grundyscribbling (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
grundyscribbling) wrote2023-08-21 05:10 pm
grundyscribbling) wrote2023-08-21 05:10 pm
Entry tags:
Placeholder - IS Letter 2023
Dear Innumerable Stars Author,
Hello! I hope you are as excited about the exchange as I am! I've done Innumerable Stars several times before and had a great experience. I hope the same will be true for you.
Please don't be intimidated by the number of tags - I prefer to list too much than too little. Better you're spoiled for choice than stuck. (Also, when presented with something as long as the tag set, my brain tends to get stuck on 'but why not ALL of them?')
I've offered prompts, or as close to them as I get, below. If there's anything you're concerned about or want to run by me before you get too into writing, feel free to comment here (I have anonymous comments on and screened). As far as ratings go, I will read whatever you're moved to write. I am eager to see what you create!
A word on 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 very hit or miss for me. 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, so I don't want you putting your creative energy into something that I know will be anywhere from a toss-up to a long shot if I like it, or that I will only voluntarily read on a rainy day in November. (Just to be clear, I'm not saying my reading quirks make any sense whatsoever. Only that I have them and I'm doing my best to steer you clear of them.)
DNW
• A/B/O
• Unrequested kinks (including but not limited to BDSM, scat/waterworks, vomit, blood play)
• Character Bashing - there are very few characters I loathe so please no character bashing
• Graphic Torture/Violence
• Rape/non-con
• Incest (sibling/sibling, parent/child, parent figure/child – specifically, no Maedhros or Maglor with Elrond or Elros)
• A requested ship written as one-sided, delusional/only in someone’s head, no love there anymore, or a hateship.
• 1st or 2nd person narrator
• Breaking up canon pairings (unless specifically requested)
• Modern AUs (coffee shop/college/etc.)
• AUs that involve changing the bodily nature of the characters (Vampire AU, merfolk AU, etc.)
• Genderswaps
• Plague/epidemic/pandemic
Silmarillion-specific DNWS:
• Narcissistic father Fëanor
• Abusive husband/father Eöl
• Evil Maeglin
• Terrible mother Elwing (Do the twins have Feelings about her leaving? Sure. Did she deliberately abandon them because all she cared about was the Silmaril? No thank you.) *As I've said I don't want breaking up of canon pairings, I should mention that Fingon/Maedhros is canon to me.
Not Rising to the Level of DNW, but should not be a main focus
• Mpreg
• Unrequested slash/femslash
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 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 applied, 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 I Like
•Caranthir/Haleth
•Ecthelion/Glorfindel
•Elimmirë/Findis
•Finwë/Miriel/Indis
•Beren/Lúthien/Celegorm
Finally, I don't know about you, but living in interesting times is wearing on me. I would deeply appreciate if you could focus more on the good times and flashes of happiness and less on the angst and awfulness. I do not expect pure fluff, but please no dark/downer endings or "everyone dies".
Prompts, or at least vague ideas for my requests may be found below. All worldbuilding tags are guidelines only, use them as you see fit.
Request 1 - Smith of Wootton Major
I have no concrete prompt here, but I am interested in what happened outside of the story - other bearers of the Star, Smith's children and descendants, and of course, what would it look like if GBBO came to Wootton Major? (Yes, that was my tag. I will be thrilled if you take me up on it.)
Request 2 - The Silmarillion
This is a bit of a grab bag of characters or character groups I like and worldbuilding tags that piqued my interest.
Worldbuilding: Tamatoa (Moana) finds the Silmaril - if you are the beautiful genius who came up with this tag, yes please!
Group: Aegnor/Andreth & Caranthir/Haleth - I saw the Tumblr post about Caranthir furiously talking (ranting? berating? fuming?) sense into Aegnor about Andreth and convincing him to ignore Finrod's 'advice'. I love the concept.
Group: Beren/Celegorm/Luthien - Yes, I am still paddling this canoe. Genuine triad, not coerced or forced on anyone.
Group: Celegorm & Eluréd & Elurín & Elrond & Elros - This could be in light of the previous ship, or not. I'm also open to the Celegorm lives AU tag playing into this. (Celegorm raising peredhil? Multiple generations of peredhil? Celegorm coming terms with the peredhil in Aman post-Mandos? Celegorm turning up on Numenor and utterly shocking Elrond & Elros? You have an open field here. Just no evil Celegorm, please.)
Group: Celegorm & Maeglin - I have no concrete idea what this looks like. Maybe Maeglin goes to visit his mother's favorite cousin and never ends up in Gondolin? Maybe Celegorm scoops him up at the Nirnaeth and Maeglin doesn't go back to Gondolin? Bonding in or after Mandos? Wide latitude here, but neither one should be evil. Could also be combined with the next group. (Please no Idril/Maeglin, even one-sided.)
Group: Idril & Maeglin - I like seeing them as friends, not as Maeglin creeping on his cousin and her avoiding him while having premonitions of doom.
Group: Dior & Elwing - There isn't enough Dior & Elwing before it all goes wrong.
Nimloth - Maybe I'm hanging out in the wrong places, but I haven't seen much about Nimloth. What is her life like? (Not her death.)
I would greatly enjoy seeing Elros on Numenor dealing with elven relatives turning up to visit, with or without advance notice.
More Celebrían please - just not around the time when she gets taken by orcs. (If you want to show her meeting kin after she sails West, please make the focus the family relationships, not what happened to her.)
Group: Aulë/Yavanna - These two are crazy about each other, but less crazy about each other's children, and their spheres of interest are sometimes diametrically opposed...
Group: Fëanor & Galadriel - Unfriends forever? Rivals? More like each other than they care to admit? Galadriel on a permanent mission to show her annoying know-it-all uncle?
Group: Anairë & Eärwen & Nerdanel - I love glimpses of life in Aman for those who didn't go marching off to Beleriand. Equally, I love looks at what life was like for these three before the Darkening...
Group: Eärwen/Finarfin - Crazy young kids falling in love? Newlyweds? Figuring out how to put things back together after Finarfin turns back? War of Wrath? After? Entirely up to you.
Group: Caranthir & Pengolodh - I have nothing, but the tag piqued my interest.
Request 3 - The Hobbit (book)
I have no specific prompts here, but I like seeing more of the world hinted at but not dealt with in the book - life in the halls of Thranduil, what happened to Galion after the dwarves' escape, and family relationships and friendships that must have existed, like Bilbo and the Old Took, or the royal family of Erebor prior to Smaug's arrival. The worldbuilding tags are fairly good pointers.
Request 4 - Crossovers
This one's a grab bag!
Most tags were picked out of curiosity/novelty rather than strong feelings about them. (Exception: Caranthir and Haleth are Erestor's parents and you will not convince me otherwise.)
I like the idea of hobbits interacting with elves of Aman (at least one of those tags was me), but the rest of them are ones that got my attention. I mean, what would Fëanor interacting with Lobelia Sackville-Baggins look like? What would Celebrimbor and Smith (of Wootton Major) talk about? What is the relationship between Finrod and Gildor?
Requst 5 - LotR movies
I think the tags are a pretty good guide on this one. I'm mostly hung up on the royals of Rohan, particularly Theodred - in the movies, we barely get a hint of the relationships that exist between Eowyn, Eomer, and Theodred. Did Theodred have any idea what Wormtongue was up to? (Feel free to go the Theodred lives AU route!) I will also not object to some sweet Eowyn/Faramir or Celeborn/Galadriel...Oh, and who are those smiths who re-forge Anduril?
Request 6 - LotR books
Mostly Rivendell-centric, looking at Elrond's family and friends/advisors/household outside of what was on the page. (And I wasn't exaggerating when I said I ran out of worldbuilding tag slots quick on this one. there was so much good stuff.) But I also threw Eomer/Lothiriel and Eowyn/Faramir in here, plus Eowyn & Glorfindel. (Did she get to talk to him after? Were there high fives exchanged?)
Hello! I hope you are as excited about the exchange as I am! I've done Innumerable Stars several times before and had a great experience. I hope the same will be true for you.
Please don't be intimidated by the number of tags - I prefer to list too much than too little. Better you're spoiled for choice than stuck. (Also, when presented with something as long as the tag set, my brain tends to get stuck on 'but why not ALL of them?')
I've offered prompts, or as close to them as I get, below. If there's anything you're concerned about or want to run by me before you get too into writing, feel free to comment here (I have anonymous comments on and screened). As far as ratings go, I will read whatever you're moved to write. I am eager to see what you create!
A word on 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 very hit or miss for me. 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, so I don't want you putting your creative energy into something that I know will be anywhere from a toss-up to a long shot if I like it, or that I will only voluntarily read on a rainy day in November. (Just to be clear, I'm not saying my reading quirks make any sense whatsoever. Only that I have them and I'm doing my best to steer you clear of them.)
DNW
• A/B/O
• Unrequested kinks (including but not limited to BDSM, scat/waterworks, vomit, blood play)
• Character Bashing - there are very few characters I loathe so please no character bashing
• Graphic Torture/Violence
• Rape/non-con
• Incest (sibling/sibling, parent/child, parent figure/child – specifically, no Maedhros or Maglor with Elrond or Elros)
• A requested ship written as one-sided, delusional/only in someone’s head, no love there anymore, or a hateship.
• 1st or 2nd person narrator
• Breaking up canon pairings (unless specifically requested)
• Modern AUs (coffee shop/college/etc.)
• AUs that involve changing the bodily nature of the characters (Vampire AU, merfolk AU, etc.)
• Genderswaps
• Plague/epidemic/pandemic
Silmarillion-specific DNWS:
• Narcissistic father Fëanor
• Abusive husband/father Eöl
• Evil Maeglin
• Terrible mother Elwing (Do the twins have Feelings about her leaving? Sure. Did she deliberately abandon them because all she cared about was the Silmaril? No thank you.) *As I've said I don't want breaking up of canon pairings, I should mention that Fingon/Maedhros is canon to me.
Not Rising to the Level of DNW, but should not be a main focus
• Mpreg
• Unrequested slash/femslash
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 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 applied, 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 I Like
•Caranthir/Haleth
•Ecthelion/Glorfindel
•Elimmirë/Findis
•Finwë/Miriel/Indis
•Beren/Lúthien/Celegorm
Finally, I don't know about you, but living in interesting times is wearing on me. I would deeply appreciate if you could focus more on the good times and flashes of happiness and less on the angst and awfulness. I do not expect pure fluff, but please no dark/downer endings or "everyone dies".
Prompts, or at least vague ideas for my requests may be found below. All worldbuilding tags are guidelines only, use them as you see fit.
Request 1 - Smith of Wootton Major
I have no concrete prompt here, but I am interested in what happened outside of the story - other bearers of the Star, Smith's children and descendants, and of course, what would it look like if GBBO came to Wootton Major? (Yes, that was my tag. I will be thrilled if you take me up on it.)
Request 2 - The Silmarillion
This is a bit of a grab bag of characters or character groups I like and worldbuilding tags that piqued my interest.
Worldbuilding: Tamatoa (Moana) finds the Silmaril - if you are the beautiful genius who came up with this tag, yes please!
Group: Aegnor/Andreth & Caranthir/Haleth - I saw the Tumblr post about Caranthir furiously talking (ranting? berating? fuming?) sense into Aegnor about Andreth and convincing him to ignore Finrod's 'advice'. I love the concept.
Group: Beren/Celegorm/Luthien - Yes, I am still paddling this canoe. Genuine triad, not coerced or forced on anyone.
Group: Celegorm & Eluréd & Elurín & Elrond & Elros - This could be in light of the previous ship, or not. I'm also open to the Celegorm lives AU tag playing into this. (Celegorm raising peredhil? Multiple generations of peredhil? Celegorm coming terms with the peredhil in Aman post-Mandos? Celegorm turning up on Numenor and utterly shocking Elrond & Elros? You have an open field here. Just no evil Celegorm, please.)
Group: Celegorm & Maeglin - I have no concrete idea what this looks like. Maybe Maeglin goes to visit his mother's favorite cousin and never ends up in Gondolin? Maybe Celegorm scoops him up at the Nirnaeth and Maeglin doesn't go back to Gondolin? Bonding in or after Mandos? Wide latitude here, but neither one should be evil. Could also be combined with the next group. (Please no Idril/Maeglin, even one-sided.)
Group: Idril & Maeglin - I like seeing them as friends, not as Maeglin creeping on his cousin and her avoiding him while having premonitions of doom.
Group: Dior & Elwing - There isn't enough Dior & Elwing before it all goes wrong.
Nimloth - Maybe I'm hanging out in the wrong places, but I haven't seen much about Nimloth. What is her life like? (Not her death.)
I would greatly enjoy seeing Elros on Numenor dealing with elven relatives turning up to visit, with or without advance notice.
More Celebrían please - just not around the time when she gets taken by orcs. (If you want to show her meeting kin after she sails West, please make the focus the family relationships, not what happened to her.)
Group: Aulë/Yavanna - These two are crazy about each other, but less crazy about each other's children, and their spheres of interest are sometimes diametrically opposed...
Group: Fëanor & Galadriel - Unfriends forever? Rivals? More like each other than they care to admit? Galadriel on a permanent mission to show her annoying know-it-all uncle?
Group: Anairë & Eärwen & Nerdanel - I love glimpses of life in Aman for those who didn't go marching off to Beleriand. Equally, I love looks at what life was like for these three before the Darkening...
Group: Eärwen/Finarfin - Crazy young kids falling in love? Newlyweds? Figuring out how to put things back together after Finarfin turns back? War of Wrath? After? Entirely up to you.
Group: Caranthir & Pengolodh - I have nothing, but the tag piqued my interest.
Request 3 - The Hobbit (book)
I have no specific prompts here, but I like seeing more of the world hinted at but not dealt with in the book - life in the halls of Thranduil, what happened to Galion after the dwarves' escape, and family relationships and friendships that must have existed, like Bilbo and the Old Took, or the royal family of Erebor prior to Smaug's arrival. The worldbuilding tags are fairly good pointers.
Request 4 - Crossovers
This one's a grab bag!
Most tags were picked out of curiosity/novelty rather than strong feelings about them. (Exception: Caranthir and Haleth are Erestor's parents and you will not convince me otherwise.)
I like the idea of hobbits interacting with elves of Aman (at least one of those tags was me), but the rest of them are ones that got my attention. I mean, what would Fëanor interacting with Lobelia Sackville-Baggins look like? What would Celebrimbor and Smith (of Wootton Major) talk about? What is the relationship between Finrod and Gildor?
Requst 5 - LotR movies
I think the tags are a pretty good guide on this one. I'm mostly hung up on the royals of Rohan, particularly Theodred - in the movies, we barely get a hint of the relationships that exist between Eowyn, Eomer, and Theodred. Did Theodred have any idea what Wormtongue was up to? (Feel free to go the Theodred lives AU route!) I will also not object to some sweet Eowyn/Faramir or Celeborn/Galadriel...Oh, and who are those smiths who re-forge Anduril?
Request 6 - LotR books
Mostly Rivendell-centric, looking at Elrond's family and friends/advisors/household outside of what was on the page. (And I wasn't exaggerating when I said I ran out of worldbuilding tag slots quick on this one. there was so much good stuff.) But I also threw Eomer/Lothiriel and Eowyn/Faramir in here, plus Eowyn & Glorfindel. (Did she get to talk to him after? Were there high fives exchanged?)