Dear Creator Letter

 Dear Creator,

Hi! I'm Lala. Overall, I hope you have fun making something. I'm hoping a combination of a more brief sign-up and a longer letter will be useful to different types of thinking. I know which I prefer depends on the case, so I'm trying to offer both. 

 

Here are my general DNWs:

Angst/"Bad" Endings, Mundane-Modern/"Real World" AUs (i.e. Coffee Shop, Police Partners, Crime AU), Rape/Dub/Non-Con, Fetish-focus (i.e. BDSM, Bloodplay, Scat, Piss, Ageplay, etc.), Gender/Identity/Sexuality Questioning or Focus, Second person POV, Excess Fandom Crossover or Non-Canon Fandom Crossover, AUs that involve removing the canon characters from canon into a "common" setting instead, Cultural Imperialism/Cultural Appropriation

I tend to like an expansive list of things though! Like:

Worldbuilding

Canon Divergence

AU - always a different gender

Outside POV

Canon What-If

Time Travel

Narration Juxtaposition

Literary references

Culturally accurate details

Missing Scene

Alternative POVs of Canon Events

Time Travel Fix-It

Dimension Travel

Poetry (especially more classical styles, not free verse)

Witty Dialogue

Completely baffled mob characters + just another day main characters

Courtly Tropes

Fairytale retellings/theme

Scholarship/Academia/legalese documents/text

Quite frankly if it's not in my DNW list, I'll probably be fine with it but you're welcome to reach out and ask about specifics if you want! I'll be fine reading any rated fic. Overall I enjoy intellectually engaging works, plot-fic, fluff-fic, various genres, art, and pretty much a huge variety. 

AU-ifications that put plot twists into play or dramatically affect how canon events play out are also very interesting to me. In general, I really like the "always a girl" trope applied to male main characters. For instance, Harry Potter is a story I think would be wildly different if Harry was a girl, especially if Dudley was still born a boy. Not because of potential ramifications on what the prophecy says (alter that however you like or throw it out), but just from how Petunia is likely to treat her niece versus a nephew. I think Harry likely has a flower name and may even be more concerned about her appearance (throwing out the JKR issues with traditional feminine things), but would still like quidditch. There's so much a girl is socialized to do differently, and I find that interesting when we see it applied to characters and put them in adjacent to canon situations or canon situations and seeing how they act differently. I also really enjoy culturally accurate details in general but extremely so combined with "always a girl" applied to a shonen protagonist. For example, Midoriya Izuku being born a girl also changes a lot. We would still likely see her being childhood friends with Bakugou, but how Bakugou treats Midoriya would likely completely change due to cultural factors. In particular, I think the rivalry is less toxic because these two would be expected to be in different gender roles due to Japanese society. I also think in this AU, Tododeku or Bakudeku would be the endgame ship. I also think it changes the dynamic of the class quite a bit, which means that there's knock on effects that can be minor or major depending on how the author wants to write. (I.e. f!Izuku would likely use hero stats to back up a request for a less sexualized hero costume or have specific equipment requests she's been brainstorming in notebooks.) Thus, always a girl trope is probably one of my favorites, just because it can be done in so many ways and there are so many ways the story changes. 

I like time travel, time travel fix-it, and dimension travel tropes. I think there's just so much potential in them. Unexplained or outsider pov of time travel fix-it is probably one of my favorite niches. For things like DoS especially where the fic has led canon down wildly different directions (instead of like RBC where the base world is very different), I think canon mets fic characters is interesting; like a bunch of character studies mashed together and reacting to each other. I also really like canon character peggy-sue fics, especially if done either as "competent off screen," or "inexplicable behavior and skills with no explanation," or "media res in the fix-it," or "completely done with this nonsense."

Worldbuilding is something I both like to write and like to read. There are a couple ways I really like to write: fleshing out society, i.e. social class, economics, politics, legislation, unintended effects on society, nobility dynamics, etc.; switching pov characters and brining in completely different details/aesthetic considerations than "default" narration; and taking a canon detail and running with it. On the other hand, I'm pretty much interested in all worldbuilding, even those aspects outside of the wheelhouse of what I like to write! Worldbuilding wildcards are totally fine. 

I'm generally not a fan of mundane/common/realworld AUs. For example, I detest coffee shop AUs. I'm not into crime, police partners, "no powers," sports, fandom AUs either. In general this catagory is based on the characters (and only the characters) being removed from their canon setting and placed into a commonplace and generic setting. For canons from other cultures, there's often a lot of cultural nuances being thrown out with it, which is also why this is a big DNW of mine. As a general rule of thumb, if the AU means making the setting more generic, I tend to dislike it. 

However, I'm actually quite fond of the twists some AUs can be if added on top of canon. Things that make the situation or worldbuilding more complex like soulmates (whatever means of identifying soulmates is fine) and A/B/O are definitely fine. I tend to find Daemon or spirit guides less interesting, but I'll give those a try usually. I'm not fond of Wing-verse or other verses that specifically trend towards western religion as universal. 

Culturally accurate details are a major favorite of mine. For canons that are from Asian cultures especially, I think the English/Western fandoms tend to be oblivious to or ignore or misunderstand a lot of cultural aspects. In some instances, this is more palatable to me than others. For instance, in Dreaming of Sunshine, Shikako is SQ's SIOC. SQ's narrative framing means that the inconsistencies and lapses are more a feature of the character perspective being Western. On the other hand, I really dislike the BNHA fandom's general incomprehension of Japanese culture and most fics in that fandom are unreadable for me as a result. I don't even touch the English fandoms of Chinese works for similar reasons. 

Hopefully this information is helpful! If you'd like to know anything in particular, please reach out! I tried to keep my prompts/rambles in sign-ups short, but I could expand on a lot of it at length if need be. 

With love,

Lala