Dear Yuletide Writer

[mayachain]

Dear Yuletide Author,

I am very happy that you offered to write for me! Getting to read a rare, new story will be truly wonderful! Here are a few suggestions that you don't have to follow, naturally, but that I nevertheless hope will be helpful to you:

I am comfortable reading slash, het and gen. However, for these particular Yuletide fandoms, I would prefer that the story stick to canon pairings. Any rating you feel is most fitting for the story you want to write is fine. (here are my pinboard bookmarks, in case you feel they might help you.)

Things I'm a fan of:
- found family, strong friendship, loyalty
- good step-parent & step-kid (formalized or not) relationships
- sibling relationships
- women being awesome
- outsider pov
- future fic
- character studies
- slice of life
- school reunions
- comfort after nightmares
- platonic bed sharing
- touch starved character gets much-needed (not necessarily sexual) touches
- scars have meanings
- exploration of traditions (cultural or personal)
- how to phrase this - sex written for the sake of the relationship involved rather than the sex itself.

Things I am not a fan of*:
- characters cheating on partners or willfully betraying friends
- "breaking up and making up"
- "cute" romantic comedy misunderstandings
- love triangles
- character bashing, especially female characters
- songfic
- a character being called a slut
- assumed-to-be-dead/surprise revival
- mpreg
- self injury
- drug use
- characters smirking at every turn
- violence or coercion as the sole point of the story
- in case of yuletide, complete AUs and non-canon character death.

*If any of these come up in canon, I don't have a problem with them being dealt with in fic, but please don't incorporate them otherwise.


If we were matched for Perry Moore's Hero, yay! It's your story to write, but I would love a glimpse of the future with Thom/Goran + Goran's brother as a family, or some fleshing out of Goran's and his little brother's backstory.

- Does either remember a time without war (or even a lull in dangerous times), how much did young!Goran understand/how did his understanding of their situation change over time before the loss of their parents, what is it that he did and won't talk about to ensure his little brother's survival? Did he manage to save others while he was at it or was the death of people he knew/people in his proximity a price paid for his brother's sake? And what does the kid remember of it? How much - if any - of this could either ever reveal to Thom (or someone else, for that matter)?

- If you aren't comfortable writing the war part, the brothers' beginnings in the U.S. would be great, too. What situation did they find themselves in, two traumatized boys with the elder in particular hardly inclined to trust anyone? While there's no mention of the then-minors being split up at some point, I get the impression from Goran that nobody helped them much - except maybe people at the youth center? If so, how did *that* start out? How did Dark Hero get onto anyone*s radar? And when exactly did Goran begin "lying" to his brother?



If we were matched for T.S. Spivet - insert the movie title appropriate for your region - yay! Some kind of futurefic would be great, as would a look at what happened in the Spivet household during T.S.' great adventure. What was it like when they didn't know where T.S. had disappeared to? When, if at all before the first TV announcement, did Gracie realize her brother's supposed ramblings had significance? Did parents and sister deal separately like they had mostly done with Layton's death, or did their fear draw them together? What happened between them finding out where T.S. was and Dr.Clair attending her son's speech unseen (do I remember that correctly?) and/or unexpectedly showing up at the studio?



If we were matched for The Unusuals, yay! I would love something about Shraeger and Walsh a few years down the line as partners and (gasp!) only ever platonic friends. How much do they know about each other now, what is their interaction like, is either ever asked if they ever slept together (whether Jason is still with Alison or not, that's a history of sleeping with co-workers right there), where are the boundaries after however many years? What has happened to the people at the precinct since them and how has it affected Shraeger&Walsh? (If it's more your thing, an episode tag that has them all partner-y and gradually becoming friends would be great, too.)


If we were matched for White House Down, yay! I would love to see something of the aftermath, both political and personal.

- How does it work, being the PotUS after all that? Does someone raise the question whether Sawyer technically is the President anymore, if so, how is it answered? We are told that world leaders rally behind him - how does it actually play out, short-term and/or long-term? And then there are the Sawyer women whom we virtually saw nothing of - how does the First Family reunite and how are they, as a family, affected by what happened (both to Sawyer and their home)?

- As for the Cales - how do they cope, bad-ass as they may be, how do they adjust to their sudden fame, how does John settle into his job, what are the father&daughter / mother&daughter / ex-marrieds relationships like now? Is or isn't Carol a part of this beyond her role as John's co-worker/boss?

- And regarding both families, does a friendship/mentorship develop (further) between James&John / James&Emily, does Emily become friends with the First Daughter, do either form a connection to the First Lady... or does real life prevent all that now that the drama is over?

(Sorry for bombarding you like this, I have feeeeelings!!!)



I hope this helps you along, dear mystery Author!

Looking forward to the day AO3 crashes because Yuletide is on (although it might not do that anymore?!),

- mayachain