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So you're writing fic for me!
THE BASICS
When I say I'm equally happy with one or the other, please know that I mean it. No passive-aggressive here! I'd love a pairing fic, but I'd also love a female-centric action/adventure story, or a fluffy story about female friendship, or...whatever it is I've asked for. Yes, there are types of stories that are harder for me to find, but all my fic tastes tend to 'rare' and so I am happy with more of it, whatever it turns out to be.
Write whatever you can swing in my requests, and I will be happy that you wrote something to my specifications, I promise!
The Actual Writing Part
I'm pretty much a gen-and-het fan unless I've specified a fem/slash pairing. If all else fails, friendship between characters is an excellent thing!
Definitely focus on the female characters I've requested (obvs. unless it's a m/m ficathon - eg.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
satedan_grabass), because I always want more fic about the female characters in a fandom - about their battles and their troubles, about their conflicts and their conquests, about their romances and their friendships.
Mind you, there's no need to exclude the guys. They don't have boy cooties, I just like the girls better. Also, I usually have no trouble finding fic about the guys in any given fandom, but finding fic about the girls? Action-adventure fic where the problems belong to the girls and they get to work out the solution, too? Very difficult.
I'm always good with a genderswapped narrative trope - basically your typical heroic action/adventure story with a female central character instead of a male one: has the problem, works it out, saves the day, and gets the boy to boot!
I have a meta tag which has quite a few bits and pieces about female characters and one specifically about their utilisation in their shows if that helps any.
This letter is mostly focusing on the non-romantic aspects, btw, because it's a lot easier to find romance fics about women than it is to find action/adventure fics about women - and I say this as someone who writes both action/adventure and romance (and often action/adventure with a dash of romance). When it comes to romance, I like what someone once called "slashy het" - which is to say non-romantic relationships. Kind of brothers-in-arms where one of the brothers is actually a sister. Defending each others' backs, balancing-out partnerships, trust, protectiveness, and all that stuff? Total kink. Love in literal action - not kisses and smooches and sexxing (although there's a time and place for that) but actions, not words.
That also goes for the story itself. Less telling me what's happening, more showing me what's going on. I don't want to wade through a page of "this all happened in the backstory" - I want the action now! I want conversations in the action! I want dialogue while they're on the run with things exploding around them, and meaningful conversations while they're changing clips.
Ever watched Mr. & Mrs. Smith? The conversations they have while on the run from the people trying to kill them both are things of beauty. That kind of thing. :)
Oh, and I don't need the background/history of the world - I love stories where I have to glean the bits and pieces of the situation from the tidbits scattered through the text. Be mysterious!
About sex: Sex as character development = WIN! Kink is fine - a lot of my favourite pairings have a distinct D/s kink to them, so if you want to go down that route, be my guest!
DO NOT WANT list:
Humiliation, incest, character-bashing, female characters having no major role in the story.
Darkness, death and despair when there's no light at the end of the tunnel.
Slash (m/m), unless I've specifically asked for it. I don't have a problem with receiving femslash, but I will be polite yet disappointed if I receive non-canon (m/m) slash when I haven't asked for it.
Racism, sexism, ableism, and orientalism. We don't always catch these things in ourselves, but it helps to make an effort to avoid it. Not by avoiding mentions of race, sex/gender, or ability, but by treating them with respect and care.
TL;DR ("TOO LONG; DIDN'T READ". A.K.A. "THE SHORT SHORT VERSION")
1. Female character-centric: she should be the one doing stuff, the keystone, the lynchpin, the central character.
2. Prefer action/adventure to romance, but if romance, the non-romantic relationships are best.
3. Write what's happening rather than telling me backstory. Show me what's happening, don't tell me how everything came to be.
4. NO humiliation, character-bashing, incest, racism, sexism, ableism, orientalism.
FINALLY
Thank you for writing for me. No, really! Thank you for writing for me! I'm so glad you are, and I will be grateful for what you give me - really! And whether it's all the starry heavens, or just a little bit of stardust, I hope you enjoy writing it, too - that it challenges you, or makes you think, or that you stretch just a little further, or...something. Anything.
THE BASICS
When I say I'm equally happy with one or the other, please know that I mean it. No passive-aggressive here! I'd love a pairing fic, but I'd also love a female-centric action/adventure story, or a fluffy story about female friendship, or...whatever it is I've asked for. Yes, there are types of stories that are harder for me to find, but all my fic tastes tend to 'rare' and so I am happy with more of it, whatever it turns out to be.
Write whatever you can swing in my requests, and I will be happy that you wrote something to my specifications, I promise!
The Actual Writing Part
I'm pretty much a gen-and-het fan unless I've specified a fem/slash pairing. If all else fails, friendship between characters is an excellent thing!
Definitely focus on the female characters I've requested (obvs. unless it's a m/m ficathon - eg.
satedan_grabass), because I always want more fic about the female characters in a fandom - about their battles and their troubles, about their conflicts and their conquests, about their romances and their friendships.Mind you, there's no need to exclude the guys. They don't have boy cooties, I just like the girls better. Also, I usually have no trouble finding fic about the guys in any given fandom, but finding fic about the girls? Action-adventure fic where the problems belong to the girls and they get to work out the solution, too? Very difficult.
I'm always good with a genderswapped narrative trope - basically your typical heroic action/adventure story with a female central character instead of a male one: has the problem, works it out, saves the day, and gets the boy to boot!
I have a meta tag which has quite a few bits and pieces about female characters and one specifically about their utilisation in their shows if that helps any.
This letter is mostly focusing on the non-romantic aspects, btw, because it's a lot easier to find romance fics about women than it is to find action/adventure fics about women - and I say this as someone who writes both action/adventure and romance (and often action/adventure with a dash of romance). When it comes to romance, I like what someone once called "slashy het" - which is to say non-romantic relationships. Kind of brothers-in-arms where one of the brothers is actually a sister. Defending each others' backs, balancing-out partnerships, trust, protectiveness, and all that stuff? Total kink. Love in literal action - not kisses and smooches and sexxing (although there's a time and place for that) but actions, not words.
That also goes for the story itself. Less telling me what's happening, more showing me what's going on. I don't want to wade through a page of "this all happened in the backstory" - I want the action now! I want conversations in the action! I want dialogue while they're on the run with things exploding around them, and meaningful conversations while they're changing clips.
Ever watched Mr. & Mrs. Smith? The conversations they have while on the run from the people trying to kill them both are things of beauty. That kind of thing. :)
Oh, and I don't need the background/history of the world - I love stories where I have to glean the bits and pieces of the situation from the tidbits scattered through the text. Be mysterious!
About sex: Sex as character development = WIN! Kink is fine - a lot of my favourite pairings have a distinct D/s kink to them, so if you want to go down that route, be my guest!
DO NOT WANT list:
Humiliation, incest, character-bashing, female characters having no major role in the story.
Darkness, death and despair when there's no light at the end of the tunnel.
Slash (m/m), unless I've specifically asked for it. I don't have a problem with receiving femslash, but I will be polite yet disappointed if I receive non-canon (m/m) slash when I haven't asked for it.
Racism, sexism, ableism, and orientalism. We don't always catch these things in ourselves, but it helps to make an effort to avoid it. Not by avoiding mentions of race, sex/gender, or ability, but by treating them with respect and care.
TL;DR ("TOO LONG; DIDN'T READ". A.K.A. "THE SHORT SHORT VERSION")
1. Female character-centric: she should be the one doing stuff, the keystone, the lynchpin, the central character.
2. Prefer action/adventure to romance, but if romance, the non-romantic relationships are best.
3. Write what's happening rather than telling me backstory. Show me what's happening, don't tell me how everything came to be.
4. NO humiliation, character-bashing, incest, racism, sexism, ableism, orientalism.
FINALLY
Thank you for writing for me. No, really! Thank you for writing for me! I'm so glad you are, and I will be grateful for what you give me - really! And whether it's all the starry heavens, or just a little bit of stardust, I hope you enjoy writing it, too - that it challenges you, or makes you think, or that you stretch just a little further, or...something. Anything.
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