Dear Yuletide Author Letter
Dec. 25th, 2012 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juiceboxheroDear Yuletide Author,
As you may have noticed, there is next to nothing in my journal. I apologize for that, and will try to pack this letter with as many insights about my likes and dislikes as possible to compensate. I swear I didn't just start existing a month ago! Actually, this will be my 3rd Yuletide!
The truth is, I've strayed from my old neglected LJ account to this new one, because I'm trying to reinvent myself over here, with more anonymity and less worrying about what people expect me to write about. So far the new journal seems mostly to be babbling about Yuletide and makeup, so I've objectively concluded that I'm just not that interesting. What a disappointment! Oh, well.
Getting down to business, here is a general idea of what sort of fic pushes my buttons these days:
I'm not a big fan of holiday fic unless it's an intrinsic part of the plot, so no "Very Special Christmas Episodes", please. There will be an exception to this later, so read on...
I love gen fic that reveals something extra about a character or a relationship. One of my favourite stories ever is the Murphy Brown fic But Liquor is Quicker from a past Yuletide. Another is The Fearless Moral Inventory of Milhouse Van Houten. Weirdly, I just realized these are both about alcoholism. But I'm not obsessed with alcoholism! Just good strong stories. I swear! ;)
Romance is fine in these kinds of stories, but I love when the focus is on character growth or character revelation.
As far as pairings are concerned, I'm an equal opportunity het/slash/femslash fan. I'll let you know if any pairings jump out at me within the fandoms I picked. I'm also bisexual and would love it if any bisexual characters made their way into my gift fic!
I've learned through reading and writing lots and lots of PWP that I actually get more satisfaction out of the buildup to sex or even the buildup to a relationship (development of feelings, flirtation, etc) so if you choose to go the shippy route, take heed.
Tropes I love: unrequited love, antagonism that turns to romance, friendship given equal weight to romantic love, friendship that turns to romance, complicated or difficult family relationships, non-traditional gender roles, well-written original characters, gritty realism, "five things" format vignettes, salty language, sympathetic/conflicted/well-developped villains, characters struggling with accepting their homosexuality or bisexuality, dark comedy, time travel and robots (yes, I realize there is very little occasion for these last 2, but I am very fond of the subjects, even if the characters are just discussing them, for example!)
Tropes I'm not crazy about: love triangles used to create tension, non-con, when you can tell the author dislikes a certain character from the way they're written out of character as a horrible person (so specific, I know, but I encounter this a lot), one-dimensional villains, adorable children, song lyrics (especially musical references intended to reveal anything about a character, please no), traditional gender roles.
Tropes I'm completely unfamiliar with due to being mostly away from fandom for the past 2 years: alpha/beta/omega stuff. I see discussion of it everywhere, but I wouldn't know it if it sat on me.
Here's a bit more detail than what I had in my signup:
Young Adult - Futurefic, please! I loved the unapologetic awfulness of Mavis in this movie, especially the final peptalk scene with Sandra. I'm obsessed with Matt and Sandra's life in this crappy town and what changes might occur for them after the events of the movie. I'm also interested in ways that Mavis continues to be a horrible human being after the film, and in the brief moments of vulnerability and self-doubt that I'm sure she experiences and represses throughout her life. I'd also be into fic exploring a Matt/Mavis relationship, one-sided or not.
Witness - There's not much to add as far as my signup goes for this one. Obviously, I would love futurefic for this fandom as well. A brief John Book/Rachel encounter sometime down the road, perhaps? Or an attempt at an actual relationship? John randomly running into another member of the Amish community he was briefly a part of? The grandfather's perspective, where what happened is just a little blip in his long and interesting life story as an Amish man. Samuel going through Rumspringa in a strange and unusual way due to the past influence the English world has had on him? Like I said in my signup, you could write me comic book superhero Samuel and I'd be ecstatic, so anything else you come up with that's wackier - just assume I'll love it ;)
Ramona Series - Beverly Cleary: Again, I'm asking for futurefic. I know I said no Christmas fic, but if you're itching to write adult Ramona and Beezus (and maybe Roberta, depending on how far in the future the story is set) returning home for the holidays and falling back into their old family roles, I would be all for that. Anything set in the future where they're both grown-ups is great, though. Bonus points if there are significant others involved. Extra bonus points if one or both of those significant others are female! Please, no Beezus/Henry Huggins or Ramona/Howie, although I wouldn't mind those guys being present in the story, even as old boyfriends. In fact, any peripheral characters from the books would be a wonderful bonus! :)
Room - Emma Donoghue: Really what I'd love from this story is the perspective of an inanimate object in Room. Anything mentioned in the book (Rug, Eggsnake, Meltedy Spoon, Skylight, etc.) or even something that isn't directly mentioned but may have had a relationship to Jack and his Ma at some point. If this isn't possible, then futurefic is always welcome :)
As you can probably tell, I'm a bit all over the place. I love to be surprised and I'm pretty easygoing, so I'm sure I'll love the final product, whatever it may be! Thanks so much in advance for the journey you're about to go on, and thanks for volunteering to write one one or more of these fandoms that are very close to my heart right now :)
Love,
Juiceboxero
As you may have noticed, there is next to nothing in my journal. I apologize for that, and will try to pack this letter with as many insights about my likes and dislikes as possible to compensate. I swear I didn't just start existing a month ago! Actually, this will be my 3rd Yuletide!
The truth is, I've strayed from my old neglected LJ account to this new one, because I'm trying to reinvent myself over here, with more anonymity and less worrying about what people expect me to write about. So far the new journal seems mostly to be babbling about Yuletide and makeup, so I've objectively concluded that I'm just not that interesting. What a disappointment! Oh, well.
Getting down to business, here is a general idea of what sort of fic pushes my buttons these days:
I'm not a big fan of holiday fic unless it's an intrinsic part of the plot, so no "Very Special Christmas Episodes", please. There will be an exception to this later, so read on...
I love gen fic that reveals something extra about a character or a relationship. One of my favourite stories ever is the Murphy Brown fic But Liquor is Quicker from a past Yuletide. Another is The Fearless Moral Inventory of Milhouse Van Houten. Weirdly, I just realized these are both about alcoholism. But I'm not obsessed with alcoholism! Just good strong stories. I swear! ;)
Romance is fine in these kinds of stories, but I love when the focus is on character growth or character revelation.
As far as pairings are concerned, I'm an equal opportunity het/slash/femslash fan. I'll let you know if any pairings jump out at me within the fandoms I picked. I'm also bisexual and would love it if any bisexual characters made their way into my gift fic!
I've learned through reading and writing lots and lots of PWP that I actually get more satisfaction out of the buildup to sex or even the buildup to a relationship (development of feelings, flirtation, etc) so if you choose to go the shippy route, take heed.
Tropes I love: unrequited love, antagonism that turns to romance, friendship given equal weight to romantic love, friendship that turns to romance, complicated or difficult family relationships, non-traditional gender roles, well-written original characters, gritty realism, "five things" format vignettes, salty language, sympathetic/conflicted/well-developped villains, characters struggling with accepting their homosexuality or bisexuality, dark comedy, time travel and robots (yes, I realize there is very little occasion for these last 2, but I am very fond of the subjects, even if the characters are just discussing them, for example!)
Tropes I'm not crazy about: love triangles used to create tension, non-con, when you can tell the author dislikes a certain character from the way they're written out of character as a horrible person (so specific, I know, but I encounter this a lot), one-dimensional villains, adorable children, song lyrics (especially musical references intended to reveal anything about a character, please no), traditional gender roles.
Tropes I'm completely unfamiliar with due to being mostly away from fandom for the past 2 years: alpha/beta/omega stuff. I see discussion of it everywhere, but I wouldn't know it if it sat on me.
Here's a bit more detail than what I had in my signup:
Young Adult - Futurefic, please! I loved the unapologetic awfulness of Mavis in this movie, especially the final peptalk scene with Sandra. I'm obsessed with Matt and Sandra's life in this crappy town and what changes might occur for them after the events of the movie. I'm also interested in ways that Mavis continues to be a horrible human being after the film, and in the brief moments of vulnerability and self-doubt that I'm sure she experiences and represses throughout her life. I'd also be into fic exploring a Matt/Mavis relationship, one-sided or not.
Witness - There's not much to add as far as my signup goes for this one. Obviously, I would love futurefic for this fandom as well. A brief John Book/Rachel encounter sometime down the road, perhaps? Or an attempt at an actual relationship? John randomly running into another member of the Amish community he was briefly a part of? The grandfather's perspective, where what happened is just a little blip in his long and interesting life story as an Amish man. Samuel going through Rumspringa in a strange and unusual way due to the past influence the English world has had on him? Like I said in my signup, you could write me comic book superhero Samuel and I'd be ecstatic, so anything else you come up with that's wackier - just assume I'll love it ;)
Ramona Series - Beverly Cleary: Again, I'm asking for futurefic. I know I said no Christmas fic, but if you're itching to write adult Ramona and Beezus (and maybe Roberta, depending on how far in the future the story is set) returning home for the holidays and falling back into their old family roles, I would be all for that. Anything set in the future where they're both grown-ups is great, though. Bonus points if there are significant others involved. Extra bonus points if one or both of those significant others are female! Please, no Beezus/Henry Huggins or Ramona/Howie, although I wouldn't mind those guys being present in the story, even as old boyfriends. In fact, any peripheral characters from the books would be a wonderful bonus! :)
Room - Emma Donoghue: Really what I'd love from this story is the perspective of an inanimate object in Room. Anything mentioned in the book (Rug, Eggsnake, Meltedy Spoon, Skylight, etc.) or even something that isn't directly mentioned but may have had a relationship to Jack and his Ma at some point. If this isn't possible, then futurefic is always welcome :)
As you can probably tell, I'm a bit all over the place. I love to be surprised and I'm pretty easygoing, so I'm sure I'll love the final product, whatever it may be! Thanks so much in advance for the journey you're about to go on, and thanks for volunteering to write one one or more of these fandoms that are very close to my heart right now :)
Love,
Juiceboxero
