thoughts on thoughts on how to write a good "dear author" letter

[tielan]

Everyone focuses on the letter and how it's written. Nobody tells the Dear Author to assume good faith and best intention and Optional Details Are Optional.

Comments

[tielan]

Yeah, these days letters is SRS BSNS. And not much fun at all as letter-writers try to negotiate the line between giving enough options to jump-start their author's writing and being 'demanding'.

[kore]

The nasty arguments about "always give a gen out/NEVER" just baffle me. I just automatically go "if you don't want to write smut, that's fine! If you don't like these prompts, feel free to just write casefic/curtainfic/whatever!" because I know how it feels for a poor author to feel horribly stuck. I mean, I thought the emphasis was ON THE FIC. Some people pride themselves on being able to write exactly to order, but that's a pretty specialized skill, and I honestly think it's just a shame when someone freezes up and has to default. Again....it's supposed to be fun? Right?

[tielan]

I've learned to put the "this is all ideas to give you something to work from, if you don't like any of them then go with what we matched on" qualifier at the end.

And no, you don't always get The Fic Of Your Dreams, or even The Fic You Didn't Know You Wanted, but you know, sometimes that happens in these exchanges. There's just a fundamental mismatch of desire, expectation, and ability to follow through.

[kore]

Yeah, I actually really like being surprised. The current trends of "OMG I have to write exactly to this prompt/OMG I have to come up with the perfect prompt that isn't pushy or demanding OR uninspiring or dull" are so....not my thing. Which is also why I tend to just write treats, LOL.

[tielan]

The current trends of "OMG I have to write exactly to this prompt/OMG I have to come up with the perfect prompt that isn't pushy or demanding OR uninspiring or dull" are so....not my thing

I look at those and I'm not stressed out as an author (although I stress at thinking that my letter is going to get picked apart by anonmemes who assume bad faith - working on it) because I know ODAO and I'll do my best but sometimes even my best is simply not precisely what they want. But I think of all the poor stressed-out exchange participants trying to avoid DOIN' IT RONG so they don't end up publically lambasted for writing something that an anon disapproved of.