaguely connected drabbles, weirdly formatted fics, plotless "slice of life" fics, fix-it fics, and probably about a hundred other things I could think of.
- AUs, particularly of the "what-if" variety.
- I like happy endings, but I also like it when things don't end exactly as the protagonist plans. I like bittersweet and even sad endings. But please don't make it a "rocks fall, everyone dies" ending. There should be something happy or hopeful to grab onto.
I'm open to all ratings, so write whatever you're comfortable writing, and while my prompts tend to lean toward gen-ness, I do like to read romance as well, so if you're a shipper of any sort, please don't feel obligated to avoid it for my sake.
As always, please take these prompts as suggestions and starting points. Don't be compelled to address every aspect of them, and if your muse takes you in a direction I don't foresee, so much the better! These are meant primarily for inspiration. Also don't be alarmed by the giant wall of text or the varying lengths of my writing about these fandoms. I don't have favorites here, it's just that my squee for some things produces more words than my squee for others. (And also there's the fact that some fandoms have more nominated characters than others...)
One other note: I'm fully up to date on all the canons mentioned herein. No need to worry about spoiling me. (The other side of this: this letter is seriously spoilery in places, so read carefully.)
Alphas (Anna Levy, Gary Bell)
What is Anna's day-to-day life like? How does she work with her local community? How and why did she join Red Flag? How did she get to such a high position in the group? What was her childhood like? How did she create her language, and who was the first person to understand it for what it was? Who does she work with at Red Flag, and what are their interactions like? What have her interactions with Stanton Parrish been like, and what did she do to piss him off?
How did Anna and Gary's relationship go from Gary hanging up on Anna to Gary disobeying orders to try to save her life? What was their correspondence like? What does she think of him?
Fic about Gary is also most welcome! Something highlighting his relationships with the rest of the team? Yes, please. Or an episode tag would be awesome too. Or Gary's driving lessons. Or a post-series fic (taking the finale into account or handwaving it, I don't care) would also be amazing. What is he doing five years from now? Ten? (Has he taken over Red Flag and led it in a non-violent direction? Is he making oodles of money as a consultant on the side? Who knows? You do!) The world needs more Gary.
(If you only want to write about one character or the other for this prompt, that's cool with me.)
I've loved Anna since the second they introduced her.
I love antagonists who aren't necessarily wrong (though I obviously don't condone Red Flag's methods). I love that they make her relatable, but obviously very different from "normal" humans. I even love that she's been misdiagnosed all her life because none of her doctors knew about alphas. I love how sympathetic she is. I love that she and Gary bonded so quickly.
One thing that fascinates me as well is the possibility that her ability might allow her to understand what people mean versus what they actually say.
(From a Watsonian perspective, I hate how she died. From a Doylian perspective, I totally understand it and am fascinated by the implications. This isn't to say I desperately want an AU where she lives, though I'm definitely open to that possibility, and I'd be kind of fascinated to see what Anna-ten-years-from-now would be up to.)
And then there's Gary. Gary, Gary, Gary. I love how they (both the showrunners and the characters) treat Gary as an individual. His autism is an integral part of who he is, but he's not the token oddball or the savant or the Very Special Episode The Writers Put In So Neurotypical Viewers Can Feel Good About Themselves. (And speaking of which, this show is literally the only time I've encountered the word "neurodiversity" in mass media. Which says quite a lot.) Sometimes it's helpful, and sometimes it's debilitating. He does get the lion's share of the funny moments, but it's not in an exploitative way.
In short: Anna and Gary are both the best. If you can make them be the best together, all the better. If not, they're still the best! (Best-ness is not zero sum.)
Black Mirror (Blue Colson)
I'd love to see Blue making the major decisions in her life. Choosing to work for law enforcement, becoming a more hands-on detective, leaving the force (and doing what she does at the end of the episode). Hell, even failing her driving tests. How does she deal with the fresh trauma of the episode's events? Or: what happens next?
Sooooo my sister got me in to Black Mirror last year, and it took me a while to get through all of it. And I'm so glad I did, because by I spent "Hated in the Nation" entirely captivated, and Blue was my favorite part. The contrast and interplay between her and Karin was something I especially enjoyed.
I work in community moderation and I deal with a lot of the same nastiness Blue did, and it warms the shattered remains of the cockles of my heart to see the people who post such things come to justice. But at the same time, is what Blue does in the end justice? How does she come to decide it is, herself? What's her endgame, and what part is Karin playing in it? What happens after the very end of the episode -- what does she do to Garrett? Does she reveal herself to him, or to the rest of the world? What's her plan for a year after she finds him? Five years?
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (any)
I said "any" and I mean "any," regardless of whether it was actually nominated. I'd love to hear stories, myths, and legends from any of the other worlds we see. If there's a geographic area and/or time period you love, I'd love to see what life is like in that time/place in Lyra's world -- create a character and send them on an adventure in Lyra's world. Or you know those snippets of documents/other materials in Lyra's Oxford and Once Upon a Time in the North? Excerpts from things like that -- from any world -- would be amazing as well. Some (completely optional, and occasionally mutually incompatible) ideas for each nominated character are in my letter.
I've loved these books since I was 13, and they are one of the fandoms of my deepest heart. Worldbuilding is an amazing thing when there are so many different worlds to work with, but since that's quite expansive, some suggestions for the nominated characters follow:
- Balthamos, Baruch, Xaphania: It fascinates me that the angels in HDM are essentially byproducts of sentient thought. What is living like for them? How do angels manipulate the worlds to their gain? We know humans can become angels; how and why does that happen?
- Iorek: Polar bears usually give birth to twins. Discuss. Or: returning to the North after the barriers between worlds are sealed. Or: How has panserbjørne society related to humans over the years? How is Iorek a different leader than his predecessors?
- Lord Asriel, Lyra, Marisa Coulter: I'd love to see backstory on any or all of these three -- Mrs. Coulter as a child/teenager would be fascinating, or Lyra figuring out what parts of her story to reveal to whom later in life, or Lord Asriel working with the Gyptians and gaining their trust.
- Mary Malone (+daemon), Will: Getting to know their daemons. Or: Mary's history as a nun (and her departure). Or: Will discovering the things he missed out on in his own world while he was taking care of his mother. (Does he choose to tell his mother about meeting his father?)
- Serafina Pekkala: Witch lore! Romance! Politics! Intrigue! How do the witches on both sides of the war recover from their immense losses?
Sunshine (2007) (Corazon)
What's Corazon's backstory? How did she end up being the one on Icarus II? (For that matter, why wasn't she on Icarus I?) Or: how does she deal with her crewmates' reactions after the oxygen garden incident? Or: what are her letters/calls to Earth like? Basically, just give me something that focuses on Cory and I'll be happy.
This is one of the movies of my heart. I love the characters, I love that they all face consequences for everything they do, I even love the off-the-rails ending. But what I don't love is the fact that Corazon isn't in every single scene (and honestly, even that might not be enough. ;) ) She's such a complex character -- full of compassion, but equally willing to make the hard decisions when it clearly serves the greater good. So anything that explores how she became the person she is would be amazing.
Another thing I love is the interactions between the crew members -- their dynamics shift greatly after each crisis, and Corazon is almost a constant between these. That's got to take a toll on her; what's that like for her? How do things change between her and the rest of the crew, even when it doesn't appear they have?
Thank you so much for writing for me! I hope you have lots of fun. As usual, feel free to contact the mods if you have any questions; they'll pass them along and preserve your anonymity.
<3,
Neb.