Challenge Intro and Rules
The Fic For Hope Challenge
David Cook is running again this year in the Race For Hope in Washington, DC on May 2nd to benefit brain cancer research. We came up with the idea of this fic "marathon" challenge as a fun way to raise money for Cook's race team and hopefully inspire some great fic. If Cook can run, we can write. Right?
In some charity walks/races, Sponsors can pledge a set amount of money per mile run. In the Fic For Hope challenge, Sponsors will pledge donations per words written by a Writer and/or toward the combined words written by all Writers of your favorite Cook pairing(s) during the Writing Period. At the end of the Writing Period, word counts will be totaled, pledge amounts calculated and we'll all have a week at the end of April to make our donations individually directly to Cook's Race For Hope team website before he runs in the race on May 2nd.
Does that all make sense so far? (Good!)
How Will This Work?
Writers can sign up in the Writer Signup Post now (signups will never close!) and the word counts of any fic with a Cook pairing that they complete and post to the community between February 6 and April 22 will count in two different ways:
- Toward their personal word count, and
- Toward the total word count written by all Writers combined for the pairing (or 'Team') in the fic.
On February 6 a Sponsor Signup Post will open. Based on the tentative info we gather from the intital Writer signups, anyone can comment to Sponsor Signup Post to make a pledge (basically, "I pledge $1.00 for every 1000 words written by likealocket" or "I pledge $0.07 for every 100 words written for Team Archie", etc). Pledges are welcome until the end of the Writing Period and always flexible to change. It's also important to note that any actual monetary donations (made individually by Sponsors directly) to Race For Hope related to this challenge will not be made until the last week or so in April, so keep that in mind when planning out your Pledge. See later in this post for more specific Sponsor Rules.
We'll make Weekly Update Posts to let you know how Writer/Sponsor Signups are going, give roughly updated word counts and share any other news. Once the Writing Period is over on April 22, we will tally up the word counts and post them so everyone can calculate their final donation amounts. (Even then, you are allowed to change your Pledges. If way more Team Jason was written than you were expecting and you don't have $150, that's fine! Donate whatever you can instead!) We ask that everyone make their donations between April 25 and April 30. A post will be created at that time and we ask that ALL Sponsors comment there to let us know your final donation amount so we can get an accurate donation total for the challenge. On Race Day (May 2nd) we'll reveal the grand total and have a little party post to celebrate and (virtually!cheerlead for David).
(Oh, and please do not bring this challenge to the attention of David or Andrew or anyone remotely related to the Idol "family" via Twitter or anywhere at all. Let's just keep it between the fans, okay?)
Timeline
Writer Signups start: January 30
Sponsor Signups start: February 6
Writing Period: February 6 to April 22
Total Word Counts posted: April 25
All Donations made: April 25 to April 30
Individual Donation Totals in by: April 30
Race Day / Final Totals announced: May 2
(All end dates are midnight EST)
Writer Rules
- Word counts will be drawn from words of completed fic (or WIP chapters) written and posted to the community between February 6 and April 22. You may write and post as many fics as you wish during the challenge.
- Words written during the Writing Period but not posted to the comm as a finished fic or a WIP chapter will NOT be counted.
- If you're in the middle of writing something before the Writing Period starts, we ask that you use an honor code and only count the NEW words written beginning on February 6. Please include both total word count and elligible word counts when you post. (ie; 3557 words / 1324 since Feb 6).
- Fic must contain a principal Cook pairing. Multiple Cook pairings and threesomes/moresomes are ok (Team Bicycle!). No gen fic.
- Due to the charity aspect and inherent sensitivity of this challenge, we will not allow incest or non-con/rape in any form.
- Writers are not restricted to just one pairing (or 'Team'). This is NOT a competition and the more Cook pairings, the merrier.
- If you have an additional separate fic journal or community, please choose ONE lj username to identify you in this challenge. It is VERY important that you always use the same name in your fic headers and in the unique author tag we will make for you, or you won't get an accurate word count. (You may still link to fic posted to a fic journal, of course.)
- Your fic won't count if you don't sign up! Signups never close, so it's never too late! Late signups, find out how to retroactively count your fic in the FAQ Post.
- Fic written for other challenges/exchanges absolutely counts, as long as you wrote it during the Writing Period. Just be sure to cross-post it here, using the Posting Guidelines.
- More info can be found in the FAQs, Posting Guidelines and Prompts and Plot Bunny Adoption Post. Feel free to ask questions!
Sponsor Rules
- You may pledge to Sponsor in three ways for A) a Writer, B) a pairing/'Team' or C) a flat donation amount for any reason. Feel free to pledge more than one, in any combination.
- Signup with your Pledge in the Sponsor Signup post, beginning on February 6 so we can have some rough estimates as the challenge goes along.
- Pledges are always flexible and able to be modified. Our goal isn't to bind you to contract, it's to raise money in a fun way. Pledging is a motivator to give the Writers something to work towards and a way to give us rough estimates of our ultimate totals. In the end, any donations at all are welcomed.
- That said, please keep the math in mind and be vaguely realistic in your pledging. Don't pledge $5 per 100 words from Team Archie, because if 20,000 combined words are written you'll have pledged to donate $1,000 (unless you have it to donate, of course!). Also, this will help keep our ongoing overall rough estimates realistic-ish and fun too.
- Donations should be made (preferably in a single donation per individual) between April 25 and April 30. That's in about three months, so keep that in mind when budgeting.
- Donations should be made by Sponsors directly via Cook's Race For Hope team webpage. We do NOT condone (and strongly discourage) giving any money to other fans to donate on your behalf.
- After your donation is made between April 25 and April 30, PLEASE comment in the Final Donations Post (comments will be screened) so we can compile our official grand total!
- More info can be found in the FAQs. Feel free to ask questions!
Spread The Word
We'll be advertising the challenge around to a few communities, but we'd appreciate any and all help to spread the word to your friends lists. (Remember that several communities have advertisement rules, so check into those before you do.) We even made some banners:
Final Note From the Mods
Got all that? Good! To help us gauge interest, please take our poll. As always, feel free to contact to us in comments to this post, the FAQs, or via email with any comments, questions, suggestions or shameless flattery. :D
likealocket: likealocket at yahoo dot com
leici: lacy at mac dot com
Cancer research is a cause near and dear to so many of us both personally and because it's so important to Cook. AI fandom is full of amazingly talented and generous people that we know are capable of great and inspiring things. We're excited to go where this 'marathon' takes us.
Runners Writers take your marks... ;-)
♥ - Debbie (likealocket) and Lacy (leici)