dear yulegoat!
First of all: THANK YOU, amazing yulegoat, for signing up to write one of the tiny beloved fandoms of my heart! I hope that you will have a good time writing for me, and that your Yuletide will be full of joy and fannish delight! Or failing that, that at least my requests aren't already driving you to default in despair. But fingers crossed you'll have fun, and if there is ever a question in your heart as to whether you should fulfill some nitpicking optional detail in my request or write the story you have dreamed of writing since you offered the fandom, go with the story of your dreams, because if you love writing it, I'm sure I'll love reading it! This letter is just to give some additional guidance in case you want it; it's not meant to make things harder for you, and you should feel free to ignore the whole thing if you'd prefer.
That said, some general likes and dislikes:
Basically, I would prefer a happy ending. I want everybody to be happy or at least not overtly miserable at the end of the fic. They can suffer and be angsty in the beginning or middle but please please please let the ending be sunshine and rainbows or the promise of sunshine and rainbows on the not-too-distant horizon. I'm also happy to get a fic that's 100% fluffy sunshine and rainbows all the way through. I like characters bantering with each other and goofing off and being total dorks! And I love love love characters showing how much they love each other. It can be romantic, it can be familial, it can be friendship, but give me people who really care about each other and worry and hover and bully in a loving manner and just generally want to make each other happy. Also? Cuddling. I am a fan.
Other things that I like! Crazy AUs are always great. Want to write the fic where they're ice-skaters or porn stars or hookers or college students? Feel the urge to bring your fandom to work with you for a day? GO FOR IT! Reach into that box of cliches and pull one out at random if you feel like it, because I eat them up like candy. That said! I also really like stuff that stays super close to canon, but I am a tiny bit picky about things being accurate if you go this route. (I know, right? Anyone who's this into lunatic Alternate Universes has no ground to be fussing about canon compliance.) But anyway, if you are very familiar with the fandom and you're comfortable writing something that sticks obsessively close to canon, I love that too. Seriously, I like it when people put footnotes on their fic so I can check their references. I'm weird like that.
Things I don't like: pretty small list. No deathfic, please. No super-intense wrist-slashing angst, non-con or dub-con. No woman-bashing. No gay-bashing. If difficult topics like internalized misogyny or homophobia or racism are part of the canon or you want to explore them, don't feel like you need to white-wash anything, but do it carefully, okay? (I know it seems like that should go without saying but JUST IN CASE.) I'm a bit of a grammar nazi (I know, it's a character flaw) so if that's something you know you have issues with, get a beta to give it a quick scrub. :)
Blurred Lines Sexy Boys Parody (Music Video): Sexy Boy With Short Hair | Paris Original, Sexy Boy With Shaved Head | The Luminous Pariah, Sexy Boy With Long Hair | Trojan Original, Caela Bailey
I have no prompt for you except to have some sexy, sexy fun. (Or non-sexy fun! Whatever kind of fun you like!) I am completely enchanted by this video and how playful it is; I love that the women are aggressive without violence and are confident in their sex appeal. I love that the men all play up their sexiness in different ways and seem genuinely delighted to be there, being sexy. Tell me a story about them! It could be about a full-on orgy or it could be about the Sexy Boys doing an eye makeup tutorial or anywhere in between on the sexiness scale and I promise I would adore it.
ETA: This is probably the easiest fandom to pick up quickly if our initial match doesn't work out -- three minute music video! -- so if you want to check it out, you can watch it on YouTube. I feel like I should make it clear that I would be happy to see any and all of the characters from the video so long as there is some interaction between the Sexy Boys and the Women Who Serenade Them; you don't have to include all the boys if it doesn't work for your story, and you should feel free to write about Sydni Deveraux and Dalisha Phillips (in addition to or instead of Caela Bailey) as well. I was really sad that, given the four character per fandom limit, I couldn't include them all!
North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell | UK TV: Margaret Hale, John Thornton
THAT WAS NOT AN ENDING. Please give me a more emotionally fulfilling one? I just want a little more of John and Margaret doing whatever you feel like writing them doing! Wedding planning! Capitalism! Social justice! Sexy sexy honeymoon! I leave the details in your capable hands.
ETA: Just for the sake of clarification, I have watched the miniseries but I haven't read the book, so feel free to write in the style of Gaskell's writing if you want to but if it's crippling your muse don't worry about it because I won't know the difference!
The Outlaws of Sherwood - Robin McKinley: Cecil | Cecily of Norwell, Little John
I love Cecily so much sometimes I want to claw my face off GOD SHE'S THE BEST and her relationship with Little John is my favorite part of the book except for how there is NOT ENOUGH OF IT so that's where you come in, dear author! I would like some Cecily/Little John. Cecily and Little John on the Crusades? Cecily and Little John get married? Cecily somehow inherits Norwell and Little John has to live in a castle and deal with being a lord? Cecily and Little John try to bake bread and set the house on fire, seriously, whatever you want to write is cool so long as I get some shippy goodness in there. (If you'd rather write pre-relationship fic or are interested in queer themes, I personally found Little John's admission to a gay crisis over how attractive he found "Cecil" to be pretty intriguing... go with that where you will.)
Some Girls (BBC): Viva Bennett, Saz Kaur, Holli Vavasour, Amber Dean
I adore Some Girls and would love to get a story with madcap shenanigans like the show. I love the girls' friendship and how important it is to them all, so please include that, and I'd like to see at least a bit of each of the girls, but if you want to focus on just two of them that's totally fine! If you wanted to go to a femslashy place with this, I might expire of joy. I also love friendship fic, so really, you can't go wrong!
Tennis RPF: Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert
Chrissie and Martina love each other sooooooo muuuuuuch you guys it's the best! I would love a tale of their epic bromance, and I would also love a story about them being in love, it's entirely up to you.
ETA: This is probably the hardest fandom to get into if you haven't been watching (and Twitter-stalking, and listening to commentary during the Slams) all along, but if you do want to learn more about the most epic and slashiest rivalry in all of tennis history, I recommend reading The Rivals by Johnette Howard, and I salute you!
Most importantly of all: HAVE FUN!
That said, some general likes and dislikes:
Basically, I would prefer a happy ending. I want everybody to be happy or at least not overtly miserable at the end of the fic. They can suffer and be angsty in the beginning or middle but please please please let the ending be sunshine and rainbows or the promise of sunshine and rainbows on the not-too-distant horizon. I'm also happy to get a fic that's 100% fluffy sunshine and rainbows all the way through. I like characters bantering with each other and goofing off and being total dorks! And I love love love characters showing how much they love each other. It can be romantic, it can be familial, it can be friendship, but give me people who really care about each other and worry and hover and bully in a loving manner and just generally want to make each other happy. Also? Cuddling. I am a fan.
Other things that I like! Crazy AUs are always great. Want to write the fic where they're ice-skaters or porn stars or hookers or college students? Feel the urge to bring your fandom to work with you for a day? GO FOR IT! Reach into that box of cliches and pull one out at random if you feel like it, because I eat them up like candy. That said! I also really like stuff that stays super close to canon, but I am a tiny bit picky about things being accurate if you go this route. (I know, right? Anyone who's this into lunatic Alternate Universes has no ground to be fussing about canon compliance.) But anyway, if you are very familiar with the fandom and you're comfortable writing something that sticks obsessively close to canon, I love that too. Seriously, I like it when people put footnotes on their fic so I can check their references. I'm weird like that.
Things I don't like: pretty small list. No deathfic, please. No super-intense wrist-slashing angst, non-con or dub-con. No woman-bashing. No gay-bashing. If difficult topics like internalized misogyny or homophobia or racism are part of the canon or you want to explore them, don't feel like you need to white-wash anything, but do it carefully, okay? (I know it seems like that should go without saying but JUST IN CASE.) I'm a bit of a grammar nazi (I know, it's a character flaw) so if that's something you know you have issues with, get a beta to give it a quick scrub. :)
Blurred Lines Sexy Boys Parody (Music Video): Sexy Boy With Short Hair | Paris Original, Sexy Boy With Shaved Head | The Luminous Pariah, Sexy Boy With Long Hair | Trojan Original, Caela Bailey
I have no prompt for you except to have some sexy, sexy fun. (Or non-sexy fun! Whatever kind of fun you like!) I am completely enchanted by this video and how playful it is; I love that the women are aggressive without violence and are confident in their sex appeal. I love that the men all play up their sexiness in different ways and seem genuinely delighted to be there, being sexy. Tell me a story about them! It could be about a full-on orgy or it could be about the Sexy Boys doing an eye makeup tutorial or anywhere in between on the sexiness scale and I promise I would adore it.
ETA: This is probably the easiest fandom to pick up quickly if our initial match doesn't work out -- three minute music video! -- so if you want to check it out, you can watch it on YouTube. I feel like I should make it clear that I would be happy to see any and all of the characters from the video so long as there is some interaction between the Sexy Boys and the Women Who Serenade Them; you don't have to include all the boys if it doesn't work for your story, and you should feel free to write about Sydni Deveraux and Dalisha Phillips (in addition to or instead of Caela Bailey) as well. I was really sad that, given the four character per fandom limit, I couldn't include them all!
North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell | UK TV: Margaret Hale, John Thornton
THAT WAS NOT AN ENDING. Please give me a more emotionally fulfilling one? I just want a little more of John and Margaret doing whatever you feel like writing them doing! Wedding planning! Capitalism! Social justice! Sexy sexy honeymoon! I leave the details in your capable hands.
ETA: Just for the sake of clarification, I have watched the miniseries but I haven't read the book, so feel free to write in the style of Gaskell's writing if you want to but if it's crippling your muse don't worry about it because I won't know the difference!
The Outlaws of Sherwood - Robin McKinley: Cecil | Cecily of Norwell, Little John
I love Cecily so much sometimes I want to claw my face off GOD SHE'S THE BEST and her relationship with Little John is my favorite part of the book except for how there is NOT ENOUGH OF IT so that's where you come in, dear author! I would like some Cecily/Little John. Cecily and Little John on the Crusades? Cecily and Little John get married? Cecily somehow inherits Norwell and Little John has to live in a castle and deal with being a lord? Cecily and Little John try to bake bread and set the house on fire, seriously, whatever you want to write is cool so long as I get some shippy goodness in there. (If you'd rather write pre-relationship fic or are interested in queer themes, I personally found Little John's admission to a gay crisis over how attractive he found "Cecil" to be pretty intriguing... go with that where you will.)
Some Girls (BBC): Viva Bennett, Saz Kaur, Holli Vavasour, Amber Dean
I adore Some Girls and would love to get a story with madcap shenanigans like the show. I love the girls' friendship and how important it is to them all, so please include that, and I'd like to see at least a bit of each of the girls, but if you want to focus on just two of them that's totally fine! If you wanted to go to a femslashy place with this, I might expire of joy. I also love friendship fic, so really, you can't go wrong!
Tennis RPF: Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert
Chrissie and Martina love each other sooooooo muuuuuuch you guys it's the best! I would love a tale of their epic bromance, and I would also love a story about them being in love, it's entirely up to you.
ETA: This is probably the hardest fandom to get into if you haven't been watching (and Twitter-stalking, and listening to commentary during the Slams) all along, but if you do want to learn more about the most epic and slashiest rivalry in all of tennis history, I recommend reading The Rivals by Johnette Howard, and I salute you!
Most importantly of all: HAVE FUN!