Dear Yuletide Writer
Dear Yuletide writer,
First of all, thank you so, so much for offering to write one of my fandoms! I'm equally excited to receive a story in any one of them and I cannot wait to see what you come up with! I know I'll love whatever you write for these characters for sure, but I hope this letter can help you in case you're not sure what to write yet, or to tell you what I'd love to read the most for each of these fandoms.
First of all, here's what I really, really like: makeouts, found families, friendship turning into more, certain tropes (secretly married!!, drunk love declarations, going on a trip together, having to share a hotel bed), secret relationships, angst that is resolved by the end, banter, NC17 where appropriate, but I'm not fussy about ratings (→ whatever you want to write works). In terms of the fandoms I requested, I'm generally looking for het and/or gen fic.
There are very few things I don't like, but there are some, so I'd like to ask you try to avoid those, please. I'm not cool with character death, character bashing, misogyny or non-con. I also have very low tolerance for second-hand embarrassment and cringe very easily, so not too much of things that will make me embarrassed for the characters would be wonderful!
My LJ is 99% friends locked, but here is my tumblr and here is my delicious if you need to do any further ~research on things I like. My tumblr also has anonymous ask messages enabled, so if you need to ask me anything or if you need me to clarify anything, feel free to do it that way!
But without further ado, here are the fandoms I requested, in alphabetical order!
1. Cougar Town: Laurie, Travis, Ellie
What I'd love to read in terms of this request is Laurie/Travis getting together and wanting to keep it a secret, but Ellie finding out anyway and having a little fun with that newfound information.
I love this show so much and the long hiatus is too long, so if we were matched on this, yayy! I absolutely love Laurie/Travis and while the show dipped its toes into the ship during the last season, I want mooore, heh. I would love, love, love a story about how Laurie and Travis get together and then want to keep it a secret from the group at first, but Ellie finds out and has some fun with that newfound information (because clearly she's Ellie and nothing can be kept secret from her). If you're not into Laurie/Travis as a pairing, I'm also going to be really happy with some gen fic about an instance where Laurie and Travis bond over being the younger ones in the group, or where Laurie, Travis and Ellie scheme together or are in the same group of playing a game (like a scavenger hunt for instance, that would be awesome, but really - whatever you want!) and kick everyone's butt. Feel free to include the other characters of the Cul de Sac crew (I will say that I'm not the biggest Tom fan, but everyone else would be awesome!) but obviously you absolutely don't have to!
2. New Girl: Schmidt, Cece, Nick, Jess
For this request, I would either like some resolve for Cece/Schmidt, and/or exploration of how similar Nick/Jess really are, and/or just the group hanging out. For more details, see my letter.
This show quickly became one of the shows I look forward to the most every week, so I'd be really happy if we matched on this! I'd love to receive a story about any of these four characters - for shipping purposes, I ship Schmidt/Cece and Nick/Jess, but if you don't, that is no problem at all! I'd also love gen fic about group shenanigans (which can of course include Winston, I'm sad I couldn't nominate him, too- but they obviously don't have to) - like going on vacation together or just everyone having a day off work and what they're getting up to.
If you're good with shippy fic for either one of those pairings, I'd love for some actual resolve for Schmidt/Cece because as much as I love the show (and I really, really love it a lot) I think their breakup could've been handled better. If you could have them get back together- perfect, I'd absolutely love that because I miss them so much! If you don't, I'd love a character study on especially Cece's thoughts because I feel like she gets the least amount of airtime (but is my favorite, possibly! Can you even pick favorites on this show?)
For Nick/Jess, I'd love fic that further explores how similar they are in a lot of ways and how well they would fit together. If you find a way to get them together that is true to the characters, that would be awesome! If not, you can definitely write me a story on why it wouldn't work, but I'd ask that it includes humor and doesn't end on an angsty note!
3. The Office (US) RPF: BJ Novak, Mindy Kaling
For this request, I'd be really happy to get any awesome romantic comedy trope you can think of, starting with 'secretly married', or you could write me something about the time they started dating during their Office days - both of these are things I'd really love to read.
These two have ruined my life over the past few months, so if we matched on this, I'm really glad. Basically. I would absolutely love fic about them being secretly married and how it happened/how they're keeping it a secret ; maybe even one of them wanting to tell everyone and the other one doesn't? I also really love domesticity and random things like shopping for furniture together or making breakfast or whatever else you can come up with! Otherwise, I'd also be really happy about fic about the time they were actually dating - did one of them ask the other out and it turned into more? Did they start casually making out in the Office writers' room on a late rewrite night and then decide to go out? Did they drunkenly stumble into bed together? Just tell me what happened! Alternatively, I'd also love any and all fic about how BJ inspired Danny's character on The Mindy Project, but if you're not familiar with The Mindy Project, don't worry about it, I'm equally happy with anything you write for them! I would also love some fic about Mindy breaking up with a boyfriend and BJ being there for her through all of that as her friend, and then it turns into more (as I said, I love tropes!). But really, anything you write for them will be wonderful!
4. The President's Daughter series: Meg, Preston
I'm really just looking for any Meg/Preston interaction, preferably set during or after the fourth book. I ship them a lot, so bonus points for feelings talks and makeouts.
If we were matched on this, then I'm really excited because this is definitely the smallest fandom I'm requesting. I actually read those books almost two years ago, but they've struck a chord with me and stuck with me for so long, especially those two characters. I should probably start out by saying that I ship them unapologetically and their interactions are my favorite part of the books. What I would really love from this Yuletide if we're matched on the President's Daughter is a story about their feelings for each other, preferably set after the fourth book - you can decide how far in the future you want it to be set, a few months or a few years, I don't mind. I'd love for them to get together and makeouts are a plus, as is a happy ending, but it doesn't have to be anything like this if you have other ideas! I just don't want this story to end on a depressing or angsty note, that's all I ask. If Meg/Preston as a ship isn't your cup of tea, I'd be happy to receive a gen story about them - maybe something set at Meg's college, or at the White House when she's home for Christmas, or something set after Meg's college years. No matter what you choose to write, if you want to, feel free to incorporate other members of the Powers family or Beth because I do love them all, but I obviously don't ask that you do because my request is for Meg and Preston. I'm really not fussy about what you end up writing as I would genuinely be happy about any story with these two characters.
Okay, dear Yuletide Writer, I'm so sorry for the length of this and I'm hoping this helped at least somewhat and that I didn't make life too much harder for you. Just know that as long as you write me a story in any of these fandoms with any of the characters I requested, I will be happy! I cannot wait to see what you come up with and I look forward to Christmas Day!