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Dear Yuletide Writer (2024)
Oct. 18th, 2024 03:27 pmDear Yuletide Writer,
Hello! I appreciate you writing something for me! This is my first year doing Yuletide, so I hope this letter helps you somehow. There's some quick housekeeping to be done before we get to the letter proper.
1) Special thanks to sinkauli, whose letter really helped me figure out how to format my own. You can check out sinkauli's Ao3 at archiveofourown.org/users/sinkauli/pseuds/sinkauli!
2) I am always okay with receiving treats. I am also always okay with receiving fics that bend mediums, like interactive fics.
3) This letter has three sections: first are my DNWs, second are my likes and preferences for most of the media I consume, and third are my optional details for the fandoms I've requested.
If you're my writer, then you've received my signup form, which (hopefully) means you have all of the optional details and prompts for my requested fandoms. That's why they're at the bottom of this letter - you don't have to scroll all the way down if you don't want to. But they're there if you need them.
4) My Ao3 is archiveofourown.org/users/junk_thrillz, and my Tumblr is junk-thrillz.tumblr.com. Just in case you want more info about what I'm like and need to do some snooping!
Thank you for letting me ramble, let's get into it!
DNWs
Optional Details: General Likes and Preferences
The following are things I like reading about that are not tied to a specific work, but may work better with some than others. Hopefully this gives you an idea of the sort of person I am. I also hope that I made everything clear and that I haven't caused unnecessary confusion.
Please know that even if I were to sit down and write this letter for three weeks straight, I would not be able to list everything I enjoy in fic and in fictional media in general. I like serious fics and comedic fics. I like fluff and I like angst. I like genfic AND shipping AND polyamory. I like fics that are hypotheticals and I like fics that are plotless. There is a very high chance that I will love what you write for me.
Even so, I did my best to write down the main stuff, but optional details are always optional, so feel free to branch out!
Themes:
Plot Points/Devices:
AUs:
Settings:
Miscellaneous Features and Things:
If you've already got the optional prompts for the fandom you're writing for, then you've hit the bottom of the letter. Thank you again for writing something for me. If you need to find the optional prompts again, then yay! You get to keep reading!
Optional Details: Requests
I tend to frame my prompts as ‘what-ifs’ or questions to encourage personal writer interpretation. If this format is confusing or doesn’t give you enough to work with, then I apologize. Assume that if I give you an idea along the lines of “what if Character A did this?” that it can also be read as “a fic where Character A does this”.
Paranatural (Webcomic)
Favorite Characters: All of the nominated characters. My absolute favorite is Violet, but I will enjoy reading a fic focused on any of the other three just as much as I will enjoy one focused on Violet.
Favorite Dynamics: Any possible teamup between Violet, Lisa, Isabel, and Max. This includes teams of three, or all four characters together. Teamups can be platonic or romantic!
Likes/Prompts/Scenarios:
仮面ライダーギーツ | Kamen Rider Geats
Favorite Characters: My ultimate favorite character from the show is Azuma Michinaga.
Favorite Dynamics: Michinaga and Ace (#1), Michinaga and Neon, all four nominated characters (Michinaga, Ace, Neon and Keiwa) together. I especially love romantic pairings between these four characters, but I will always love genfic as well!
Likes/Prompts/Scenarios:
We Can Be Heroes (2020)
Favorite Characters: All four of the characters nominated (Missy, Wildcard, A Capella, Wheels). I'm also a Facemaker enjoyer.
Favorite Dynamics: Missy and Wildcard, A Capella and Wildcard, Wheels and anyone. With this movie, I most enjoy when the relationships between characters are platonic, familial, or even queerplatonic. I am far less likely to connect with romantic ships.
Likes/Prompts/Scenarios:
Motorcity (Cartoon)
Favorite Characters: Mike and Julie, though I will absolutely love anything that focuses on any of the nominated Burners. I also love Rayon, though he isn’t a nominated character haha.
Favorite Dynamics: The Burners, Mike and Julie, Mike and Chuck, Mike and Dutch, Dutch and Tennie. Platonic or romantic for all listed, I enjoy both interpretations!
Likes/Prompts/Scenarios:
Wayfarers Series - Becky Chambers
Favorite Characters: My favorite characters are Sidra and Speaker. I am also a huge fan of Pepper and Blue, almost as much as I’m a fan of Sidra, but Sidra is my favorite character in the whole series.
Favorite Dynamics: Sidra, Blue and Pepper as a trio, with any pairing within those three also being a favorite. Platonic or romantic, I love both.
Likes/Prompts/Scenarios:
Hello! I appreciate you writing something for me! This is my first year doing Yuletide, so I hope this letter helps you somehow. There's some quick housekeeping to be done before we get to the letter proper.
1) Special thanks to sinkauli, whose letter really helped me figure out how to format my own. You can check out sinkauli's Ao3 at archiveofourown.org/users/sinkauli/pseuds/sinkauli!
2) I am always okay with receiving treats. I am also always okay with receiving fics that bend mediums, like interactive fics.
3) This letter has three sections: first are my DNWs, second are my likes and preferences for most of the media I consume, and third are my optional details for the fandoms I've requested.
If you're my writer, then you've received my signup form, which (hopefully) means you have all of the optional details and prompts for my requested fandoms. That's why they're at the bottom of this letter - you don't have to scroll all the way down if you don't want to. But they're there if you need them.
4) My Ao3 is archiveofourown.org/users/junk_thrillz, and my Tumblr is junk-thrillz.tumblr.com. Just in case you want more info about what I'm like and need to do some snooping!
Thank you for letting me ramble, let's get into it!
DNWs
- Smut. I do not enjoy graphic depictions of sex. I also do not enjoy reading serious discussions about having sex. Jokes about sex are completely fine as long as they do not fall into sexual harassment territory.
- Non-consensual physical contact. This refers to contact that is romantic or sexual. This also includes references to previous instances of it occurring - unless such a thing occurred at some point in canon. If it happened in canon, it's okay if it's referenced.
- Bigotry that is not canon-typical. For example, if a series contains themes of classism but not themes of racism, I would be fine with a fic that included the former, but I would not want it to include the latter. Again: if a form of bigotry, discrimination, or marginalization is present in canon, feel free to include it!
- Omegaverse AUs. I’m not sure why, but they’ve always been hard for me to get into.
- Incestuous relationships. Relationships between family members who are not related by blood count as incestuous.
- Romantic or sexual relationships between a minor and an adult.
- Mentions or descriptions of feces, piss, or vomit.
Optional Details: General Likes and Preferences
The following are things I like reading about that are not tied to a specific work, but may work better with some than others. Hopefully this gives you an idea of the sort of person I am. I also hope that I made everything clear and that I haven't caused unnecessary confusion.
Please know that even if I were to sit down and write this letter for three weeks straight, I would not be able to list everything I enjoy in fic and in fictional media in general. I like serious fics and comedic fics. I like fluff and I like angst. I like genfic AND shipping AND polyamory. I like fics that are hypotheticals and I like fics that are plotless. There is a very high chance that I will love what you write for me.
Even so, I did my best to write down the main stuff, but optional details are always optional, so feel free to branch out!
Themes:
- Humanity. I love it when characters have to grapple with their own humanity, or lack thereof. What does it mean to be human? I love works that ask this question. I especially love when there isn’t a right answer to that question, or when the answer is “what you make of it”.
- Emotional Sincerity. Even if a work or concept is objectively ridiculous, I appreciate it when the underlying forces driving it are sincere. This is probably why I love Crack Treated Seriously as a type of fic so much. And also why I love Power Rangers. No irony poisoning here, no thank you!
- Hope and Perseverance. I appreciate it when a work says, “there is a point in caring”, and rewards its characters for trying their best, even if their best isn’t good enough. Nihilism is not my way.
Plot Points/Devices:
- Characters get into physical altercations with each other. Entertaining when it’s comedic, entertaining when it’s serious, and especially entertaining when it’s a bit of both. Bonus points if characters get a bit bloodied up in the process.
- Fusions. Two characters are temporarily fused into one, and have to deal with all that entails. I like this trope for its intimacy, but I also like it when a fusion is volatile or better off as two separate people.
- Mindlinks. Similar to fusions, but without the characters sharing a physical body. The details of the mindlink, how it works and how it happened, are not ones I have hard preferences about. Maybe one character can hear the other’s thoughts but not the other way around. Maybe the mindlink is temporary. Maybe it’s a result of someone’s powers, or maybe it’s a Pacific Rim situation. The world is our oyster.
- Truth Spell. Due to plot reasons, a character has to be honest, whether they want to be or not. Doesn’t have to be a literal spell. Maybe it’s another mind link that does it. This plot device feels the most rewarding to read when the honesty is rewarded, having somehow made things better rather than worse.
- Facing the literal and physical manifestation of your insecurities or fears. The characters can no longer run, and have to finally face themselves… often with other people present.
- Roleswaps. Character A is in Character B’s situation or vice versa, unlike how both characters are in canon.
- Personality Swaps. Characters meet alternate/parallel versions of themselves who have the opposite personality to the original. Can be played straight or for pure comedy purposes. Bonus points if characters learn something about themselves by meeting these other versions of themselves.
- Canon Divergence. I’m a huge fan of what-if scenarios, as you have probably guessed by reading the rest of my letter. My favorite canon-divergent scenarios are one in which one scene change or one simple decision is enough to change a lot about the story.
- Going somewhere? I like it when characters have to travel from Point A to Point B, or even when the traveling is the point and the end destination doesn’t matter to them.
- Duo or group activities. Beach episodes! Going to the roller rink! Movie nights! I have fun when characters are having fun doing something with each other.
- Problems and Solutions. I love it when characters have to roll with the punches. Being put in a situation that’s high-stress, is completely new, or doesn’t have a simple solution, and being forced to suck it up and get things done is always fun to read. It’s also fun when the situation that must be dealt with is the B-plot to something else, like the relationship between two characters.
- Relaxation. All that being said, I also love fics where characters are allowed to rest. Maybe there isn’t something that has to be dealt with, and they’re allowed a moment of calm. As much as I love competent characters, I love it more when they’re both competent and happy.
AUs:
- Magical girls. This is referring to the genre! (If you’re confused, series like Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Sailor Moon are magical girl series.) I especially enjoy when the AU is not based on a pre-existing magical girl series and is instead its own thing, with mostly its own lore.
- Mechs. I love giant robots! And I love when characters pilot giant mechs together!
- Wingfics. Enjoyable whether it’s only a few characters who have wings, or all of them. I like wingfics most when they take place in the canon setting. I also love when the wing types are varied, e.g mixing in birds with insects.
- Zombie apocalypse. I like zombie AUs which focus on a group traveling, or which focus on society rebuilding after the onset of the apocalypse. Angst is par for the course with an apocalypse AU, but I prefer mine to have a healthy dose of hope.
- Steampunk AUs. Steampunk has such room for creativity within it that even if a concept is kind of out there, I'm bound to have fun with it. I've also enjoyed dieselpunk.
Settings:
- Trains. Think Murder on the Orient Express. I like trains when there’s something unusual unfolding on one.
- Spooky mansions. Large, haunted places where bad things can happen and characters can become trapped.
- Forests.
- Libraries and archives.
Miscellaneous Features and Things:
- Cuddling. What it says on the tin! Huge puppy piles, when it’s just two people, huddling for warmth, when there’s only one bed, accidentally falling asleep on someone else, cuddling to make the pain go away, I love it all!
- Monsters and beasts. I love creatures! My absolute favorites are werewolves and zombies, though I also love how creative people can get with coming up with their own monsters!
- Horror, violence, gore. The horror doesn’t have to be physical, it can be psychological as well! I don’t do well with body horror about foreign entities entering the body, or mouth gore, but that’s about it for my limits. If something is more gross than it is gorey or violent, try to stay away from it.
- A quick note about the above. I also tend to not enjoy suffering or gratuitous violence without an emotional purpose driving it. Torture porn is not my thing because I like it when these things have a point to them.
If you've already got the optional prompts for the fandom you're writing for, then you've hit the bottom of the letter. Thank you again for writing something for me. If you need to find the optional prompts again, then yay! You get to keep reading!
Optional Details: Requests
I tend to frame my prompts as ‘what-ifs’ or questions to encourage personal writer interpretation. If this format is confusing or doesn’t give you enough to work with, then I apologize. Assume that if I give you an idea along the lines of “what if Character A did this?” that it can also be read as “a fic where Character A does this”.
Paranatural (Webcomic)
Favorite Characters: All of the nominated characters. My absolute favorite is Violet, but I will enjoy reading a fic focused on any of the other three just as much as I will enjoy one focused on Violet.
Favorite Dynamics: Any possible teamup between Violet, Lisa, Isabel, and Max. This includes teams of three, or all four characters together. Teamups can be platonic or romantic!
Likes/Prompts/Scenarios:
- The existence of the supernatural is revealed to Violet. Maybe this is because she’s become a spectral. Maybe it’s because she’s been bitten by a werewolf. No matter what caused it, her world has been changed.
- An unlikely teamup has occurred! Maybe Isabel has gone to Lisa for information. Maybe Violet is roped into dealing with a spirit alongside Max and Isabel.
- In canon, Lisa is blackmailing Max. What does Max working for Lisa look like? What does she have him do? What is their relationship like after Chapter 5?
- Anything about Max and Isabel’s relationship after the events of Chapter 4 or Chapter 5.
- Shenanigans involving human or spectral characters having to deal with a spirit (or several). Could be a spirit from canon, or one of your own creation.
- What if being a spectral, whether you are associated with a spirit or not, came with biological side effects not present in canon? What if tool users were physically changed just like mediums? Is there more to spectral energy than meets the eye? So many hypotheticals!
- A character has to fuse with their spirit. Why? Are there consequences? Are others around to witness it?
- Looking for a prompt that isn’t just about the supernatural? What about when characters have to deal with the horrors, trials, and tribulations of being tweens and teens? I enjoy supernatural plots just as much as I enjoy plots that are down-to-earth.
仮面ライダーギーツ | Kamen Rider Geats
Favorite Characters: My ultimate favorite character from the show is Azuma Michinaga.
Favorite Dynamics: Michinaga and Ace (#1), Michinaga and Neon, all four nominated characters (Michinaga, Ace, Neon and Keiwa) together. I especially love romantic pairings between these four characters, but I will always love genfic as well!
Likes/Prompts/Scenarios:
- Anything focused on Michinaga’s time spent in the Jyamato Garden, as part of the Jyamato Grand Prix, or as ‘Zombie Buffa’ in general. Could be about his relationships with the other Riders or his plant body horror situation.
- Scenarios that play off of the temporary amnesia that plagues the Riders during the series. ID cores malfunctioning or being unavailable is one example.
- An AU or scenario in which the Riders possess some of the mannerisms (or features!) of their assigned animal. Maybe Neon makes biscuits like a cat. Maybe Ace is even more foxlike than usual.
- A fix-it ending where the other characters remember Ace.
- Any and all polyamory feels, whether fluffy or angsty, plotty or plotless.
- Meta-fanfiction; what is the Desire Grand Prix fandom like in-universe?
- While I will enjoy post-canon fics, or fics focusing on the DGP prior to Episode 1, my favorite type of fic is one that takes place during the events of the show proper.
- One of the Riders does their best to fight for another Rider, whether the ‘fight’ is literal or metaphorical. Examples include Ace fighting for Neon after Neon’s backstory is revealed, Michinaga attempting to make amends with Keiwa, the others defending Ace after the DGP begins to target him…
We Can Be Heroes (2020)
Favorite Characters: All four of the characters nominated (Missy, Wildcard, A Capella, Wheels). I'm also a Facemaker enjoyer.
Favorite Dynamics: Missy and Wildcard, A Capella and Wildcard, Wheels and anyone. With this movie, I most enjoy when the relationships between characters are platonic, familial, or even queerplatonic. I am far less likely to connect with romantic ships.
Likes/Prompts/Scenarios:
- In fandom, the dads of Wheels and Wildcard are often shipped together. What if Wildcard and Wheels really were siblings? Are they step siblings or blood related? What does their dynamic look like and how does it recontextualize them in the film?
- How does a specific character feel about their powers (or lack thereof)? How have they lived their life in a world with superpowers? Character studies that include some worldbuilding along the way are fun. If I could point to a specific character to do this prompt with, I would point to Wheels.
- Missy and Wildcard are co-leaders of the team, but now have to deal with a situation where they need to lead without the other. They struggle without the other there to balance them out.
- Characters have to deal with their first threat since the alien invasion, whether big or small.
- A fic focused on the aftermath of the events of the movie; how the day-to-day experiences of the character(s) have changed after becoming heroes, or even just what it was like to go home after a successfully-thwarted fake alien invasion.
- Anything focusing on a character’s insecurities or feelings of inadequacy. Bonus points if the cause of the angst is a combination of superpowers and being a teen.
Motorcity (Cartoon)
Favorite Characters: Mike and Julie, though I will absolutely love anything that focuses on any of the nominated Burners. I also love Rayon, though he isn’t a nominated character haha.
Favorite Dynamics: The Burners, Mike and Julie, Mike and Chuck, Mike and Dutch, Dutch and Tennie. Platonic or romantic for all listed, I enjoy both interpretations!
Likes/Prompts/Scenarios:
- Origin stories! I especially love fics that talk about how certain Burners met others on the team for the first time. What’s their history? I’d love to know!
- Racing cars together as a bonding activity or as a way to open an emotional dialogue. I love how inseparable the Burners’ identities are from their cars.
- An altercation with some KaneBots goes very well, and the character/s are able to bask in their victory. The celebration could look like anything, but I shall point out the potential for cuddling here.
- Alternatively, an altercation with some KaneBots goes very poorly, and the character/s have to deal with the aftermath.
- Julie’s last name is revealed. How does she handle it? What does the aftermath look like? I would love for a prompt like this to focus on how deep her bonds are with her teammates and with Motorcity.
- Chuck’s android features malfunction or require maintenance.
- A character has to grapple with their connection to Detroit Deluxe, whether those connections are previous or current.
- Anything post-finale. What does rebuilding look like after winning the fight against Kane? How do the characters cope with their trauma? Bonus points if Mike’s detainment in the finale is brought up.
Wayfarers Series - Becky Chambers
Favorite Characters: My favorite characters are Sidra and Speaker. I am also a huge fan of Pepper and Blue, almost as much as I’m a fan of Sidra, but Sidra is my favorite character in the whole series.
Favorite Dynamics: Sidra, Blue and Pepper as a trio, with any pairing within those three also being a favorite. Platonic or romantic, I love both.
Likes/Prompts/Scenarios:
- Sidra grapples with the joys and struggles of being an AI, like in the canon of A Closed and Common Orbit. One of my favorite things about the book was how Sidra kept coming up against the limitations of her software/hardware.
- Pre-canon writing about what life was like for Blue and Pepper as they created a new life together outside of Aganon.
- What if there was a crossover between books, where Speaker met Pepper, Blue, or Sidra? What would their interactions be like? Would they be able to be friends? Perhaps they encounter each other because Speaker is on the job?
- A Speaker-centric character study. What is it like being an Akarak? How does she feel about her culture and about her childhood? What was she like as a kid? I will enjoy any writing focused on Speaker.
- A day in the life of Pepper, Blue and Sidra's household.
