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How to Write A Dear Podficcer Letter
Dec. 27th, 2024 08:47 pmSo you want to write a Dear Podficcer letter! There are many excellent ways to write a letter; this is just going to cover one style to help get you past the dreaded blank page part of writing.
Briefly, there are four main sections in this style: an opening bit, your general likes, your general do not wants, and fandom-specific info.
Remember: you are not being graded on this letter, nor will you be held to its contents for the rest of your fandom career. If you, like me, get stressed worrying that you might forget a fandom or contradict yourself or or or…. don’t! It’s okay! This is just a starter kit to help someone make you a gift you’ll enjoy, not a binding document to encompass all past and future interests. If this is NOT something you worry about, good job you’re already doing great.
That said! Here we go:
Your Intro:
The beginning of a letter is typically a short greeting – often just “Dear podficcer,” or “Hello!” and maybe mentioning you’re excited for the exchange. After that the intro section is a good place to put technical details like:
General Likes:
Next is your general likes! This is for all non-fandom-specific info on what you like.
Consider including categories of items like:
Try to avoid the siren-song of embarrassed self-deprecation – remember, if you put yourself down, you’re also putting down everyone else who shares your interests.
General Dislikes (DNWs):
Okay now we’re ready for your Do Not Wants (commonly abbreviated DNWs). This is a section for anything you, well, don’t want. Some folks also include a less-strict “possibly not”/“iffy tropes” list. You very much can! Go for it! I personally do not, so I’m keeping things simple here.
(Note that you can include DNWs of things that you have sometimes enjoyed! I occasionally include “DNW: time travel” even though some of my very favorite fics are time travel. I do this because SOME time travel stories explain how they’re getting around causality in an inconsistent way that makes my brain angry (callin’ you out Marvel Endgame), and I genuinely cannot explain the difference between “good causality explanation” and “evil bad hate causality explanation” in a way that someone else could be expected to abide to. Feel free to insert “kink that sometimes you love and sometimes tips into extreme discomfort and you only know the line when you yourself find it” into this explanation. Again, your mission in this letter is to make it easy for your creator to make something you’ll like (and hard to make something you’d hate), not to create rules about your own enjoyment.)
You may have thought of some DNWs while working on your likes! Take note of those if you did. It follows much the same pattern, except the first:
You CAN add clarifying details (i.e. after my “No Major Character Death” I add “temporary or faked is fine”), especially for common things that happen in your fandom(s).
Fandom Details:
Alright we’re ready for fandom specifics! I like to write this last so my brain is warmed up to what I do and don’t like, but I usually include it before the general likes/dislikes section in the written document. Order can be whatever makes sense to you!
Most exchanges in the podfic community require at least three fandoms, but many encourage more so the mods have options for matching. If you’re going for the minimum 3, I would recommend having at least one large-ish fandom with at least 4-5 other podficcers in it. That said, DO include your small fandoms! Maybe you’ll inspire someone who’d never even heard of it to go searching. This happens more than you’d expect!
Write up a list of your fandoms. After you have the list, add notes to each fandom on what you’d like to see specific to that world and characters. Your notes don’t need to be long (though they can be!), and you don’t need to restate your general dos/don’ts. Things you could include about each fandom:
EXTRA BITS AND BOBS:
Briefly, there are four main sections in this style: an opening bit, your general likes, your general do not wants, and fandom-specific info.
Remember: you are not being graded on this letter, nor will you be held to its contents for the rest of your fandom career. If you, like me, get stressed worrying that you might forget a fandom or contradict yourself or or or…. don’t! It’s okay! This is just a starter kit to help someone make you a gift you’ll enjoy, not a binding document to encompass all past and future interests. If this is NOT something you worry about, good job you’re already doing great.
That said! Here we go:
Your Intro:
The beginning of a letter is typically a short greeting – often just “Dear podficcer,” or “Hello!” and maybe mentioning you’re excited for the exchange. After that the intro section is a good place to put technical details like:
- Are you okay with repods?
- Are you okay if people use gifts for you to also fill things like Bingo challenges?
- Do you like music/sfx, or do you need at least a version without? (Are there specific kinds of sfx/music you can’t deal with, like sudden startling noises, or music under dialogue?)
- Would you be happy to receive a pod of something you wrote?
- Are your public bookmarks a rec-list of your interests, or is it more of a sortable marked for later list?
- Do you enjoy chatty cold reads? What about multivoices?
- How do you feel about crossovers?
General Likes:
Next is your general likes! This is for all non-fandom-specific info on what you like.
Consider including categories of items like:
- Emotional tone: do you like fluff? Hurt/Comfort? Angst? Happy Endings?
- Tropes you like! What’s a trope that you’ll always click on? Time travel? Only One Bed? Enemies-to-Friends? Outsider POV?
- Shipping details: Do you only want genfic? Do you only want slash? Do you crave sweet sweet polyships? Would you be delighted to get femslash? Are you open to anything, do you not mind shipping but want it to not be the focus, etc. etc.
- Ratings: Please always include what ratings you would like to receive – people usually err on the side of caution, so if you only want E-rated works don’t be shy! Tell us! There are some delightfully prolific smut podficcers waiting for your ask. If you don’t want G-rated works, mention it! It’s a great resource for your gifter(s) to narrow down your interests.
- If you’re including E-ratings: kinks? PWP or only stories that happen to have sex?
- Major Archive Warnings: opt-in to common things that other people would opt out of, if you do want to see them.
- Character-specific details: do you like the main character to have specific characteristics? Disability representation? Characters of color? Queer characters? Women? Reader-insert?
Try to avoid the siren-song of embarrassed self-deprecation – remember, if you put yourself down, you’re also putting down everyone else who shares your interests.
General Dislikes (DNWs):
Okay now we’re ready for your Do Not Wants (commonly abbreviated DNWs). This is a section for anything you, well, don’t want. Some folks also include a less-strict “possibly not”/“iffy tropes” list. You very much can! Go for it! I personally do not, so I’m keeping things simple here.
(Note that you can include DNWs of things that you have sometimes enjoyed! I occasionally include “DNW: time travel” even though some of my very favorite fics are time travel. I do this because SOME time travel stories explain how they’re getting around causality in an inconsistent way that makes my brain angry (callin’ you out Marvel Endgame), and I genuinely cannot explain the difference between “good causality explanation” and “evil bad hate causality explanation” in a way that someone else could be expected to abide to. Feel free to insert “kink that sometimes you love and sometimes tips into extreme discomfort and you only know the line when you yourself find it” into this explanation. Again, your mission in this letter is to make it easy for your creator to make something you’ll like (and hard to make something you’d hate), not to create rules about your own enjoyment.)
You may have thought of some DNWs while working on your likes! Take note of those if you did. It follows much the same pattern, except the first:
- Squicks & triggers: Anything not captured in the rest of the categories that would make you x-out of any work, or at least have you gritting your teeth ‘til it’s over.
- Emotional tone! Do you avoid fluff? Are you too stressed in your daily life for sad endings? Fear not! You can tell us!
- Tropes! Do you dislike mutual pining? Do you carry secret rage in your heart for bodyswaps? Is medical inaccuracy the bane of your existence?
- Ratings: I’d recommend repeating this in both sections, it’s important!
- Character-specific details: some days you just do not want to read about someone with your own job, y'know?
- Kinks! It's okay to not like things. Simply saying you do not like something is not, by itself, kink-shaming. Just don’t be rude!
- Major Archive Warnings: Tell us which ones you avoid.
You CAN add clarifying details (i.e. after my “No Major Character Death” I add “temporary or faked is fine”), especially for common things that happen in your fandom(s).
Fandom Details:
Alright we’re ready for fandom specifics! I like to write this last so my brain is warmed up to what I do and don’t like, but I usually include it before the general likes/dislikes section in the written document. Order can be whatever makes sense to you!
Most exchanges in the podfic community require at least three fandoms, but many encourage more so the mods have options for matching. If you’re going for the minimum 3, I would recommend having at least one large-ish fandom with at least 4-5 other podficcers in it. That said, DO include your small fandoms! Maybe you’ll inspire someone who’d never even heard of it to go searching. This happens more than you’d expect!
Write up a list of your fandoms. After you have the list, add notes to each fandom on what you’d like to see specific to that world and characters. Your notes don’t need to be long (though they can be!), and you don’t need to restate your general dos/don’ts. Things you could include about each fandom:
- Who’s your favorite character? Your favorite platonic relationships? Your favorite romantic ship(s)?
- Are there characters/ships that you don’t want to see? Is it okay if they’re background or do you need no mention at all?
- Does this fandom have its own standard AUs that you like or dislike?
- Is there character bashing in your fandom that you can’t stand and need your creator to avoid?
- Does this fandom have a SPECIFIC exception to one (or more) of your DNWs? For example: you don’t want gifts with enemies-to-lovers trope EXCEPT there is one pairing in one fandom that caught you by surprise and fills you with secret glee against all expectations.
- How close do you want to stay to canon? Canon-compliant only? Fix-its but not fully separate AUs? Post-canon, pre-canon, missing scenes?
- Do you like a specific author who happens to have BP?
- No matter what, make sure you at least say something you like about the original canon; it can be so helpful for a creator to gauge what vibes you’re wanting from your pods.
EXTRA BITS AND BOBS:
- Hosting! You can host your letter anywhere you’ll be able to have a stable link. (Do NOT host on AO3, it’s not a permanent fanwork and would therefore be a TOS violation.) Make sure it’s accessible to users who aren’t logged in, since there’s no guarantee your creator will have an account on that site. Ask a friend to test or open a private/incognito browsing window to see if you can access it without your login.
- What if you remember something after the exchange is underway? If it’s a fun little extra fandom or trope, you can honestly just pop it in the letter – I’d recommend marking it with a different font color or bold, and the date you added it. If it’s something serious like a non-negotiable DNW, add it AND message the mods so they can tell your creator. Some people will have downloaded/copied your letter for ease of use, and won’t see updates.
