Dear Author Letter
I signed up for the Galentine's Day fic exchange. (Optimistic of me, I know.) Here is my letter to my dear author!
Dear Galentine’s Day author,
First off, thanks so much for offering to write me a story! I am sure I will enjoy whatever it is you chose to write. But to offer a little guidance if you want, I can tell you a few things I like. If they spark your muse, great, if not, equally great. Certainly don’t try to squeeze them all in or something!
-I like stories where characters are underestimated in some way. Either other people underestimate them, or they underestimate themselves. It’s great to read about them overcoming that, or, you know, just having an awesome BAMF moment with their brains or brawn or skills or calmness in a storm, etc, getting a chance to shine and/or save the day.
-I love stories about secondary or minor characters, giving them more in-depth background or just hearing their point of view of events and/or major characters. The more misunderstood or generally ignored a minor character is, the more I love it when someone takes them on and gives them their own story.
-I like friendships that start off rocky or full of misconceptions or even with animosity that then evolve slowly from there. I like the evolution and process of learning to see someone differently.
-I am totally cool with crossover stories. In fact, that would pretty darn awesome. I love that possibility of “What in the world would these two characters think of each other?” I always like to think of it as, if they were locked in a closet/elevator/spaceship/etc with each other, what in the world would they say?
-I’m a fan of Five Things type formats if that is your thing. Or small snippets over vast time.
-I like to stick to canon ships for the most part, but if you strongly feel the inspiration for some femslash, that’s fine. In that case, I would prefer smut-free, pretty please. I’ve always preferred the pre-ship, USTy stuff.
As for specific fandoms and favorite characters, it’s embarrassing to admit that I can’t remember which fandoms I signed up for specifically. (Give me a big ole fail for that one.) The thing is, no matter what fandoms I signed up for, the sad truth is that most of them only have a handful of women in them, and I am not the sort of person to dislike or hate any of the women in my fandoms-evil, marginalized, hated by fandom or not. For example, I’m pretty sure Harry Potter was on my list. When I started listing all the characters I’d like to read about, I realized I had written everyone down. Like, I love Luna until the end of time, but then I was thinking how much I love Molly and how little is written from her POV. And then I thought of every female character only mentioned once or twice and thought it might be easier to list the characters I would rather not read about, but couldn’t think of a single one. I’d love to read about Narcissa or Bellatrix or Poppy or Moaning Myrtle or Petunia or….I could go on. It’s the same for me in Stargate or Elementary or Person of Interest or Fringe or The West Wing or Leverage or anything else I singed up for. I guess the only slight preference I have, and this is not a do or die thing, is that I slightly prefer female characters that are not the lead. But that is a very slight preference.
If I was forced to write a squickination list, I would prefer not to read: smut, first person POV, incest, adultery, or babyfic.
That’s pretty much it. I hope this helped and did not in any way make this process any more difficult. Happy writing! May our muses cooperate!
-Annerb
Dear Galentine’s Day author,
First off, thanks so much for offering to write me a story! I am sure I will enjoy whatever it is you chose to write. But to offer a little guidance if you want, I can tell you a few things I like. If they spark your muse, great, if not, equally great. Certainly don’t try to squeeze them all in or something!
-I like stories where characters are underestimated in some way. Either other people underestimate them, or they underestimate themselves. It’s great to read about them overcoming that, or, you know, just having an awesome BAMF moment with their brains or brawn or skills or calmness in a storm, etc, getting a chance to shine and/or save the day.
-I love stories about secondary or minor characters, giving them more in-depth background or just hearing their point of view of events and/or major characters. The more misunderstood or generally ignored a minor character is, the more I love it when someone takes them on and gives them their own story.
-I like friendships that start off rocky or full of misconceptions or even with animosity that then evolve slowly from there. I like the evolution and process of learning to see someone differently.
-I am totally cool with crossover stories. In fact, that would pretty darn awesome. I love that possibility of “What in the world would these two characters think of each other?” I always like to think of it as, if they were locked in a closet/elevator/spaceship/etc with each other, what in the world would they say?
-I’m a fan of Five Things type formats if that is your thing. Or small snippets over vast time.
-I like to stick to canon ships for the most part, but if you strongly feel the inspiration for some femslash, that’s fine. In that case, I would prefer smut-free, pretty please. I’ve always preferred the pre-ship, USTy stuff.
As for specific fandoms and favorite characters, it’s embarrassing to admit that I can’t remember which fandoms I signed up for specifically. (Give me a big ole fail for that one.) The thing is, no matter what fandoms I signed up for, the sad truth is that most of them only have a handful of women in them, and I am not the sort of person to dislike or hate any of the women in my fandoms-evil, marginalized, hated by fandom or not. For example, I’m pretty sure Harry Potter was on my list. When I started listing all the characters I’d like to read about, I realized I had written everyone down. Like, I love Luna until the end of time, but then I was thinking how much I love Molly and how little is written from her POV. And then I thought of every female character only mentioned once or twice and thought it might be easier to list the characters I would rather not read about, but couldn’t think of a single one. I’d love to read about Narcissa or Bellatrix or Poppy or Moaning Myrtle or Petunia or….I could go on. It’s the same for me in Stargate or Elementary or Person of Interest or Fringe or The West Wing or Leverage or anything else I singed up for. I guess the only slight preference I have, and this is not a do or die thing, is that I slightly prefer female characters that are not the lead. But that is a very slight preference.
If I was forced to write a squickination list, I would prefer not to read: smut, first person POV, incest, adultery, or babyfic.
That’s pretty much it. I hope this helped and did not in any way make this process any more difficult. Happy writing! May our muses cooperate!
-Annerb