Femgenficathon VII: Rules Post
So here's the rules post for the femgenficathon.
The ficathon is multifandom. It is also an open ficathon. You can write in any fandom you like, about any canonical woman you like. I hope this will make it easy on the participants.
(Also, I have a feeling that a lot of stories never get written because no one ever asks for them in fic exchanges. This is your chance to to write the story you've thought of writing--maybe DREAMED of writing--but that no one ever requests.)
There are prompts. They're on a separate page this time, as I could not have the detail I wanted in the rules and in the prompts without the post being too large for LJ. You sign up at the prompts page, NOT here.
Each prompt can be claimed twice. This is in an effort to get more stories about women out there. One hundred and sixty-two prompts equal 324 potential stories about women and girls (cis and trans).
If every prompt is claimed twice over before June 7th and people still want to sign up, I'll add prompts that didn't get stories.
What's acceptable and what's not are both spelled out in the rules. The due dates--first and last--are both mentioned in the rules.
Here are the rules. The rules have not changed since last year. Read the rules carefully before you sign up.
RULES
1. Good spelling, grammar, capitalisation and punctuation are compulsory. This is not negotiable. Therefore, use a beta/Britpicker to catch all the errors that you can't see by the time that you've finished the story.
2. Fics must be posted in the following format:
In the subject line: [title, main character, rating]
Title:
Author: [your LJ name, and your pen name if the two are different]
Fandom: [this for the sake of archiving, as your mod does not know every fandom that might be chosen, alas]
Rating: [currently we still use MPAA ratings - G, PG, PG13, R]
Warnings: [if applicable. warn for violence, swearing, etc. You shouldn't have to warn about kinks or squicks because this is genfic.]
Prompt: The number of the prompt, the prompt itself, and the author's name. Please do this even if you end up not using the prompt to create the story.
Summary: [a short description of the fic]
Author's Notes: Exactly what it says on the tin--notes, quotes, acknowledgements, thanks to betas, etc.
3. The fic you write should be at least 1000 words in length. There's no maximum length. Multi-chapter fics are allowed.
4. First, this is a ficathon about women. For the purposes of the ficathon, I've decided to define women as canonically female characters (cis or trans). (Bree from Transamerica, Wanda from Sandman, and so on.)
Disguises, canonical or otherwise, do not count. If the character is, for example, a cop or private detective dressing up as a woman as part of an undercover operation--no. If a boy who, in canon, has to dress up as a girl to attend a certain school because that's what his grandfather wanted--no.
Curses, spells, one-time bodyswap, alien intervention, etc., that involuntarily transform a male character IN CANON into a female form do not count for Femgen unless the character subsequently chooses to embrace this female identity for the duration of canon. If the character is still striving to break the curse and/or turn back into a male--like Ranma, for example--this character is ineligible for Femgen.
If the character alternates IN CANON between representing as a male and representing as a female, this character is not eligible.
Genderswapping canonically male characters into female ones so that you can write about them in this ficathon is absolutely not allowed. Don't bother asking. The answer is NO.
If you have any questions about the character you're interested in that you don't feel were covered by the above, or if you don't know if I'd think the character qualifies for this ficathon, please e-mail me and we can talk about it.
5. The stories have to be gen.
If you're not sure what genfic is, here are the kinds of genfic allowable:
Pure gen: Stories with no romance whatsoever. The most you'll see here is a person who happens to be married.
Mostly gen: Stories contain mentions of crushing and/or romances, with perhaps a kiss or two. Not the focus of the piece or anything, but it is there.
Borderline gen: Stories that include many different elements, including romance. However, the focus is not on getting one or two specific couples together romantically or in bed.
What is NOT allowable:
Pairings as the focus of the story.
No love stories as the focus. No stories with sex as the focus. No het as the focus. No femslash as the focus. No rapefic. No normalization of rape culture--where a woman is assaulted, physically or emotionally abused, stalked, etc., and the assailant, abuser, and/or stalker is presented in a positive light. No kinks, squicks or smut at all.
This also means that you cannot mention the woman and then go on to characters you find more congenial. For instance, you cannot briefly mention Mrs. Black and then go on to write a fic about Sirius and/or Regulus.
Can I write a story about a woman being pregnant or giving birth?
I would prefer to get people thinking outside the box of tradition...especially nowadays, when there is so much real life emphasis on reducing women to precisely those traditional roles. But yes, it's permitted.
6. No out-of-character characters.
Since you are going to be writing about women and girls, I urge you to make them believable. Do not write them out of character. For the purposes of this ficathon, please note that the parameters of acceptability being consistent with canonical behavior, canonical abilities and the reality of the character's world. I do believe that female characters can be awesome without being inconsistent with their canons.
You can write about any female character in any canon and/or any character who, according to canon, overtly, consistently and by choice representing oneself as female. And you can write about pretty much anything, as long as the story isn't about romantic love, sex or pairings. Here's what I'm looking for:
I want women going on personal quests. I want women and girls having adventures. You could have a woman in mad pursuit of a magical artifact, or a spy. You could have a woman rescuing another person from danger, or a woman escaping from a physical, emotional or spiritual prison. A woman could become enmeshed in a byzantine plot for revenge. A woman could have to solve a puzzle or a mystery; she could be entangled in fierce professional or familial rivalry. You could have a woman struggling to overcome her status as an underdog; you could examine her motives, needs and impulses in a temptation plot. She could be coping with involuntary physical metamorphosis or have to undergo psychological and emotional transformation for the sake of survival. Maturation could be a goal. She could have to sacrifice something--perhaps not her life, but other things can be sacrificed, such as friendship and ideals. She could discover something or explore somewhere. You could tell a tale of wretched excess, detailing her psychological decline. You could explore her rise or fall, showing how a crisis made her either a stronger, better person or a weaker, more corrupt one.
8. Posting. Please, do not choose a challenge because you have a fic already done (or in the works) that would fit a certain challenge. The whole point of the femgenficathon is to get new genfic out there. Therefore previously written stories are NOT eligible.
Also, your fic should not be archived anywhere other than the femgenficathon livejournal or your own journal until after September 8th. Afterward--well, I'm trying to get as many stories as possible archived at the Archive of Our Own. If you don't want to archive there, or you want to archive elsewhere as well as there, that's okay; I would just like to have most, if not all, of the stories in one place where they'll be more accessible to more readers throughout the year. The stories in the past have been excellent, and I would like many, many readers to find and enjoy the stories.
Similarly, nothing should be posted to the community until August 15th - until then, either comment or keep it to emails.
9. Get your story in on time. You're being given a little over three months to write your fic and as such are expected to finish. That said, extensions will be granted for those in desperate situations - make sure to email as soon as you feel you won't be able to finish in time, for the sake of the moderators' sanity.
10. I implore you on bended knee--USE A BETA. Yes, I said it before, but it bears repeating.
11. Have fun. And don't cause the mods undue stress if you can help it. Please. Don't break the mods.
DATES:
31 May: Sign-ups begin. Sign-ups close on 7 June or when the last prompt is taken, whichever comes first.
15 August: Assignments able to be posted.
8 September: Final date for submission.
***
If anyone has any questions relating to the rules, please ask it here.
The ficathon is multifandom. It is also an open ficathon. You can write in any fandom you like, about any canonical woman you like. I hope this will make it easy on the participants.
(Also, I have a feeling that a lot of stories never get written because no one ever asks for them in fic exchanges. This is your chance to to write the story you've thought of writing--maybe DREAMED of writing--but that no one ever requests.)
There are prompts. They're on a separate page this time, as I could not have the detail I wanted in the rules and in the prompts without the post being too large for LJ. You sign up at the prompts page, NOT here.
Each prompt can be claimed twice. This is in an effort to get more stories about women out there. One hundred and sixty-two prompts equal 324 potential stories about women and girls (cis and trans).
If every prompt is claimed twice over before June 7th and people still want to sign up, I'll add prompts that didn't get stories.
What's acceptable and what's not are both spelled out in the rules. The due dates--first and last--are both mentioned in the rules.
Here are the rules. The rules have not changed since last year. Read the rules carefully before you sign up.
RULES
1. Good spelling, grammar, capitalisation and punctuation are compulsory. This is not negotiable. Therefore, use a beta/Britpicker to catch all the errors that you can't see by the time that you've finished the story.
2. Fics must be posted in the following format:
In the subject line: [title, main character, rating]
Title:
Author: [your LJ name, and your pen name if the two are different]
Fandom: [this for the sake of archiving, as your mod does not know every fandom that might be chosen, alas]
Rating: [currently we still use MPAA ratings - G, PG, PG13, R]
Warnings: [if applicable. warn for violence, swearing, etc. You shouldn't have to warn about kinks or squicks because this is genfic.]
Prompt: The number of the prompt, the prompt itself, and the author's name. Please do this even if you end up not using the prompt to create the story.
Summary: [a short description of the fic]
Author's Notes: Exactly what it says on the tin--notes, quotes, acknowledgements, thanks to betas, etc.
3. The fic you write should be at least 1000 words in length. There's no maximum length. Multi-chapter fics are allowed.
4. First, this is a ficathon about women. For the purposes of the ficathon, I've decided to define women as canonically female characters (cis or trans). (Bree from Transamerica, Wanda from Sandman, and so on.)
Disguises, canonical or otherwise, do not count. If the character is, for example, a cop or private detective dressing up as a woman as part of an undercover operation--no. If a boy who, in canon, has to dress up as a girl to attend a certain school because that's what his grandfather wanted--no.
Curses, spells, one-time bodyswap, alien intervention, etc., that involuntarily transform a male character IN CANON into a female form do not count for Femgen unless the character subsequently chooses to embrace this female identity for the duration of canon. If the character is still striving to break the curse and/or turn back into a male--like Ranma, for example--this character is ineligible for Femgen.
If the character alternates IN CANON between representing as a male and representing as a female, this character is not eligible.
Genderswapping canonically male characters into female ones so that you can write about them in this ficathon is absolutely not allowed. Don't bother asking. The answer is NO.
If you have any questions about the character you're interested in that you don't feel were covered by the above, or if you don't know if I'd think the character qualifies for this ficathon, please e-mail me and we can talk about it.
5. The stories have to be gen.
If you're not sure what genfic is, here are the kinds of genfic allowable:
Pure gen: Stories with no romance whatsoever. The most you'll see here is a person who happens to be married.
Mostly gen: Stories contain mentions of crushing and/or romances, with perhaps a kiss or two. Not the focus of the piece or anything, but it is there.
Borderline gen: Stories that include many different elements, including romance. However, the focus is not on getting one or two specific couples together romantically or in bed.
What is NOT allowable:
Pairings as the focus of the story.
No love stories as the focus. No stories with sex as the focus. No het as the focus. No femslash as the focus. No rapefic. No normalization of rape culture--where a woman is assaulted, physically or emotionally abused, stalked, etc., and the assailant, abuser, and/or stalker is presented in a positive light. No kinks, squicks or smut at all.
This also means that you cannot mention the woman and then go on to characters you find more congenial. For instance, you cannot briefly mention Mrs. Black and then go on to write a fic about Sirius and/or Regulus.
Can I write a story about a woman being pregnant or giving birth?
I would prefer to get people thinking outside the box of tradition...especially nowadays, when there is so much real life emphasis on reducing women to precisely those traditional roles. But yes, it's permitted.
6. No out-of-character characters.
Since you are going to be writing about women and girls, I urge you to make them believable. Do not write them out of character. For the purposes of this ficathon, please note that the parameters of acceptability being consistent with canonical behavior, canonical abilities and the reality of the character's world. I do believe that female characters can be awesome without being inconsistent with their canons.
You can write about any female character in any canon and/or any character who, according to canon, overtly, consistently and by choice representing oneself as female. And you can write about pretty much anything, as long as the story isn't about romantic love, sex or pairings. Here's what I'm looking for:
I want women going on personal quests. I want women and girls having adventures. You could have a woman in mad pursuit of a magical artifact, or a spy. You could have a woman rescuing another person from danger, or a woman escaping from a physical, emotional or spiritual prison. A woman could become enmeshed in a byzantine plot for revenge. A woman could have to solve a puzzle or a mystery; she could be entangled in fierce professional or familial rivalry. You could have a woman struggling to overcome her status as an underdog; you could examine her motives, needs and impulses in a temptation plot. She could be coping with involuntary physical metamorphosis or have to undergo psychological and emotional transformation for the sake of survival. Maturation could be a goal. She could have to sacrifice something--perhaps not her life, but other things can be sacrificed, such as friendship and ideals. She could discover something or explore somewhere. You could tell a tale of wretched excess, detailing her psychological decline. You could explore her rise or fall, showing how a crisis made her either a stronger, better person or a weaker, more corrupt one.
8. Posting. Please, do not choose a challenge because you have a fic already done (or in the works) that would fit a certain challenge. The whole point of the femgenficathon is to get new genfic out there. Therefore previously written stories are NOT eligible.
Also, your fic should not be archived anywhere other than the femgenficathon livejournal or your own journal until after September 8th. Afterward--well, I'm trying to get as many stories as possible archived at the Archive of Our Own. If you don't want to archive there, or you want to archive elsewhere as well as there, that's okay; I would just like to have most, if not all, of the stories in one place where they'll be more accessible to more readers throughout the year. The stories in the past have been excellent, and I would like many, many readers to find and enjoy the stories.
Similarly, nothing should be posted to the community until August 15th - until then, either comment or keep it to emails.
9. Get your story in on time. You're being given a little over three months to write your fic and as such are expected to finish. That said, extensions will be granted for those in desperate situations - make sure to email as soon as you feel you won't be able to finish in time, for the sake of the moderators' sanity.
10. I implore you on bended knee--USE A BETA. Yes, I said it before, but it bears repeating.
11. Have fun. And don't cause the mods undue stress if you can help it. Please. Don't break the mods.
DATES:
31 May: Sign-ups begin. Sign-ups close on 7 June or when the last prompt is taken, whichever comes first.
15 August: Assignments able to be posted.
8 September: Final date for submission.
***
If anyone has any questions relating to the rules, please ask it here.