Dear yuletide author:
Oct. 8th, 2013 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravenDear ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
yuletide author,
Thank you very much for writing for me. I appreciate it. As I say every year, I am a very strong believer that optional details are optional, and also that it does me good to read things I didn't expect to read. So if you have your assignment and your idea, go away and write that now and never mind me, and I will love whatever it is.
If you like to have more guidance, then here we go:
The True Meaning of Smekday - Adam Rex
Characters: Gratuity "Tip" Tucci, J.Lo the Boov
Oh, gosh, anything you like in this universe would be so awesome. I'd love to know what happened to Tip and J.Lo after the book - I mean, it seems they were friends almost a hundred years afterwards! Did J.Lo go to college with Tip? Was he in the front row of her wedding, making loud sobbing noises? Did he ever do something notable himself? Invent something interesting? Become a proper chief maintenance engineer? Basically: anything. I'd love to see whatever you did with them.
Can't really add much to that! I love this book - I love how it is jaw-crackingly hilarious while also making you genuinely care about the characters, and offering a kind of sly insight on race in the US. One detail that's always stuck with me is that the Boov have religion - their god is the sea, J.Lo says, and later he swears "Mother ocean!" when he gets upset - and I'd like to see some reference to that in a story - but honestly. Anything you like.
M*A*S*H
Characters: Hawkeye, Margaret
I've made this request before, but here goes again. These two have my favourite friendship in fiction, they really do. I adore how, canonically, their shared experiences change them from being the worst of enemies to, never the best of friends but to friends with this unique, snippy, loving, sometimes sexual friendship. I would love anything about this: all the times they were there for each other (especially given Margaret's disastrous love life), all the times they were entirely unsentimental but just what the other needed.
Ahhh, this show, this show. M*A*S*H is the show of my heart, no lie. My fandom tag will probably expand on that to more length than you ever wanted, but briefly: what I love about this show is how it combines warmth, passion, humour, kindness, with what's sometimes really caustic, angry political commentary. Hawkeye and Margaret embody so many things greater than themselves - he with his mental health issues and pacifism and strange, indefinable queerness; she with her rock-solid understanding that although a sexual revolution is coming, it's not enough, and might be too late for her - and nevertheless they both are still real people, bringing out the worst and best in each other despite and because of it.
God, I love them. Okay, self, shut up. Write me a story about these two interacting and you will make me very happy. The only thing I ask specifically is that you don't pair them romantically. I don't disagree with you if you ship them! I just, I'd like this one to be friendship even if the friendship is sexual.
(Also, something else I say every time I request this: if you have been in the fandom some time and are asking yourself, is she that girl - yes. Yes, I am. Older, and not wiser.)
Parks & Recreation
Characters: Leslie Knope, April Ludgate, Ann Perkins, Ben Wyatt
Ladies of Parks and Recreation! ...and Ben.
Okay, so I knew about Parks and Rec for years without really watching it, and somehow I've watched basically two seasons of it in the last week and a half and aaaargh, show, show, I love you, show. (I am not caught up with it yet - nearly through season 3 - but I have no doubt at all that I will be caught up by December, so please don't worry about spoilers.) Where do I even start with this? I love how this is a show about women, about politics, about women of colour (I love how it's a show with so many non-white people in the main cast, Ann and April and Donna and Tom, all unremarkably there), about female friendship, about unsentimental romantic love, about all of those things together. Also, this request was going to just be for the ladies, but last night we got to the episode where Ben looks into the camera and wails, "Who hasn't had GAY THOUGHTS?" and I'm done. Just done. I've only seen a half-dozen episode with the guy but I think I'm going to love him.
Story-wise, I'd love an ensemble piece, especially future-fic - Leslie's potential glittering political career? What about when they open the time capsule? Maybe just general political hijinks? And speaking of which - genuinely, one of the reasons I love this show is because it's about, ah, municipal land use and planning. (I know right. It's my day job. I am as enthusiastic as Leslie Knope about land use and planning.) So if you want to make it a story about the finer points of park boundary disputes or something, I am on board with that. Also on board with the Parks and Recreation spaceship AU. Oh, just ignore me.
(edited to add: (and this is the last edit I'm going to make, I promise, as I write this assignments haven't gone out yet!): I have now watched a lot more Ben episodes and yeah, I love him. That "gay thoughts" line - I'm now kind of stuck on the idea of a queer/bi Ben, if that's something you're into also that would be cool. Obv without erasing or devaluing his relationship with Leslie! But yeah. Okay, now definitely ignore me and go write what you want.)
Amstel Lager - The Chef
Characters: the Dishwasher, the Older Chef
Oh, wow, if you have drawn this as your assignment - wow, I love you already. I'm not sure what I can add here, except - anything? Anything about these two characters and the journey they make.
Here is the entire canon for this fandom, right here:
Isn't it great? It's so great. I don't write about it much, but I love adverts, especially when seen as a kind of art. I love how the constraints of the form make for this elegant, elided, modern storytelling technique (like this ad, and this one). The Amstel ad appeals to me also because it's a major narrative kink of mine, that kind of working power exchange where one person obeys and the other instructs, protects, defends. But seriously - anything. Anything.
Generally I like: people being competent; people being kind; found families and communities; gen and queer gen, though I'm down with any kind of pairing you like, inc poly; cliché tropes; friendships.
Generally, I don't like: women being erased; PWPs; character-bashing.
Lastly: I just got married. It was great, we threw a party. Why do you care. Because it was wedding no. 1 of 2. Wedding 2 of 2 takes place on December 29th and 30th, in New Delhi, a city which is approximately 4500 miles from where I'm writing this. While I may have time to read/comment on yuletide the week before the wedding, I may well... not. I honestly can't say at this stage. And after the wedding I am away another week, so I may not read your story until, ah, Epiphany or reveals or whatever. I am so sorry about that, in advance, and I don't want you to think I hate you or your story or that I'm not enormously grateful to you for writing for me! Because I don't and I don't and I am, and thank you, again.
Happy yuletide!
Raven
yuletide author,Thank you very much for writing for me. I appreciate it. As I say every year, I am a very strong believer that optional details are optional, and also that it does me good to read things I didn't expect to read. So if you have your assignment and your idea, go away and write that now and never mind me, and I will love whatever it is.
If you like to have more guidance, then here we go:
The True Meaning of Smekday - Adam Rex
Characters: Gratuity "Tip" Tucci, J.Lo the Boov
Oh, gosh, anything you like in this universe would be so awesome. I'd love to know what happened to Tip and J.Lo after the book - I mean, it seems they were friends almost a hundred years afterwards! Did J.Lo go to college with Tip? Was he in the front row of her wedding, making loud sobbing noises? Did he ever do something notable himself? Invent something interesting? Become a proper chief maintenance engineer? Basically: anything. I'd love to see whatever you did with them.
Can't really add much to that! I love this book - I love how it is jaw-crackingly hilarious while also making you genuinely care about the characters, and offering a kind of sly insight on race in the US. One detail that's always stuck with me is that the Boov have religion - their god is the sea, J.Lo says, and later he swears "Mother ocean!" when he gets upset - and I'd like to see some reference to that in a story - but honestly. Anything you like.
M*A*S*H
Characters: Hawkeye, Margaret
I've made this request before, but here goes again. These two have my favourite friendship in fiction, they really do. I adore how, canonically, their shared experiences change them from being the worst of enemies to, never the best of friends but to friends with this unique, snippy, loving, sometimes sexual friendship. I would love anything about this: all the times they were there for each other (especially given Margaret's disastrous love life), all the times they were entirely unsentimental but just what the other needed.
Ahhh, this show, this show. M*A*S*H is the show of my heart, no lie. My fandom tag will probably expand on that to more length than you ever wanted, but briefly: what I love about this show is how it combines warmth, passion, humour, kindness, with what's sometimes really caustic, angry political commentary. Hawkeye and Margaret embody so many things greater than themselves - he with his mental health issues and pacifism and strange, indefinable queerness; she with her rock-solid understanding that although a sexual revolution is coming, it's not enough, and might be too late for her - and nevertheless they both are still real people, bringing out the worst and best in each other despite and because of it.
God, I love them. Okay, self, shut up. Write me a story about these two interacting and you will make me very happy. The only thing I ask specifically is that you don't pair them romantically. I don't disagree with you if you ship them! I just, I'd like this one to be friendship even if the friendship is sexual.
(Also, something else I say every time I request this: if you have been in the fandom some time and are asking yourself, is she that girl - yes. Yes, I am. Older, and not wiser.)
Parks & Recreation
Characters: Leslie Knope, April Ludgate, Ann Perkins, Ben Wyatt
Ladies of Parks and Recreation! ...and Ben.
Okay, so I knew about Parks and Rec for years without really watching it, and somehow I've watched basically two seasons of it in the last week and a half and aaaargh, show, show, I love you, show. (I am not caught up with it yet - nearly through season 3 - but I have no doubt at all that I will be caught up by December, so please don't worry about spoilers.) Where do I even start with this? I love how this is a show about women, about politics, about women of colour (I love how it's a show with so many non-white people in the main cast, Ann and April and Donna and Tom, all unremarkably there), about female friendship, about unsentimental romantic love, about all of those things together. Also, this request was going to just be for the ladies, but last night we got to the episode where Ben looks into the camera and wails, "Who hasn't had GAY THOUGHTS?" and I'm done. Just done. I've only seen a half-dozen episode with the guy but I think I'm going to love him.
Story-wise, I'd love an ensemble piece, especially future-fic - Leslie's potential glittering political career? What about when they open the time capsule? Maybe just general political hijinks? And speaking of which - genuinely, one of the reasons I love this show is because it's about, ah, municipal land use and planning. (I know right. It's my day job. I am as enthusiastic as Leslie Knope about land use and planning.) So if you want to make it a story about the finer points of park boundary disputes or something, I am on board with that. Also on board with the Parks and Recreation spaceship AU. Oh, just ignore me.
(edited to add: (and this is the last edit I'm going to make, I promise, as I write this assignments haven't gone out yet!): I have now watched a lot more Ben episodes and yeah, I love him. That "gay thoughts" line - I'm now kind of stuck on the idea of a queer/bi Ben, if that's something you're into also that would be cool. Obv without erasing or devaluing his relationship with Leslie! But yeah. Okay, now definitely ignore me and go write what you want.)
Amstel Lager - The Chef
Characters: the Dishwasher, the Older Chef
Oh, wow, if you have drawn this as your assignment - wow, I love you already. I'm not sure what I can add here, except - anything? Anything about these two characters and the journey they make.
Here is the entire canon for this fandom, right here:
Isn't it great? It's so great. I don't write about it much, but I love adverts, especially when seen as a kind of art. I love how the constraints of the form make for this elegant, elided, modern storytelling technique (like this ad, and this one). The Amstel ad appeals to me also because it's a major narrative kink of mine, that kind of working power exchange where one person obeys and the other instructs, protects, defends. But seriously - anything. Anything.
Generally I like: people being competent; people being kind; found families and communities; gen and queer gen, though I'm down with any kind of pairing you like, inc poly; cliché tropes; friendships.
Generally, I don't like: women being erased; PWPs; character-bashing.
Lastly: I just got married. It was great, we threw a party. Why do you care. Because it was wedding no. 1 of 2. Wedding 2 of 2 takes place on December 29th and 30th, in New Delhi, a city which is approximately 4500 miles from where I'm writing this. While I may have time to read/comment on yuletide the week before the wedding, I may well... not. I honestly can't say at this stage. And after the wedding I am away another week, so I may not read your story until, ah, Epiphany or reveals or whatever. I am so sorry about that, in advance, and I don't want you to think I hate you or your story or that I'm not enormously grateful to you for writing for me! Because I don't and I don't and I am, and thank you, again.
Happy yuletide!
Raven