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Dear Yuletide Writer
Oct. 18th, 2018 07:16 pmHas anyone told you today that you are awesome? Because you are. Not because you are writing this... if you end up not writing a single word for Yuletide, you are still awesome. Okay? I think it’s important for us all to remind each other of that, and to be gentle with ourselves.
AO3 name: Chelonie
AO3 name: Chelonie
Things I love: I'm into general fics, especially friendship, family, and found family. I love digging into the missing scenes in canon, seeing canon scenes from a different pov, or going into post-canon and worldbuilding. Character studies are great, even if nothing much happens! (I'm not opposed to Action! Adventure! I just don't need it.) Romance of any flavour (straight or gay or pan or poly) is okay in the background, but I like it better if friendship is the main event. I prefer sex scenes to fade to black before they get explicit. I really want any sex (or pre-sex, such as kissing, hand holding, etc) to be with enthusiastic mutual consent. I love diverse representation, but especially disability and autism. Finding out that other writers have a headcanon that says Character A is anything other than white straight cis able-bodied is a special joy, especially when I can look back at the canon and go 'OMG, how did I miss that about Character A? It's so obvious!'
Things I HATE: Dubcon/noncon, incest (including foster/adopted family), the disabled person being cured at the end, the disabled person used as an inspiration, the disabled person turning into a villain because of their disability, a sick person being able to think themselves well (The Secret Garden, Heidi - I'm looking at you!)(Trust me - if we could think ourselves well - we would all be well!!!!)
DNW: explicit sex, medical sex play (actual medical stuff is okay), pregnancy, gender swaps, mundane setting change AU, m!preg, A/B/O, amnesia, everything in the Things I HATE list (seems obvious, but just in case you scanned down to here and skipped that one...)
Things I am totally okay with: First person, using additional characters from canon than what I requested, OCs as secondary character, kidfic, 5+1, dark/ambivalent endings (even deathfic) (Sometimes a story really needs it. Sometimes the characters go that way. You're the writer - you'll know.), sillyfic, drabble sequences, longfic, experimental storytelling methods, poetry, unreliable narrator
Things I am totally okay with: First person, using additional characters from canon than what I requested, OCs as secondary character, kidfic, 5+1, dark/ambivalent endings (even deathfic) (Sometimes a story really needs it. Sometimes the characters go that way. You're the writer - you'll know.), sillyfic, drabble sequences, longfic, experimental storytelling methods, poetry, unreliable narrator
Fandoms:
The Wayfarers Universe by Becky Chambers
What it is:
A character-driven sci-fi trilogy (novels or audiobooks) full of friends and found family. Humans are the poor, lower class species in a Galactic Commons full of diversity. (I love this inversion of the 'humans are special' trope!) Most of my prompts come from the first two books, though you should read the third book anyway, because it's that good.
What makes me happy about this fandom: The friendships. Oh, the friendships! How much all the characters respect one another. AIs as people.
What makes me happy about this fandom: The friendships. Oh, the friendships! How much all the characters respect one another. AIs as people.
Prompts (Spoilers duh):
1. That One Exception to my no-AU preference: Jane 64 lives. This is my favourite request of all of them. I want this AU so bad! I want it to become a whole THING in fandom with dozens or hundreds of stories! I want Jane 64 to have stepped out of the hole in the Factory with Jane 23, and for them to have grown up as sisters together with Owl as a family of three. I can think of so many different story ideas starting from this premise:
- Do they keep their dynamic where 64 tries to keep 23 out of trouble?
- Do they keep their original names when they learn that most people don't have numbers?
- What is it like for them going to 'school' with Owl? What subjects do each of them do better at?
- What is their first real fight about? How do they make up?
- How do they split up chores? (I picture 23 doing most of the scrap hunting and fixing, and 64 doing most of the domestic work, simply because 23 is such a genius at fixing stuff. But maybe you have different ideas!) - One sim hub - the horror! Oh the horror! Imagine them hitting adolescence with one sim hub! And oh, how much they want to play multiplayer, but can't because only one sim hub!!!!
- Maybe there was a screaming fight with near unforgiveable words said the day Jane 23 stormed out and ended up breaking her leg. (Or maybe it was Jane 64 who broke her leg. Or maybe you have different ideas...)
- How did they decide on going into space?
- How did they decide to take Laurian? Owl didn't get to meet Laurian before he was brought to the ship, but Jane 64 could go and approve him ahead of time. Would she?
- What happens on the 37 days in space?
- What happens on the station when Jane 23 keeps getting in so much trouble trying to find Owl and rebelling against their human sponsor? Would Jane 64 try to stop her?
- Would Jane 64 go with 23 and Laurian to Port Coriol or stay behind so she could get citizenship?
- How is she part of Pepper and Blue's story in the future? Is she part of Owl's rescue? What does she do in Central Space?
- What kind of person does Jane 64 grow up to be?
- Your own great idea about Jane 64!
- What kind of person does Jane 64 grow up to be?
- Your own great idea about Jane 64!
DNW: please no romance between the Janes, between either of the Janes and Owl, and please no Jane/Jane/Laurian
2. If you really can't make the Jane 64 AU work, then it's okay to treat the character requests as optional and go with any in the Wayfarers universe:
- Rosemary goes to visit Kizzy's dads, drags Sissix along, which means dragging Corbin along. Hijinks ensue!
- Sidra meets Jenks for the first time since the Wayfarer. Sadness/drinks ensue. (DNW: Sidra/Jenks! At all! So wrong!)
- 'Home' becomes the HQ for AI rights campaigning.
- Sidra and Owl at Pepper's deathbed
- Lovey said she fell in love with Jenks on the day of her installation. I'd love to hear the story of that day. What was it about Jenks that made her fall in love?
- Lovey said she fell in love with Jenks on the day of her installation. I'd love to hear the story of that day. What was it about Jenks that made her fall in love?
- More about the Laru!
- Kip's first adventures on leaving the Fleet. His first encounter with sky! With ocean! With weather! Trying to cope with money! If you want to put him on Port Coriol and have him walk into Home just as he's getting overwhelmed with the marketplace, that could be entertaining too!
- Kip's first adventures on leaving the Fleet. His first encounter with sky! With ocean! With weather! Trying to cope with money! If you want to put him on Port Coriol and have him walk into Home just as he's getting overwhelmed with the marketplace, that could be entertaining too!
Imperial Radch by Ann Leckie:
What it is:
A trilogy (novels or audiobooks) about... oh gods, I can't possibly write a short summary of this trilogy! The Space Roman Empire with AIs and an Evil Overlord and gender is either Utterly Confusing (because pov character is an AI) or irrelevant (because the dominant culture doesn't have cultural gender differences). And you'd need to read the whole trilogy for my prompts, because they are all set post-canon.
What I love about this fandom: AIs as people. Diversity of languages, cultures, and peoples (not everyone on one planet is the same culture). Trying to build a new society after breaking the old bad one. (All of my own works, to date, are set in this fandom, post-canon. But I do not expect any Yuletide gift or treat to use my head canon! Go your own way!)
Prompts (spoilers):
Anything about life in the (Provisional) Republic of Two Systems post-canon.
- How are people transitioning from 'We worship Anaander Mianni' to 'She's a murderous Tyrant.' (while the Valskaayans and the Ychana are all 'duh, we knew that')?
- How are they adapting to AIs as people? Whatever happened to all the civilian Ships that were piled up when the Gates went down? I told a story about that, but maybe you have a different idea - I'd love to hear it!
- What is happening to the various people who have been stored to be ancillaries, and now are being unfrozen and awakened possibly hundreds of years later, and in a world far different from what was left behind?
- Is it possible that any of the Valskayaan transportees have relatives in Gem of Sphene's holds, maybe generations removed?
- What's being done about the housing shortage on Athoek Station? Those AI cores - what becomes of them? Who do they get to be?
- What happens to Anaander Miannai? Does she remain a prisoner in Athoek forever?
- Do any more Ships defect to the R2S? Are they all genuine, or are any of them working for the Tyrant?
- Uran! I love Uran! Tell me stories about Uran!
- Uran! I love Uran! Tell me stories about Uran!
- Or to go in a lighter direction: What do kids do for fun who grow up on a Station? What sports are available? What is their school like? What professions can they train for? How scared are they in preparing for the Aptitudes? Do they still do the Aptitudes in the R2S? OCs welcome here, if you want to do a kid-fic.
- Your own ideas!
- Your own ideas!
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
What it is: A novel (no audiobook (sob)) about Eurovision in SPAAAAACE! New civilizations have to prove their sentience by singing in a galactic song competition. If they fail, they are annihilated! Expect glitter and despair from our glamrock messiah, Decibel Jones! Also, there's a talking cat!
Why I love this fandom:
There. Is. A. Talking. Cat!
Life is beautiful and life is stupid.
Englishblokeman. Reader, I married him. (Seriously, I'm married to an Englishman irl! lol)
Why I love this fandom:
There. Is. A. Talking. Cat!
Life is beautiful and life is stupid.
Englishblokeman. Reader, I married him. (Seriously, I'm married to an Englishman irl! lol)
Prompts:
- Anything post-canon - this book is crying for a sequel! More Mr Loony of the Tunes
- The Zeroes go to the next Galactic Grand Prix. Are they the representatives for Earth?
- Desi and Nani reunite after his triumphant return from space. 'Hi Nani, this is my son Marvin'
- Capo adjusts to life back on Earth, as a celebrity. Why won't people just let her murder aliens and nap in peace?
- The Zeroes go to the next Galactic Grand Prix. Are they the representatives for Earth?
- Desi and Nani reunite after his triumphant return from space. 'Hi Nani, this is my son Marvin'
- Capo adjusts to life back on Earth, as a celebrity. Why won't people just let her murder aliens and nap in peace?
Temeraire by Naomi Novic
What it is: Dragons in the Napoleonic Wars. All nations have an aerial force composed of dragons, their captains, and a full crew component for shooting and dropping bombs. A navy captain takes a French ship with an egg on board that's about to hatch. With no time to get it to land, he ends up impressing the dragon himself, and suddenly having to change careers. The series is 9 books long (novels, no audiobooks), but you don't need to read all of them to play with some of the prompts below (or come up with your own).
Things I love about this fandom: 1. The dragons. I read Pern as a girl, and I hated how the dragons didn't talk to anyone but their rider! These dragons talk to EVERYBODY! They have SASS! They have personalities! I love them! I love how none of them understand human prudity. I love how they are all individuals. 2. The aviators - so liberal compared to the rest of Britain (no doubt due to the influence of dragons!)
- Temeraire and Lady Allendale correspond throughout the series. I'd love to see their letters (perhaps with input from Laurence aloud, since he has to read and scribe for Temeraire), and this could be from any point in the series. He could be telling her about his initial training, about his first real battle, or about his adventures in China, South America, and so on...
- Actually, Temeraire becomes quite an active correspondent with many people and dragons as the series progresses. Those letters would be great to see too!
- Temeraire and Laurence never made it to India or North America in the series. How about an adventure set in either location? (Feel free to skip the sea voyage - unless you have ideas about a story that takes place at sea!) And I know I'm usually in favour of sticking to canon, but given the length of this series, feel free to twist canon to place them here at any point in the series timeline that works for you. They could always have been blown off course.
- Let's all agree that amnesia plot never happened, right? Right.
The Thing in the Walls Wants Your Small Change - Virginia M. Mohlere
What it is: A short story! Online! Free!
Why I love it: Dragon! Friendship!
Prompts: The story from the dragon's pov, how the dragon feels about different coins, what is inside the walls, are there other spirits or creatures hanging about? Worldbuilding!
The Thing in the Walls Wants Your Small Change - Virginia M. Mohlere
What it is: A short story! Online! Free!
Why I love it: Dragon! Friendship!
Prompts: The story from the dragon's pov, how the dragon feels about different coins, what is inside the walls, are there other spirits or creatures hanging about? Worldbuilding!
To Whatever By Shaenon K. Garrity
What it is: A short story! Online! Free!
Why I love it: Again, friendship (you might be seeing a theme here....)
Prompts: The story from the creature's pov, what live is like in the city beyond, how it became friends with Ethan, where it gets the new half and half, how it knows about Ethan's boyfriend, worldbuilding, DNW Ethan/Creature slash!
*****
I hope this is enough to get you started. Please consider my prompts (and even the characters) as jumping off grounds for your own ideas, not as set in stone 'this is how the story must be for me to be happy with yuletide'.
Cheers, and Happy writing!
Chelonie
What it is: A short story! Online! Free!
Why I love it: Again, friendship (you might be seeing a theme here....)
Prompts: The story from the creature's pov, what live is like in the city beyond, how it became friends with Ethan, where it gets the new half and half, how it knows about Ethan's boyfriend, worldbuilding, DNW Ethan/Creature slash!
*****
I hope this is enough to get you started. Please consider my prompts (and even the characters) as jumping off grounds for your own ideas, not as set in stone 'this is how the story must be for me to be happy with yuletide'.
Cheers, and Happy writing!
Chelonie
