Yuletide letter
Oct. 28th, 2019 02:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lemniskathHi! Thanks for writing for me or considering writing for me or checking out my prompts to get ideas for writing something else -- thanks for reading this letter, in general.
I'm "Gammarad" on AO3.
Skip ahead to prompts:
General likes that may or may not fit any particular request:
- Human characters of all ages (elders, middle aged adults, younger adults, teenagers, children), ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations
- Aliens (both very human-like from other planets, completely different lifeforms, and everything in between)
- Supernatural people (fairies, vampires, werewolves, selkies, immortals, liches, whatever)
- Cats, squirrels, birds, fish, other vertebrate animals
- Computers, artificial intelligences, robots, technology in general
- Magic, spells, enchanted items, magical creatures
- Spaceships, other planets, astronomical objects, telescopes
- Mysteries to solve and puzzles to puzzle over
- Academic topics in the humanities and social sciences and math and information sciences
- Human connections, friendships, families, romances, enmities, collegiality
- conflict where characters cheat, lie, have strongly opposing opinions, and in general things aren't perfect and soft all the time for them, especially conflict where there isn't a "good guy" and a "bad guy" but instead, people on different sides
- smut likes: people who do power exchange on an ad hoc or sometimes basis, people discovering their kinks, people who want to enjoy sex but have anxieties or fears about something that may be standing in their way, imperfect sex that both parties still enjoy despite whatever goes wrong, people who want to try new things sexually
- Stories the author enjoyed writing and felt inspired to write -- if you don't feel inspired or interested in any of my prompts, please write me something you felt like writing instead. Other people often have better ideas than I do!
- Experimental stuff, literature, genre works, romance, character motivation, dialogue
- Any point of view or writing style is fine with me, I really like a noticeable or defined viewpoint where I can tell something about the world or the narrator from it, I'm fine with first - second - third - limited - omniscient - etc
- Any relationships you want to include are fine. I like there being background relationships if they fit the story
General dislikes:
- excessive cutesiness or adults behaving like children for no apparent reason
- bad guys who are bad because they're bad guys; unmotivated villainy
- bad guys whose motivation is that they were victims in their past
- focus on appearances over personality, focus on things like size differences, height, weight, etc. I mean feel free to describe how your characters look, but also feel free to leave it out entirely, depending on what the point-of-view character would notice or not notice about them and would mention or not mention. Same with surroundings, nature, etc.
- smut dislikes: people saying they're straight in so many words. bulges showing due to fullness or too-deep penetration. sexism as part of sex. name-calling or insults as part of dirty talk (but condescension during sex is fine, and name-calling and insults in non-sexual contexts are also fine)
DNWs are per request, see below.
1. 4'33"
How many kinds of silence are there? Why the exact duration and in what order do you listen to the various kinds of silence?
Is the silence forced? has the whole world lost sound for this time period? It's not just a "moment of silence" it's four and a half minutes plus. Does it seem like longer when you don't know if sound will return afterward?
Interactive fiction is welcome for this fandom. Maybe a choose-your-own-brand-of-silence adventure? Maybe a "find out why we can't make a sound" story.
If you want to do a romance: you know how people used to make mix tapes for their romantic partners or people they wanted to be? What kind of person would put 4'33" on such a mix tape? what kind of person would like them for it?
If you want to do mystery/casefic: Is the origin of the silence piece some missing instrument or equipment? Or maybe an argument over the meaning of the Cage number preceded a murder? Or maybe someone took advantage of the silence in some unusual way.
DNW for 4'33": zero-word stories (unless accompanied by art)
2. The Fountain
Canon specific prompts:
- Is death a disease? Is there a tree that holds a cure? Is there a star that is going to explode that someone would think it reasonable to fly to with such a tree? Can you cure a star of death? Can you cure a person? Or a plant?
- What does Tomas's quest look like from the point of view of the locals whose lands he's in? Do they have a religious or mythical view of him, or one about strangers in their land, or might they think he's a fool?
- If their positions were reversed, how would Izzi have handled Tommy's illness? What would it have changed about her book?
Crossover prompts: I think the science fiction part of The Fountain could be productively crossed over with a lot of other science fiction canons. If you do this, feel free to use characters from either work and to do a fusion rather than a crossover. Here's the ones I would especially like:
- Solaris (either movie, or the recent book translation, or the original book if you can read Polish) - there's a lot of thematic parallel in how the obsession with the person they love results in a weird second or half life for that person. And space travel! A whole world that might be a sort of secret of eternal life...
- Roadside Picnic (the book, which is also Yuletide nominated, or the movie Stalker if you like) again the thematic relationship, this time with the idea of trying to save the loved one from an illness by some kind of alien / supernatural means.
- Interstellar - the mix of time travel and space travel can cross over between both. what if the Interstellar characters had previous incarnations like the Fountain ones? Or what if the Fountain space guy found that place the Interstellar traveler found when he arrived at his destination?
3. Instrumentality
1. A story about one or more of the robots of the instrumentality and how they were like, and unlike, the living being(s) they resembled/were created from, or how they tried to discover the answer to a question about their origin(s)
2. There are different worlds and each has its own unique stories. Who was the first on one of those worlds? Who was the last? Who was the most famous person to come from that world? Who should have been famous but their deeds were secret or attributed to someone else?
3. So many different types of space travel and each with a different strange effect. Make up a new one or a new story with one of the existing ones. Scanners, the space-2, the brain maps, the pinlighters, really just so many options.
4. There's kind of a lot of odd (it seems to us now) views of women in some of these stories. An explanation from a more modern view? or an alien view? Some kind of alternate look at that?
5. A story about Underpeople and what they did during one of the various eras in which they were a good portion of the inhabitants
DNW for Instrumentality: Underage sex, explicit descriptions of dismemberment or of other torture that results in death.
4. Forgotten Beasts of Eld
1. More of Sybel's life after the novel ends, what does she do? Do she and Coren have children and if so, are any of them magically gifted like their mother?
2. Canon divergence where Drede is braver (or stupider) and agrees to Sybel's offer of marrying him and doing what he says of her own will. How long does that last? Does it work because of Tamlorn? Does Drede ever get over his distrust? Does Sybel hate him or love him or both or neither?
2. Canon divergence where she doesn't feel as vengeful against Drede, decides to stay with the animals and doesn't decide to marry Coren and get revenge - what happens instead? Would Coren keep courting her? Would he give up?
3. Something from before the novel begins, when Ogam is still alive and teaching Sybel to care for the animals, or when she is sixteen and her father has just died.
5. Heart of Gold
Kitrini and Nolan - anything set after the story ends about their lives
Kitrini and Melina - something about them working together or a night out having fun
Kitrini and Chay - something when Kitrini was a child and her father was still alive and Chay being entertaining for them? Maybe there were feelings between Chay and Anton Solvano?
Kitrini - her early relationship with Jex
Melina - something with her and her girlfriend, or her and Pakt's friendship and interaction
Nolan and Melina - working together and being friends, having a political sort of conversation that shows their different ways of thinking about the same sorts of Indigo society things they probably think they agree about but don't
Chay - something from his point of view during the time he was sick
Nolan - something about the interactions between him and the other men he worked with at the lab, or, him after he has a child/children telling them a story
DNW for Heart of Gold: romantic pairing of Kitrini with anyone other than Nolan or Jex, romantic pairing of Nolan with anyone other than Kitrini or Leesa, nonconsensual sex involving Kitrini, Nolan or Melina.
6. People
prompts:
1) rescuing a lost member of the People in the 21st century, modern day, how is it different? Is it more or less difficult? do they find people online now? Maybe there's message boards or a discord?
2) story of what happened before the flight to Earth, like did the People have human form then? did they have space ships already or make them specially for coming here? what were they running from and why? how did they choose/find Earth? Anything along those lines
3) I feel like the Chapel Hollow series by Nina Kiriki Hoffman is a good fit with the People (and it was nominated for Yuletide too!), so is Escape to Witch Mountain by Alexander Key. A crossover with one (even both?) of those would be great.
I'm "Gammarad" on AO3.
Skip ahead to prompts:
- 4'33"
- The Fountain
- The Instrumentality - Cordwainer Smith
- Forgotten Beasts of Eld - Patricia McKillip
- Heart of Gold - Sharon Shinn
- The People - Zenna Henderson
The following general likes/dislikes apply to all requests/prompts:
General likes that may or may not fit any particular request:
- Human characters of all ages (elders, middle aged adults, younger adults, teenagers, children), ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations
- Aliens (both very human-like from other planets, completely different lifeforms, and everything in between)
- Supernatural people (fairies, vampires, werewolves, selkies, immortals, liches, whatever)
- Cats, squirrels, birds, fish, other vertebrate animals
- Computers, artificial intelligences, robots, technology in general
- Magic, spells, enchanted items, magical creatures
- Spaceships, other planets, astronomical objects, telescopes
- Mysteries to solve and puzzles to puzzle over
- Academic topics in the humanities and social sciences and math and information sciences
- Human connections, friendships, families, romances, enmities, collegiality
- conflict where characters cheat, lie, have strongly opposing opinions, and in general things aren't perfect and soft all the time for them, especially conflict where there isn't a "good guy" and a "bad guy" but instead, people on different sides
- smut likes: people who do power exchange on an ad hoc or sometimes basis, people discovering their kinks, people who want to enjoy sex but have anxieties or fears about something that may be standing in their way, imperfect sex that both parties still enjoy despite whatever goes wrong, people who want to try new things sexually
- Stories the author enjoyed writing and felt inspired to write -- if you don't feel inspired or interested in any of my prompts, please write me something you felt like writing instead. Other people often have better ideas than I do!
- Experimental stuff, literature, genre works, romance, character motivation, dialogue
- Any point of view or writing style is fine with me, I really like a noticeable or defined viewpoint where I can tell something about the world or the narrator from it, I'm fine with first - second - third - limited - omniscient - etc
- Any relationships you want to include are fine. I like there being background relationships if they fit the story
General dislikes:
- excessive cutesiness or adults behaving like children for no apparent reason
- bad guys who are bad because they're bad guys; unmotivated villainy
- bad guys whose motivation is that they were victims in their past
- focus on appearances over personality, focus on things like size differences, height, weight, etc. I mean feel free to describe how your characters look, but also feel free to leave it out entirely, depending on what the point-of-view character would notice or not notice about them and would mention or not mention. Same with surroundings, nature, etc.
- smut dislikes: people saying they're straight in so many words. bulges showing due to fullness or too-deep penetration. sexism as part of sex. name-calling or insults as part of dirty talk (but condescension during sex is fine, and name-calling and insults in non-sexual contexts are also fine)
DNWs are per request, see below.
Specific fandoms, prompts and DNWs (if any) for each:
- 4'33"
- The Fountain
- The Instrumentality - Cordwainer Smith
- Forgotten Beasts of Eld - Patricia McKillip
- Heart of Gold - Sharon Shinn
- The People - Zenna Henderson
1. 4'33"
How many kinds of silence are there? Why the exact duration and in what order do you listen to the various kinds of silence?
Is the silence forced? has the whole world lost sound for this time period? It's not just a "moment of silence" it's four and a half minutes plus. Does it seem like longer when you don't know if sound will return afterward?
Interactive fiction is welcome for this fandom. Maybe a choose-your-own-brand-of-silence adventure? Maybe a "find out why we can't make a sound" story.
If you want to do a romance: you know how people used to make mix tapes for their romantic partners or people they wanted to be? What kind of person would put 4'33" on such a mix tape? what kind of person would like them for it?
If you want to do mystery/casefic: Is the origin of the silence piece some missing instrument or equipment? Or maybe an argument over the meaning of the Cage number preceded a murder? Or maybe someone took advantage of the silence in some unusual way.
DNW for 4'33": zero-word stories (unless accompanied by art)
2. The Fountain
Canon specific prompts:
- Is death a disease? Is there a tree that holds a cure? Is there a star that is going to explode that someone would think it reasonable to fly to with such a tree? Can you cure a star of death? Can you cure a person? Or a plant?
- What does Tomas's quest look like from the point of view of the locals whose lands he's in? Do they have a religious or mythical view of him, or one about strangers in their land, or might they think he's a fool?
- If their positions were reversed, how would Izzi have handled Tommy's illness? What would it have changed about her book?
Crossover prompts: I think the science fiction part of The Fountain could be productively crossed over with a lot of other science fiction canons. If you do this, feel free to use characters from either work and to do a fusion rather than a crossover. Here's the ones I would especially like:
- Solaris (either movie, or the recent book translation, or the original book if you can read Polish) - there's a lot of thematic parallel in how the obsession with the person they love results in a weird second or half life for that person. And space travel! A whole world that might be a sort of secret of eternal life...
- Roadside Picnic (the book, which is also Yuletide nominated, or the movie Stalker if you like) again the thematic relationship, this time with the idea of trying to save the loved one from an illness by some kind of alien / supernatural means.
- Interstellar - the mix of time travel and space travel can cross over between both. what if the Interstellar characters had previous incarnations like the Fountain ones? Or what if the Fountain space guy found that place the Interstellar traveler found when he arrived at his destination?
3. Instrumentality
1. A story about one or more of the robots of the instrumentality and how they were like, and unlike, the living being(s) they resembled/were created from, or how they tried to discover the answer to a question about their origin(s)
2. There are different worlds and each has its own unique stories. Who was the first on one of those worlds? Who was the last? Who was the most famous person to come from that world? Who should have been famous but their deeds were secret or attributed to someone else?
3. So many different types of space travel and each with a different strange effect. Make up a new one or a new story with one of the existing ones. Scanners, the space-2, the brain maps, the pinlighters, really just so many options.
4. There's kind of a lot of odd (it seems to us now) views of women in some of these stories. An explanation from a more modern view? or an alien view? Some kind of alternate look at that?
5. A story about Underpeople and what they did during one of the various eras in which they were a good portion of the inhabitants
DNW for Instrumentality: Underage sex, explicit descriptions of dismemberment or of other torture that results in death.
4. Forgotten Beasts of Eld
1. More of Sybel's life after the novel ends, what does she do? Do she and Coren have children and if so, are any of them magically gifted like their mother?
2. Canon divergence where Drede is braver (or stupider) and agrees to Sybel's offer of marrying him and doing what he says of her own will. How long does that last? Does it work because of Tamlorn? Does Drede ever get over his distrust? Does Sybel hate him or love him or both or neither?
2. Canon divergence where she doesn't feel as vengeful against Drede, decides to stay with the animals and doesn't decide to marry Coren and get revenge - what happens instead? Would Coren keep courting her? Would he give up?
3. Something from before the novel begins, when Ogam is still alive and teaching Sybel to care for the animals, or when she is sixteen and her father has just died.
5. Heart of Gold
Kitrini and Nolan - anything set after the story ends about their lives
Kitrini and Melina - something about them working together or a night out having fun
Kitrini and Chay - something when Kitrini was a child and her father was still alive and Chay being entertaining for them? Maybe there were feelings between Chay and Anton Solvano?
Kitrini - her early relationship with Jex
Melina - something with her and her girlfriend, or her and Pakt's friendship and interaction
Nolan and Melina - working together and being friends, having a political sort of conversation that shows their different ways of thinking about the same sorts of Indigo society things they probably think they agree about but don't
Chay - something from his point of view during the time he was sick
Nolan - something about the interactions between him and the other men he worked with at the lab, or, him after he has a child/children telling them a story
DNW for Heart of Gold: romantic pairing of Kitrini with anyone other than Nolan or Jex, romantic pairing of Nolan with anyone other than Kitrini or Leesa, nonconsensual sex involving Kitrini, Nolan or Melina.
6. People
prompts:
1) rescuing a lost member of the People in the 21st century, modern day, how is it different? Is it more or less difficult? do they find people online now? Maybe there's message boards or a discord?
2) story of what happened before the flight to Earth, like did the People have human form then? did they have space ships already or make them specially for coming here? what were they running from and why? how did they choose/find Earth? Anything along those lines
3) I feel like the Chapel Hollow series by Nina Kiriki Hoffman is a good fit with the People (and it was nominated for Yuletide too!), so is Escape to Witch Mountain by Alexander Key. A crossover with one (even both?) of those would be great.
