Dear Author: Yuletide 2018

Updated: October 24^th, 2018

Hi Author!

Thank you so much for spending time creating something for me. I’ve broken this letter down into general likes/dislikes, and then a short section on each fandom.

The letter doesn’t cover everything that I like (My AO3 bookmarks may give you more ideas, but I’ve been meaning to update them because they’re currently a mess) and please don’t feel pressured to fit your creation to everything I like!

Thanks so much again for creating something for me! I’m so excited to see what you create!

(Note: Most of this letter was copied from previous exchanges I’ve participated in.)

General Themes I Like:

Platonic Relationships – I love friendship. Gen fics are my jam. I’m always a sucker for platonic cuddling, hair ruffling, and just people being protective/supportive of each other. Hair ruffling and forehead kisses are like my ultimate weakness. I also love friends feeling comfortable sharing their vulnerabilities and trusting each other. 

Families of Choice – This is pretty much my favorite trope of all time. People choosing to be each other’s families and just platonically loving each other is my favorite thing in the entire world.  

Trust – I love fics that focus on the trust and building of trust between two (or more) characters. People accepting the unconditional love and trust of another person and realizing it’s real is one of my favorite things.

Communication – I really love this theme. People talking out their issues and trusting each other with their entire being, just gives me the all the feels. I especially love when people have to deal with their (and each other’s) insecurities and have to be vulnerable to each other. 

Happy Endings – I just want them to be happy in the end. I can take angst (and I especially love Emotional Hurt/Comfort), but I really need happy endings for the characters.

AUs/Tropes I Like:

Breakfast Club AU – I feel like I’ve read every Breakfast Club AU in every fandom that I’m in (and even a couple in fandoms I’m not in). (For context, Breakfast Club is a 1980s movies about 5 very different kids that get detention and by the end of the day become friends with each other) I love this for the same reason I love the “families of choice” theme – a bunch of misfit kids finding family in each other.  

Famous/Not Famous AUs – I really love when one person is famous/rich and the other isn’t and they have to navigate their relationship amongst this. This connects into the theme of trust and communication that I mentioned earlier. At one point I wrote this really long thing on tumblr about it.

Protective/Supportive Friends – I love friends defending each other and supporting each other no matter what. Characters finding, building, and accepting unconditional friendship is wonderful.

Dragon Prince:

I’d love a fic about Runann and Gren becoming really great friends (like… Ride or Die kind of friends). Gren just wears his dungeon companion down bit by bit, until one day Runaan hates all humans, except one. I’d love to see an exploration of the trust and communication between them. (Additionally, if you’d like to make this one pre-Gren/Runaan or slow burn Gren/Runaan, I’d be fine with that).

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017):

I’d really love to see what happens to the four of them after the movie, and they have to go back to school. They’ve been on a life-changing, fantastical, bonding adventure, but the rest of the school doesn’t know that. They just see four people who’ve never really had positive interactions suddenly becoming friends. I really like the idea that somehow almost dying in a video game, isn’t as hard as going back to school and dealing with the social implications and changes of the four of them becoming friends. I’d love to see the protective/supportive friends trope!

Sky High:

At this point in this letter, would you really be surprised if I was asking for another friendship fic? I’d love a post-movie fic about them being/becoming more comfortable in their friendship (and the rest of their Sky High friends). I don’t really care if it’s directly post-movie, or a few years after they graduate high school. I think I would prefer it if the fic revolved around their more mundane civilian lives, rather than their superhero identities.

(Additionally, feel free to have any combination of Will, Warren, Layla in a ship in the background).