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