|
Category |
Item |
# of times
mentioned |
1 |
action |
A
kiss on the neck from behind, hands sliding over the stomach. |
|
2 |
action |
A
wordless look between two people that communicates meaning. |
|
3 |
action |
any kind of non-fatal injury where there's blood without
incapacitation |
|
4 |
action |
awkward sex, |
|
5 |
action |
Back alley, up
against the wall sex. |
|
6 |
action |
Biting your own
hand to muffle moans. |
|
7 |
action |
Blowjobs when the person giving it has all the power and what
they choose to do with it |
|
8 |
action |
Breaking taboos. |
|
9 |
action |
Brushing
out someone's long hair for them to calm them. |
|
10 |
action |
characters
breaking down and screaming at the top of their lungs, |
|
11 |
action |
characters
standing on a really high ledge looking down, |
|
12 |
action |
cigarette lighting |
|
13 |
action |
Crafts, spinning, weaving, knitting, playing with fiber,
creating |
|
14 |
action |
Dancing
and fighting and fucking and believing that they're all the same, in some
ways. |
|
15 |
action |
Dancing:
watching someone move with confidence, ease, and grace through a series of
complicated steps (same goes for fighting). |
|
16 |
action |
daring motorcycle rides |
|
17 |
action |
Explosions, |
|
18 |
action |
fighting
to save the man beside you and not for the cause, |
|
19 |
action |
fighting up stairwells |
|
20 |
action |
Flying. |
|
21 |
action |
grand romantic gestures that are a little foolish (throwing a
glass into the fire after a toast, charging headlong into a fight when
outnumbered) |
|
22 |
action |
Gunfights. |
|
23 |
action |
handholding, |
|
24 |
action |
hands carding through
hair, |
|
25 |
action |
hands,
someone's fingers sliding under clothing, the edge of a t-shirt, |
|
26 |
action |
hand-to-hand fight
scenes. |
|
27 |
action |
Helplessness
by choice, a momentary surrender of power. |
|
28 |
action |
heroic charges
into insurmountable odds. |
|
29 |
action |
High kicks. |
|
30 |
action |
Holding hands. |
|
31 |
action |
Holding
someone still with one hand tangled in their hair, head pulled back, throat
exposed. |
|
32 |
action |
intense stares |
|
33 |
action |
Jumping
off a cliff with your wings still folded, then casting them wide to
soar. |
|
34 |
action |
jumping
off of really tall things without looking first, |
|
35 |
action |
kidnappings, |
|
36 |
action |
kisses on the nape of
the neck, |
|
37 |
action |
kissing the throat |
|
38 |
action |
Kneeling
in solitary prayer, being watched without knowing. |
|
39 |
action |
Knowing something is doomed and doing it anyway |
|
40 |
action |
kung-fu fights, |
|
41 |
action |
Laughing
in the face of society (Rhett Butler & Scarlett O'Hara). |
|
42 |
action |
one person
lighting another's cigarette, |
|
43 |
action |
Perching. |
|
44 |
action |
pool sharking |
|
45 |
action |
Power
exchange, be it overt or subtle, the strong character becoming weak and the
supposed weaker one having to care for them. |
|
46 |
action |
Power walks! |
2 |
47 |
action |
Repressing
desire for so long that when the dam finally bursts, clothes get ripped off
in the process, bruises are left, territory is marked. |
|
48 |
action |
Resolve
setting a course and following it through. |
|
49 |
action |
riding off into the
sunset, |
|
50 |
action |
rubbing a thumb against the lip of wine glass |
|
51 |
action |
Running
after someone in the rain and making a hopeless, last-ditch declaration of
truth. |
|
52 |
action |
Running
just for the joy of it, of having a body that works and moves well, along the
rooftops. Leaping the gaps in between without even a pause. |
|
53 |
action |
Running
through the enemy base to get to your target before the bombs go off in
exactly 3:14, and your timing is perfect because you're playing a favorite
piece of music in your head and you know just how long it is. |
|
54 |
action |
Sex against a wall because it was just too much to wait for |
|
55 |
action |
sex in a library (!) |
|
56 |
action |
sex in
desperate and inappropriate situations, |
|
57 |
action |
Sex
somewhere that might be overheard, and trying desperately to stay quiet. |
|
58 |
action |
standing close enough to kiss without ever touching |
|
59 |
action |
staying out in the
pouring rain, |
|
60 |
action |
stupid heroics, |
|
61 |
action |
survival in the
wilderness, |
|
62 |
action |
swashbuckling in all
forms, |
|
63 |
action |
Swordplay and fencing and duelling |
4 |
64 |
sensation |
The fine line between pain and pleasure |
|
65 |
action |
The
unexpected twist and flip, the cool move in battle. |
|
66 |
action |
Those
quiet, calm conversations between two characters where there is nothing else
going on, just them concentrating on each other and talking and enjoying the
calm before the storm because they know that everything is going to hit the
fan and that at least one of them will be dead soon. |
|
67 |
action |
Wrists held
together over the head. |
|
68 |
atmosphere |
A deep sense of history. |
|
69 |
atmosphere |
Connections
to mythic cycles, or reasonably developed made-up mythic cycles. |
|
70 |
atmosphere |
Dark and stormy nights. |
|
71 |
atmosphere |
Deep time. |
|
72 |
atmosphere |
Made-up religions. |
|
73 |
atmosphere |
Old West gunfights, |
|
74 |
atmosphere |
Storms, and shelter from storms. |
|
75 |
atmosphere |
The changing of the
seasons. |
|
76 |
atmosphere |
The non-human as genuinely wild and strange and not entirely
comprehensible. |
|
77 |
atmosphere |
The weight of history. |
|
78 |
atmosphere |
thunder and lightning |
|
79 |
character |
Incredible loyalty, beyond any reason or explanation. Stupid
descions made in full awareness... That knowledge that what you're about to
do will change nothing and will make no difference, but doing it anyway
simply because that's who you are....Two allies in a fight who know each
others moves without needing to look, winning out against a crowd. |
2 |
80 |
character |
a bloody slash on a cheekbone |
|
81 |
character |
a
few tears shed by the character who just doesn't cry. |
|
82 |
character |
A sense of the ability of ordinary people to make and do and
change things. |
|
83 |
character |
Alternative sexualities. |
|
84 |
character |
Alternative sexualities. |
|
85 |
character |
amnesia, |
|
86 |
character |
Amnesia. |
|
87 |
character |
and when
big lunks turn out to be surprisingly perceptive. |
|
88 |
character |
Androgynous boys, androgynous girls. |
|
89 |
character |
anthropomorphic
personifications |
|
90 |
character |
Anything
that fucks with gender roles or confronts the resistance that characters who
fuck with gender roles will encounter. |
|
91 |
character |
Assassins. |
|
92 |
character |
Being able to let go and not fear everything falling apart
because someone is there to catch you |
|
93 |
character |
Being
transformed to human then learning how to be human. |
|
94 |
character |
boys crying, |
|
95 |
character |
boys in love but afraid, |
|
96 |
character |
Boys
with long lashes and delicate limbs who could kill you a dozen different ways
before you had time to react. |
|
97 |
character |
Boys with wings, |
|
98 |
character |
boys with wings, |
|
99 |
character |
Brittle, polycompetent, glossy heroes who possess a tinge of
self-loathing. |
|
100 |
character |
Broken halves making a
whole. |
|
101 |
character |
broken people
supporting each other, |
|
102 |
character |
cat lovers, |
|
103 |
character |
catboys, |
|
104 |
character |
Changelings
and orphans and people without a home, and instead of finding it they get a
friend or lover to make a new home with. |
|
105 |
character |
Changelings and stolen children. |
|
106 |
character |
Changes over time--physical bodies, clothing, attitudes. Goes
back to that personal history thing. |
|
107 |
character |
Characters
who are trying to make a positive and lasting impact on the world. |
|
108 |
character |
Characters who have senses of humor and senses of wonder;
wordplay, joking, recognition that the situation they are in is odd or
improbable. |
|
109 |
character |
Characters who live in
caves. |
|
110 |
character |
Characters who live in
trees. |
|
111 |
character |
characters
who smile for the first time and it's absolutely charming and kind of
awkward, |
|
112 |
character |
characters with
obsessions, |
|
113 |
character |
Cold and/or deadly courtesans (in fiction only) |
|
114 |
character |
Cold female assassins and the loyal and nice men who love them
and stick by them |
|
115 |
character |
cold female assassins, |
|
116 |
character |
Cold female assassins, WHOO!!! |
|
117 |
character |
collarbones, |
|
118 |
character |
Command presence. |
|
119 |
character |
commanding officers, |
|
120 |
character |
Competence, |
|
121 |
character |
Competence. |
|
122 |
character |
Competence. OMG competence, esp. quiet competence, gets me every
time. |
|
123 |
character |
Competent
girls. Especially kick-ass girls. |
|
124 |
character |
Computer genius
sidekicks. |
|
125 |
character |
computer hackers
that aren't nerds, |
|
126 |
character |
Confident women. |
|
127 |
character |
cowboys, |
|
128 |
character |
cute mexican sht boys, |
|
129 |
character |
Cynical idealists, who really want just one good reason to get
back into love/the fight/hope. |
|
130 |
character |
Dark Byronic antiheros. |
|
131 |
character |
delicate
girls who look down on the whole world, |
|
132 |
character |
Demons! |
|
133 |
character |
Devotion.
Absolute, mutual devotion. |
|
134 |
character |
Diversity
- characters who have a background. |
|
135 |
character |
drug addicts, |
|
136 |
character |
estranged family
members, |
|
137 |
character |
evil twins |
2 |
138 |
character |
Extraordinary
people, people on the fringe and above the norm: Mutants, gods, Slayers,
psychics, whatever. |
|
139 |
character |
extreme competence as a compensation for loneliness and social
awkwardness |
|
140 |
character |
Extremely competent and cool guys who turn out to be complete
dorks on the inside |
|
141 |
character |
faith, |
|
142 |
character |
fallen angels, |
|
143 |
character |
female
characters who everyone is scared of, |
|
144 |
character |
Female pirates. |
|
145 |
character |
fighter pilots, |
|
146 |
character |
fighters with impractical clothing who fight easily anyway. |
|
147 |
character |
fitting in just right. |
|
148 |
character |
Flawless loyalty. |
|
149 |
character |
Friendship.
Romance bores me - I like friendship, the-family-you-choose, the kind of
friendship that is so natural and runs so deep that of coure you would take a
bullet for the other person; any other course of action wouldn't even cross
your mind. |
|
150 |
character |
Girls disguised as boys (preferably crossed with cold female
assassins) |
|
151 |
character |
Girls disguised as boys, |
3 |
152 |
character |
Good
guys who become bad guys and vice versa, but only when done well, like in
Xena, and not like the new Star Wars trilogy which sucked. |
|
153 |
character |
Grey hair--it's a signifier to me of toughness, and survival
instincts. |
|
154 |
character |
Guys in love with women who don't know it, guys being in love
and not showing it except in the small gestures that she doesn't notice |
|
155 |
character |
heroes. |
|
156 |
character |
hidden pasts, |
|
157 |
character |
Honest enthusiasm, stripped of cynicism. |
|
158 |
character |
I have a thing for resentful attraction. |
|
159 |
character |
I
like the normal animals horses, big cats, wolves falcons, etc. but I
absolutely love fantasy creatures like unicorns and gryphons. - as
characters |
|
160 |
character |
I like when a slightly evil or misunderstood, or
dark/misanthropic/does not play well with others male character finds the
woman (or man) who finally throws him off his game |
|
161 |
character |
I love UST that builds slowly as people learn one another. Not
instant, but over time. Sneakily, and they don't recognize that's what it is.
Yum. |
|
162 |
character |
I tend to enjoy girl
leads and |
|
163 |
character |
In general, cold and/or icy and/or deadly women and the men who
love them |
|
164 |
character |
Incredible
loyalaty, beyond any reason or explanation. |
2 |
165 |
character |
Intelligence. |
|
166 |
character |
Kick-ass women. |
|
167 |
character |
Ladies Who Are Not
What They Seem, |
|
168 |
character |
Learning
something unexpected about someone, that totally shifts your perception. |
|
169 |
character |
librarians |
|
170 |
character |
Lucifer |
|
171 |
character |
madames with a heart of gold |
|
172 |
character |
Male prostitutes (in fiction only) |
|
173 |
character |
Men
and women who are just friends with genuinely no sexual tension. |
|
174 |
character |
Men
being domestic and loving with each other. |
|
175 |
character |
men following orders, |
|
176 |
character |
men who are good
with guns and kids, |
|
177 |
character |
men with charm, |
|
178 |
character |
Misanthropic,
misunderstood loners, and the people who love them. |
|
179 |
character |
Nice guys who don't finish last. |
|
180 |
character |
not fitting in, |
|
181 |
character |
odd-couple friendships, |
|
182 |
character |
Old
friends knowing each other very, very well, or any kind of deep mutual
character knowledge between two people. |
|
183 |
character |
Ordinary people and ordinary lives, finding extraordinary joy in
the ordinary |
|
184 |
character |
Ordinary women who make mistakes, but come through it OK not
some infallible sex goddess who always wins. |
|
185 |
character |
Pacifism
- characters who believe in nonviolence, and go against everything they
believe in so they can fight, not because they think it's the right thing to
do but because it's the only thing to do. |
|
186 |
character |
partnerships
of equals, mentors and students, |
|
187 |
character |
People finding a family (blood-related or not) and forming a
bond to each other that isn't romantic but is bone-deep |
|
188 |
character |
people
genuinely caught between two cultures, |
|
189 |
character |
People in love with life's small things and who live in the
moment |
|
190 |
character |
people passionate about their work or craft, |
2 |
191 |
character |
People so reserved that just the touch of a hand speaks volumes
(Saiyuki! Morgaine!) |
|
192 |
character |
people
suffering stoicly, not expecting others to notice, |
|
193 |
character |
People teaching other people to live and to love |
|
194 |
character |
people
unwillingly drawn to another's charisma, |
|
195 |
character |
people who can kick
straight up, |
|
196 |
character |
People
who flat out like each other's company (Doctor and Rose!), |
|
197 |
character |
People who get through things, together. |
|
198 |
character |
People who have
each other's backs. |
|
199 |
character |
People who have lost hope and how they slowly grow to find it
again |
|
200 |
character |
people
who love each other but don't ignore everything else that's important to them
because of that love, |
|
201 |
character |
people
who throw themselves into the line of fire to save people who don't deserve
it, |
|
202 |
character |
people
with ordinary/low backgrounds discovering they have some special gift that
vaults them to importance. |
|
203 |
character |
people with wings, |
|
204 |
character |
polite, nice, good-mannered men brought to their breaking points
(either sexually or not), and what happens then |
|
205 |
character |
political firebrands, |
|
206 |
character |
Premature gray, |
|
207 |
character |
priests |
|
208 |
character |
prominent collarbones, |
|
209 |
character |
psychic kids |
|
210 |
character |
Quiet, angsty boys. |
|
211 |
character |
Quiet, angsty, shapeshifting boys. |
|
212 |
character |
Quietly lost people who have abandoned hope and their sadness
and how they still try to help others despite feeling forsaken |
|
213 |
character |
Scars
on the abdomen, the shoulders, the chest. |
|
214 |
character |
scholars. |
|
215 |
character |
school
boys doing generally immoral things (prefferably to each other), |
|
216 |
character |
school boys smoking, |
|
217 |
character |
scientists in over
their heads, |
|
218 |
character |
Secret
identities -and coming out -and secrets within the secrets -and shifting
identities. |
|
219 |
character |
sentient weapons, |
|
220 |
character |
sexual tension between snarky bickering partners. |
|
221 |
character |
sexy librarians, |
|
222 |
character |
Sexy wounds. |
|
223 |
character |
shaved heads. |
|
224 |
character |
Someone who does the wrong thing, the evil thing, in order to
achieve a greater good--who takes on the sin willingly, knowingly. They don't
want to do it, but they'll do it if they have to and they won't let anyone
else do it for them. They own their sins |
|
225 |
character |
Someone who gets into something by accident, not for the
adventure, and is utterly out of their depth and yet figures it out, makes it
work. |
|
226 |
character |
spies, |
|
227 |
character |
Storytellers
and tricksters, people who can make worlds with their words, tell lies so
pretty you believe them even when you know better. |
|
228 |
character |
strategists, |
|
229 |
character |
strong women
protecting weak men, |
|
230 |
character |
Strong,
competant characters backed into a corner. |
|
231 |
character |
Strong, competent, kickass women who go through the entire work
including ending without having any hint of a romantic relationship. |
|
232 |
character |
Strong,
three-dimensional women. |
|
233 |
character |
Sympathetic villains. |
|
234 |
character |
That
knowledge that what you're about to do will change nothing and will make no
difference, but doing it anyway simply because that's who you are. |
|
235 |
character |
The curve of a woman's
neck. |
|
236 |
character |
The edge of insanity. |
|
237 |
character |
The inner beast
barely held in check. |
|
238 |
character |
The joy of knowledge and knowing and learning, loving an
activity for the activity itself and not for the outcome |
|
239 |
character |
The line of a man's jaw. |
|
240 |
character |
the man in black, |
|
241 |
character |
The moment when a strong person can't take it any longer and a
shoulder magically appears for them to lean on |
|
242 |
character |
The moment when
a strong person snaps. |
|
243 |
character |
the
one girl on the team of giant robots who always knows what's up because she
actually read the Giant Robot Instruction Book, |
|
244 |
character |
the
one who stays behind to make sure everyone else gets out safe, |
|
245 |
character |
The power of one person's emotions to affect the world. |
|
246 |
character |
The
rhythms of different dialects working against each other, a set of characters
born from very diverse origins. |
|
247 |
character |
The
social outcast and the diva hooking up, a la beauty & the beast,
something about cutting through a profound sense of alienation and
difference, and the feeling of being loved despite it, or because of it. |
|
248 |
character |
The weight of personal history. |
|
249 |
character |
Thieves
and pickpockets and gypsies, people living on the edges of society who take
advantage of the people who are more secure, who get back some small measure
of power by outwitting and fooling the powerful. |
|
250 |
character |
Tragic past lives and reincarnation, examining what makes people
who they are, bonds that go beyond time and body and sex |
|
251 |
character |
Transformations
are fun, but more so if the character could find a way to enjoy it. |
|
252 |
character |
Travelers. |
|
253 |
character |
Two allies in a fight who know each others moves without needing
to look, winning out against a crowd. |
|
254 |
character |
uncomfortable but real
faith, |
|
255 |
character |
villains in love, |
|
256 |
character |
werewolves, |
|
257 |
character |
wings |
|
258 |
character |
wise-cracking
yet surprisingly competent side-kicks, |
|
259 |
character |
wit, |
|
260 |
character |
women who know their
own worth, |
|
261 |
character |
women with guns. |
|
262 |
character |
women with knives or
guns. |
|
263 |
character - clothing and personal style |
1940s American fashion |
|
264 |
character - clothing and personal style |
A smoking hot leather jacket over jeans. |
|
265 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Also women in men's clothes, either just as an ordinary thing or
trying to pass. |
|
266 |
character - clothing and personal style |
bare feet |
|
267 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Bare feet. |
|
268 |
character - clothing and personal style |
black leather gloves |
|
269 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Black leather trenchcoats. |
|
270 |
character - clothing and personal style |
boys in uniform, |
|
271 |
character - clothing and personal style |
boys out of uniform, |
|
272 |
character - clothing and personal style |
cloaks, |
|
273 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Cloaks, yes. I'm a sucker for people in cloaks. Especially
angsty shapeshifting boys. But anyone, really. |
|
274 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Collars, |
|
275 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Eyepatches, |
|
276 |
character - clothing and personal style |
guys with glasses |
|
277 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Hair in
cornrows, with beads at the ends. |
|
278 |
character - clothing and personal style |
hipbones peeking out from low slung pants |
|
279 |
character - clothing and personal style |
knee high boots, |
|
280 |
character - clothing and personal style |
knives in garter belts |
|
281 |
character - clothing and personal style |
long coats that are a little too long in the sleeve |
|
282 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Long hair. |
|
283 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Long robes tattered by
wind. |
|
284 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Long,
loose hair and eyes looking up from under it. |
|
285 |
character - clothing and personal style |
men in glasses |
|
286 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Men
with long dark hair, especially if they are closed off and of few words. |
|
287 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Really outlandish
women's hats. |
|
288 |
character - clothing and personal style |
rolled up sleeves |
|
289 |
character - clothing and personal style |
school uniforms, |
|
290 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Shoes cast
thoughtlessly aside. |
|
291 |
character - clothing and personal style |
silk scarves |
|
292 |
character - clothing and personal style |
sticky wet clothes |
|
293 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Straight
boys in skirts. Not drag queens or trannies, just boys who aren't very good
at it, but can still pass. |
|
294 |
character - clothing and personal style |
style. |
|
295 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Tall men in dark Armani
suits. |
|
296 |
character - clothing and personal style |
tattoos the kind that are hidden and surprising |
|
297 |
character - clothing and personal style |
the stray strands of hair that float out when a women's hair is
worn up |
|
298 |
character - clothing and personal style |
thigh holsters |
|
299 |
character - clothing and personal style |
three-piece suits, |
|
300 |
character - clothing and personal style |
trenchcoats |
|
301 |
character - clothing and personal style |
veils |
|
302 |
character - clothing and personal style |
vintage dress (form various eras) |
|
303 |
character - clothing and personal style |
waistcoats, |
|
304 |
character - clothing and personal style |
Women dressed sensibly for battle. No skirts or slinky tops, and
armed like the men. |
|
305 |
character - clothing and personal style |
women in men's dress shirts (and nothing else) |
|
306 |
character - clothing and personal style |
women with long nails, |
|
307 |
character trait |
androgyny, |
|
308 |
character trait |
clairvoyance, |
|
309 |
character trait |
Gay that's not camp, or sleazy, or fake. |
|
310 |
character trait |
good manners (it's a thing) |
|
311 |
character trait |
pyrokinesis, |
|
312 |
character trait |
Telekinesis, |
|
313 |
character trait |
telepathy, |
|
314 |
character trait |
tossing a coin and catching it repeatedly |
|
315 |
character trait |
Unexpected
possessiveness. |
|
316 |
dramatic imagery |
A drop of honey, a
willing tongue. |
|
317 |
dramatic imagery |
And of course, gratuitous nudity. |
|
318 |
dramatic imagery |
black helicopters |
|
319 |
dramatic imagery |
flower imagery |
|
320 |
dramatic imagery |
Horses |
|
321 |
dramatic imagery |
Loyalty. Sidekicks who will hang over a pit of hot oil and not
give up their partner for anything; lovers who will withstand torture for
each other; it shows you that the hero is smart enough not to surround
him/herself with idiots and I love the big, swooping rescue when it comes. If
it comes. |
|
322 |
dramatic imagery |
Notes in the margins of
books. |
|
323 |
dramatic imagery |
raindrops dripping into a pool |
|
324 |
dramatic imagery |
seeing someone as a reflection in another's eye |
|
325 |
dramatic imagery |
sense memory (smell mostly) |
|
326 |
dramatic imagery |
The
same things being found and relearned by successive generations. |
|
327 |
dramatic imagery |
The
sudden stray grace of a fire escape red with rust against a blue sky, or a
shattered glass bottle on the ground reflecting a sunset. |
|
328 |
dramatic imagery |
wrought iron gates with dangerous fleurs de lis |
|
329 |
element |
anything gracefully predatory: wolves, foxes, falcons. |
|
330 |
element |
Arts
and (in particular) crafts, especially with a keen appreciation of hard work
and craftsmanship. |
|
331 |
element |
barbecue |
|
332 |
element |
books, |
|
333 |
element |
Borders. |
|
334 |
element |
ciphers, |
|
335 |
element |
Codes and ciphers |
|
336 |
element |
Dogs. |
|
337 |
element |
Elaborate clothing that means things, fan language, hair
language, kimono language |
|
338 |
element |
Exotic perfumes. |
|
339 |
element |
fans;
obscuring faces, or used as weapons, |
|
340 |
element |
fast cars, |
|
341 |
element |
giant robots, |
|
342 |
element |
Gracefully curved
blades. |
|
343 |
element |
Intelligent
familiars that don't for chrissakes talk. |
|
344 |
element |
Knives. |
|
345 |
element |
Lost knowledge. |
|
346 |
element |
Magic. |
|
347 |
element |
Mirrors
their intrinsic magic, their silver fluidity, truth and lies reflected. |
|
348 |
element |
Musical crescendoes. |
|
349 |
element |
Oh, and penguins. Yeah, penguins. |
|
350 |
element |
south Indian martial
arts weapons, |
|
351 |
element |
spy gear
like cell phones that really turn into laser guns, |
|
352 |
element |
team spirit, |
|
353 |
element |
Things made of glass. |
|
354 |
element |
Wolves, lions. |
|
355 |
genre |
cyberpunk, |
2 |
356 |
genre |
Picaresque novels. |
|
357 |
plot |
A
long, slow build of sexual tension between two people who are intellectually
matched and equally stubborn (bonus points if the tension is resolved with a
passionate kiss during a particularly heated argument). |
|
358 |
plot |
Also
interracial relationships--that sense of confronting and crossing
borders. |
|
359 |
plot |
Apocalypse,
the end of the world, and people who will follow each other through it. |
|
360 |
plot |
Belief/desire/will
that transforms reality by its own strength. |
|
361 |
plot |
Bittersweet
endings, reminiscing about what and who was lost but tinged with optimism
that the world goes on. |
|
362 |
plot |
body switching (I LOVE BODY SWITCHING) |
|
363 |
plot |
characters
going down fighting for something or someone they believe in. |
|
364 |
plot |
characters
selfishly leaving everything behind, other characters hating them for it (but
still loving them), |
|
365 |
plot |
Court
politics, whispers in hallways or ballrooms that make and break alliances,
the power of one person's personality being enough to change the course of a
kingdom. |
|
366 |
plot |
doing
anything in the name of innovation, |
|
367 |
plot |
double identities |
|
368 |
plot |
Epic
battles conducted in the political sphere, especially in fantasy
settings. |
|
369 |
plot |
Epic, sweeping stories with sublime endings. |
|
370 |
plot |
failure. |
|
371 |
plot |
Family
pulling through (the dell north of Hexham!). |
|
372 |
plot |
fighting the inevitable, |
|
373 |
plot |
forbidden angel/demon love, especially if there's a war waging
between heaven and hell |
|
374 |
plot |
Forced
to be in close quarters with another, especially an enemy. |
|
375 |
plot |
Gaming the system. |
|
376 |
plot |
giving up
everything to save the world, |
|
377 |
plot |
Happy endings. |
|
378 |
plot |
Hero/villain
interaction, especially when layered with a love/hate relationship or a kind
of complex friendship intertwined with the rivalry. |
|
379 |
plot |
heroics, |
|
380 |
plot |
Hidden
heirs that don't know they're heirs, |
|
381 |
plot |
history that
threatens to repeat itself, |
|
382 |
plot |
hopeless crusades, |
|
383 |
plot |
I like it better if romance stays in romance, as a heroine
doesn't need a love interest. |
|
384 |
plot |
I mentioned body
switching, right? *g* |
|
385 |
plot |
I
would love to see a female vampire story not revolving around sex. |
|
386 |
plot |
Imprisonment
and negotiation, trying to wear the captive down into surrender rather than
force them ... mind games and seduction. |
|
387 |
plot |
Inheritance. |
|
388 |
plot |
lessons
learned young and taught to a new generation, |
|
389 |
plot |
Love that transcends
limits. |
|
390 |
plot |
Love triangles which resolve with all three of them walking off
into the sunset together. |
|
391 |
plot |
Magic that costs. |
|
392 |
plot |
Major
age differences in a romantic/sexual relationship, and the overcoming
thereof. |
|
393 |
plot |
Marriages of
convenience, |
|
394 |
plot |
mind games, |
|
395 |
plot |
Moral
ambiguities, when both parties might be right or might be wrong, and it's all
just in how you look at it. |
|
396 |
plot |
Mortals meeting gods. |
|
397 |
plot |
Opposites
attracting, yin/yang, dark twin/light twin lex luthor and superman locked
together forever. |
|
398 |
plot |
Or a character that decides to stay in the fantasy world instead
of returning home. |
|
399 |
plot |
Poisons and the study thereof |
|
400 |
plot |
prophecy. |
|
401 |
plot |
pyrrhic victories, |
|
402 |
plot |
Really complicated political intrigue, particularly in courts in
which the slightest gesture means volumes and no one is safe |
|
403 |
plot |
Really complicated, Rube Goldberg-esque assassination/caper/con
plots |
|
404 |
plot |
Saving
the person you love, at the cost of never being able to see them again. |
|
405 |
plot |
screaming matches turning into ravishing kisses |
|
406 |
plot |
six degrees of
seperation, |
|
407 |
plot |
small humiliations that blossom into revenge |
|
408 |
plot |
solitary
journeys to unknown destinations, |
|
409 |
plot |
stay until the bitter
end, |
|
410 |
plot |
Stockholm
syndrome, as a purely fictional trope. |
|
411 |
plot |
stories about what happens after the revolution. |
|
412 |
plot |
Stupid
descions made in full awareness, like a man who knows the woman will never
love him back, but choosing to follow her anyway, or the girl who knows there
is no way she will win the fight and that trying will only make things worse,
but who fights regardless. |
2 |
413 |
plot |
suicide missions, |
|
414 |
plot |
the bitter end, |
|
415 |
plot |
the end of the world. |
|
416 |
plot |
The
journey is more important than the destination. |
|
417 |
plot |
Time travel. |
2 |
418 |
plot |
true love not
making it any better, |
|
419 |
plot |
two people locked in conversation and basically having sex only
through the double meaning of their words |
|
420 |
plot |
unexpected physical attacks from those you trust |
|
421 |
plot |
What happens after the world is saved, what happens after the
fairy tale is over |
|
422 |
sensation |
A
swan dive from a height, and the sound of hitting the water, the feel of
bubbles rushing past your body. |
|
423 |
sensation |
breath on the back of a neck |
|
424 |
sensation |
Bright colors. |
|
425 |
sensation |
Food porn. |
|
426 |
sensation |
Food!
I adore descriptions of food; there are books I rememebr for years because
they talk about food in memorable, appetite-whetting detail. |
3 |
427 |
sensation |
Language for its own sake, and people who love it. Odd tidbits
of antiquarian knowledge thrown in for no reason. |
|
428 |
sensation |
Linguistics,
and people having power or useful knowledge because they
speak/read/understand more than one language. |
|
429 |
sensation |
Melting ice cream. |
|
430 |
sensation |
Polyphonic
choral bits, and words entwining with each other. |
|
431 |
sensation |
Portuguese, sung or
spoken. |
|
432 |
sensation |
Sensuousness,
by which I mean characters enjoying the sensory world around them. Orange
paper cranes against a blue sky, a cherry tomato eaten off the vine and
squirting in the mouth, running your hands along silk or leather or stone
just to feel the texture. |
|
433 |
sensation |
Silks and satins. |
|
434 |
sensation |
The
extremes of weather: freezing temperatures, or ones so hot everything is
sweaty and languid, storms. |
|
435 |
setting |
A
circus - not going to one, but the people in it, the regular lives of clowns
and fortune tellers and freak show stars. |
|
436 |
setting |
A
city street at night, bustling with people and light and languages. |
|
437 |
setting |
Anything Japan. |
|
438 |
setting |
Architecture
that curves like the human body, buildings that are sensual within
themselves. |
|
439 |
setting |
Attics, especially attic bedrooms. |
|
440 |
setting |
autumn leaves, |
|
441 |
setting |
Ballrooms
ful of swishing skirts and duplicity. |
|
442 |
setting |
Beaches,
and oceans, the salt taste of the air and the white foam of the waves against
the sand. |
|
443 |
setting |
Big
old houses with magic in the very halls and doors, |
|
444 |
setting |
carriages. |
|
445 |
setting |
Church steeples. |
|
446 |
setting |
cities with long
histories, |
|
447 |
setting |
Deep forest. |
|
448 |
setting |
Definitely izakayas. |
|
449 |
setting |
Deserts,
the starkness and emptiness of them: enourmous expanses of nothing but sand
and the wind reshaping the dunes, the few people around hidden in layers from
a harsh sun and the footprints they make wiped away in minutes, and the joy
of an oasis in all that wasteland, trees and water like miracles. |
|
450 |
setting |
DRAGONS. |
|
451 |
setting |
Dying civilizations. |
|
452 |
setting |
Elaborate mysterious
architecture. |
|
453 |
setting |
empty building lobbies with high twisting stairwells so that you
can see all the way down from the top floor |
|
454 |
setting |
empty public places at
night, |
|
455 |
setting |
Fields of roses. |
2 |
456 |
setting |
fountains, |
|
457 |
setting |
Funeral
scenes - oh G-d, funeral scenes kill me. |
|
458 |
setting |
Giant
country mansions with huge, dark, glossy lawns and trees that crowd the
windows. |
|
459 |
setting |
Graveyards, |
|
460 |
setting |
Heian Japan |
|
461 |
setting |
houses that
contain or represent the world. |
|
462 |
setting |
Houses. |
|
463 |
setting |
izakayas, |
|
464 |
setting |
large cities, |
|
465 |
setting |
Leaves blowing in the
wind. |
|
466 |
setting |
Libraries, |
2 |
467 |
setting |
Long,
long drives in cars with the windows down and radio streaming out to the warm
air, miles of road disappearing under the tires, and watching the land pass
by without anything to say. |
|
468 |
setting |
Looking
out across a city, a forest, a valley, a plain, the sky and seeing the points
of light that mean groups of people or beings and realizing that each of them
has their own story happening. |
|
469 |
setting |
Lost civilizations. |
|
470 |
setting |
Lots and lots of
windows. |
|
471 |
setting |
Low tides
and the hidden things they reveal. |
|
472 |
setting |
Meiji Japan and the mix of modern and traditional, bowler hats
and canes with hakama and gi |
2 |
473 |
setting |
Mountains. |
|
474 |
setting |
Moving water. |
|
475 |
setting |
museums that are dusty and empty and quiet |
|
476 |
setting |
Pretty much anything involving angels, demons, Heaven and Hell |
|
477 |
setting |
Red, red, red pillows. |
|
478 |
setting |
Religion. Rituals, and faith, and metaphysics; any or all of
those. |
|
479 |
setting |
respect for
tradition *and* innovation, |
|
480 |
setting |
Rivers. |
|
481 |
setting |
road trips, |
|
482 |
setting |
roaring fireplaces |
|
483 |
setting |
roller discos, |
|
484 |
setting |
ships, |
|
485 |
setting |
sleeper cars in trains |
|
486 |
setting |
Subcultures, both
hidden and open. |
|
487 |
setting |
The backstage of a play. |
|
488 |
setting |
The edge
between civilization and the unknown. |
|
489 |
setting |
The
figures that hide in a piece of woodgrain, or the plaster on a wall. |
|
490 |
setting |
the Gilded Age, bustles, the beginning of technology in every
day life |
|
491 |
setting |
The Jazz Age. |
|
492 |
setting |
the moments before an era fades away, |
|
493 |
setting |
the moon |
|
494 |
setting |
the mountains |
|
495 |
setting |
the ocean |
|
496 |
setting |
The previous
landscapes, lost in mist. |
|
497 |
setting |
The
ruined parts of cities, the parts that are the oldest and were once loved,
but are now falling into a ghetto, broken windows, grafitti, trash in the
streets, fires in dumpsters and trash cans. The people who live in them now
and know them like the back of a hand; children racing through paths of
chain-link fences and boarded up warehouses that no one who hadn't grown up
there could follow. |
|
498 |
setting |
Trading routes. |
|
499 |
setting |
Travel novels where the culture/area/country/whatever works
almost as a character. |
|
500 |
setting |
War-zones, |
|
501 |
theme |
Hope
that continues without reason, the last tiny spark that can't be
extinguished. |
|
502 |
writing |
A beautiful sentence that says things in a way you never would
have thought of. |
|
503 |
writing |
Challenging the boundaries of the stories |
|
504 |
writing |
Cleverly
woven stories that repeat the same themes in different ways that link
together neatly |
|
505 |
writing |
double entendres |
|
506 |
writing |
Good dialogue, people who talk like people - especially in
fantasy, I can't go for all the "thee" and "thou" and
"thus" crap. I want characters who say "fuck" and mean
it. |
|
507 |
writing |
Metafiction and tricks of style; stories that twist in on
themselves, twist time, twist causality. My appetite for novelty is almost
infinite. |
|
508 |
writing |
selkie legends, |
|
509 |
writing |
stories split
between two time periods, |
|
510 |
writing |
Stories
told on several levels, including the mythic and the prosaic, at the same
time. |
|
511 |
writing |
Words that have layers and mean more than they seem to, wordplay |
|
|
|
|
|