elen_nare | Dear Yuletide Writer letter 2025

Dear Yuletide Writer,

First, thank you so much for this! Here are general notes, and some ideas for each fandom. This may seem long, but I'm just trying to make it as detailed as possible in case that makes it easier for you. I adore each and every one of these fandoms, so getting fic for any of them will make me a very, very happy person!

General stuff:

A character piece, a plotty story, an exploration of friendship or romance, an adventure, a quiet moment, a missing scene, a different POV to the canon... Any and all of these are great! Gen, het, slash, femslash, are all fine. Ratings-wise, I’m fine with anything. I’m happy with (of age, consensual) sex scenes if that’s where the story’s going - though gen fic is equally awesome! I’m not too fond of highly detailed graphic violence, but if it’s absolutely necessary to your fic, go ahead.

Feel free to look through my journal for inspiration :) You can also find me on AO3 and on Tumblr.

Things I like: friendship, friends helping each other out, humour, banter, nerdiness, science, happy (or happy-ish at least, not overwhelming despair) endings, siblings (and family interactions in general), found families, friends-to-lovers, mutual pining that resolves in friends-to-lovers, epistolary fic… and a great many other things! These were just the first that came to mind.

Do Not Wants: suicide - I’d prefer it if you didn’t kill any major characters (other than canon deaths), but if you absolutely must, please avoid suicide! - , noncon/dubcon, incest, gratuitous graphic violence, underage sex, unrelieved gloom and angst, character/ship bashing, AUs. While I'd enjoy “reasonable” crossovers with fandoms I know (same world and time period, or canonical time/world change shenanigans), please keep the main focus on the requested fandom.

A brief “what is this and where do I find it” in case you’d like to check out any of the other things I've requested:

Chalet School: Girl’s boarding school series, starting in Tirol in the 1930s, then moving to Guernsey - England - Welsh Island - Switzerland as real-world events and plot demand. 50ish books, of assorted finding difficulty, many now on Faded Page! (Sadly, Jane and The Chalet School is not yet.)
Crater School: Girl’s boarding school series, very much in the Girls’ Own tradition, but set in a recently-settled alternate-Victorian Mars! 4 books, all in print/available as ebooks.
High Rollers Aerois: Fantasy/sci-fi actual play D&D series. A long canon, at 191 3h episodes. On youtube as videos, also available as a podcast. And we have a Wiki! Still a work in progress, but we have Mark's recaps transcribed for all episodes and are working on full recaps, plus character pages, items, and so on.
Swallows and Amazons: Holiday boating and camping adventures of a group of children in the 1920s, mainly in the Lake District. 12 books, all on Faded Page, or in print/ebook.
Wayward Children: Alternating children/teen portal fantasy and “what happens when they come back through the portal” stories. 11 novellas, in print/ebook.
The Whispering Mountain: The adventures of a boy and girl trying to protect a legendary golden harp, in an alternate-universe Wales. A single book! In print/ebook.

Fandom specific:

Listed in alphabetical order. Obviously, all optional details are optional! I'm just giving them in case you're interested (or utterly stuck for ideas and wondering why you ever offered to write this fandom :P). For the “ideas” lists, they’re absolutely not intended to be mutually exclusive, nor exhaustive - mix, blend, combine, as you like, or throw them out the window! I include them in my letters because I’ve found them really useful myself :) Spoilers abound I’m afraid, so if there’s something on here you’re interested in reading/watching and haven’t yet, I’d avoid that section. Feel free to include any other characters, nominated or not.

Chalet School series - Jane Carew (Jose Helston optional)

I did a re-read recently and remembered how much I adore Jane, and how much I wish she didn’t pretty much vanish after her book - so give me more Jane, please! I really love her friendship with Jose too, and how Jose is a link back to the Tirol books through being Veta’s daughter - but I especially want Jane.

Fandom-specific DNW: I am not a huge fan of the “Jack Lambert bullies Jane” arc, so I would rather it not be the focus.

A few ideas:

More school plays - something her form gets up? Another last-minute substitution? Maybe she and Jose go on to St Mildred’s and star in the pantomime?
More of Jane adapting to being at school, away from her parents and the life she’s always known - is there anyone in the theatrical company she misses particularly?
Jane’s trip to visit her mother in Australia? Do she and Jose write while she’s there? Does she get to know Josette and Sybil? Or spend time with Margot and Emerence?
Fatherless Jose must have sympathised with Jane’s worry for her mother after the accident - something around that time?
Do either or both of them become prefects?
The dropped plotline in Challenge with Evelyn wanting to be friends with Jane?
What do Jane and Jose do after leaving school? Does Jane go on to act?

What I love about this fandom: I’ve always liked school stories in general, but since I started reading the Chalet School they’ve become some of my favourites in the genre. I love how much personality the teachers have, rather than being simply authority figures; how we get to hear about old characters; the way the school grows and evolves, but remains true to its ideals; the way the locale is such a huge part of the story; the war books, how history does progress; and so on and so forth.

What I love about these characters: I love Jane’s eagerness and friendliness, how she always tries to make the best of things and give the best of herself in everything she does. I enjoy her little theatre mannerisms, how she calls everyone “darling”. I love Jose’s independence, how she doesn’t want much made of her as a princess-in-exile or as the daughter of a beloved Old Girl (and how Jane likewise doesn’t want to be lionized for her parents), and her kindness to Jane.

Crater School series - Rachel Abramoff

I learnt of these books via Yuletide-related reccing, blasted through them in a week, and fell in love and need more! I am especially fond of the twinses, but would love to see any or all of the girls.

A few ideas:

Did Rachel consider running away herself, to get to Jessica? Or maybe on some subconscious level, she was already expecting Jessica to come to her?
Her explanation that Jess is the bright one, and Jessica’s contradiction of it - was she downplaying herself, or did she genuinely see it / feel her parents saw it that way?
The way she slots into a friendship with Tawney and Tasha - we get Tasha musing on it, especially after she’s just been released from San, but how does Rachel feel about it? Are there times when it makes things worse, to have the Mishtwins as a pair around her while her own twin is banished from her?
Exploring and mapping the castle with Tasha and Tawney - what fun secrets did they find? Did the Crew use the map for later mischief?
Settling back into being a pair of twins again? Expanding from just their tight twinship into being part of the Crew?
Presumably their parents got back from Earth at some point, and agreed to leave them together - how did that go?
The Pioneer movement is clearly Guiding-like - do they go camping? Work for badges?
Visiting friends during the school holidays? The trip to Mary Ellen’s Planum home?

What I love about this fandom: It is, essentially, the Chalet School meets Bradbury and Burroughs, and I cannot begin to explain how much this is catnip to me. I love the snippets of worldbuilding, the merlins, the fingertalk, the Empress Eternal. I love how thoroughly and cheerfully it embraces the Girls’ Own tropes, prefects and pranks and prep. I enjoy how Rowany runs the whole school, lol.

What I love about this character: I love Rachel’s stubbornness, her innate honesty pushing through her misery to make her recognise when she’s in the wrong, her quickness to spot the possibilities in mapping the castle.

High Rollers (Aerois campaign) - Qillek Ad Khollar, Sentry

I would be delighted to see any or all of the main cast as co-stars, I love them all! Here are a few ideas:

Quill let his family think he was dead after the lightning strike - did Lucius losing his family, or Sentry’s grief over Solwynn, ever make him rethink that decision at all? And we met Mireeka, who I utterly love! Her Sendings, we know where Quill gets his passive-aggressive snippiness from; her “you are not nothing, you are my son!” and “this is a good child” lines; how thrilled everyone was to meet her… So if you want to bring her in, please go ahead, I will be delighted! Mireeka tells the gang adorable/embarrassing baby Quill stories? Quill tries to reconnect with her and the rest of his family?
Sentry finding Petal again was so so beautiful and makes me cry every time. Tell me about their life in Solwynn? Sentry telling Quill about it? Their life in Horizon post-canon, with Quill dropping in to visit?
The Valley of Storms arc was huge for Quill, if you want to look at that! Or Quill getting his new wing, that was such a beautiful and moving moment :) We didn’t see Sentry or Lucius’s reactions to it, if you want to look at those?
Likewise, everything with becoming the Prime, and fighting Voracitor, was so huge for Sentry! Did she have any doubts, any fears, any hopes, she might have only told Quill about?
There’s a few “big” time skips, in Gusthaven, on the Stormchaser, on the Twinstar Longbow, the month after the Horizon/Voracitor stuff - what did they do in those? But there’s also just the natural gaps of travelling, camping, and so on; I love quiet conversations and missing moments.
Sentry and Quill meeting pre-canon - how did they decide to travel together? What was it like for both of them, Sentry so lost in a new world, Quill still reeling from the Valley?
Their thoughts on the spark of divinity, and the choice they made to reject it? Of all the characters, Quill and Sentry were the ones I thought were most likely to take it.
If you’re inclined towards ship-fic, I very much ship Quill and Lucius! I also really like Quill/Lucius/Aridan - Lucius has two hands and deserves two boyfriends ;) (as a side note, I also love Faeth and her relationship with Lucius, as a platonic, asexual one, so so much - that representation is important to me). I’d rather not see Sentry shipped with anyone.

What I love about this fandom: Everything! I’ve loved seeing the party come together, from strangers to willing to die for each other. I love the world of Aerois, the fantasy-sci-fi vibes. I like how well-intentioned they are, and also how utterly terrible they can be at communicating those good intentions at times! I also enjoy having my heart broken by cruel uncaring plastic polyhedrons, apparently. You can find plenty of my ramblings about it over on tumblr! I’m pretty familiar with 5e if you want to have fun with game mechanics, but I’m also totally happy with ignoring them for better narrative.

What I love about these characters: Quill, my darling bird boi, I love and may identify just a bit with his worrying and nervousness, how he tries to plan for every eventuality. I also love how he’s slowly grown in confidence, both in his abilities and in his friends. I like his game-breakingly ridiculous perception and how it still never saves them from getting brookstoned ;) Sentry, I love her kindness, her protectiveness, her devotion to her loved ones. Her one-liners never fail to be a punch in the heart in the best way! And with both of them, I love how much they support each other, rely on each other - how Sentry is Quill’s protector, how Quill is Sentry’s squire.

Swallows and Amazons - Titty Walker, Dick Callum, Dorothea Callum

It was incredibly hard to choose a character for this fandom, so feel free to bring in any and all others you like as co-stars! A few ideas:

Childhood adventures at the lake? A missing moment from any of the books would be lovely… Another houseboat battle, like the one Nancy was planning at the end of Pigeon Post? Going up to the mine again to see how it’s progressed? Another trip to Secret Water? The first part of the Sea Bear trip? A three-way sailing race, do Dick and Dot get a head start? Or an extra, more experienced crew (Titty, say) to help them?
An encounter with the Coots? Not necessarily a la Coots in the North, I’d love Tom and the twins to meet the Lakes gang!
Titty’s in a bit of a unique position in her family and the group, as the “eldest of the young ones” (well, Dot may well be older than her, but Titty gets more authority/responsibility) - she often gets responsibility over the other young ones, and we see her doubt her capability for it rather more than John or Susan doubt themselves - could be interesting to look at?
Growing up and leaving schooldays behind - what’s it like, as the elders start leaving? Does Titty become Captain of the Swallow? How does she manage without John and Susan? Are the Ds taking a larger role in planning adventures? Is anyone sailing the Amazon? (Who's doing the cooking without Susan and Peggy?!)
As adults, pre, during, or post war – what do they do, how does the war affect them? I can see Dick and Dorothea at Bletchley Park, Titty nursing, or in the WRENS, maybe a naval nurse? In the SOE, even?
If you’re pulled in a shippy direction, I do love Titty/Dick very much, but can also see Titty/Dot. And I will be equally delighted with gen-fic!

What I love about this fandom: It’s one of my favourite book series ever. I love the way there’s never a sense of just “playing pretend” – they are (to themselves, at least) pirates or explorers or miners or an arctic expedition or martyrs or picts... I like how everyone works together, and how hard they work – how they all bring something to the team, and how they’re all valued. I like how they can be friends without having to be all the same; how they respect each other, even if they don’t see eye to eye on some things.

What I love about this character: I love Titty’s steadfastness, how when she’s certain of something (like hearing the “pirates” in S&A) she will not waver; her imagination, both when it works for her and when (like with the wax GA) it terrifies her; her courage, nerving herself to do the right thing like with the dowsing. As an astrophysicist who loves to write, I may identify slightly with Dick and Dot ;). I love how close these two are, how they take care of each other. I love Dot's genuine concern for other people - looking out for Dick, making up Captain Flint's bed in the houseboat, offering to leave Beckfoot in P&M despite how excited she was to be there - and her storytelling. I love Dick's enthusiasm for whatever the latest hobby is, stars or rocks or birds; his methodical notes, his anxiousness to get things right.

Wayward Children series - Jack Wolcott, Katherine Lundy

First off, this is 100% an or/and request - don’t feel like you have to fit both of them in, I’d be equally delighted with a story about either one on her own and couldn’t pick! I absolutely love this series - I’ve always enjoyed portal fantasies and school stories, and the way these books combine both fascinates me. And I love Jack and Lundy so so much! A few ideas:

Jack and her time in the Moors, learning from Dr Bleak, courting Alexis, growing up and apart from Jill.
Her return from the Moors - how does Jack cope with it all, losing her home, not knowing what happened to Alexis, dealing with Jill? Do their parents try to fit them back into their boxes again? (What box is their brother being forced into?) Or later, her time at the school, before Nancy arrives? Or after, when she suddenly kind of has friends?
There's some fascinating differences between what Jack relates and what we see in "Down Among the Sticks and Bones" sometimes, like her "Jill was the smart one" versus more of a "Jillian is the brave and sporty one" - those could be interesting to explore? Maybe they come from what she most wanted and saw Jill as being allowed to have?
For Lundy, I wanted approximately 23456787654 more stories about the Market than we got! Tell me about her adventures, about Moon, about Mockery, about the Archivist… Anything!
Or if you’d rather look at later years, how about her friendship with Eleanor? Her thoughts on all the wayward children she’s seen go through the school? (Is her nephew one of them, or does he choose the Market for good?)

What I love about this fandom: I love the multiple universes we get to glimpse, the similarities and differences in how these kids handle being exiled - the anger, the grief, the search for a way back, the acceptance there isn’t one… I love the amount of representation, too. I am fascinated by the constant repetition of “be sure” throughout the different worlds, there could be a story in those echoes and similarities.

What I love about these characters: Oh Jack, Jack my darling mad scientist who is so very tried and tired by the world, who has such impossible choices laid on her shoulders, I love Jack so very much. I enjoy the precision in the way she uses her words, as if they were a scalpel; how she's... usually truthful but not necessarily honest, if that makes sense? Like the *massive* omissions from her explanation of why they were thrown out of their world; or how she says she's "searching for the formula to get them back", which is true in a way if you read it as "trying to solve the horrible choice between leaving her sister behind or killing her", but not true in the "trying to open her door" sense she intends people to read it. I love how she is always trying to find the best, the most moral choice, how it combines with the ruthlessness and off-kilter worldview she learnt in the Moors - she wants to do good, but what is good?
As for Lundy… Ironically, I wasn’t sure I was that interested in her when “In An Absent Dream” was announced, and then that book stabbed me repeatedly in the heart and catapulted her firmly into my favourites. I love her seriousness, her determination, her quiet rage at the limits people try to impose on her. I love the fierceness of her friendships, and I’m heartbroken that ultimately her longing to be both friend and sister is what doomed her.

The Whispering Mountain - Arabis Dando

A so far non-existent fandom, so, seriously, anything will make me happy!

Adventures on the road with her father - learning to drive the caravan, gathering herbs, listening to epic poetry, helping those who come to them in need…
Her first meeting with Owen, and their subsequent journeying together?
Befriending and training Hawc?
Her life after the end of the book - what does she do? Does she enjoy school? How do her summer travels go? Maybe she visits the Seljuk of Rum, or Prince David…
Does Abipaal stay with her? Does she ever play the golden harp?

What I love about this fandom: The library had this book, and I read it so many, many times as a kid. I love the worldbuilding of this alternate history, how skillfully it’s woven in as part of the narrative. I love the voices, how you can immediately tell who’s talking, a London thief or a Welsh village boy. I love the… layers of realism, I guess? How you can have the over-the-top villainousness of Lord Malyn, the more realistic Bilk and Prigman, the thoroughly realistic grumpy old man unpleasantness of Mr Hughes, and they all work together.

What I love about this character: I love, love, love Arabis with her self-confidence, her love for her father and her friends, her courage, her knowledge of old medicines, her compassion… Tell me about Arabis. Anything you like!