The Coalies & Other Stories

[coalcube]

I will not read them in a Canon-Divergent AU.
I will not read them in Third Point-of-View.
Not in a Crossover! Not in Genfic!
Not in Shipfic! You let me be!

I do not like them in Fanart.
I do not like them even in the Fic of My Heart.
I will not read them in fic of my NOTP.
I do not like them with my OTP.
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere!
I do not like my DNWs!

Sign-ups: Friday 16 October to Monday 26 October

Assignments out: between 26 & 28 October

Default deadline: Friday 11 December

Assignment Deadline: Friday 18 December
Collection Opens: Friday 25 December
Author Reveals: Friday 1 January, 2021

Mini-Challenges:
YuleSwaps | Interactive Fiction | Wrapping Paper | Seasons Treatings
Yuleporn | Make the Yuletide Gay | Femslash Festivus

YuleBuilding | Two for One | Crueltide | Misses Claus | Cheftide

 

Yuletide Discord for Hippos. Google Group for PHs. F_F wiki for history.

 

yuletide_admin | yuletide | Writing Post
Sign-Up (Summary) | 2020 Collection | Tagset

2020 App | Letters Post

Flat / Recent | Top-Level (Last) | Search

 

Comments

Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

I know the YT Discord was talking about this the other day, and other than Beatrice_Otter chiming in with a wall-of-text which had fuck-all to do with the actual point, it was a good conversation.

But the YT mods have just posted this, and as someone who was stressed about causing unintentional Prim-level wank for wanting to DNW issuefic and unrequested sexuality/race/gender headcanons, I'm genuinely relieved: https://yuletide-admin.dreamwidth.org/78677.html?view=1544021

What do you think, Coalies? Will this stop wank dead, or will any wankers still get their panties in a wad?

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

Similar to the point above, saying you don't want something ought to be enough - you don't need to talk about how terrible it is. The character or kink you loathe may be your writer's favourite.

Boy, I wish some people in my fandom would get the message on this. I don't require everyone to like my villainous fave, but it's not an incentive to write treats when someone dedicates space in their completely unrelated prompts/DNWs to talking about how horrible and stupid he is. I'm capable of liking more than one thing at a time!

Otherwise, I think it's fine. It won't stop wank from happening but it's handy enough. "Specify how you want DNWs that occur in canon dealt with" is especially relevant to my past experiences with aggravatingly vague DNWs.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

(new coalie)

I need to take out an overly detailed DNW, I know I do. I just hate this guy so much (he is a long-ago historical personage) and it was cathartic to write a little diatribe about how he does not deserve nice things and I do not want him to get them. But really I know all I have to do is DNW him, nobody needs to know the depth of my wrath. And I suppose it's barely possible that someone likes him and would be put off. xD

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

This this this. As someone who loves widely detested characters it's unbelievably soul-crushing to read rants on why most of the fandom hates them. Trust me we already know.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

NC 10000% this.

I just read a letter. It's a request for - well, to use a non-Yuletide-eligible fandom, let's say it's a request for the 11th Doctor. And I like the 11th Doctor! I'd consider treating! But the 10th doctor was my fave. So if you open with a diatribe about how much you hated the 10th Doctor and how glad you were the 11th Doctor showed up because the 10th Doctor was terrible and horrible and no-good, boy, you almost stopped watching the show, he was so horrible...

...anyway, this person is not on my treating list.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's a good post. And it reminded me that some of my DNWs only really apply to my requested characters. I don't care if Random Redshirt dies or cheats on his wife, only that my characters don't. So I fixed those up a bit.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

What I want the mods to say is that if they catch wind of a DNW violation (from coal or FFA wank or an anonymous tipster) then they will talk to the author even if the recip doesn’t complain or even if they appear to like the fic.

That gives recips plausible deniability that they didn’t complain to the mods and also sets a good precedent. Just because coalie123 didn’t mind that you violated their listed DNW doesn’t mean you shouldn’t assume 69coal won’t have their exchange ruined if you pull the same shit.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

sa What I want is for the mods to say*

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

Sort of, but with the caveat that they should talk to the recipient first. I'd hate it if the mods blasted my author for a story I thought was okay without even asking me what I thought.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

I'd hate that. I don't want my authors getting told off over something I did not think merited a complaint to the mods, and I most certainly don't want them told off publicly over something I did not think merited a complaint to the mods.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

The mods do check stories in the last week before the collection opens, and contact writers if necessary. (I know this because one year I got the dreaded mod email (actually it was very polite) reminding me that my author had DNWed [mention of canon thing] and I'd alluded to it, which I had really thought wasn't crossing the line but upon reflection it probably was, so I edited it out and came up with a new reason for [plot point] to happen.) I guess though if you're editing up your bus pass and the mods look at your story before you've put in something that might hit a DNW they'd miss it. Also I have no idea if they check every story, which seems kind of like a huge task?

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

TBH I wish they had just said “OOC as a DNW doesn’t really work” and left it at that, but they addressed it with the good faith possibilities of what people could mean by that I guess.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm sure wankers will still find some way to be wanky, but I'm fairly happy with this post. Every now and then I remember the "not my cup of tea" wank and I get steamed all over again, so hopefully this reaffirms that "DNW thing" is a judgment-free statement.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

SA And when I say "DNW thing," I mean "DNW [thing that is being DNW-ed]," I just read this back and saw how unclear that was, oops.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

God. Dare I ask what the "not my cup of tea" wank was?

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

You can't kill what won't die.

The DNW essay is very helpful and clear, and I'm glad it's up! It will likely decrease the wank around DNW's to have these as explicit policies. But nothing, and I do mean nothing, can stop the wank.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

Wank is truly a universal constant.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

This person arguing in favor of "DNW: OOC". Oooof.

https://yuletide-admin.dreamwidth.org/78677.html?thread=1547861#cmt1547861

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

"DNW: OOC is fair"

two seconds later, "Obviously you can't DNW bad or out-of-character writing across the board"

I think there's a fundamental difference in approach to writing DNWs and prompts that's evolved, and some people fixate on using their DNWs as a roundabout way to explain what they do want instead of just prompting for what they want. Rather than prompting for the kind of characterization they want, they tie themselves up in knots explaining what they don't.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

If you [...] DNW canon divergence while requesting something that is hard to fit into canon, you may be setting both yourself and your author up for disappointment.

DNW: unrequested relationships (does this apply to background characters, or just mains? Are parents okay?

When writing a story for another person, writing a story that is likely to shock, hurt, or embarrass them runs counter to the goals of the event.

I'm amused at how many of these apply to various socktopus tentacles.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

I usually have fairly succinct DNWs in my signup with explanations in my letter (example: I might say "DNW noncon but dubcon is okay" in my signup, but put the lengthy explanation of which kinds of dubcon I enjoy and where the line between dubcon and noncon is in my letter). I prefer doing it that way because I like keeping the DNWs easy to read and clear, but this is making me think that I should put all that lengthy rambling in my signup for Yuletide. Not a fan, but fine.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

It sounds like your existing system is working.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

The way I think about it is: if I acted in bad faith, could I screw over my writer by having this in my letter but not in my signup?

"DNW: AUs" in my signup; "DNW: AUs but canon-divergence is OK" in my letter: my writer could get screwed if I deleted the "but canon-divergence is OK" in my letter. That needs to go in the signup. (Or ideally, be changed to "DNW: setting-change AUs")

"DNW: bestiality" in my signup; "DNW: bestiality but humans petting cats and werewolf/human sex are fine" in my letter: my writer is probably fine, even if they write humans petting cats and I delete the letter, because reasonable people do not interpret humans petting cats as bestiality.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

It's one of the better explainer posts the mods have put up in the last ~10 years.

Re: Has anyone seen the Mods' essay on DNWs?

[(Anonymous)]

I hate that the endless DNW wank which started on EAD has now oozed into actual official Yuletide posts.