Turingfest Dear Writer Letter
Apr. 21st, 2018 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
auroracloudDear Turingfest author,
Sorry I had to leave a sign-up that was just the characters for some of the requests; I was away from home with very poor internet access, and typing a lot on my phone is a pain. Also, for family reasons, I didn’t have much time and energy before the sign-ups closed. Anyway, I’m so excited I didn’t prove unmatchable for this exchange, so you’re extra awesome for offering at least one of the things I’ve requested! Feel free to include any other canon characters than the ones requested, to make crossovers with other fandoms I like, to combine or modify prompts. I’m fairly new to realising I totally love AIs/robots/etc. and these fandoms I’ve requested are largely responsible for realising it, so I’ll be thrilled to have fic for any of them. How long I’ve written about each doesn’t correspond to how much I want it, but more to how much material there is in the source and how long I’ve known it.
I’m offering some prompts for each relationship, because I’m a writer who enjoys having something like that to work with. If you prefer to write without specific prompts, just skip them. If a prompt/idea/like leads you to another idea that I didn’t mention, feel free to go along with it as long as you avoid the DNWs.
My formatting didn't quite survive being copied to the post, but I'll come back tomorrow to add the bullet points to the beginnings of the lines, because I'm starting to fall over.
General likes:
happy endings
Mild to moderate angst with a happy/comforting/hopeful ending
Hurt/comfort (leaning rather towards the comfort than the hurt)
Friendship and found/chosen family
History, space, nature
Daily slices of life
Banter
Canon divergence AUs
Underappreciated characters or ones with low self-esteem finding validation, confidence, appreciation
Women or nonbinary characters being awesome, women supporting each other.
LGBTQ+ themes, or LGBTQ+ people just being okay with who they are and who they like without it being an issue; or becoming okay with it and learning not to mind anyone else’s opinion. I’m perfectly fine with straight relationships, too.
Characters enjoying food, treats, tea/coffee etc.
Characters enjoying some form of culture/entertainment, or geeking out over things like history, science, tech, languages etc.
If you want to write porn, go for it (for characters that aren’t canonically asexual). Though I do like my porn to have some plot beyond just the sex descriptions, but the plot can be about the characters’ emotional experiences or how their relationship is portrayed in the sex. I may add what I like to read about in sex, but I’m honestly too tired to get that list up tonight, so you can come back in a couple of days to see if I’ve added it. Sorry!
General dislikes and Do Not Wants
Gore, descriptive violence, permanent character death.
Characters feeling suicidal or doing self-harm. I sometimes enjoy such fics when the theme is handled well, but I can’t nearly always read them, so it’s better not to offer them in a gift.
Domestic abuse / abusive relationships, especially between the requested characters or any canon pairing they’re in, whether I like that pairing or not.
Non-con, underage sex, characters being uncomfortable with the sex they’re having
Character bashing, including of non-requested characters. If you don’t like a particular character, just leave them out of the story.
Mpreg, A/B/O
Wildly different AUs of the coffee shop / high school / college / werewolf / vampire / pirates / etc. variety. I probably would enjoy space AUs for the fandoms that aren’t already space.
Canonically asexual characters being written as sexual, canonically gay characters being written as straight / in het relationships. Otherwise I tend to assume everyone’s likely to be bi, though!
Doctor Who (Character: The Doctor’s TARDIS)
I’ve come to this fandom late, having found it in 2015, but I loooooove it, and I love the TARDIS and how much a personality she is, and all the interesting quirks, from the wonky navigation and the police box shape and how she always got him where he needed to be. I love the episode The Doctor’s Wife where we finally get to hear her tell her point of view, but you don’t need to use it if you don’t want to.
A note: I’ve so far only watched New Who. I’m superficially familiar with the Doctors and most Companions of Classic Who, but I haven’t actually watched any (I plan to, but I still have a few episodes of S9 to watch before I go there). Therefore, if the fic refers to any specific canon, Doctor, Companion etc. I would prefer it to be New Who. However, if you only like writing Classic Who, perhaps something that isn’t too focused on specific canon/Doctor/Companion, but more worldbuilding-related, like the TARDIS’s relationship to Gallifrey or time travel or what it’s like to be her. Feel free to refer to Classic Doctors or Companions - if it happens to be someone I don’t know, I have a nifty book I can use to check! It was a birthday present, because some people just get me.
Some prompts:
TARDIS point of view! Not necessary if it ends up being easier for you to write a TARDIS-centric fic from someone else’s point of view, but I’ve had gift fics from TARDIS POV twice before, and loved them, and would love to have more of it.
More specific prompts on that: TARDIS POV on: her relationship with the Doctor, with one (or more) of the companions, one of the canon adventures we’ve seen, or a non-canon adventure
What is the Doctor’s regeneration like for the TARDIS?
Also, she sometimes redecorates when the regeneration happens. I would love to see her doing that, rather than just being presented with the end results! Or see her thoughts on it, how she frets about it, how she chooses what she does, etc.
TARDIS’s relationship with one of the companions, especially any of those who have a special relationship to her / to time somehow.
TARDIS’s reactions to any shenanigans and weird goings-on aboard her.
If you want to ship TARDIS/Doctor, I’m totally on board for that! However you choose to interpret it, whatever the details, whichever Doctor, however far you choose to go. I’ve no fear (as long as my general DNWs are respected). But you totally don’t need to do any of this, of course.
Also, I’m more than fine with a threesome/moresome including a companion or two that I like.
The TARDIS perspective on the Rose/Bad Wolf thing.
The TARDIS perspective on Jack’s Factness and his timeline and everything that happens in Game Station and/ or late S3.
Does she ever use the Idris form again? Did she archive her?
We’ve seen her take the appearance of a companion to speak to the Doctor. In what other instances did she do this?
All the tech worship! She has all those shiny features and levers and buttons and drives and circuits and whatnot! I love all the New Who TARDIS interiors we’ve seen, and I’ve spent a considerable amount of time at Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff geeking out over the various consoles there (including the classic ones, but I spent more time around the New Who ones that I knew).
Finally, some character likes: In New Who, I love all the Doctors, and I don’t have a clear favourite picked (though I’m inordinately excited about Thirteen). As for Companions, my favourites are Bill, Jack, Donna, and Martha, but I like all of the long-term companions and most of the recurring-but-not-full-season ones (I do have this thing where I don’t manage to like Danny Pink, or Clara/Danny, though). I’m really ridiculously fond of Jack and his relationship to the Doctor, the TARDIS, and the whole mess of time and space around him. I love Missy but don’t like Simm!Master - as in, he works fine as the villain of S3 but I don’t enjoy reading fic focused on him (though fic about his episodes in S3 is absolutely fine, or the effect of those events on later events); and I don’t enjoy shipping him with characters I like. Doctors meeting is always fun, and I wonder what a headache it is for TARDIS when that happens!
Wayfarers Series - Becky Chambers.
Characters: Sidra; Sidra & Tak or Sidra/Tak; Sidra & Pepper
I love love love this series, and have requested it in most exchanges I’ve participated in. Feel free to check out the tag for letters for previous exchanges. Here are some prompts.
Any slice of life after the book, Sidra getting adjusted to her new life with her friends/found family and navigating her situation as an AI in an illegal body kit and with some extra bodies.
I love the way Sidra and Pepper are both outsiders and people made ”illegal” by the society they’re in, who find ways to connect with others and learn to make the most of their situation. I’d love anything that explores that even more than the book does.
Sidra and Tak: connection over shared geekery
Fun (hopefully) mishaps involving Sidra’s extra bodies
Space stuff! Maybe Sidra can temporarily be a ship AI again if they go off into space for some reason. How will she feel about it now that she has become more accustomed to her ”human body kit + extra animal bodies” existence?
Sidra decides to find out what this whole fuss with sex is all about, complete with endless research on Linkings, while Tak decides she/he is very happy to help her/his friend find out, and might be motivated by anything ranging from being in love/lust with Sidra to academic curiosity about artificial human bodies
Experiments in dating, kissing, etc. Or Sidra tries to figure out falling in love.
Exploring Sidra’s sense-image library in any way! I find that so fascinating.
Tech stuff! Sidra working on her own code, Pepper fixing or improving something in her, etc.
Sidra running into any characters from The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, or them characters coming to visit her bar. Optional whether they find out who she is/used to be. How does she feel about it, what drinks does she make them? Who would totally coo over her animal parts? If they find out her identity, how do they react?
Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells. Character: Murderbot
I love Murderbot! There’s just something about a non-violent security bot terrified of social interaction and addicted to space TV shows, isn’t there? And the sequels aren’t coming out fast enough, obviously.
My sign-up said: I love Murderbot's entertainment addiction and geekery, as well as all the "Humans are confusing and social interaction is awkward" moments. So anything playing with either of those would be great!
A few specific prompts:
Any awkward-but-sweet moments with the crew.
Murderbot helping the crew in some way.
Murderbot accidentally has an almost normal conversation with a human.
A moment when the Murderbot is close to accidentally revealing its independence but manages a close save.
Murderbot interacting with other fans of Sanctuary Moon! Why Murderbot loves Sanctuary Moon so much! Murderbot writing or reading fan fiction! Murderbot compares other shows to Sanctuary Moon, but it’s the best.
Murderbot watches some of quaint, old scifi of the past and has Opinions.
Specific Do Not Wants: Since Murderbot canonically doesn’t have a sex drive, I don’t want the fic to go against that.
Crossover Fandom (Murderbot Diaries / Wayfarers Series). Characters: Sidra (Wayfarers Series) and Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries).
I just love these two geeky AI beings who find humans and existence and interaction confusing. Cause don’t we all? I could see them existing in the same universe, possibly (I’m sure there are human colonies somewhere in the Wayfarers universe that Murderbot could work with), so it could be fun to have them meet up and see what happens. They’ve got enough similarities and enough differences for it to be really interesting.
My sign-up said: I'd love to see these two meet and connect about geekery, or possible argue about non-fiction (Sidra) vs. binge TV and other entertainment (Murderbot). Connecting over How Damn Confusing People are is also welcome, or comparison of their different past experiences due to the different purposes they've been created for.
More specific about the last one: Sidra has originally been a spaceship AU, created for a very peaceful and helpful purpose. Murderbot has quite a different purpose, being created to fight, defend its humans, and kill when necessary. I’d be so fascinated to see what they’d make of these differences, if they’d cause arguments, if these two would help each other deal, etc.
Please keep this one gen!
The Cybernetic Tea Shop - Meredith Katz. Characters: Sal or Sal/Clara.
I adored this little novella about a mechanic and a teashop-owning robot, in a society where robots are no longer allowed and kind of outcast, like marginalised but groups in any other society. I loved the development of their relationship, their characters, and the presence of tea, travel, tech stuff, and love.
My sign-up said: I'd love something involving Sal and Clara travelling, and/or how Sal reacts to her new life. Explorations of Sal's past with her Tea Shop, or her new online tea business, would also be welcome. I also enjoy tech geekery and worldbuilding, if either of those is your thing.
A few more specific prompts:
Where do Sal and Clara travel? What places do they particularly love? Do they stay anywhere?
Are there places where robots are more accepted?
Tea! All the tea! And cakes and scones and everything!
Sal meeting Clara’s family.
Sal and Joanie bonding.
Meeting someone who doesn’t first understand and accept Sal, but learns to.
Slice of life, domesticity etc. is always much loved.
Since both Sal and Clara are canonically asexual, please keep it that way in the fic, but feel free to have as much of their romance as you wish.
Sorry I had to leave a sign-up that was just the characters for some of the requests; I was away from home with very poor internet access, and typing a lot on my phone is a pain. Also, for family reasons, I didn’t have much time and energy before the sign-ups closed. Anyway, I’m so excited I didn’t prove unmatchable for this exchange, so you’re extra awesome for offering at least one of the things I’ve requested! Feel free to include any other canon characters than the ones requested, to make crossovers with other fandoms I like, to combine or modify prompts. I’m fairly new to realising I totally love AIs/robots/etc. and these fandoms I’ve requested are largely responsible for realising it, so I’ll be thrilled to have fic for any of them. How long I’ve written about each doesn’t correspond to how much I want it, but more to how much material there is in the source and how long I’ve known it.
I’m offering some prompts for each relationship, because I’m a writer who enjoys having something like that to work with. If you prefer to write without specific prompts, just skip them. If a prompt/idea/like leads you to another idea that I didn’t mention, feel free to go along with it as long as you avoid the DNWs.
My formatting didn't quite survive being copied to the post, but I'll come back tomorrow to add the bullet points to the beginnings of the lines, because I'm starting to fall over.
General likes:
happy endings
Mild to moderate angst with a happy/comforting/hopeful ending
Hurt/comfort (leaning rather towards the comfort than the hurt)
Friendship and found/chosen family
History, space, nature
Daily slices of life
Banter
Canon divergence AUs
Underappreciated characters or ones with low self-esteem finding validation, confidence, appreciation
Women or nonbinary characters being awesome, women supporting each other.
LGBTQ+ themes, or LGBTQ+ people just being okay with who they are and who they like without it being an issue; or becoming okay with it and learning not to mind anyone else’s opinion. I’m perfectly fine with straight relationships, too.
Characters enjoying food, treats, tea/coffee etc.
Characters enjoying some form of culture/entertainment, or geeking out over things like history, science, tech, languages etc.
If you want to write porn, go for it (for characters that aren’t canonically asexual). Though I do like my porn to have some plot beyond just the sex descriptions, but the plot can be about the characters’ emotional experiences or how their relationship is portrayed in the sex. I may add what I like to read about in sex, but I’m honestly too tired to get that list up tonight, so you can come back in a couple of days to see if I’ve added it. Sorry!
General dislikes and Do Not Wants
Gore, descriptive violence, permanent character death.
Characters feeling suicidal or doing self-harm. I sometimes enjoy such fics when the theme is handled well, but I can’t nearly always read them, so it’s better not to offer them in a gift.
Domestic abuse / abusive relationships, especially between the requested characters or any canon pairing they’re in, whether I like that pairing or not.
Non-con, underage sex, characters being uncomfortable with the sex they’re having
Character bashing, including of non-requested characters. If you don’t like a particular character, just leave them out of the story.
Mpreg, A/B/O
Wildly different AUs of the coffee shop / high school / college / werewolf / vampire / pirates / etc. variety. I probably would enjoy space AUs for the fandoms that aren’t already space.
Canonically asexual characters being written as sexual, canonically gay characters being written as straight / in het relationships. Otherwise I tend to assume everyone’s likely to be bi, though!
Doctor Who (Character: The Doctor’s TARDIS)
I’ve come to this fandom late, having found it in 2015, but I loooooove it, and I love the TARDIS and how much a personality she is, and all the interesting quirks, from the wonky navigation and the police box shape and how she always got him where he needed to be. I love the episode The Doctor’s Wife where we finally get to hear her tell her point of view, but you don’t need to use it if you don’t want to.
A note: I’ve so far only watched New Who. I’m superficially familiar with the Doctors and most Companions of Classic Who, but I haven’t actually watched any (I plan to, but I still have a few episodes of S9 to watch before I go there). Therefore, if the fic refers to any specific canon, Doctor, Companion etc. I would prefer it to be New Who. However, if you only like writing Classic Who, perhaps something that isn’t too focused on specific canon/Doctor/Companion, but more worldbuilding-related, like the TARDIS’s relationship to Gallifrey or time travel or what it’s like to be her. Feel free to refer to Classic Doctors or Companions - if it happens to be someone I don’t know, I have a nifty book I can use to check! It was a birthday present, because some people just get me.
Some prompts:
TARDIS point of view! Not necessary if it ends up being easier for you to write a TARDIS-centric fic from someone else’s point of view, but I’ve had gift fics from TARDIS POV twice before, and loved them, and would love to have more of it.
More specific prompts on that: TARDIS POV on: her relationship with the Doctor, with one (or more) of the companions, one of the canon adventures we’ve seen, or a non-canon adventure
What is the Doctor’s regeneration like for the TARDIS?
Also, she sometimes redecorates when the regeneration happens. I would love to see her doing that, rather than just being presented with the end results! Or see her thoughts on it, how she frets about it, how she chooses what she does, etc.
TARDIS’s relationship with one of the companions, especially any of those who have a special relationship to her / to time somehow.
TARDIS’s reactions to any shenanigans and weird goings-on aboard her.
If you want to ship TARDIS/Doctor, I’m totally on board for that! However you choose to interpret it, whatever the details, whichever Doctor, however far you choose to go. I’ve no fear (as long as my general DNWs are respected). But you totally don’t need to do any of this, of course.
Also, I’m more than fine with a threesome/moresome including a companion or two that I like.
The TARDIS perspective on the Rose/Bad Wolf thing.
The TARDIS perspective on Jack’s Factness and his timeline and everything that happens in Game Station and/ or late S3.
Does she ever use the Idris form again? Did she archive her?
We’ve seen her take the appearance of a companion to speak to the Doctor. In what other instances did she do this?
All the tech worship! She has all those shiny features and levers and buttons and drives and circuits and whatnot! I love all the New Who TARDIS interiors we’ve seen, and I’ve spent a considerable amount of time at Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff geeking out over the various consoles there (including the classic ones, but I spent more time around the New Who ones that I knew).
Finally, some character likes: In New Who, I love all the Doctors, and I don’t have a clear favourite picked (though I’m inordinately excited about Thirteen). As for Companions, my favourites are Bill, Jack, Donna, and Martha, but I like all of the long-term companions and most of the recurring-but-not-full-season ones (I do have this thing where I don’t manage to like Danny Pink, or Clara/Danny, though). I’m really ridiculously fond of Jack and his relationship to the Doctor, the TARDIS, and the whole mess of time and space around him. I love Missy but don’t like Simm!Master - as in, he works fine as the villain of S3 but I don’t enjoy reading fic focused on him (though fic about his episodes in S3 is absolutely fine, or the effect of those events on later events); and I don’t enjoy shipping him with characters I like. Doctors meeting is always fun, and I wonder what a headache it is for TARDIS when that happens!
Wayfarers Series - Becky Chambers.
Characters: Sidra; Sidra & Tak or Sidra/Tak; Sidra & Pepper
I love love love this series, and have requested it in most exchanges I’ve participated in. Feel free to check out the tag for letters for previous exchanges. Here are some prompts.
Any slice of life after the book, Sidra getting adjusted to her new life with her friends/found family and navigating her situation as an AI in an illegal body kit and with some extra bodies.
I love the way Sidra and Pepper are both outsiders and people made ”illegal” by the society they’re in, who find ways to connect with others and learn to make the most of their situation. I’d love anything that explores that even more than the book does.
Sidra and Tak: connection over shared geekery
Fun (hopefully) mishaps involving Sidra’s extra bodies
Space stuff! Maybe Sidra can temporarily be a ship AI again if they go off into space for some reason. How will she feel about it now that she has become more accustomed to her ”human body kit + extra animal bodies” existence?
Sidra decides to find out what this whole fuss with sex is all about, complete with endless research on Linkings, while Tak decides she/he is very happy to help her/his friend find out, and might be motivated by anything ranging from being in love/lust with Sidra to academic curiosity about artificial human bodies
Experiments in dating, kissing, etc. Or Sidra tries to figure out falling in love.
Exploring Sidra’s sense-image library in any way! I find that so fascinating.
Tech stuff! Sidra working on her own code, Pepper fixing or improving something in her, etc.
Sidra running into any characters from The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, or them characters coming to visit her bar. Optional whether they find out who she is/used to be. How does she feel about it, what drinks does she make them? Who would totally coo over her animal parts? If they find out her identity, how do they react?
Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells. Character: Murderbot
I love Murderbot! There’s just something about a non-violent security bot terrified of social interaction and addicted to space TV shows, isn’t there? And the sequels aren’t coming out fast enough, obviously.
My sign-up said: I love Murderbot's entertainment addiction and geekery, as well as all the "Humans are confusing and social interaction is awkward" moments. So anything playing with either of those would be great!
A few specific prompts:
Any awkward-but-sweet moments with the crew.
Murderbot helping the crew in some way.
Murderbot accidentally has an almost normal conversation with a human.
A moment when the Murderbot is close to accidentally revealing its independence but manages a close save.
Murderbot interacting with other fans of Sanctuary Moon! Why Murderbot loves Sanctuary Moon so much! Murderbot writing or reading fan fiction! Murderbot compares other shows to Sanctuary Moon, but it’s the best.
Murderbot watches some of quaint, old scifi of the past and has Opinions.
Specific Do Not Wants: Since Murderbot canonically doesn’t have a sex drive, I don’t want the fic to go against that.
Crossover Fandom (Murderbot Diaries / Wayfarers Series). Characters: Sidra (Wayfarers Series) and Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries).
I just love these two geeky AI beings who find humans and existence and interaction confusing. Cause don’t we all? I could see them existing in the same universe, possibly (I’m sure there are human colonies somewhere in the Wayfarers universe that Murderbot could work with), so it could be fun to have them meet up and see what happens. They’ve got enough similarities and enough differences for it to be really interesting.
My sign-up said: I'd love to see these two meet and connect about geekery, or possible argue about non-fiction (Sidra) vs. binge TV and other entertainment (Murderbot). Connecting over How Damn Confusing People are is also welcome, or comparison of their different past experiences due to the different purposes they've been created for.
More specific about the last one: Sidra has originally been a spaceship AU, created for a very peaceful and helpful purpose. Murderbot has quite a different purpose, being created to fight, defend its humans, and kill when necessary. I’d be so fascinated to see what they’d make of these differences, if they’d cause arguments, if these two would help each other deal, etc.
Please keep this one gen!
The Cybernetic Tea Shop - Meredith Katz. Characters: Sal or Sal/Clara.
I adored this little novella about a mechanic and a teashop-owning robot, in a society where robots are no longer allowed and kind of outcast, like marginalised but groups in any other society. I loved the development of their relationship, their characters, and the presence of tea, travel, tech stuff, and love.
My sign-up said: I'd love something involving Sal and Clara travelling, and/or how Sal reacts to her new life. Explorations of Sal's past with her Tea Shop, or her new online tea business, would also be welcome. I also enjoy tech geekery and worldbuilding, if either of those is your thing.
A few more specific prompts:
Where do Sal and Clara travel? What places do they particularly love? Do they stay anywhere?
Are there places where robots are more accepted?
Tea! All the tea! And cakes and scones and everything!
Sal meeting Clara’s family.
Sal and Joanie bonding.
Meeting someone who doesn’t first understand and accept Sal, but learns to.
Slice of life, domesticity etc. is always much loved.
Since both Sal and Clara are canonically asexual, please keep it that way in the fic, but feel free to have as much of their romance as you wish.
