Things I like in creative works
Sep. 22nd, 2010 09:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrWritten for people assigned to make me stuff for exchanges etc. It got a bit long so I've put the really important stuff in bold, the rest is very much optional.
Things I like: A sense of affection/empathy from the text for all the characters, even if they may hate each other. Happy endings. A focus on women and non binary people. Playing around with and subverting power relationships, both on a personal and social level, and the triumph of the little guy (where the "little guy" is preferably not a straight white middle class cisgendered able bodied man) Acknowledging sexism without pigeonholing people by gender. Oppressed underclasses banding together to fight off their oppressors: Actual oppressed underclasses and real teamwork, please, not "prince in disguise as peasant", chosen messiah leading the ignorant masses etc.
Stories where things happen, where characters grow and change. I'm not a fan of "casefile" type fic.
Cats, books, and dragons. Science and maths and spaceships. Spirals and gradients. Long flowing dark hair and corsets. Explosions and violence. Illustration and comics, I prefer expression and things happening to static, lifeless realism.
Shipping preferences: happy romance about women or non binary people which subverts heteronormativity. Everyone is a flailing, self doubting mess but they bring out the best in each other. People who are fundamentally similar and strongly drawn together but in conflict due to their beliefs or attitudes, and this conflict helping them grow as people. Interspecies relationships (including robots), especially if there's a lot of "Wow that's weird" and scientific curiosity (about both the physical and the psychological) For fic about non-canon couples I need the story of how they got together, but established relationship art is ok. I really like rewrites/filling in of canon couples getting together too. I like polyamory a lot in principle but only when it manages the narrative tension and universal flailing awkwardness I like in ship fic for everyone. I generally prefer UST leading to makeouts over porn, but can quite like sex scenes when they suit the story. Forced intimacy eg fake dating. OH NO I LOVE THEM! WAIT WHAT THEY LOVE ME??
I can enjoy explicit fic, but have pretty narrow tastes: mild sexiness or fade to black is fine in a wide range of scenarios, but explicit sexual scenes only tend to work for me if the POV character (a) loves their partner (b) is feeling some negative emotions about having sex.
Things I don't enjoy: Zombies. Parasites. Sympathetic rapists. Underage sex. Character bashing and anyone doing horrible things for no logical reason. Tragic misunderstandings that could easily have been avoided. Incest. Anything resembling parent/child, including teacher/student(*) or significant age gaps involving a teen. Racism/sexism/ableism/transphobia/homophobia etc being supported by the text (I can live with it being supported by the characters as long as they aren't right. But I may have trouble liking those characters). Onscreen rape/non-con. Sexually explicit art. Sex without feelings. Gender essentialism. Emotionally unbalanced relationships with a clear division between the flailing mess and the Well Adjusted One, especially during sex scenes. Child harm. (Post)-Apocalypse.
Fandoms I am very enthusiastic about right now (October 2017):
Avatar the Last Airbender and the Legend of Korra
Babylon 5
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Dragon Age games
Mass Effect games
Jane Austen
Homestuck
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Magical Diary
The Imperial Radch series
Wynonna Earp
The Adventure Zone (Balance Arc)
Yuri on Ice
Voltron: Legendary Defender
.hack/sign
Ghostbusters
Portal
Stardew Valley
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Specific fanworks I would like to see:
Angel: a vid about the various evil pregnancies to "Baby on Board" from the Simpsons.
Vampire fandoms (Buffy, Angel, Vampire Diaries, True Blood, etc): a multifandom vid or non-multifandom fic etc exploring the way the vampirism=sex metaphor causes men angst but turns women evil, and the way this relates to the treatment of and choices given to the human female protagonist.
Anne of Green Gables: Anne and Diane run off together. Or are happily poly once married. No tragic pining!
Dragon Age 2: Isabela/Fenris/f!Hawke romance
Avatar the Legend of Korra: Lin Beifong/Kya romance
Almost Human: Something science fictiony about the nature of self involving Dorian. I quite like Dorian/John if you want to include that as well.
Imperial Radch: Something science fictiony about the nature of self involving Breq, Anaander Mianaai, Tisarwat, the Presger, or ancillaries/AI in general.
Interactive fiction about pretty much anything!
Previous creator letters for exchanges (that I remembered to tag)
(*)Except for post-graduation Shin/Kumiko from Gokusen for some reason. I never said these preferences were rational.
Things I like: A sense of affection/empathy from the text for all the characters, even if they may hate each other. Happy endings. A focus on women and non binary people. Playing around with and subverting power relationships, both on a personal and social level, and the triumph of the little guy (where the "little guy" is preferably not a straight white middle class cisgendered able bodied man) Acknowledging sexism without pigeonholing people by gender. Oppressed underclasses banding together to fight off their oppressors: Actual oppressed underclasses and real teamwork, please, not "prince in disguise as peasant", chosen messiah leading the ignorant masses etc.
Stories where things happen, where characters grow and change. I'm not a fan of "casefile" type fic.
Cats, books, and dragons. Science and maths and spaceships. Spirals and gradients. Long flowing dark hair and corsets. Explosions and violence. Illustration and comics, I prefer expression and things happening to static, lifeless realism.
Shipping preferences: happy romance about women or non binary people which subverts heteronormativity. Everyone is a flailing, self doubting mess but they bring out the best in each other. People who are fundamentally similar and strongly drawn together but in conflict due to their beliefs or attitudes, and this conflict helping them grow as people. Interspecies relationships (including robots), especially if there's a lot of "Wow that's weird" and scientific curiosity (about both the physical and the psychological) For fic about non-canon couples I need the story of how they got together, but established relationship art is ok. I really like rewrites/filling in of canon couples getting together too. I like polyamory a lot in principle but only when it manages the narrative tension and universal flailing awkwardness I like in ship fic for everyone. I generally prefer UST leading to makeouts over porn, but can quite like sex scenes when they suit the story. Forced intimacy eg fake dating. OH NO I LOVE THEM! WAIT WHAT THEY LOVE ME??
I can enjoy explicit fic, but have pretty narrow tastes: mild sexiness or fade to black is fine in a wide range of scenarios, but explicit sexual scenes only tend to work for me if the POV character (a) loves their partner (b) is feeling some negative emotions about having sex.
Things I don't enjoy: Zombies. Parasites. Sympathetic rapists. Underage sex. Character bashing and anyone doing horrible things for no logical reason. Tragic misunderstandings that could easily have been avoided. Incest. Anything resembling parent/child, including teacher/student(*) or significant age gaps involving a teen. Racism/sexism/ableism/transphobia/homophobia etc being supported by the text (I can live with it being supported by the characters as long as they aren't right. But I may have trouble liking those characters). Onscreen rape/non-con. Sexually explicit art. Sex without feelings. Gender essentialism. Emotionally unbalanced relationships with a clear division between the flailing mess and the Well Adjusted One, especially during sex scenes. Child harm. (Post)-Apocalypse.
Fandoms I am very enthusiastic about right now (October 2017):
Avatar the Last Airbender and the Legend of Korra
Babylon 5
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Dragon Age games
Mass Effect games
Jane Austen
Homestuck
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Magical Diary
The Imperial Radch series
Wynonna Earp
The Adventure Zone (Balance Arc)
Yuri on Ice
Voltron: Legendary Defender
.hack/sign
Ghostbusters
Portal
Stardew Valley
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Specific fanworks I would like to see:
Angel: a vid about the various evil pregnancies to "Baby on Board" from the Simpsons.
Vampire fandoms (Buffy, Angel, Vampire Diaries, True Blood, etc): a multifandom vid or non-multifandom fic etc exploring the way the vampirism=sex metaphor causes men angst but turns women evil, and the way this relates to the treatment of and choices given to the human female protagonist.
Anne of Green Gables: Anne and Diane run off together. Or are happily poly once married. No tragic pining!
Dragon Age 2: Isabela/Fenris/f!Hawke romance
Avatar the Legend of Korra: Lin Beifong/Kya romance
Almost Human: Something science fictiony about the nature of self involving Dorian. I quite like Dorian/John if you want to include that as well.
Imperial Radch: Something science fictiony about the nature of self involving Breq, Anaander Mianaai, Tisarwat, the Presger, or ancillaries/AI in general.
Interactive fiction about pretty much anything!
Previous creator letters for exchanges (that I remembered to tag)
(*)Except for post-graduation Shin/Kumiko from Gokusen for some reason. I never said these preferences were rational.
