Dear Yuletide Writer,

Firstly, YOU'RE AWESOME. Thank you so much for writing me a fic! My golden rule of fic exchanges is this: the fic I'm most interested in reading is the fic you're most interested in writing. If you write what inspires you I'm sure it'll be great. I always write super long letters for this kind of thing but the idea is to give you lots of options, not to limit you; if you don't want any further guidance, feel free to ignore all of this! There are really no hard and fast rules as to what I like to read, and while I have some general squicks I don't have any triggers you need to avoid.

I like fic that feels like canon, and I like happy or hopeful or at least bittersweet endings. I like a bit of angst, or at least tension and conflict, but I'm not really a fan of stories that are unrelentingly dark. When it comes to romantic relationships I vastly prefer the build-up and UST and getting-together to established relationships, unless the relationship is already established in canon.

Other general likes: snark and banter, introspection, wacky hijinks, bittersweet moments, longing, girls kissing, gay angst, loyal friendships, unrequited love, sense of place, backstory, slice of life, intimacy, family, identity.

General dislikes: character death, non-con, dirty talk, PWP, pregnancy/babies/kids, first person narration.

For Sophie's World I'd prefer not to get porn; for the other fandoms I'm happy for you to write whatever rating you're comfortable with. I'm not really interested in AUs where they're pirates or space cowboys or anything that's very different from canon but I don't mind AUs that diverge slightly from canon events. I'd prefer no crossovers even if you're sure that I like the other fandom.

Fandom-specific thoughts:

Sofies verden | Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder: Sophie Amundsen, Hilde Møller Knag

This book had a massive impact on me when I was 13/14 - not just because of the philosophy, but because it opened up so many storytelling possibilities that I hadn't considered before. Feel free to go as meta as you like! I'm not necessarily looking for a philosophy essay, but would still love philosophical elements to be included if you're up for that. Maybe some feminist/queer theory, if that interests you? Or if you want to focus more on the characters, I would love to know what happens when Sophie escapes the book - and then ends up in your fic. :D

Oh, the possibilities for meta. I LOVE metafiction, and I'm hoping that if you offered to write in this fandom then you do too! I would love to see Sophie and Hilde interacting (with Hilde freaking out about interacting with a fictional character and realising she's fictional herself) but if you wanted to write about Hilde reading more of Sophie's adventures with Alberto (or maybe Hilde could start writing about Sophie herself?) that would be awesome too. As I said in my optional details, I'm not expecting any kind of philosophical essay here, although if there's an area of philosophy that you're particularly interested in and would like to explore, I'd be happy to read it. Gen or Sophie/Hilde femslash would be equally loved.

Girls: Marnie Michaels/Jessa Johansson

I ship it hard and would love to see these two figuring out their shit and realising what they mean to each other. Lots of UST would be gorgeous. If femslash isn't your thing I'd love to read about their friendship, whether that's something fun and silly like the show can sometimes be or something more serious.

I felt like episode 8 should have been the story of these two falling for each other but it wasn't, so I'd love to read that story for Yuletide! (Feel free to handwave Jessa getting married in the finale if you want as I doubt it would last that long anyway.) I think they both have a lot of growing to do together and separately - Marnie is only just starting to learn how to be less uptight and Jessa really has no idea how to be serious and committed. If you're not into femslash then gen would be great too. Maybe some backstory about when they first met? Feel free to include Hannah and Shoshanna as I like them both too, but I'm not so interested in any of the dudes.

Pretty Little Liars: Emily Fields/Paige McCullers

I have ALL THE FEELINGS for these two and would love anything that explores their relationship, whether that's something set now, or filling in the gaps when they sort of dated back in season one. I'd really love it if you gave them a happy ending, because I think they've suffered enough in canon.

Oh, Emily/Paige. ♥ I love that Emily is growing more strong and assertive, and I love that Paige is deeply flawed but still manages to be an awesome girlfriend because she loves Emily so much. I'd like to see them having fun together at a time when they're not being terrorised by A, or I'd like a bit of angst/conflict as long as it turns out okay. I love the other Liars, particularly Spencer, so I think it would be fun to see their perspectives on the Emily/Paige relationship, and I also like both Emily and Paige's backstory with Ali if you want to write about that. I'd also love to know more about what was going on with Paige during all the episodes where she wasn't around. If you like writing plotty stories, it would be fun to see Emily and Paige taking on A together. Really, anything with them would make me happy!

Cracks (2009): Di Radfield/Fiamma Coronna

I'd love femslash for these two; the midnight feast scene made me ship it and I'd love to see if they could fall for each other. (For obvious reasons, feel free to go slightly AU if you want to explore beyond the scope of the film.) If femslash isn't your thing, gen that explores their complex, messy dynamic would be great too.

Super-specific prompt time, which you are of course perfectly free to ignore: I think an AU where Di finds Miss G and Fiamma in the wood just before it's too late would be fascinating. What would Di and Fiamma's interactions be like once they're both on the same page re. Miss G? Would Di find herself falling for Fiamma, and could Fiamma reciprocate? What about if they met years later? If those ideas doesn't interest you, I'd love a missing scene from the film - ensemble fic with the rest of the team would also be fun, as would anything about Di and/or Fiamma's relationship with Miss G. Or maybe you could write about Di going on adventures after the film, and maybe even meeting someone new?

These are all just suggestions to hopefully spark some ideas for you, but you don't have to use any of them. I just want you to have fun and write something that makes you happy. And if you need any clarifications on anything, don't forget that you can email your questions to the Yuletide mods and they can pass them on to me.

♥ botherd

Title: Hear Them Sing Our Song
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Mercedes/Quinn
Rating: PG
Words: 4209
Summary: It feels natural for Mercedes to gravitate toward Quinn.
Notes: Thanks to fivewhatfive for the beta. Written for overthetiber as part of femslash11

( Hear Them Sing Our Song )

- A day later and I've just about recovered from the Brittana kiss. (The hug afterwards is my favourite part.) I dread to think what I'm going to be like if WHEN we get a proper kiss on the show. IT MUST HAPPEN.

- I'm still really sad about Chord being cut! Sam, with his ridiculous impressions and his Justin Bieber tribute band and his general all-round adorkableness, was by far my favourite of the guys. Also, Sam/Mercedes had so much potential. I can understand why they might have thought he was expendable, because he doesn't seem to have a ton of fans like Darren and Chris do, but I still think he was really widely liked even if he wasn't a lot of people's favourite. SIGH.

- I'm also sad that the Glee tour is over. What are we going to do without endless buttslap gifs to tide us over until we get new episodes?

- Question for fic-writing purposes: how many weeks does a typical US high school summer break last?

- I feel kind of guilty for not having written a letter to my femslash11 author, especially considering I usually write such long ones. I guess it's too late now? (Dear femslash11 author, if you're reading this: just write whatever you're inspired to write, and I'll be super happy with it!) I haven't even started writing my own fic, although it is mostly planned out so I'm hoping I won't find it too difficult to get the actual words out.

- I'm really enjoying the new Patrick Wolf album, Lupercalia. I wasn't that impressed at first but it's finally grown on me! /no1curr

- This moodtheme makes me ridiculously happy. ♥

LOOK AT ME, ACTUALLY POSTING FIC. This is 1500 words long and it's seriously taken me two months to write. *facepalm*

Title: Hold On To Our Light
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Brittany/Santana
Rating: PG-13
Words: 1584
Summary: Five times Brittany and Santana get their cuddle on.
Notes: Seven years in fandom and I'm finally popping my 'five times' cherry. We all have to at some point, right?

( Hold On To Our Light )

For the first time in a while I find myself needing to talk about Doctor Who!

( 6x07 A Good Man Goes to War )

So, the new Gaga album. FUCKING AMAZING, RIGHT? I wasn't really expecting it to be all that after Born This Way and Judas, but fuck me, it's so good (and the singles sound a lot better in the context of the album, I think). Initial favourites are Bloody Mary, Electric Chapel, Government Hooker and Scheiße, but I love the whole thing. I want to say something more substantial, because I've been playing and thinking about the album all day, but I'm not sure I can properly explain everything that I love about it. Anyway, the point is: she really fucking delivered, and I couldn't be happier.

In other news, I feel vaguely obliged to talk about the latest episode of Glee, even though I forgot last week and didn't much like this episode.

( 2x21 Funeral )

This was going to be a post about 'Born This Way' but then that song leaked and I JUST HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS.

( IDK if anyone cares about Glee song spoilers but I'll put it behind a cut just in case )

Okay, okay, I'll try and calm down and talk about the actual episode.

( 2x18 Born This Way )

Quick question for Glee fans: what's your opinion on mentioning specific songs in fics? Is it acceptable, or is it kind of hokey? I can't decide.

On the one hand, characters singing specific songs to illustrate their feelings is part of the fabric of the universe and it seems weird to me to ignore that. But on the other hand, as soon as you start to write that down in fanfiction it starts veering perilously close to becoming songfic, and no one wants that.

So what do you think? I'm really only using them incidentally, so does that make it okay? One is referenced, but not actually sung by anyone, and kind of has to be mentioned by name. Another is sung by someone (not one of the main characters) to express their feelings, and I'm not sure whether to pick a particular song or just describe the general vibe. IDK. Am I overthinking this? YES, PROBABLY. But I'm interested to know what people think, whether you've seen it work really well in fics or whether it pulls you out of them. Or whether you don't care and think I should just get on and write.