QuickFic Session #2
UPDATE 1 MAR 2012: Prompts for this session are now CLOSED.
Total donations this time around: $610(!). I will be finishing off bonus prompts before I get started on a big piece for the bulk of that donation amount, and selecting 11 blocks' worth of reading at... some point. Headset is en route.
My first round of this was, I think, quite successful (and, as a plus, enjoyable!), so I'm going to give it another go. Prompts will run for one week - until about this time (afternoon / early evening Atlantic Standard Time, GMT-4) on 1 March - and then close, to open again for the last calendar week of March with a new session. If I find myself with a backlog of about 25,000 words (not a total word count, but only the words I haven't written yet) and can't bring that back under within a day, I will have to close prompts early. I will be checking for this daily (except Sunday).
The premise is this: Comment here with a prompt - a sentence or two about a theme to base the writing around - or, ideally, several. I will (pick one, and) write flash fiction in response to that prompt, where “flash fiction” is in the neighbourhood of 500 words, erring more on the generous side. (I will refer to this below as a “block” of words: 500, within 5% low and 20% high. That is, each block will get you 475-600 words, and the margins add up with further blocks put toward any particular prompt.) For the benefit of those coming from other sites, you don't need to have a LiveJournal account to prompt - I am opening and unscreening anonymous comments on this post. The only comments that will be left screened are pingbacks (ungrateful as that may seem to the pingback bot).
This time around, I am going to prompt for prompts - this session is going to take place with a theme, and that theme is duality. Black and white, yin and yang, beginning and ending, cats and dogs - your prompt should involve a pair of some kind. It can be figurative and it doesn't need to be blatant - some manner of events coming full circle, ending where they began, would work, as an example. If it's something really obvious, I might wind up stressing the duality or otherwise making it something to which people (in-world) might go “Huh.” Having it be tangential to main events is perfectly acceptable, though.
At its root, it’s that simple. I will fulfil at least one prompt for everyone who comments, and do so in as timely a fashion as I can. As I get them completed, the fics will be on my storyblog and linked here for all to see and (hopefully) enjoy.
I will also be taking donations. Donations are not mandatory. I will still do ~500 words for everybody as I can. However, donations will most definitely be appreciated, and I’m going to show my appreciation thusly:
What I Won’t Do
What I Will Do
Prompts open immediately, as mentioned above, and run for a week unless I get swamped. I will complete the writing as I can, but judging by last session I can average about five blocks a day; illustrations for any piece due to get them may take longer, as quoting_mungo is not me and I can’t speak for her time, but we’ll still try to get those done in a timely fashion as well.
Comment to this post with your prompts, please! You may submit a number of them, and I will select at least one among them to complete (unless I’m completely stuck, at which point I’ll ask for reprompts). And, as said above, if you donate and don't specify that you want a long piece, I will pick up to three, plus more depending on how much you toss in the jar.
When donating, do not refer to your specific prompts. Say only that you are donating for QuickFic session 2. All details about what you want written should be in prompts here, not in PayPal. If you do donate, A) thank you, B) be sure to include something that will tie your donation to your prompt comment, such as commenting with / editing your comment to include the transaction ID or sending me a message on LJ (I will try to remember to check the message centre regularly, especially if I can't readily link your donation to your prompts). If it's trivially easy this won't be necessary (either I know you or your email is obviously in line with your LJ login or some signature in your comment), though it's best to at least say you tossed something in the jar; that way if I can't link the donation to you I can ask for more detail.
Again, anonymous comments will be open.
Work will be done more or less in sequence: each prompter in turn, along with their donation rewards (if they donated when they first prompted), with after-prompting donations woven in according to when they arrived. Overall rewards (extra prompts for everybody) will stay at the end of the queue, and then will be done in prompt order, more or less.
Thank you in advance for your interest, and please spread the word!
-BB
Total donations this time around: $610(!). I will be finishing off bonus prompts before I get started on a big piece for the bulk of that donation amount, and selecting 11 blocks' worth of reading at... some point. Headset is en route.
My first round of this was, I think, quite successful (and, as a plus, enjoyable!), so I'm going to give it another go. Prompts will run for one week - until about this time (afternoon / early evening Atlantic Standard Time, GMT-4) on 1 March - and then close, to open again for the last calendar week of March with a new session. If I find myself with a backlog of about 25,000 words (not a total word count, but only the words I haven't written yet) and can't bring that back under within a day, I will have to close prompts early. I will be checking for this daily (except Sunday).
The premise is this: Comment here with a prompt - a sentence or two about a theme to base the writing around - or, ideally, several. I will (pick one, and) write flash fiction in response to that prompt, where “flash fiction” is in the neighbourhood of 500 words, erring more on the generous side. (I will refer to this below as a “block” of words: 500, within 5% low and 20% high. That is, each block will get you 475-600 words, and the margins add up with further blocks put toward any particular prompt.) For the benefit of those coming from other sites, you don't need to have a LiveJournal account to prompt - I am opening and unscreening anonymous comments on this post. The only comments that will be left screened are pingbacks (ungrateful as that may seem to the pingback bot).
This time around, I am going to prompt for prompts - this session is going to take place with a theme, and that theme is duality. Black and white, yin and yang, beginning and ending, cats and dogs - your prompt should involve a pair of some kind. It can be figurative and it doesn't need to be blatant - some manner of events coming full circle, ending where they began, would work, as an example. If it's something really obvious, I might wind up stressing the duality or otherwise making it something to which people (in-world) might go “Huh.” Having it be tangential to main events is perfectly acceptable, though.
At its root, it’s that simple. I will fulfil at least one prompt for everyone who comments, and do so in as timely a fashion as I can. As I get them completed, the fics will be on my storyblog and linked here for all to see and (hopefully) enjoy.
I will also be taking donations. Donations are not mandatory. I will still do ~500 words for everybody as I can. However, donations will most definitely be appreciated, and I’m going to show my appreciation thusly:
- If you donate any amount, you get two additional blocks of words to allocate as you see fit - to new prompts or existing ones. If you gave several prompts to begin with (as I would prefer for several reasons), my assumption will be to pick several and give one block to each unless you specify particular prompts for extension.
- For every $5 (Canadian dollars) you donate, I will add another such package of words.
- If you donate $10 or more, the scene of your choice from any completed prompt in this call (not necessarily your own if something else catches your eye) will receive a penciled and perhaps lightly-shaded illustration courtesy of quoting_mungo. You don't need to decide right away what you want to see illustrated, if you'd rather wait and see the finished product - indeed, I'd prefer it that way.
- If you personally donate $50 or more, your paid word allotment up to that point is doubled. Instead of twelve (plus the freebie), you'll have twenty-four, for a total of twenty-five blocks of ~500 words. This brings you up to 12.5k words - a suitable length for a short story. If you're generous enough to do this, and you don't give me more detailed instruction, I'll pick one of your prompts that I think I can spin out to a full-length piece, and focus on it.
- If total donations pass $50, I will complete at least two writing blocks for everyone who submits them, donor or not. Donors still get all their extra packets of words.
- If the total meets or exceeds $100, I will complete at least three blocks for all prompters (plus the usual rewards for donors).
- Also if the total meets or exceeds $100, I can budget to replace my headset. What this means for donors is that I will pick one of the stories (one word block's worth) and do a reading of it. Now, I will not be getting a super-high-quality headset, my room is not a recording studio, and I am not a professional voice actor (or otherwise); it's been over ten years since I even had bit parts in musical theatre. But it's there for those that are interested, and I'll do what I can to keep the quality reasonable. I won't be reading adult material - sorry (if you'd be interested in that sort of thing), but I just don't think I could read sex and do it justice. I'll try to find some way to distribute the result so that it's conveniently accessible.
- Beyond $100, I will do a reading of an additional block for every $50. If this happens, I may wind up going with a single multiple-block story rather than several singles, or I might stick with several manageable portions.
- If by some miracle donations get up to $500, I'll be able to write full-time for a month, and will have to think of something suitably awesome and special. (Given my backlog cut-off, I don't think this will happen, but it's a target.)
What I Won’t Do
- These are not commissions. If you donate, I will be grateful, and I will try to make a piece that you’ll enjoy, but the work will be done to my standards and the copyright will remain with me. If you want to point someone to a completed prompt, please link to it here or on my blog rather than reposting it yourself; the publicity is important to me.
- I will not write with someone else’s existing characters, your own or otherwise. I have enough trouble getting into someone else’s headspace at the best of times; for something like this I simply cannot afford the time and energy it would take, to say nothing of legal issues if they're not your own personal characters.
- I will not commit to hard kinks with which I am not already familiar. Kinks are hit-and-miss to begin with; I don’t want to promise something that I turn out to be unable to deliver.
What I Will Do
- The default for a given prompt will be standalone characters for that prompt, with no relation to any other writing. This may change if I see a good opportunity to fit it in somewhere else.
- I will do anthropomorphic animals (please stick to air-breathing vertebrates), humans, or standard fantasy races like elves, though they’re likely to get a unique slant. Default will be random furries, or humans. If you have a preference, say so in your prompt.
- I will work in settings in which I have previously written, in this journal or on my storyblog. If the pre-existing stories are incomplete, I may ask for a reprompt in the event that the prompt covers things I want to get to in my main writing. This also includes settings which I co-author, principally I.C.Q. (Any standalone fiction set in ICQverse will be illustrated by default.)
- With reservations (the “hesitation” kind, not the “book in advance” kind), I might work in existing settings which lend themselves to original characters, if I'm already familiar with the setting. I don't currently have the resources to become familiar with new settings even if this manner of writing gave me the time. If this happens, you're likely to get my own crazy head-canon, not necessarily a dead ringer for the official line - partly if not only because some authors sometimes seen to be downright crazy in the decisions they make regarding their own canons. Suggested tweaks to the canon may be a part of the prompt. (This might be best to avoid unless either you know me or you've seen me do work in that setting.)
- I will do clean or adult material. If your prompt can be completed without being naughty, I will assume you want it clean unless you specifically say naughty is okay.
- Your first block will always be from within your prompts. If you don't specify, that's also where I'll put any donor incentives. However, you're welcome to ask for an extension to another piece in this prompt call if it catches your eye.
- If I’m stuck on your prompts, I may ask for a reprompt in order to have something I can work with.
Prompts open immediately, as mentioned above, and run for a week unless I get swamped. I will complete the writing as I can, but judging by last session I can average about five blocks a day; illustrations for any piece due to get them may take longer, as quoting_mungo is not me and I can’t speak for her time, but we’ll still try to get those done in a timely fashion as well.
Comment to this post with your prompts, please! You may submit a number of them, and I will select at least one among them to complete (unless I’m completely stuck, at which point I’ll ask for reprompts). And, as said above, if you donate and don't specify that you want a long piece, I will pick up to three, plus more depending on how much you toss in the jar.
When donating, do not refer to your specific prompts. Say only that you are donating for QuickFic session 2. All details about what you want written should be in prompts here, not in PayPal. If you do donate, A) thank you, B) be sure to include something that will tie your donation to your prompt comment, such as commenting with / editing your comment to include the transaction ID or sending me a message on LJ (I will try to remember to check the message centre regularly, especially if I can't readily link your donation to your prompts). If it's trivially easy this won't be necessary (either I know you or your email is obviously in line with your LJ login or some signature in your comment), though it's best to at least say you tossed something in the jar; that way if I can't link the donation to you I can ask for more detail.
Again, anonymous comments will be open.
Work will be done more or less in sequence: each prompter in turn, along with their donation rewards (if they donated when they first prompted), with after-prompting donations woven in according to when they arrived. Overall rewards (extra prompts for everybody) will stay at the end of the queue, and then will be done in prompt order, more or less.
Thank you in advance for your interest, and please spread the word!
-BB