Misses Clause 2015: We're Kind of Always Late, so We're Kind of Always Sorry
Hello, fellow Yuletiders! And so it begins! Another year, another Yuletide, and we hope that you will get the fic of your dreams come December. As you are well aware, nominations have closed, signups are complete, and assignments are imminent. Which means we are late in getting this up in running. However, the Misses Clause Challenge* is back again!
Now in its fifth 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 still have yet to receive our actual assignments, so if you are so inclined, take this sometimes anxiety-inducing time to read letters in the letters post. Search out those that request women, maybe bookmark one for later, or even start a treat. There's a lot of female characters nominated this year and a number of requests to coincide with that. Maybe one of the letters might start or keep the creative juices flowing.
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 2015, 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 fifth 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 still have yet to receive our actual assignments, so if you are so inclined, take this sometimes anxiety-inducing time to read letters in the letters post. Search out those that request women, maybe bookmark one for later, or even start a treat. There's a lot of female characters nominated this year and a number of requests to coincide with that. Maybe one of the letters might start or keep the creative juices flowing.
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 2015, 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.)