yuletide_coal | The Dirty Energy Source

The Dirty Energy Source

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.

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

I wrote a NYR once and the recipient loved it - made me a new fandom friend. But yeah, it doesn't get the broader Yuletide attention.

Thank you for proving my point. People say they want YT year-round, but given a partial opportunity to do it, they don't bother. Few people read NYR, few people write it. Seems like the fannish enthusiasm for the small fandoms isn't there enough to make year-round YT worth the effort.

NYRs are not an exchange, nonnie! After Yuletide is over, they're akin to comment_fic and the attention is off. I want to sign up, write another letter, get matched to someone, write, and get a fic in return. An exchange, nonnie! That's where the magic of Yuletide happens!

+ 1

I want to be given an assignment and a deadline. That's the main sticking point for me. NYR gives me neither.

If there was a coal thread where someone picked a prompt from the last years signups and handed it to me with a "DUE IN TWO WEEKS, JERK" note attached, that would be good enough for me.

Name your fandoms and I'll pick a prompt for you. I will even make a post in namespace shaming you for not finishing it, if you want.

If you created a yuletide_always comm or an AO3 collection or anything like that, I would absolutely sign up with my name attached and give my real fandoms.

Public shaming is fine too, because I always meet deadlines.

I'm dead serious. If someone was willing to moderate a year round fest where people give their fandoms and someone assigned old YT prompts and enforced deadlines, I'd be the first one to sign up. I don't care about hits/kudos/etc.

I'd be up for a 2nd round of Yuletide (Springtide, maybe?) All of my fandoms are medium-small to small, and even when I offer and request the larger ones in non-Yuletide exchanges, half of the time there's no one I can write for.

DA

Well, happily, Night at Fic Mountain is already set up..

da

Can we please make this a thing after YT is over?

I know it isn't an exchange. It's just that if people are theoretically motivated by small-fandom love, rather than the YT publicity, then NYR ought to get more traction. Since it doesn't...

I freely admit I'm motivated by the YT publicity and squee. I haven't written an NYR yet myself, though I've thought about doing it a few times. I'd totally be on board with a more structured NYR thing, though, with assignments and deadlines, if some coalie wants to organize it.

I don't think people are motivated by YT publicity. People are motivated by an assignment and a deadline as well as the promise of also receiving a gift in return.

+1 Personally, I rarely finish fic without a deadline.

I don't think people are motivated by YT publicity.

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

"But yeah, it doesn't get the broader Yuletide attention."

"After Yuletide is over, they're akin to comment_fic and the attention is off."

"There's genuinely not an audience for most of this stuff."

Sounds like publicity is indeed a real factor for more than a few people. Deadlines too, and like I said in my original comment, getting fic for yourself as well as/more than writing it for other people. Actual love for a small fandom seems to come in fourth place as far as motivation goes.

But hey, if providing more of #1-3 helps out with #4, great! I don't think Actual Yuletide all year is the way to do it--I think people would burn out--but some kind of assignment/deadline process from old prompts could work.

I wrote a NYR fic once. It's the only fic I've ever written that never get a single comment. *tear

The recipient never even acknowledged it? *pats you*

ayrt

Nope. And the worst part was, we were friends at the time!

She was kind of a weirdo, though, so no loss.

I've written two. Neither of the recipients ever commented :(

ayrt

Aw, coalie. Commentless solidarity fist bump?

It's just that if people are theoretically motivated by small-fandom love, rather than the YT publicity

If people were theoretically motivated by small-fandom love, they'd be doing it outside of Yuletide and most people don't, NYR or not. They just don't.

da

NYR don't have the same exchange aspect that really forces people to meet deadlines, though. If there were two Yuletides a year, that would be different from one Yuletide and "yeah maybe write some NYR if you feel like it".

The problem with NYR is that we're talking about really rare fandoms. Look at the number of people who have trouble scraping together four offers. For YT to work it has to be assigned writers. There's genuinely not an audience for most of this stuff.

That said, I am not on the year-round train. Once is plenty for me, and I've been participating since the beginning.

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The Dirty Energy Source

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