Yuletide 2017
Oct. 7th, 2017 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyphomandraDear Yulebeing,
What I like hasn't changed much from previous years (including this sentence, trudging back around again for another year). I like plot, humour, and justified angst, singly, serially or simultaneously. I like all the characters I have requested and enjoy seeing more of them, and I also love the worlds that they belong to. I have no problem with sexual content as long as it fits with the characters, although pages of explicit anatomical detail are unlikely to be my thing. I like stories that make me remember why I love the original inspiration as well as stories that make me think about it differently (and both! both is great). And I do like the canons themselves. I like these characters being part of their worlds, even when they struggle against them.
In terms of writing, I am open to traditional or experimental forms; I prefer past to present tense but if it works for the story I'll enjoy it. If you match on Donaldson do not feel obliged to emulate his style, although feel free to stick in the occasional "telic" or "mien".
DNWs: earthquakes, child or animal harm as a major plot point (I prefer no fatal earthquakes at all as due to personal experience it kicks me completely out of the story, but off-stage references to the second two are okay).
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Stephen Donaldson; Linden Avery (character)
Linden Avery was hugely important to me in my teens, when there weren't a lot of adult females in sf/fantasy I could see myself in, and I still love her as well as what the Second Chronicles do with portal fantasy, which was fascinating and heart-breaking all in one. I re-read the second chronicles a lot and still think of them fondly; the first trilogy not so much, and I have read only the first two of the third and am not entirely convinced by them yet.
I would like; more Linden! On Earth or visiting the Land, and I'm happy to ignore the third series or go AU from the second if you have a better idea. I do like the third chronicles' idea of time-travelling within the Land's history, if you wanted to do that, and would love exploring more of the Land anyway. Outside the Land, I wonder how Linden reconciles her experiences with her everyday life on returning to our world, especially her healthsense given her job, and I'd like to see her finding some peace or happiness there, having healed from her past. I am curious about how Covenant and Linden were summoned to the Land, and how porous the borders can become - what happens if characters from the Land show up in Linden's world?
I do actually like Covenant as well, but I understand he isn't everyone's cup of tea, and I haven't nominated him. I don't have strong feelings about him showing up or not; he is important to Linden, but not essential.
Annie on My Mind, Nancy Garden: Liza Winthrop, Annie Kenyon, Isabelle Stevenson, Katherine Widmer. Another book that was hugely important to me as a teenager. I'd never thought of fanfic for this, but I leapt on it when I saw it in the tagset. I really want something written *after* the novel's timeline, but apart from that anything is fair game; immediately after, when they meet up again? As adults? Annie and Liza have made a commitment to be together - how does it work out? I don't mind if they have to work for it, but I do want them to end up together. And I loved the older teachers and would be very happy to see them as well, or even be the focus, but I would like to see Annie and Liza again at least once.
Agricola (board game); no nominated characters. I've been playing this a lot this year, and it's soothing and challenging and different every time. Bringing crops in from the fields, building pens for the animals, renovating the house to clay or stone and putting in an oven.. it's all very calming, apart from when you realise it's harvest again and you have too many people to feed. I'm not looking for descriptions of people playing the game, but apart from that go wild - what do the characters think? Was being a medieval farmer really like that? Time slips, experimental formats, horror, sit coms, whatever. I haven't played the Farmers of the Moor expansion; I have the Goodies expansion, but have only used the alien deck from that.
Apart from that - I hope you enjoy writing your story, and I look forward to reading it. Yuletide is a yearly tradition that means a lot to me.
What I like hasn't changed much from previous years (including this sentence, trudging back around again for another year). I like plot, humour, and justified angst, singly, serially or simultaneously. I like all the characters I have requested and enjoy seeing more of them, and I also love the worlds that they belong to. I have no problem with sexual content as long as it fits with the characters, although pages of explicit anatomical detail are unlikely to be my thing. I like stories that make me remember why I love the original inspiration as well as stories that make me think about it differently (and both! both is great). And I do like the canons themselves. I like these characters being part of their worlds, even when they struggle against them.
In terms of writing, I am open to traditional or experimental forms; I prefer past to present tense but if it works for the story I'll enjoy it. If you match on Donaldson do not feel obliged to emulate his style, although feel free to stick in the occasional "telic" or "mien".
DNWs: earthquakes, child or animal harm as a major plot point (I prefer no fatal earthquakes at all as due to personal experience it kicks me completely out of the story, but off-stage references to the second two are okay).
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Stephen Donaldson; Linden Avery (character)
Linden Avery was hugely important to me in my teens, when there weren't a lot of adult females in sf/fantasy I could see myself in, and I still love her as well as what the Second Chronicles do with portal fantasy, which was fascinating and heart-breaking all in one. I re-read the second chronicles a lot and still think of them fondly; the first trilogy not so much, and I have read only the first two of the third and am not entirely convinced by them yet.
I would like; more Linden! On Earth or visiting the Land, and I'm happy to ignore the third series or go AU from the second if you have a better idea. I do like the third chronicles' idea of time-travelling within the Land's history, if you wanted to do that, and would love exploring more of the Land anyway. Outside the Land, I wonder how Linden reconciles her experiences with her everyday life on returning to our world, especially her healthsense given her job, and I'd like to see her finding some peace or happiness there, having healed from her past. I am curious about how Covenant and Linden were summoned to the Land, and how porous the borders can become - what happens if characters from the Land show up in Linden's world?
I do actually like Covenant as well, but I understand he isn't everyone's cup of tea, and I haven't nominated him. I don't have strong feelings about him showing up or not; he is important to Linden, but not essential.
Annie on My Mind, Nancy Garden: Liza Winthrop, Annie Kenyon, Isabelle Stevenson, Katherine Widmer. Another book that was hugely important to me as a teenager. I'd never thought of fanfic for this, but I leapt on it when I saw it in the tagset. I really want something written *after* the novel's timeline, but apart from that anything is fair game; immediately after, when they meet up again? As adults? Annie and Liza have made a commitment to be together - how does it work out? I don't mind if they have to work for it, but I do want them to end up together. And I loved the older teachers and would be very happy to see them as well, or even be the focus, but I would like to see Annie and Liza again at least once.
Agricola (board game); no nominated characters. I've been playing this a lot this year, and it's soothing and challenging and different every time. Bringing crops in from the fields, building pens for the animals, renovating the house to clay or stone and putting in an oven.. it's all very calming, apart from when you realise it's harvest again and you have too many people to feed. I'm not looking for descriptions of people playing the game, but apart from that go wild - what do the characters think? Was being a medieval farmer really like that? Time slips, experimental formats, horror, sit coms, whatever. I haven't played the Farmers of the Moor expansion; I have the Goodies expansion, but have only used the alien deck from that.
Apart from that - I hope you enjoy writing your story, and I look forward to reading it. Yuletide is a yearly tradition that means a lot to me.
