Misses Clause 2014: Intro & Thanks (aka: Writer, There's Women in My Yuletide)
Hello, fellow Yuletiders! And so it begins! Another year, another Yuletide, and we hope that you are able to get proper oral hygiene in light of increased restrictions on holiday dentistry. As you are well aware, nominations are here, which means the Misses Clause Challenge* is also gearing up for another round.
Now in its fourth year, the Misses Clause Challenge was created to promote the inclusion, expansion, and celebration of women in fanfiction. We'd like to challenge you all to think about the ways women are represented in fanworks, and write fic either centered on female characters or fic within a fandom with a rich and diverse cast of characters that includes valuable and important female voices.
Participation is easy! Initially, the challenge set out to include more female characters in fic using the Bechdel Test as a barometer. But honestly, plenty of sources can (and do) successfully pass without putting female characters anywhere near the forefront. So the general rule for participating in the Misses Clause Challenge is simple:
Write women.
That's it! Write women who are celebrated, who are unsung, who are the heroes of their own stories or the unfortunate victims of circumstance. Write women talking, fighting, saving the day, or just going about their business. Write women of all ages, shapes, sizes, races, creeds, sexual orientations, mental and physical abilities, or moral fiber. Write women, full stop.
Easy enough, right? So if you’re willing, and we hope you are…
· Write a Yuletide assignment or Treat with one or more women as the focus. Femslash, female POV, ensemble fic, whatever works for you - as long as there's a female character front and center, your fic fulfills the challenge.
· Tag your finished fic with "Misses Clause Challenge". The collection itself will be open for submissions once authors have been revealed.
We've got a little while to go before any actual writing can be done, but you can get a jump start on the challenge in the meantime. While nominations are open, consider fandoms featuring female protagonists or gender-diverse ensembles. Unearth that old fandom full of women who've been sidelined, ignored, or fridged. Coordinate with a fellow Yuletider nominating a forgotten fandom to include a female character in an extra slot!
One last suggestion: once noms are closed, you might want to go through the Google spreadsheet of nominated fandoms and characters and note all the women you're interested in writing or requesting. It helps a lot when you're looking for that last fandom to request or trolling for letters to treat.
And to all of those who have taken up the challenge, or who are considering doing so this year, I just want to say, on behalf of both myself and freneticfloetry, Thank You. We’ve been blown away by the support we’ve gotten over the years, and even the criticism (and, well, impersonations ;) ), and the awesome fic that makes up the collection thus far is totally because of your willingness to participate and your creativity. So, thank you, again, for your participation, your openness to the challenge, your totally legitimate concerns and critiques. Here’s to an awesome Yuletide 2014, and another awesome collection of Misses Clause stories.
Sincerely,
G (hauntedd/martinigrl) & Court (freneticfloetry)
*The challenge name was meant to be a punny play on the fic season and a bad movie, and was not meant to be exclusionary in any way. (And yes, the "e" was intentional.)
Now in its fourth year, the Misses Clause Challenge was created to promote the inclusion, expansion, and celebration of women in fanfiction. We'd like to challenge you all to think about the ways women are represented in fanworks, and write fic either centered on female characters or fic within a fandom with a rich and diverse cast of characters that includes valuable and important female voices.
Participation is easy! Initially, the challenge set out to include more female characters in fic using the Bechdel Test as a barometer. But honestly, plenty of sources can (and do) successfully pass without putting female characters anywhere near the forefront. So the general rule for participating in the Misses Clause Challenge is simple:
Write women.
That's it! Write women who are celebrated, who are unsung, who are the heroes of their own stories or the unfortunate victims of circumstance. Write women talking, fighting, saving the day, or just going about their business. Write women of all ages, shapes, sizes, races, creeds, sexual orientations, mental and physical abilities, or moral fiber. Write women, full stop.
Easy enough, right? So if you’re willing, and we hope you are…
· Write a Yuletide assignment or Treat with one or more women as the focus. Femslash, female POV, ensemble fic, whatever works for you - as long as there's a female character front and center, your fic fulfills the challenge.
· Tag your finished fic with "Misses Clause Challenge". The collection itself will be open for submissions once authors have been revealed.
We've got a little while to go before any actual writing can be done, but you can get a jump start on the challenge in the meantime. While nominations are open, consider fandoms featuring female protagonists or gender-diverse ensembles. Unearth that old fandom full of women who've been sidelined, ignored, or fridged. Coordinate with a fellow Yuletider nominating a forgotten fandom to include a female character in an extra slot!
One last suggestion: once noms are closed, you might want to go through the Google spreadsheet of nominated fandoms and characters and note all the women you're interested in writing or requesting. It helps a lot when you're looking for that last fandom to request or trolling for letters to treat.
And to all of those who have taken up the challenge, or who are considering doing so this year, I just want to say, on behalf of both myself and freneticfloetry, Thank You. We’ve been blown away by the support we’ve gotten over the years, and even the criticism (and, well, impersonations ;) ), and the awesome fic that makes up the collection thus far is totally because of your willingness to participate and your creativity. So, thank you, again, for your participation, your openness to the challenge, your totally legitimate concerns and critiques. Here’s to an awesome Yuletide 2014, and another awesome collection of Misses Clause stories.
Sincerely,
G (hauntedd/martinigrl) & Court (freneticfloetry)
*The challenge name was meant to be a punny play on the fic season and a bad movie, and was not meant to be exclusionary in any way. (And yes, the "e" was intentional.)