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Comments

Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm thinking seriously this might have been my last Yuletide. I'm not angry about anything, or even particularly sad, just dissatisfied and vaguely bored. I had a horrendously bad match as a writer, but managed to muddle through to produce something my recip liked but didn't love. I hated my own gift, it was almost comically bad. And then, when I went through the collection, there were fewer fandoms than ever that I recognised, I opened up about ten, then closed most of those tabs without opening any of the fics once I read the summaries. Maybe Yuletide just isn't for me any more.

Anyone else feeling similarly blah?

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, I have felt more and more blah in the recent Yuletides and actually already wanted to leave this year but got swept up again.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

Are you in book fandoms or something? Can you name the ones that are duds to you?

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

They weren't duds, so much as just not to my interest or tastes. Wrong pairings (or no pairings, I don't read a lot of gen), tropes I don't much like, G rated vignettes where nothing much happens, or just vague introspection. I'm perfectly willing to accept this is a me thing, and the fics themselves may have been good. I just didn't want to read them.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

Yes. I wasn't going to sign up this year but did so last minute, and while I enjoyed my gift and mostly enjoyed writing my assignment and treats, the sparkle has well and truly disappeared. I've been doing Yuletide since it began, but for me it's definitely time to bow out.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

lol see you next year

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

By looking at the previous collections it seems like Yuletide is getting progressively smaller, and as someone who only joined this year, this makes me a bit sad. I didn't have an amazing experience this time, but I still want to sign up the next time (and probably the time after that). I've seen some amazing stories come out of YT.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm sorry you didn't have the best time, coalie, but as for the size of the collection, I think it's important to keep a sense of perspective. Yes, Yuletide is getting smaller, but there's still over 2k stories in the collection across over a thousand small fandoms. It's still a ridiculously popular (and large exchange).

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

I think the pool of participants is getting smaller, but the number of fics doesn't seem to be dropping. In my experience, some people are writing more fics (from five to ten!), there's pinch hitters and treaters who don't sign up, and

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

Yuletide started with 300 people. It reached like 2000 at its height. Yes, it's slowly coming down from that absurd size, but I don't think the last couple of years have been all that distinctive. It's just about what fandoms you happen to be into and how stressed you are that holiday season.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

It depends on the year for me. This year, there's more stuff for me than usual because I got into a couple of tiny fandoms, so Yuletide has more to offer for me again. But a couple of years were pretty blah, yes.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

I felt like this for a couple of years, but not this time. I discovered that it was a Me Problem because I was just not into the smaller fandoms enough. Now that I picked up a few new books and watched some m/m movies from coalies' rec lists, I'm GOLDEN.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

Welcome back, soldier.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I think the key to enjoying Yuletide is to get interested in several small fandoms every year. If you just stick with the same fandoms, people eventually lose interest and you get more picky about what you'll read for them.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

I got into a bunch of smaller fandoms this year but nobody really picked them up in Yuletide. I think it's a combination of what people pick up and how many other people also want it that year.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't sign up this year, and ironically had the best Yuletide I've had in years. I wrote a couple treats for people who loved them, got excited with my friends over *their* gifts, and didn't have to stress at all.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

I've been doing Yuletide since 2005, but over the past couple years, the spark seems to have flickered out. Last year was the first time ever when I ended up defaulting on my assignment. This year I thought about signing up, opened the nominations form, thought "Mehhh", and just... didn't. I thought I might feel sad when the story reveals rolled around, but nope. I've read some fics, a few were even good, but I still don't really care.

I think it's natural that one's interests change over time. The Yuletide excitement was nice while it lasted, but I think it might be over for good for me.

I'm still here for the wank though.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

Me. Not because of my gifts, they were great. But I only have a very small handful of fandoms I can write, and I think the people who request them are probably sick of me by now. This year I tried to broaden my offers, and just ended up defaulting, in spite of having the dream recip. So yeah, I think all the snooty anons going "maybe exchanges just aren't for you" were probably right, and I'll stick to treats in future.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

I’ve stopped signing up, for some of the same reasons as you, but every year I check the prompts and write a few fics for random people. I’ve definitely found myself caring less about the most represented fandoms.

Maybe stay on the pinch hit list next year and only write what you choose?

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

Yes. I'm pretty sure my recip shit-talked my fic here and even though it's possible it was another fic altogether the details given make it sound close enough to my fic that I will never know for sure. Everyone is very hung up on recips having a great YT experience, but seem not so concerned with the writer's experience. I don't see much point in putting myself through this again. So despite participating for years and always producing something my recips at least claimed to really like, this is definitely my last YT.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

I wonder now - are there threads like this on coal every year, or is this year in particular making a lot of people want to stop doing Yuletide?

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

I think I'll stick to low pressure treating in the future instead of signing up. I was super lucky this year and really enjoyed my gift! And I do usually find stuff I like to read. But I also looked at the other few fics posted in the fandom I got, and wow, I really dodged a bullet this year. One of the other gifts out there was a horrible disjointed SPAG mess of nothing happening. And another one I just read today was straight up ATG, with complete mischaracterization that makes me wonder if they ever at any point reviewed the canon at all.

I'm not sure if this is just my imagination, but it feels like I've been back-buttoning out of more stuff this year as I go through the archive. And I'm not *that* picky a reader for rare stuff.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, the exchange feels too big, I don't enjoy the latest gifts I've gotten and I feel like my writing just sinks like a stone every time. I used to do Yuletide with a lot of friends and I think that's the best way to enjoy it. Nearly all my friends are in new fandoms I don't like and writing for a lot of exchanges and fests, so Yuletide feels diluted as a big exchange event.

I also don't recognize 2/3 of the fandoms and that makes me feel old.

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

I thought I was going to retire from Yuletide two years ago, but then I started getting more involved in beta-reading, and it helped rekindle my joy. I still don't have many mainstream fandoms, but I am super enjoying the fic written for things like commercials and music videos, and the sort of nostalgia fandoms that I basically only read fic for at Yuletide (like Cadfael, David Blaize, Earthsea, The Goblin Emperor, Gentleman Bastards).

Re: Retiring from Yuletide?

[(Anonymous)]

Extremely blah. This is the second year I've gotten no comment from my recip, not even a placeholder, and it's extra crushing because this is the first year someone other than myself requested one of my fandoms.