The Dirty Energy Source

[heavensqueen]

Do you want to make a spreadsheet about spreadsheets?
Do you still need to figure out what two other fandoms you should request beside the only one you really want fic for?
Or are you trolling ALL the letter posts for placeholders, just so you can write those people some nice, dry coal?

We want to know all about it.

Comments

The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

I've been doing Yuletide since the beginning and I love it but there's only one thing I hate about it and that's how much people profess to love these small fandoms and then never read or write them outside of Yuletide (Hockey RPF nonwithstanding). I always read and write YT-fandoms outside of Yuletide and the feedback ratio is so different they're on different planets.

Give us some love outside of Yuletide!

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

Here's my problem:

I want to write fic for these fandoms, but I can't because I have no ideas for them. I need prompts to make that happen. If there was an year round kink meme for Yuletide eligible fandoms where people could drop off prompts and run, I'd camp out there year round.

Since that isn't a thing, I sign up for other exchanges and offer my small fandoms when other people requests them. I also make gifsets and graphics of my small fandoms on tumblr.

Other than that, I got nothin.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

I tried setting up an LJ for small fandom and crossover prompts a few years ago. Never managed to get any attention. :(

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

But I'm a lot likelier to read random things outside my usual fannish sphere for Yuletide, not least because YT makes them so much easier to find! IDK how I'd go about browsing "random fic from small fandoms" during the year. Basically if it's not a Marvel comic (which tag I browse periodically) and isn't recced to me somehow, I will never even see it.

Although, I should maybe follow the NYR comm again. That'd be one way to go about finding new small fandom things.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

I think a lot of people just don't bother to check their tiny fandoms on AO3 all the time when often months pass without a fic being posted.

Also, some of my tiny fandoms REALLY don't get any fic outside of Yuletide.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

+1

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

I don't write much in general. I've checked out the fics for my small fandoms, but often I don't like the characters or pairings that get written about or the fics themselves just aren't very good. There's no guarantee of quality, but Yuletide is my chance to get fic about characters and pairings I actually want to read about.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

I write one of my tiny fandoms outside YT, but it's got an audience of...like, five people *during* YT, so outside it's basically me and this one friend of mine who probably feels sorry for me.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

While I really like my small fandoms, I like them best as part of Yuletide, with all the excitement that goes along with it. Almost all the fandoms I'd kill to have more good fic for are basically dead but slightly too big for Yuletide. So Yuletide for me is often more about writing and community spirit than the fandoms.

For the rest of the year I have my main, prolific fandoms to occupy me!

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

Eh, they're small fandoms for a reason. I write for small fandoms too -- weirdly enough, there's a prompt for a fandom that is identical to the premise of one of my own stories -- but I can understand why people, generally, wouldn't seek them out except for Yuletide. Yuletide makes the stories easy to find, and you can't beat it in terms of zeitgeist.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

My two cents: I may love the things I request for Yuletide, but they aren't necessarily my favourite fandoms. There's more to "fandom" than just loving the text/canon, and part of that is community, ongoing interaction, ease of engagement, etc. I have other things I do all year, other things I may enjoy more. Yuletide is a lobster dinner, but when I get home from work I like to eat mac and cheese.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

I have a million fandom plot bunnies and limited time to write, so I tend to focus on the things that I think will actually have an audience. Then Yuletide comes along and I read letters and pimp posts and realize I'm not the only one who wants to read about that fandom/character/pairing.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

This is why I wish Yuletide was year round or happened more often in a year's span. Plenty of people only do Yuletide as their only exchange or only look to Yuletide for small fandoms. I'm selfish and want that attention more than once a year. Only Yuletide can provide that. Look at the terrible turnout and lack of readers for Night on Fic Mountain.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

To be fair, this was NOFM's first year. As time goes on it will probably grow.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

I'd love to do Yuletide two or three times a year. And they could just keep the nominations for the entire year so it's not always that much work.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

+1

Keeping the nominations for an entire year would bring its own wank but it'd cut down on a lot of work for the mods and my fandoms would be in for the three Yuletides a year.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt I suppose a case could be made for adding new fandoms that didn't exist when the year's nominations were made (i.e. a new TV show or new book), but we could simply keep the existing nominations to cut down work for the mods. And once a year the nominations are done from scratch as they are now. It would be greaaaat.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

NYR?

I mean, that's basically Yuletide year-round, keeping the nominations. If you really want to *write* fic for YT all year, you can.

If all you want is to *get* fic year-round, then sorry, you're out of luck.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

No one cares about NYRs. They barely get written and barely get attention on them.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

There are other exchanges that have a pretty good hit to comment ratio. If NoFM wasn't attractive to people, maybe that's an issue with that particular exchange.

I do make Yuletide a priority because it is once a year. If it started being held more often, I would skip many rounds thinking "Oh, the next one is soon". I would probably do less for Yuletide overall.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

I mainly write for small, or even non-existent fandoms. So yeah, I get what you mean.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

It bugs me too :( The fandom exists outside of yuletide!

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

Yes! I request fandoms I can't write, so I can't contribute as a writer, but I request fic in my Yuletide fandoms in exchanges year round (the fandoms almost never get written outside exchanges) .Every time I get a fic I just want to yell at the people who only read at Yuletde, HEY, LOOK AT THIS GREAT FIC THAT HAPPENS TO BE IN THE WRONG COLLECTION.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

I only read fic for yuletide pretty much at all.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

Mmm, I write for one of the ones nominated and have never seen any of the people flailing over it write it or mention it in namespace - it's that small a fandom that I can say that for sure in an anon comm. Or maybe they hate the existing fic...