Yuletide 2022 Dear Author Letter
Oct. 21st, 2022 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
minnarrGeneral DNWS: infidelity, humiliation kink, characters doing the thing where they ask the partner to beg/ask for something in a specific way, seizures, underage, any kind of ageplay or parent/child type nicknames or roleplay
Long list of favorite tropes and themes: family (found or birth) and friendship, platonic intimacy, time travel and dimension-crossing, secret identity, political intrigue, AUs generally, loyalty, finally getting to live when you thought that was off the table, mutual pining, heists, only one bed, fake dating/marriage and arranged marriages, truth or dare (and other games that involve gambling your closely held heart), fleshing out minor characters, trying to explain the changes in your life since the last time you saw someone but it ends up sounding absurd bc your life took some wild turns
Qi Ye
Things I love about this canon: the many deeply felt relationships with varying levels of actual communication about the depth of feeling, the twisty plots and schemes, people finding themselves in impossible situations, everything about the past life stuff
Prompts:
Zhou Zishu and Jing Beiyuan are soulmates. This has nothing to do with whether or not they're in love. There's just something in them that recognizes the other in a way that no one else does.
Qi Ye timelines crossing: Original flavor Jing Beiyuan turns up in the version of events that happened in the main plot of QY. He crosses paths with Wu Xi or Helian Yi, who have to cope with this strange version of Beiyuan. Bonus points if they're a little horrified by him.
(frankly I love any version of this plot with either time travel or crossing between different timelines. stick an unexpectedly changed version of a character with anyone who cares deeply about the version they know and I go wild)
What would Jing Qi's promised seventh life have looked like if Soulhook Envoy hadn't thrown him back into a redo of his first life instead? What era would he be born into, how would the bond between him and Helian Yi manifest, how much would he remember? Would he meet others he'd known in other lives?
Hi, hello, I'm here to say that I think Su Qingluan is fascinating because she is forever in such a precarious position, especially when it comes to women's options in Da Qing. Caught up and over her head in these political machinations, but acting so decisively when she needs to. Relegated to Helian Yi's concubine, and aware that this could be less than permanent, and frankly thrown into his path as a cynical political move because she looks like the man Helian Yi is obsessed with. I just think there's so many possibilities to dig into with her, from the horror of her situation to letting her develop into a stronger games-player to her loyalty to the girls from her former troupe to exploring her as a double/mirror of Jing Beiyuan.
Love Like the Galaxy
Things I love about this canon: lonely people finding connection, setup and payoff with the mystery arcs and Shaoshang's schemes, identity porn, complicated relationships between the women, actually generally webs of relationships and ambitions driving plot, shenanigans witnessed or contributed to by A'Qi and A'Fei or Lian Fang and Fu Deng
REMINDER: I have a modern AU DNW on this canon.
Prompts:
So like...what IS the deal and history with Third Prince and Buyi. I would love to see them becoming scheming buddies, or some political intrigue stuff with older them. There's such an interesting dynamic with them where it seems like they're kind of...friends but not friends, but Third Prince is often uninterested in sparing Buyi pain/indignity. They grew up together in some ways, but the distance between prince and subordinate is there. But it also seems like maybe they just understand each other, deep in their ruthlessly practical hearts.
Xuan Shen'an and Yue Heng can ALWAYS use more love. I would love to see stuff centered on them around when it was decided that Xuan Shen'an would be the emperor, testing them and threatening to pit them against each other but instead they emerge as allies/friends. They're both so strong in their own ways and I love that mutual respect and fondness between them. I would love to see that played up honestly at any point in their lives.
Wan Qiqi my beloved! I don't know what prompt I want, I just know that I want more of her being her over-the-top self. Wan Qiqi & Cheng Shaoshang are also such a fun dynamic, neither of them has many friends seemingly but they latch on tight to each other. And they have a blast! Also, there's that joke the one time about Cheng Shaoshang marrying Wan Qiqi and I'm just saying I would also love to see them shipped somehow.
Yuan Shen's story is left kind of open, and I think he still isn't letting himself realize just how deeply he feels (I definitely think he's wrong about being cold). I would love to see him coming to terms with this more happily post-canon. Bonus points: Yuan Shen/Cheng Shaoshang/Huo Buyi, which I think could play on this, and the weird tension and honesty between him and Huo Buyi that is and is not about Shaoshang, the way that Yuan Shen and Shaoshang are always ready to clown on each other but the second trouble comes up they're ride or die, their shared history with loneliness and disappointment and the similarities in their personalities, Yuan Shen and Huo Buyi caring for one another for Shaoshang's sake until it turns out they actually just care, also the three of them as a mystery solving squad is SO fun. Idk lots to play with between these three!!
Campaign: Star Wars
Things I love about this canon: humor with heart, the absurd number of pastiches and puns, found family! oh, the found family!, how colorful the world is
Prompts:
I do love some Zeblue. This isn't a prompt, I apologize, I just love them and am always happy to read them.
I would LOVE to see some defector AU or possibly one of the Bluebirds nominated stranded or forced to work with one of the Mynocks nominated. Any combination that can be funny, emotional, or ideally both.
I think Leenik and Aava should get to be friends. Or, like, commiserate? Penpals Leenik and Aava somehow. Members of the same holonet romance novel forum either for espionage purposes on Aava's side (isn't Neemo like, a Rebel spy or asset somehow) or because she just got really into a series/author and is burning off some stress through space!fandom. Leenik has a really bad day and Aava catches up to him at the bottom of it.
Lyn getting to do space Indiana Jones shit OR academia Lyn. Side Trip Lyn???? Unparalleled, I'm actually obsessed with Campaign Side Trip. I thirst for more of her being the most chaotic nerd in the room instead of the voice of reason. (I do also adore her as voice of reason, I just think it's very funny when a character is the voice of reason next to the people you're used to seeing them with and then you stick them with normal people and you realize, oh! they're a nightmare actually!)
Persuasion
Things I love about this canon: Lonely people finding people to love them (not just romantically, but a social circle that embraces them), gentle debates about literature/life that illuminate character stuff, yearning(TM) ofc, a mistake is not always the end and there is time to grow
Prompts:
I love any combo of Sophia, Anne, and Frederick just being like. Good to one another. I love how warm Sophia is with Frederick, and that she genuinely likes Anne for her own sake even before Anne/Frederick is a thing. Honestly, the first lovely post-canon Christmas with the Wentworth/Croft clan? Or otherwise an eventful family Christmas.
Elizabeth Elliot is such a quietly tragic figure in Persuasion??? She doesn't seem to have much less vanity or silliness than her father, but there is just a hint that there's more going on there, that she's a little more aware of how tenous her position is. Possibly this is because of the knowledge that she is only putting off the disaster of being unattached and too old to marry. I would love to see her get a way out (and character growth during it), whether by marriage or becoming close with one or both of her siblings or some other future she finds for herself.
Mary Musgrove is a harder sell for me, just because I'm not sure what story to dig into for her. But I would love to see some of her inner life; so much of her character is silliness and hysterics and being rather demanding, which is something of an Austen stock character type, but like. We know anxiety is a thing. I don't know! If you go the route of Mary focus, I will not be displeased at all, I just don't have a prompt ready. (Note on both this and the Elizabeth idea: I've always loved spinoff stories that focus on fleshing out Lydia or Kitty or Mary to give them their own arcs as protagonists in P&P fandom, and I have just realized writing this letter that I have no idea if it's a thing in Persuasion fandom but I would be so down).
Also, this is especially a fandom where I think setting AU would be delightful. I love adapting Austen to new settings and situations.
Long list of favorite tropes and themes: family (found or birth) and friendship, platonic intimacy, time travel and dimension-crossing, secret identity, political intrigue, AUs generally, loyalty, finally getting to live when you thought that was off the table, mutual pining, heists, only one bed, fake dating/marriage and arranged marriages, truth or dare (and other games that involve gambling your closely held heart), fleshing out minor characters, trying to explain the changes in your life since the last time you saw someone but it ends up sounding absurd bc your life took some wild turns
Qi Ye
Things I love about this canon: the many deeply felt relationships with varying levels of actual communication about the depth of feeling, the twisty plots and schemes, people finding themselves in impossible situations, everything about the past life stuff
Prompts:
Zhou Zishu and Jing Beiyuan are soulmates. This has nothing to do with whether or not they're in love. There's just something in them that recognizes the other in a way that no one else does.
Qi Ye timelines crossing: Original flavor Jing Beiyuan turns up in the version of events that happened in the main plot of QY. He crosses paths with Wu Xi or Helian Yi, who have to cope with this strange version of Beiyuan. Bonus points if they're a little horrified by him.
(frankly I love any version of this plot with either time travel or crossing between different timelines. stick an unexpectedly changed version of a character with anyone who cares deeply about the version they know and I go wild)
What would Jing Qi's promised seventh life have looked like if Soulhook Envoy hadn't thrown him back into a redo of his first life instead? What era would he be born into, how would the bond between him and Helian Yi manifest, how much would he remember? Would he meet others he'd known in other lives?
Hi, hello, I'm here to say that I think Su Qingluan is fascinating because she is forever in such a precarious position, especially when it comes to women's options in Da Qing. Caught up and over her head in these political machinations, but acting so decisively when she needs to. Relegated to Helian Yi's concubine, and aware that this could be less than permanent, and frankly thrown into his path as a cynical political move because she looks like the man Helian Yi is obsessed with. I just think there's so many possibilities to dig into with her, from the horror of her situation to letting her develop into a stronger games-player to her loyalty to the girls from her former troupe to exploring her as a double/mirror of Jing Beiyuan.
Love Like the Galaxy
Things I love about this canon: lonely people finding connection, setup and payoff with the mystery arcs and Shaoshang's schemes, identity porn, complicated relationships between the women, actually generally webs of relationships and ambitions driving plot, shenanigans witnessed or contributed to by A'Qi and A'Fei or Lian Fang and Fu Deng
REMINDER: I have a modern AU DNW on this canon.
Prompts:
So like...what IS the deal and history with Third Prince and Buyi. I would love to see them becoming scheming buddies, or some political intrigue stuff with older them. There's such an interesting dynamic with them where it seems like they're kind of...friends but not friends, but Third Prince is often uninterested in sparing Buyi pain/indignity. They grew up together in some ways, but the distance between prince and subordinate is there. But it also seems like maybe they just understand each other, deep in their ruthlessly practical hearts.
Xuan Shen'an and Yue Heng can ALWAYS use more love. I would love to see stuff centered on them around when it was decided that Xuan Shen'an would be the emperor, testing them and threatening to pit them against each other but instead they emerge as allies/friends. They're both so strong in their own ways and I love that mutual respect and fondness between them. I would love to see that played up honestly at any point in their lives.
Wan Qiqi my beloved! I don't know what prompt I want, I just know that I want more of her being her over-the-top self. Wan Qiqi & Cheng Shaoshang are also such a fun dynamic, neither of them has many friends seemingly but they latch on tight to each other. And they have a blast! Also, there's that joke the one time about Cheng Shaoshang marrying Wan Qiqi and I'm just saying I would also love to see them shipped somehow.
Yuan Shen's story is left kind of open, and I think he still isn't letting himself realize just how deeply he feels (I definitely think he's wrong about being cold). I would love to see him coming to terms with this more happily post-canon. Bonus points: Yuan Shen/Cheng Shaoshang/Huo Buyi, which I think could play on this, and the weird tension and honesty between him and Huo Buyi that is and is not about Shaoshang, the way that Yuan Shen and Shaoshang are always ready to clown on each other but the second trouble comes up they're ride or die, their shared history with loneliness and disappointment and the similarities in their personalities, Yuan Shen and Huo Buyi caring for one another for Shaoshang's sake until it turns out they actually just care, also the three of them as a mystery solving squad is SO fun. Idk lots to play with between these three!!
Campaign: Star Wars
Things I love about this canon: humor with heart, the absurd number of pastiches and puns, found family! oh, the found family!, how colorful the world is
Prompts:
I do love some Zeblue. This isn't a prompt, I apologize, I just love them and am always happy to read them.
I would LOVE to see some defector AU or possibly one of the Bluebirds nominated stranded or forced to work with one of the Mynocks nominated. Any combination that can be funny, emotional, or ideally both.
I think Leenik and Aava should get to be friends. Or, like, commiserate? Penpals Leenik and Aava somehow. Members of the same holonet romance novel forum either for espionage purposes on Aava's side (isn't Neemo like, a Rebel spy or asset somehow) or because she just got really into a series/author and is burning off some stress through space!fandom. Leenik has a really bad day and Aava catches up to him at the bottom of it.
Lyn getting to do space Indiana Jones shit OR academia Lyn. Side Trip Lyn???? Unparalleled, I'm actually obsessed with Campaign Side Trip. I thirst for more of her being the most chaotic nerd in the room instead of the voice of reason. (I do also adore her as voice of reason, I just think it's very funny when a character is the voice of reason next to the people you're used to seeing them with and then you stick them with normal people and you realize, oh! they're a nightmare actually!)
Persuasion
Things I love about this canon: Lonely people finding people to love them (not just romantically, but a social circle that embraces them), gentle debates about literature/life that illuminate character stuff, yearning(TM) ofc, a mistake is not always the end and there is time to grow
Prompts:
I love any combo of Sophia, Anne, and Frederick just being like. Good to one another. I love how warm Sophia is with Frederick, and that she genuinely likes Anne for her own sake even before Anne/Frederick is a thing. Honestly, the first lovely post-canon Christmas with the Wentworth/Croft clan? Or otherwise an eventful family Christmas.
Elizabeth Elliot is such a quietly tragic figure in Persuasion??? She doesn't seem to have much less vanity or silliness than her father, but there is just a hint that there's more going on there, that she's a little more aware of how tenous her position is. Possibly this is because of the knowledge that she is only putting off the disaster of being unattached and too old to marry. I would love to see her get a way out (and character growth during it), whether by marriage or becoming close with one or both of her siblings or some other future she finds for herself.
Mary Musgrove is a harder sell for me, just because I'm not sure what story to dig into for her. But I would love to see some of her inner life; so much of her character is silliness and hysterics and being rather demanding, which is something of an Austen stock character type, but like. We know anxiety is a thing. I don't know! If you go the route of Mary focus, I will not be displeased at all, I just don't have a prompt ready. (Note on both this and the Elizabeth idea: I've always loved spinoff stories that focus on fleshing out Lydia or Kitty or Mary to give them their own arcs as protagonists in P&P fandom, and I have just realized writing this letter that I have no idea if it's a thing in Persuasion fandom but I would be so down).
Also, this is especially a fandom where I think setting AU would be delightful. I love adapting Austen to new settings and situations.
