Dear Junetide Author!
Apr. 12th, 2011 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
st_aurafinaDear Junetide Author,
Sorry to make you wait a couple of days for your letter. But here it is, at last! I want to say first up that whatever you choose to write, I'm going to be delighted. My Dear Author letters tend to be heavy on detail, but they're meant as guidelines only. Take as little or as much guidance as you're comfortable. Bend them. If they don't suit your story-telling style, ignore them completely. I want writing this story to be as enjoyable a process for you as reading it will be for me.
So, how exciting is this? I've never taken part in an original fic exchange, and I think it's going to be amazing.
You can probably tell from my prompts that I love world building, and by that, I don't mean you need to build the whole world to show me how weird and wonderful the place is. I'm a small details kind of person. Let me see the mundane – what they eat, how it's cooked, where they buy their food. Their small and daily religious observations. What remedies they use when they get a pimple or the wallpaper comes away because of the damp. As I read this ordinary stuff, I'm building the world for you in my own head, and that's an enjoyable process in itself.
Plotty stories float my boat. Big epic swathes of plot, tiny encapsulated plots where you only get to see one corner of what is probably a bigger story, porn with plot, or plot as the framework on which you hang an interesting conversation. Let the characters do something with their time on the page.
I adore, adore competent characters – people who can look after themselves, who know what their strengths and weaknesses are, and who know when to make a strategic retreat. I'm not looking for superstars – the best characters have flaws and can be trapped by those weaknesses – but characters who can quietly get on with the job and save the day.
Give me female characters who have self-determination, in worlds where it's not remarkable or unexpected that they would make decisions about the path of their own lives. Ditto for queer characters. You don't have to write a queer character if that's not your preference, but if you can make queerness visible and accepted in your world, I will be very happy. By queerness, I'm talking about sexualities and gender presentations, as well as relationship dynamics. I also love different body types, and I love different ways of thinking. Non-neurotypical characters who have functional, happy lives and relationships. I love multicultural societies, I love learning about a character by seeing their culture.
You know that fantasy novel trope, where the thief character who has been travelling with the group for a while suddenly throws off their cloak and they're someone Of Importance? And they have to go home, and everyone in the group is confused to see them wearing expensive clothes and knowing what fork to use, and it's awesome. I am a totally sucker for this, and will drop everything to read it, but I don't think I've ever seen it used with a female character, unless that character is a princess of some sort who needs protection and is only really valued for their bloodline. I'd love to see a female character – one who lives a fairy gritty life – throw off their cloak and be, say, the exiled general of the Queen's army. Or the court poisoner on the run. Or something like that. Fantasy is great, but any genre would fine. In space! Or the boardroom!
I've just come out of a re-read of the Belgariad, in which Silk was a favourite character. I remember from the first read in my teens what a surprise it was that this grubby, slightly weaselly guy was actually a prince. The same goes for Seregil in the Nightrunner books. Oh, and the hints at Book's past on Firefly. Any occupation will do, as long as they're keeping a low profile, and it's something that you wouldn't expect their true-born selves to be doing. I've given a couple of examples that are fantasy genre, but any genre would suit. The woman down the road who is mowing her lawn, did she used to travel in private jets to negotiate peace in trouble spots around the world? The couple who run the machine shop on the space station, do they have a stash of high-clearance pass-cards under the angle-grinder?
I like the gritty, nuts and bolts kind of space travel that we see in Firefly or in Star Wars: star drives that grind and complain and need a good thump to get them going again. I'd love to see how a society grows up in this environment, what it's like to be a kid or a family or a business owner. I think what I really wanted to do with Firefly (and with other science fiction shows like the Star Treks) was to see what it's like to get dinner on the table or work or deal with the ordinary life stuff in a space setting. Or dealing with strangers moving in, or a murder in a tight space-faring community or a crisis that needs to be dealt with by everyone pulling together. Rather than the pirates and the political conspiracies, I'd like to see the farmers and the mechanics of the world. And it would be great to see a community made up of many cultures and a range of sexualities, and for this to be completely normal.
Let's talk sci-fi. Luke Skywalker had a sucky job on his uncle's moisture farm. The droids were crappy and they broke down all the time. There was access to fantastic technology, but it didn't make life any less gritty – literally, because intake vents filled up with sand – and you had the feeling that if they didn't all pull together, they wouldn't make it to the next harvest system. That? That's the kind of science fiction I love. I mean, I love big ships that roar through hyperspace and doors that go whoosh, but I think that kind of setting works best with a contrast. (Like the Death Star, to extend the example.) I think that one of the great things about a community of pioneers and farmers is that you never know who you're going to get lumped in with, and you have to work it all out or you'll die. I totally got why Firefly took tropes from old westerns and ran with it. They work so well in a space setting.
I would love to see how crime is investigated in a magical system – X-Files with wizards, Harry Potter/CSI. I like magic systems with large bureaucracies – the Ministry for Magic was always a favourite part of Harry Potter for me – so maybe a contemporary world where magic is an everyday thing, and government agents use it to solve crimes.
It kind of cracks me up that after I posted this prompt, the Harry Potter people released a purported Aurors TV show. That is *exactly* what I was thinking of. I think I'd like to see a magic system a little more on the Harry Dresden side than the Harry Potter side. Or Law and Order, in the early years, where the station was crowded and grubby, and the cops were always scarfing down sandwiches while they were trying to get their paperwork done – with wands tucked into their pockets, or elementals in bottles on the desk. If you felt comfortable with a setting outside the UK or the US, and a magic system that incorporates cultures other than Western, I would be delighted.
When I write fanfic, I often choose the advisor/mentor characters (Giles from Buffy, Cuddy from House, Remus and Sirius from Harry Potter, Professor Xavier from the X-Men franchise, Walter Skinner from the X-Files.) I'd love to see a story from a mentor character's point of view. Can they have their own storyline that doesn't exist to teach the hero a lesson? Any genre, but give me an older character with some life experience, and let them be the centre of the story.
I love a mentor character, and we never get to see enough of their personal lives in canon. I would be so delighted to see an older character's POV – a feeling of the life behind them, and the way it informs the decisions they make now and how they feel about their younglings. Again, queerness/non-neurotypicality/different body shapes/different cultures are a plus here.
Want more? Here's a link to my Dear Author letters from Yuletide 2006-2010. If you're looking for more details about my preferences, I've got thoughts about tropes, genres, bulletproof kinks and so on, with examples of canon I enjoy, too.
Yuletide 2010
Yuletide 2009
Yuletide 2008
Yuletide 2007
Yuletide 2006
Thank you again for signing up for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
junetide! I'm excited that you're going to write (or draw) something for one of these prompts, and I hope you enjoy the process as much as I'm going to enjoy reading (or viewing) your work.
st_aurafina
Sorry to make you wait a couple of days for your letter. But here it is, at last! I want to say first up that whatever you choose to write, I'm going to be delighted. My Dear Author letters tend to be heavy on detail, but they're meant as guidelines only. Take as little or as much guidance as you're comfortable. Bend them. If they don't suit your story-telling style, ignore them completely. I want writing this story to be as enjoyable a process for you as reading it will be for me.
So, how exciting is this? I've never taken part in an original fic exchange, and I think it's going to be amazing.
You can probably tell from my prompts that I love world building, and by that, I don't mean you need to build the whole world to show me how weird and wonderful the place is. I'm a small details kind of person. Let me see the mundane – what they eat, how it's cooked, where they buy their food. Their small and daily religious observations. What remedies they use when they get a pimple or the wallpaper comes away because of the damp. As I read this ordinary stuff, I'm building the world for you in my own head, and that's an enjoyable process in itself.
Plotty stories float my boat. Big epic swathes of plot, tiny encapsulated plots where you only get to see one corner of what is probably a bigger story, porn with plot, or plot as the framework on which you hang an interesting conversation. Let the characters do something with their time on the page.
I adore, adore competent characters – people who can look after themselves, who know what their strengths and weaknesses are, and who know when to make a strategic retreat. I'm not looking for superstars – the best characters have flaws and can be trapped by those weaknesses – but characters who can quietly get on with the job and save the day.
Give me female characters who have self-determination, in worlds where it's not remarkable or unexpected that they would make decisions about the path of their own lives. Ditto for queer characters. You don't have to write a queer character if that's not your preference, but if you can make queerness visible and accepted in your world, I will be very happy. By queerness, I'm talking about sexualities and gender presentations, as well as relationship dynamics. I also love different body types, and I love different ways of thinking. Non-neurotypical characters who have functional, happy lives and relationships. I love multicultural societies, I love learning about a character by seeing their culture.
You know that fantasy novel trope, where the thief character who has been travelling with the group for a while suddenly throws off their cloak and they're someone Of Importance? And they have to go home, and everyone in the group is confused to see them wearing expensive clothes and knowing what fork to use, and it's awesome. I am a totally sucker for this, and will drop everything to read it, but I don't think I've ever seen it used with a female character, unless that character is a princess of some sort who needs protection and is only really valued for their bloodline. I'd love to see a female character – one who lives a fairy gritty life – throw off their cloak and be, say, the exiled general of the Queen's army. Or the court poisoner on the run. Or something like that. Fantasy is great, but any genre would fine. In space! Or the boardroom!
I've just come out of a re-read of the Belgariad, in which Silk was a favourite character. I remember from the first read in my teens what a surprise it was that this grubby, slightly weaselly guy was actually a prince. The same goes for Seregil in the Nightrunner books. Oh, and the hints at Book's past on Firefly. Any occupation will do, as long as they're keeping a low profile, and it's something that you wouldn't expect their true-born selves to be doing. I've given a couple of examples that are fantasy genre, but any genre would suit. The woman down the road who is mowing her lawn, did she used to travel in private jets to negotiate peace in trouble spots around the world? The couple who run the machine shop on the space station, do they have a stash of high-clearance pass-cards under the angle-grinder?
I like the gritty, nuts and bolts kind of space travel that we see in Firefly or in Star Wars: star drives that grind and complain and need a good thump to get them going again. I'd love to see how a society grows up in this environment, what it's like to be a kid or a family or a business owner. I think what I really wanted to do with Firefly (and with other science fiction shows like the Star Treks) was to see what it's like to get dinner on the table or work or deal with the ordinary life stuff in a space setting. Or dealing with strangers moving in, or a murder in a tight space-faring community or a crisis that needs to be dealt with by everyone pulling together. Rather than the pirates and the political conspiracies, I'd like to see the farmers and the mechanics of the world. And it would be great to see a community made up of many cultures and a range of sexualities, and for this to be completely normal.
Let's talk sci-fi. Luke Skywalker had a sucky job on his uncle's moisture farm. The droids were crappy and they broke down all the time. There was access to fantastic technology, but it didn't make life any less gritty – literally, because intake vents filled up with sand – and you had the feeling that if they didn't all pull together, they wouldn't make it to the next harvest system. That? That's the kind of science fiction I love. I mean, I love big ships that roar through hyperspace and doors that go whoosh, but I think that kind of setting works best with a contrast. (Like the Death Star, to extend the example.) I think that one of the great things about a community of pioneers and farmers is that you never know who you're going to get lumped in with, and you have to work it all out or you'll die. I totally got why Firefly took tropes from old westerns and ran with it. They work so well in a space setting.
I would love to see how crime is investigated in a magical system – X-Files with wizards, Harry Potter/CSI. I like magic systems with large bureaucracies – the Ministry for Magic was always a favourite part of Harry Potter for me – so maybe a contemporary world where magic is an everyday thing, and government agents use it to solve crimes.
It kind of cracks me up that after I posted this prompt, the Harry Potter people released a purported Aurors TV show. That is *exactly* what I was thinking of. I think I'd like to see a magic system a little more on the Harry Dresden side than the Harry Potter side. Or Law and Order, in the early years, where the station was crowded and grubby, and the cops were always scarfing down sandwiches while they were trying to get their paperwork done – with wands tucked into their pockets, or elementals in bottles on the desk. If you felt comfortable with a setting outside the UK or the US, and a magic system that incorporates cultures other than Western, I would be delighted.
When I write fanfic, I often choose the advisor/mentor characters (Giles from Buffy, Cuddy from House, Remus and Sirius from Harry Potter, Professor Xavier from the X-Men franchise, Walter Skinner from the X-Files.) I'd love to see a story from a mentor character's point of view. Can they have their own storyline that doesn't exist to teach the hero a lesson? Any genre, but give me an older character with some life experience, and let them be the centre of the story.
I love a mentor character, and we never get to see enough of their personal lives in canon. I would be so delighted to see an older character's POV – a feeling of the life behind them, and the way it informs the decisions they make now and how they feel about their younglings. Again, queerness/non-neurotypicality/different body shapes/different cultures are a plus here.
Want more? Here's a link to my Dear Author letters from Yuletide 2006-2010. If you're looking for more details about my preferences, I've got thoughts about tropes, genres, bulletproof kinks and so on, with examples of canon I enjoy, too.
Yuletide 2010
Yuletide 2009
Yuletide 2008
Yuletide 2007
Yuletide 2006
Thank you again for signing up for
junetide! I'm excited that you're going to write (or draw) something for one of these prompts, and I hope you enjoy the process as much as I'm going to enjoy reading (or viewing) your work. st_aurafina
no subject
Date: 2011-04-12 03:17 pm (UTC)I wrote something like Magic CSI a while back (though inspired more by the City Watch than anything on TV), but I actually really dislike procedurals/detective things so I had to abandon it. I'm quite honestly surprised that it isn't its own oversaturated sub-genre by now!
no subject
Date: 2011-04-13 11:49 am (UTC)I'm quite honestly surprised that it isn't its own oversaturated sub-genre by now!
I've read a few Harry as Auror fics, or fics set within the Aurors department at the ministry. But yeah - with so many paranormal fantasy type stories out there, I'm surprised I haven't read many original fics where (a) magic is an accepted phenomenon, and (b) from street level for cops. The reason I kept reading Anita Blake for much, much longer than I should have was because of all the bureaucracy and legislation surrounding the outing of vampires and other paranormal beasties. So much fun, such good world building. (And then she did nothing with it. *sighs*)
no subject
Date: 2011-04-13 12:04 pm (UTC)I guess publishers might see crime as too far away from fantasy/UF? It seems to mostly be all romance/UF at the moment. :/
no subject
Date: 2011-04-13 12:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-13 12:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-12 05:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-13 11:51 am (UTC)