Rules Post
Okay. I feel like I haven't been as clear as I should have been with regards to the rules and functionality of this community. So here is a more comprehensive post that I hope will clear things up for everyone.
This group will focus specifically on Buffy and other Whedon works, if you are interested in other fandoms or a multi-fandom exchange, please visit our companion community, multi_genfic.
How this works:
On the 15th of every month, a poll for the theme/character/etc will go up
On the 17th, the poll will close and sign ups will go up
On the 20th, the sign-ups will close and assignments will be mailed out
On the 10th of the month, the fics (of 1,000 words or more) will be due and a masterlist will be posted.
The next 15th, things start all over again.
This schedule will never change - unless something happens behind the scenes - so if the character/theme/etc for the month is not to your liking, you can always come back the next month!
This is an exchange community. You are not just responsible for your own work, but to another person. (Also - you can request to NOT do something. The assignments are not just random - I will look at your request and try to match you up with someone compatible with you to the best of my ability. Specifically, you will never have to write something that you have said you didn't want to write.)
JUST LIKE YULETIDE. I presume that even if you have never participated in Yuletide before, you know that it exists and have a general sense of how this kind of community works. Yuletide is once a year, we are trying for once a month instead.
If you are worried about how this works, would like to see an example, or are nervous about any part of the process, PLEASE check out femslash_minis and multi_genfic as they both use the same format (more or less) and can provide some guidance. Specifically, there are multiple rounds that have come to pass in these communities and you can look at what authors ask for, how requests are responded to, how commenting works, etc.
I suggest you look at these communities in order to see - by reading the fic and perusing the sites - how prompting and writing works. The prompts are loose and can be interpreted in many different ways. Most authors put the prompt that they received in their header so that you can see what they were working with and how they decided to interpret them. I know that working with prompts can be challenging for some and tricky to start doing if you never have before, which is why I strongly encourage you to actively look at the other fic written in these exchange communities so that you can see how other authors have written to/for their prompts. That is the primary reason why I am sending you there.
Also - both communities have Buffy-fic that may not have crossed your path before, and so it might be a fun place for you to peruse and read. We are all about inter-community support around here and these sites are our sisters. So going over to read and support the work there is always a good idea.
Please, please, please look at these other communities and read the fic there if you have any questions or any misgivings.
Sign up posts are limited only to those who are members of the community. Please be respectful of each other's privacy and do not use the personal emails listed here for any reason. I feel like this should go without saying, but if any emails here are taken and used by anyone other than a mod, please PM us immediately and the member will be blocked asap.
During sign ups, you will fill out a form that will ask you for your requests as both a writer and a reader. At this point, you are asked not to request a major pairing, romantic relationship/interlude, or sexual partnership of any kind. Our emphasis at this community is on friendships, character studies, and stretching our writing muscles thinking about fic as not just a means to a love story.
Name:
Three elements you'd like included:
Two things you don't want:
Range of ratings you'd like to read:
Name:
Email address:
Up to three characters you absolutely cannot write:
Anything else you can't write?
Are you comfortable with the comics?
Are you comfortable with your fic created for this round being given to an artist in the next round?
Are you comfortable with your fic created for this round being remixed by another author? or made into a podiofic?
Would you be willing to beta for another author during this round?
Do you wish to be partnered with a beta for this round? (this is not a requirement to participate)
Anything else you'd like to add?
Rules:
1. Only platonic relationships are allowed in this community. Which means no canon-ships or UST/unrequited love/sexual interactions.
To be more specific: you cannot request someone to write a major canon ship for you. If the theme for a round is friendship, you cannot request that someone write about Buffy and Spike being friends. You also should not have a romantic pairing the emphasis of any piece that you create. Period.
You know what the canon relationships are, it doesn't seem necessary for me to make a list of them. If - at any point - a pair has engaged in a romantic or sexual relationship, they cannot be the focus of the piece. (There will be certain allowances made for Willow & Xander.)
That being said: if you want a story about Buffy talking to Willow about pancakes set in S4, Riley and Tara/Oz can exist. The girls are allowed to talk about them or to them. But the romantic relationship should not be at the forefront. (Probably we should also steer away from pieces that focus on a break-up or 'getting over' someone, unless it pertains to the overall story.)
Taking a look at the fic written at multi_genfic will really help you identify how this works if you are still unsure. Many of the pieces there suggest or have stories in which romantic relationships are implied in the background, but do not take the forefront. Taking a look at how other people have written for this rule may help you assess the level at which romance can be a part of a story without being the forefront. here are all the masterposts that give links to the individual stories themselves.
2. Post directly to the community page, or post with a link to your journal. Always post your fic behind a lj cut.
Assignments go out on the 20th, but stories/art are not due until the 10th of the following month. You can post your story to the community the second you are ready. If you get the writing bug and finish your story an hour after receiving your assignment and want to post right away, go ahead! That's totally cool!
3. Leave feedback on other people's fics when you read them. It's only nice, even if you only have time to say something short. If you do not comment on the fic written for you, you will be placed on probation within the community.
This is the most firm rule that I have. I will seriously side-eye anyone who signs up for a round that hasn't commented on their gift from the previous round. And if assignments are about to go out and you still haven't thanked your author, I will PM you to check in. You cannot participate if you don't thank your author (or artist).
4. If you are late, you have up to two days after the due date to sumbit your ficlet. After that, we will find a back-up writer. If you drop out in a round, you must sit the next round out. If you are going to be delayed or find you cannot finish, please let the mods know ASAP (genficmini.mods @ gmail dot com). You can also PM kwritten.
Please allow at least 12 hours between a comment, email, or PM for me to get back to you. Please be as respectful of your mod's time as you would be of any friend or acquaintance. I want to be as available to you as possible, but as I also co-run multi_genfic and femslashbb, write my own works, and have RL responsibilities, sometimes it may take me a while to get back to you. Please be patient with me!
If you need - for whatever reason - to drop out of a round or the community between the time that you submit your sign up form and assignments going out, you MUST PM me on livejournal OR email me at genficmini.mods@gmail.com. If there is a sign up form filled out with your name on it and I haven't received notice that you cannot fulfill it, an assignment will go out. If, on the other hand, you realize after receiving your assignment that you cannot finish it in time due to RL responsibilities or any other constraints, let me know as soon as humanly possible so that I can assign a pinch hitter to your assignment.
Never, ever think that dropping out of a round after signing up is going to upset me or make things difficult between us for any reason! I want to know if you are struggling, if your feelings change, if your life changes. I'm here to hold your hand and make sure that you are comfortable with this process and this community.
5. Have fun!
When posting your story for the minificathon, please put it under an lj-cut (or a fake LJ-cut linking to the story in your own journal. Either way is fine!) We also require HEADERS! Here is a proper header. Please also always be sure to always put a rating.
title:
fandom:
characters:
rating:
word count:
recipient/prompt:
warnings:
setting:
PLEASE ALSO SEE THIS POST THAT GIVES A MORE COMPREHENSIVE EXPLANATION ON THIS COMM'S WORKING DEFINITION OF 'GEN' ALONG WITH EXAMPLES OF PROMPTS AND FIC.
You have to read this post and answer this poll in order to sign up for your first round.
Poll Have you read this post?
This group will focus specifically on Buffy and other Whedon works, if you are interested in other fandoms or a multi-fandom exchange, please visit our companion community, multi_genfic.
How this works:
On the 15th of every month, a poll for the theme/character/etc will go up
On the 17th, the poll will close and sign ups will go up
On the 20th, the sign-ups will close and assignments will be mailed out
On the 10th of the month, the fics (of 1,000 words or more) will be due and a masterlist will be posted.
The next 15th, things start all over again.
This schedule will never change - unless something happens behind the scenes - so if the character/theme/etc for the month is not to your liking, you can always come back the next month!
This is an exchange community. You are not just responsible for your own work, but to another person. (Also - you can request to NOT do something. The assignments are not just random - I will look at your request and try to match you up with someone compatible with you to the best of my ability. Specifically, you will never have to write something that you have said you didn't want to write.)
JUST LIKE YULETIDE. I presume that even if you have never participated in Yuletide before, you know that it exists and have a general sense of how this kind of community works. Yuletide is once a year, we are trying for once a month instead.
If you are worried about how this works, would like to see an example, or are nervous about any part of the process, PLEASE check out femslash_minis and multi_genfic as they both use the same format (more or less) and can provide some guidance. Specifically, there are multiple rounds that have come to pass in these communities and you can look at what authors ask for, how requests are responded to, how commenting works, etc.
I suggest you look at these communities in order to see - by reading the fic and perusing the sites - how prompting and writing works. The prompts are loose and can be interpreted in many different ways. Most authors put the prompt that they received in their header so that you can see what they were working with and how they decided to interpret them. I know that working with prompts can be challenging for some and tricky to start doing if you never have before, which is why I strongly encourage you to actively look at the other fic written in these exchange communities so that you can see how other authors have written to/for their prompts. That is the primary reason why I am sending you there.
Also - both communities have Buffy-fic that may not have crossed your path before, and so it might be a fun place for you to peruse and read. We are all about inter-community support around here and these sites are our sisters. So going over to read and support the work there is always a good idea.
Please, please, please look at these other communities and read the fic there if you have any questions or any misgivings.
Sign up posts are limited only to those who are members of the community. Please be respectful of each other's privacy and do not use the personal emails listed here for any reason. I feel like this should go without saying, but if any emails here are taken and used by anyone other than a mod, please PM us immediately and the member will be blocked asap.
During sign ups, you will fill out a form that will ask you for your requests as both a writer and a reader. At this point, you are asked not to request a major pairing, romantic relationship/interlude, or sexual partnership of any kind. Our emphasis at this community is on friendships, character studies, and stretching our writing muscles thinking about fic as not just a means to a love story.
Name:
Three elements you'd like included:
Two things you don't want:
Range of ratings you'd like to read:
Name:
Email address:
Up to three characters you absolutely cannot write:
Anything else you can't write?
Are you comfortable with the comics?
Are you comfortable with your fic created for this round being given to an artist in the next round?
Are you comfortable with your fic created for this round being remixed by another author? or made into a podiofic?
Would you be willing to beta for another author during this round?
Do you wish to be partnered with a beta for this round? (this is not a requirement to participate)
Anything else you'd like to add?
Rules:
1. Only platonic relationships are allowed in this community. Which means no canon-ships or UST/unrequited love/sexual interactions.
To be more specific: you cannot request someone to write a major canon ship for you. If the theme for a round is friendship, you cannot request that someone write about Buffy and Spike being friends. You also should not have a romantic pairing the emphasis of any piece that you create. Period.
You know what the canon relationships are, it doesn't seem necessary for me to make a list of them. If - at any point - a pair has engaged in a romantic or sexual relationship, they cannot be the focus of the piece. (There will be certain allowances made for Willow & Xander.)
That being said: if you want a story about Buffy talking to Willow about pancakes set in S4, Riley and Tara/Oz can exist. The girls are allowed to talk about them or to them. But the romantic relationship should not be at the forefront. (Probably we should also steer away from pieces that focus on a break-up or 'getting over' someone, unless it pertains to the overall story.)
Taking a look at the fic written at multi_genfic will really help you identify how this works if you are still unsure. Many of the pieces there suggest or have stories in which romantic relationships are implied in the background, but do not take the forefront. Taking a look at how other people have written for this rule may help you assess the level at which romance can be a part of a story without being the forefront. here are all the masterposts that give links to the individual stories themselves.
2. Post directly to the community page, or post with a link to your journal. Always post your fic behind a lj cut.
Assignments go out on the 20th, but stories/art are not due until the 10th of the following month. You can post your story to the community the second you are ready. If you get the writing bug and finish your story an hour after receiving your assignment and want to post right away, go ahead! That's totally cool!
3. Leave feedback on other people's fics when you read them. It's only nice, even if you only have time to say something short. If you do not comment on the fic written for you, you will be placed on probation within the community.
This is the most firm rule that I have. I will seriously side-eye anyone who signs up for a round that hasn't commented on their gift from the previous round. And if assignments are about to go out and you still haven't thanked your author, I will PM you to check in. You cannot participate if you don't thank your author (or artist).
4. If you are late, you have up to two days after the due date to sumbit your ficlet. After that, we will find a back-up writer. If you drop out in a round, you must sit the next round out. If you are going to be delayed or find you cannot finish, please let the mods know ASAP (genficmini.mods @ gmail dot com). You can also PM kwritten.
Please allow at least 12 hours between a comment, email, or PM for me to get back to you. Please be as respectful of your mod's time as you would be of any friend or acquaintance. I want to be as available to you as possible, but as I also co-run multi_genfic and femslashbb, write my own works, and have RL responsibilities, sometimes it may take me a while to get back to you. Please be patient with me!
If you need - for whatever reason - to drop out of a round or the community between the time that you submit your sign up form and assignments going out, you MUST PM me on livejournal OR email me at genficmini.mods@gmail.com. If there is a sign up form filled out with your name on it and I haven't received notice that you cannot fulfill it, an assignment will go out. If, on the other hand, you realize after receiving your assignment that you cannot finish it in time due to RL responsibilities or any other constraints, let me know as soon as humanly possible so that I can assign a pinch hitter to your assignment.
Never, ever think that dropping out of a round after signing up is going to upset me or make things difficult between us for any reason! I want to know if you are struggling, if your feelings change, if your life changes. I'm here to hold your hand and make sure that you are comfortable with this process and this community.
5. Have fun!
When posting your story for the minificathon, please put it under an lj-cut (or a fake LJ-cut linking to the story in your own journal. Either way is fine!) We also require HEADERS! Here is a proper header. Please also always be sure to always put a rating.
title:
fandom:
characters:
rating:
word count:
recipient/prompt:
warnings:
setting:
PLEASE ALSO SEE THIS POST THAT GIVES A MORE COMPREHENSIVE EXPLANATION ON THIS COMM'S WORKING DEFINITION OF 'GEN' ALONG WITH EXAMPLES OF PROMPTS AND FIC.
You have to read this post and answer this poll in order to sign up for your first round.
Poll Have you read this post?