E-yo, welcome to the occasional "My favourite [insert thing important to writing/reading]"!

This time we're taking a reader's perspective and yes, I actually do read quite a lot of fics. 

This is my favourite things to encounter as a reader. I would - as usual - love love love to hear your thoughts as a reader!

THE LIST

• GENDERSWITCH/GENDERBEND

​​​​​​​Anybody who has ever encountered me and spoken with me about writing and/or reading know that genderbending/genderswitching is one of my absolute favourite things when reading (and writing). 

To me, there is nothing more fascinating or more amazing that genderswitching and/or genderbending, whichever term you prefer. 

See, I know the controversy surrounding genderbending; that it's just for making especially lesbian fics straight and as such, a homophobic tool for not wanting to write lesbian characters. However, to me, it's so much more.

I know I come from a fandom (SHINee World) where the genderbended versions have been somewhat accepted since the crack of dawn (more or less) and as such has been influenced differently. I have read plenty of stories about GIRLee and are more than thrilled when I meet them occasionally in other stories. They don't even have to be the main characters, the main couple can be as gay as man can be, but if they pop up, as the best friend, the nerdy school-mate, the best friend's girlfriend - I think it's amazing.

Having so many wonderful experiences with GIRLee I naturally drifted towards fem!EXO when I started reading EXO and let me just tell you; fem!EXO is even more precious. 

When I come up with stories, the female versions naturally occur; they even have their own characteristics and appearance of how I see them, which means seeing them pop up in stories as well just makes me so happy. 

I just can't turn away a good story with genderbend/genderswitch in it - I really just can't. 

• ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIPS

I know, I know - it's so much fun when the idols of our ships meet and gradually fall in love, conquering the challenges that may appear along the road. But what is even better is established relationships where things just mess up and they have to deal with them together to stay strong or eventually will have to leave. 

I'm not talking about infidelity and finding true love in another person. That's the whole "gradually fall in love" all over again with a slightly different setting.

No, I'm talking about married couples losing a child, couples who have been dating for 8 years who will have to separate because of a once-in-a-lifetime chance and become long-distance. I'm talking about couples who've been together for 6 months moving in together and engaged people struggling with the idea of marriage. 

I'm talking about all those fun moments that happen to an established couple where you don't need the awkward and the slowly opening up. You can jump right into a pillow fight that ends in because they know and love each other already. Consent more or less already established. You can sit back and cringe at all the goofy tooth-aching fluff while your OTP cutely teases one another because they know cute flaws. You get to see characters at their most vulnerable and don't need the awkward "uh, how do I comfort you?" because dammit, they already know that you just need a hug or whatever.

I love established relationships more than anything. Romance is good but established relationships in all genres? Yes, please.

• TRANS-CHARACTERS AND ARO-ACE CHARACTERS

No secret, I adore these kind of characters. Aro-ace characters because they're adorable in their own right and because the personality of such characters often are more complex. With an aro-ace character you can't rely on their appearance or their sweet demeanor in your romantic story  - you need something else, something more wholesome because if this character is going to survive your story they need something else that isn't a romantic interest or a romantic appeal. They need an actual personality. 

Granted, any character with romantic appeal becomes a far better character with personalities and traits that doesn't revolve around their romantic appeal or their romantic interest. But the aro-ace character just cannot have that - or if they do have someone fall in love with them, needs the appropriate response - no romantic or ual attraction. 

It helps that I'm grey-ace and actually like relating to characters that aren't all about "that y hot dude they just want to ". There's gotta be something more.

The trans-character is really interesting to me. I love seeing them, although I don't see them very often, because they have an enormous amount of topics you can delve into. Body-dysphoria and transphobia just being two such topics that will ultimately shape your trans-character differently than a cis-character. I'm not trans but I can't help but feel so much compassion for trans-characters. I wish there were more stories out there with trans-characters (granted, trans-characters that do trans-men and trans-women justice.)

• FLUFF AND FAMILIES

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Let's stray from characters. I love to read fluff. Tooth-rotting, stomach-aching, cavities-inducing fluff. The kind of fluff that makes your heart skip a beat and makes your toes curl. The kind of fluff that doesn't necessarily hold a big plot but still leaves an impact and let's you think "if only I could have that!" 

That kind of fluff is honestly probably my favourite genre to read. While angst is good and plot-heavy stories are fine - reading a 2k oneshot wherein my OTP just cuddles and are freaking cute, is just the best. It makes me smile so hard and my fingers tingle with excitement. 

Tied in with the fluff is families. Like I said above with established relationships - families are just adorable. Add a kid to any story and it automatically becomes a good ten times cuter. It's almost impossible not to. It's probably because of my age, but reading stories about families (single parent AU's are my absolute favourite of families, oh my god) makes me what I in Danish would call skruk. I don't know a literal translation but it means "crap my ovaries are screaming because I want kids". 

I don't even need the romance in a single parent AU. Just give me a single parent having fun times with their kids and I am all yours. I'm serious. Crap, I love family-fics. 

Tell me yours, tell me yours! 

I read many kind of fics but these four things just make me excited before I even start reading, haha.