grundyscribbling | Innumerable Stars Letter 2019

Dear Innumerable Stars Author,

Hi! I hope you are as excited about the exchange as I am! I've done Innumerable Stars before and had a great experience, so I hope the same will be true for you.

I don't want to restrict your creativity or have you fret about whether or not you've hit everything on a checklist, so I tried to keep my requests broad. If there's anything you're concerned about or want to run by me before you get too into writing, feel free to either comment here (I have anonymous comments on and screened) or drop me an anonymous ask on Tumblr (grundyscribbling). As far as ratings go, I will read whatever you're moved to write. I am eager to see what you create!

First, the Do Not Wants. Aside from the first few, they are listed less because I never read them, than because I either need to be in a particular mood to read them, or because works featuring them are hit or miss for me. I do not want you to invest your time and energy in something that I know will be anywhere from a toss-up to a long shot if I like it, or that I will only read on a rainy weekend in November. In my mind, the ideal outcome to an exchange is me enthusiastically telling you and the world how much I love what you wrote and bookmarking it for re-reading!

DNW

A/B/O
Scat, watersports, vomit, blood play
Character Bashing - there are very few characters I loathe, so please no character bashing
Evil Maeglin - I do not buy that Maeglin betrayed the city without being tortured, full stop
Narcissistic father Fëanor
Graphic Torture/Violence
Rape/non-con
Incest (sibling/sibling, parent/child)
1st or 2nd person narrator
Breaking up canon pairings*
Modern AUs (coffee shop/college/etc.)
AUs that grow out of major changes to canon events (ex: "Fëanor lives", "Galadriel dies in one of the Kinslayings")
Genderswaps

*As I've said I don't want breaking up of canon pairings, I should mention that Fingon/Maedhros is canon to me. Gwindor/Finduilas falls in the same 'canon to me' category.

Not Rising to the Level of DNW, but should not be a main focus

Mpreg
Femslash (unless my request was a F/F pairing - obviously in that case, disregard this point)

General Likes

Textual ghosts/filling in the blanks - Tolkien only gave us names or the bare bones of what happened as often than not. There's so much space there...
Complex characters - The only straight-up villain I can stomach is Morgoth, and even he didn't start out evil. (As for Fëanor, Gandalf is still a fan in the late Third Age!) The elves and men we read about are people with all the positives and negatives that entails.
Loyalty/devotion - not just in romantic/sexual relationships, but in familial and friend relationships also.
Meanwhile back in... - Aman? Nargothrond while Finrod is off with Beren? Doriath after Luthien runs away? Anywhere "off screen" from the main canon narrative.
Reinterpreting the narrative/an alternate perspective on the main events. (What did Cirdan think? How would the events be different told by Men of the First Age? Do the elves have drinks in Aman while reading the Silmarillion and laugh uproariously at the version that gets taught as history?)
Worldbuilding - details about locations, seasons, flora/fauna, food/drink, etc are wonderful.
Not being strict about adherence to LaCE - I can write an essay about why I don't subscribe to LaCE being universally and strictly applie, or I can point you at other people's essays. Either way, strict LaCE isn't my fabric of choice.
Happy moments, even in otherwise grim times
Interaction between cultures
Logistics/Trade/Manufacturing - where did stuff come from and how did it all work?

Not Strictly Canon Relationships
You are in no way obliged to include or not break them up, but these are relationships I'm pretty attached to:
-Caranthir/Haleth
-Ecthelion/Glorfindel
-Elimmirë/Findis
-Finwë/Miriel/Indis