Something I've been thinking about

[covenmouse]

So for the past few weeks, during the wonderful world of hell-week stress I was experiencing, I've also been taking part of a lot of activity going up from my other major fandom--sailor moon.  Summer time is always an active time for us, especially when it comes to massive group projects, and I got the strange notion that I wouldn't mind seeing

Comments

[monalisaofpasta]

I have questions concerning your ficathon idea because most of the ficathons I have seen have had people submit prompts and then the prompts were claimed by people who then wrote according to the prompt that they chose, some would also offer up posting dates so that people will have a say over deadlines and what not.

One theme for everybody seems very confining and you can't guarantee that everyone who wants to participate would like that particular theme.

Also, to me the zip file thing seems like a lot of work for you, when most people would probably just be interested in posting their fics publicly on their own anyway.

[covenmouse]

Ahh, the only ficathon I'm very familiar with has a simple theme that everyone uses--this is to keep things as a "body" of fanfiction, rather than ... well. Random bits of fanfic. XD They have something, other than their fandom, to tie them together. The typical type of theme chosen is something fairly general, though, like "Season" or "emotion" or, this years, "song." The way I'd figured the theme would be chosen is by having people nominate themes and then we'd vote for the most popular one. Either way, you'd be free to choose whatever aspect, subtle or not, you'd want to use in the fic.

And no, you can't guarantee it, but you can't guarantee anything when you're talking about a large group of people.

Maybe it is a lot of work, but it also keeps things organized and ensures that no one gets over looked on the basis of "someone posted right after I did and shoved me off the page." I've seen those kind of arguments happen, they're not fun.

[monalisaofpasta]

I have problems writing for general themes to be honest. Like they are way too vague, and I end up writing, and by the end my fic doesn't have anything to do with the theme at all. But that could just be me, if you left it open for that.

I have honestly never seen that problem, and if you section it out so that only a certain number of fics are posted each day then it kind of solves that problem.

But then again, I think complaining about that is a statement to immaturity, since in a ficathon you would have a reason to go back an dlook at all that is being posted because you have an idea of how many fics there should be.

I would note that gift exchanges tend to put more of an impetus for people to complete their fic, because if you know you are doing something for someone specifically there is more of a push, whereas a ficathon doesn't have that motivation, however it is much more binding, so if you are thinking of doing the exchange you would probably need to put in for some sort of pinch hit system.

[covenmouse]

*nods* Nah, I hear you about fics getting away from themselves. The reason I did lean more towards a ficathon is just that I knew I felt less hemmed in with them, while still enjoying the community feel of "We're all doing this together" but there are limits with the ficathon as well, of course.

And yeah, it is. X3 I really can't argue with you there. I don't like seeing those things happen, and don't participate then when I do but... the sad part is that it happens at all.

Pinch Hitting would be definitely needed, I agree. Again, it all depends on just how much interest there is in this at all. I'd honestly enjoy either, but it's hard to tell how much of an active community GW actually has.

[terravayne]

As someone who just finished running a Darkfic Exchange at gw_dark and used to how smoothly things go in HP fests, let me tell you...it is much, much, MUCH easier to let authors post the fics themselves. The prompts themselves and the assignments can be anonymous but trying to track people down and hand out extensions and extending extensions and having people email ME fics (which annoys people who aren't used to HP and SM, which is most GW writers) is not worth it.

I think a ficexchange is a brilliant idea. I loved to pieces the wonderful work that came out of the Darkfic Exchange...BUT the single biggest thing I regretted is not allowing people to sign up for a day they plan to post their fic and then do it themselves. If you're planning on running an exchange, this is my advice to you.

[monalisaofpasta]

The reason a lot of exchanges do it where you email the mod is because they are secret santa in nature and thus the point is for fic to be posted anonymously and then you get the reveal of the author later, but if that isn't a big thing then it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but you would need to spread out dates for when people have to post, and that can be hard, it is easier for people to claim dates in a ficathon model as opposed to an exchange model.

[terravayne]

Yeah, I know. I tried to model the Darkfic Exchange after how anonymous ficexchanges work (to great success) in HP which includes emailing fics to the mods. But it didn't go over very well with the GW crowd. Many of them aren't used to the Secret Santa nature of it. I'm a big supporter of this format, but it just isn't worth it when people would rather you didn't do it that way. Even with the exchange model, if you assign two or three weeks for posting and ask people to sign up for a specific day/week, they're more committed and likely to post that fic (especially if they'd rather not have someone else handle THEIR work, a concern that was raised). Plus, they'll have the ease in editing it afterwards (this also turned out to be an issue and I ended up giving the sockpuppet mod account password out to everyone so they could edit) and it also gets rid of the need to "track comments" which turned out to be another issue

[covenmouse]

I think it would depend, here, if the people interested in doing the fic exchange wanted everything to be done secret-santa or not. One reason for keeping track of who turns in what and when is whether or not pinch hitters would be needed, and making sure that everyone who participated does get something in return--but you're right in that if it isn't secret-santa style, then allowing everyone to post their own fic (on assign---

Wow, i'm a moron. If you have everyone that is finished email you to find out what day they want to post, then technically you do know who has finished what. That IS a good method.

*facepalm* sorry, I can be incredibly slow sometimes.

Anyway, i think it comes down to whether or not people would want this to be a secret santa. I personally love secret santas, because they're just plain fun, but I think that's more of a majority rule issue.

But thank you for pitching in with that ^_^ It's always good to hear advice from people who have done this before.

[masa_reforged]

quite a good idea. i'm interested.

[frzn_mmnt]

I love both ideas, so I'm in either way

[covenmouse]

MMm the only issue I have with a word max is that I know I have a hard time staying within the max. Unless it's something crack tackular and drabble-worthy, my usual length is at least 2k, just to get everything somewhat wrapped up, and that's still being conservative. While I don't mind lowering the min a bit for those who'd prefer to write shorter stories, I don't like the idea of being hemmed in by a word cap, either.

Then again, if we do a short drabble one to start with, and one for longer stories later, it might be a good starting point. I also agree that getting back a ten page story when you hammered out a one (or vice versa,) can kind of suck, but at the same time if you put the proper amount of effort into either, then they should both be solid pieces that stand on equal ground