Burn it down

[heavensqueen]

This post is inconvinient in all time zones... if you belong to the Cult of Nice!


Writing Post: http://yuletide-coal.dreamwidth.org/1652.html

Default Deadline is on December 13, Gifts are due on December 20

Comments

NovaMist betting pool

[(Anonymous)]

Let's start taking bets! Now that NovaMist has been identified as the person behind the massive sockpuppet ring, what will she do?

- Quietly vanish
- Publicly flounce
- Make a classy apology
- Make a passive aggressive bullshit apology
- Completely refuse to acknowledge or discuss it
- Pretend she's been falsely accused
- "I did it, but it wasn't really my fault because [excuse]."
- "Everybody does it. I just happened to get caught."
- "It was a social experiment and you all fell for it."
- "I was hacked!"

And we might as well have a second pool on how long it takes before there's another general amnesty and the mods let her back into Yuletide. My money's on 2016 or 2017 at the absolute latest.

Re: NovaMist betting pool

[(Anonymous)]

- Completely refuse to acknowledge or discuss it (while anonymously sowing seeds of unrest against the mods on _coal)

Pinch hits!

[(Anonymous)]

Pinch hits!

Re: Pinch hits!

[(Anonymous)]

lol wasn't a coalie complaining about getting that Kel's sex adventures assignment?

argh...

[(Anonymous)]

*kicks ffa into working*

Re: argh...

[(Anonymous)]

------>ffa

Really long treats

[(Anonymous)]

This one is getting away from me. Do I keep going with it and risk dwarfing the original author, or just post it as a normal fic to the fandom outside of Yuletide?

Re: Really long treats

[(Anonymous)]

Keep going!

And I hope you're writing for me.

for all your yuletide novel reading needs

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.spreeder.com/
http://www.sprintreader.com/

Anybody have sprint-style recs for an android app at the $0-$2.99 pricepoint?

Re: for all your yuletide novel reading needs

[(Anonymous)]

How good is AOL's download function? i.e., will the fic be kind of munged, or is it fairly decent as long as you aren't doing anything too bizarre with formatting?

can we ask Elynross to come back?

[(Anonymous)]

My favorite Yuletides were the ones she ran. I'm just not feeling the same love this year.

Re: can we ask Elynross to come back?

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, getting banned is a bitch.

You know you've been on _coal too long when...

[(Anonymous)]

You've got an AO3 draft open in another tab, glance at the tab heading, and mis-read "Mystery Work" as "Mystery Wank"...

Re: You know you've been on _coal too long when...

[(Anonymous)]

Something about a glory hole?

Totally hypothetical... (yeah right)

[(Anonymous)]

So say you are canon reviewing a fandom with a lot of female inmates you want to write for a treat. You think you want to write this one female inmate more than most and fall in love with a prompt! But you need to review canon to get the details.

And then... something grabs you for an entirely different character! You start to write, let the shit flow etc. It's a big enough fandom, surely someone requested said character. You write your fic. You send it off to beta.

You go through the letters, trying to find someone to gift this to because it's yuletide! Who doesn't like gifts at yuletide.

Only to find out that no one requested this character.

But there are some letters that say "If we matched on any I love them all so write my what you want" (or something similar).

Do you treat it to one of those people or just post it outside of yuletide?

Re: Totally hypothetical... (yeah right)

[(Anonymous)]

Treat it to one of those people, but make sure they have a gift first.

pinch hit woes

[(Anonymous)]

Dear HTGAWM pinch hit:

I would write for you, if you hadn't included an UNNOMINATED CHARACTER in your sign-up. Connor is FASCINATING, but um, nope, not in the mood to write about Olive too. Sooooo glad I didn't match on you originally.

Re: pinch hit woes

[(Anonymous)]

ODAO. You being this butthurt means that they probably dodged out by not getting you too. God knows if requesting pre-canon only would set you off too.

Pinch hits in general

[(Anonymous)]

So it's normal to try to snag a pinch hit and then immediately panic after hitting send, right?

Re: Pinch hits in general

[(Anonymous)]

For me it's always a vague sense of disappointment when you don't get one, a brief moment of joy when you do, followed by abrupt and total dismay.

To ODAO or not to ODAO

[(Anonymous)]

That is the question.

Re: To ODAO or not to ODAO

[(Anonymous)]

I haven't signed up to write worldbuilding.

Would your rather get...?

[(Anonymous)]

All else being equal, would you rather get:

1. A tailored to you fic with your favorite pairing in the situation you requested, which has mediocre SPAG, plot holes, canon inconsistency or other technical problems.

or

2. A beautifully written fic which is ODAO and while not hitting any specific DNWs or triggers, pretty much ignores everything you've requested.

Re: Would your rather get...?

[(Anonymous)]

2. Get a fucking beta. You don't give someone a shitty gift with SPAG and other technical problems.

[(Anonymous)]

So I've posted two treats already. I'm happy with them. But my main story is very different from everything else in the assigned fandom and I don't know what to do.

I've written close to a dozen fics for this fandom and I just have this feeling the story will either be well received or everyone will absolutely hate it.

I know this is stupid but I don't want to be bitched at by the fandom if they don't like my story. So do I stop being a delicate flower and post the story or do I default on the assignment?

[(Anonymous)]

Post the story. If it goes down badly, you can always orphan it or transfer it to a sock before reveals.

Gonna do it or default

[(Anonymous)]

I have a timer set for 50 minutes (something in the oven). If I can't make a decent start on the story I've planned for this recip in that time and feel good about what I'm writing, I'm going to default and stop fretting over it.

She's a difficult recip and it's a hugely disappointing request that pretty much wants the writer to ignore the best thing about the source, and I've considered defaulting more than once. But I love the fandom and have an idea that will work. I'll write the idea eventually anyway--it's gotten into me that much.

Not going to default without at least giving this a shot.

Re: Gonna do it or default

[(Anonymous)]

SA

Timer went off. I'm 900 words in. It's a casefic, and I've established the case, the background, and had some delightful (if I do say so myself) character interaction. I think I can do this.

Dinner's ready now, have to do the eating thing, but then I'm going to continue with the part I'm on now, and loosely sketch out the rest. Then I'll know for sure if it's feasible.

\o/

So how much have you done?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm bored, how many treats/assignments/cavity fillings have you accomplished so far?

How many are in process?

How many are scheduled?

Re: So how much have you done?

[(Anonymous)]

* I have completed one treat that's 5-8k in length and it's off to beta.

* One treat is almost 5k and not slowing down... IDK if that one will get done or not... it's precanon for a character that I love and I have lots to say.

* Another treat is 600 words of dialogue between one of my broTP and it could get long.

* A FOURTH treat is 2,500 words of fuckeduppedness and the reason I started the broTP fic because I needed something lighthearted for a break.

I have a cavity 65% filled but that one will be short because they wanted slice of life gen.

...And I haven't reviewed canon for my actual assignment yet.

* I may be cancelling my appointment with my second dentist though. I can't decide.

Beta Spreadsheet?

[(Anonymous)]

Anyone tried to find a beta off the sheet?

I am writing for a big yt fandom and I vetted the sheet. On the first pass, I don't like the writing of anyone who offered to beta said fandom EXCEPT the fic in that fandom by my recip (who also offered to beta) so I'm not sure what kind of help I would get.

Am I over thinking this? Do you guys normally screen betas by their fic?

How have your experiences using the sheet been? I'd use my usual suspects, but they're rather busy with their own yuletide fic/real life issues.

Re: Beta Spreadsheet?

[(Anonymous)]

I got a beta off the sheet for the first time this year and they were fucking amazing. Usually I use chat and take up the first person who offers.

I never check out a beta's writing because it really doesn't matter? It's never happened to me or anything, but if A betas my fic and I think they're an idiot, I wouldn't use their suggestions. I would find B, and if they turned out to be terrible too, I'd rinse wash repeat until I found someone who I think did a good beta job.

Blargh

[(Anonymous)]

The last time I wrote any of my fic, it was November the 5th.

Re: Blargh

[(Anonymous)]

Write 25 words for every coal comment you leave.

Looking for letters

[(Anonymous)]

I know there have been billions of these threads, but I wasn't ready to treat then!

I am looking for non-porn shippy prompts.

Re: Looking for letters

[(Anonymous)]

Fandoms? Or at least media type?

Exciting developments on the fandoms page

[(Anonymous)]

I spent the whole afternoon shaking presents and I'm finding there are already a good handful of stories I really want to check out based on their tags. Looks like Visser Three is in one of the Animorphs fics, Hesseth is in one for Coldfire, and Nebula is in two for GotG! I super fucking duper want to know the fandom for the fic tagged 'Kneeling' (it's currently undisclosed) and I think the fandom that's got me the most excited so far is The Secret of Kells!

It's still early but has anyone else got an eye on certain works or tags?

Re: Exciting developments on the fandoms page

[(Anonymous)]

I keep checking my usual fandoms but to my dismay, nothing has popped up so far...

Fuck's sake

[(Anonymous)]

I've spent twenty minutes trying to re-organise this sentence so that it doesn't have "had had" in it and nothing cocking works.
What's everyone else stuck on?

Re: Fuck's sake

[(Anonymous)]

Trying to make two sections of my fic to fit together. It's such a dumb thing to be stuck on. The rest of the fic is finished, I just need to join these two scenes together. Fuck.

People with Socks

[(Anonymous)]

Having socks to write and receive more stories is a-ok. Having socks because you're hiding for whatever reason makes me think you're an idiot and you shouldn't be writing something if you're ashamed of it.

Bunch of losers in the thread above.

Re: People with Socks

[(Anonymous)]

You're trying to wank but as someone who was SMH at the handwringing and special snowflake navelgazing above IA.

Okay lets get back to writing treats that we may or may not be stupidly ashamed at some point in time.

More pinch hits!

[(Anonymous)]

Any you're interested in, coalies?

Re: More pinch hits!

[(Anonymous)]

Saw one that I liked but not enough to risk claiming. From my skimming not a single one looked like a dud tho. Good luck to all who claimed!

I've just found out who my author is...and they suck.

[(Anonymous)]

I've just discovered that one of my friends is writing my Yuletide fic for me this year. I love her but she is an absolutely shit writer.

She didn't tell me herself, another friend accidentally let it slip. The problem is, the writer knows my pseud so she knows it's me. She's even going to the effort of writing in our shared favorite fandom. Now I'm going to have to gush to her and tell her her fic is amazing even though I know it will be totally terrible.

Fuck. What do I do?

1. Practice gushing in advance?
2. Turn off my brain while I'm reading the story?
3. Move to Canada so she can't find me to ask for my opinion of the story?
4. Delete my AO3 account so she can't post her shitty story?

Re: I've just found out who my author is...and they suck.

[(Anonymous)]

How about you just don't be such an asshole? At least give her a CHANCE, for fuck's sake.

People without socks

[(Anonymous)]

do they even exist?

Re: People without socks

[(Anonymous)]

yes hello

Favorite tags for Yuletide 2014 so far

[(Anonymous)]

Here's a link to see what tags have been used so far: http://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2014/tags

Anything you're looking forward to? Anything you will definitely skip? Any tag combos that seem particularly interesting or weird to you? (To see tag combos, click on a tag to see the fics and then click "additional tags" on the sidebar).

Re: Favorite tags for Yuletide 2014 so far

[(Anonymous)]

Always avoid 'Women Being Awesome' tag. I give Missus Clause the benefit of the doubt but nope nope nope to 99.999999% of fics with the whole awesome/bamf moniker. That shit has to be reced by somebody I trust.