coaltide | The Coalies & Other Stories

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!

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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

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Giving good-faith ODAO (as in, not phoning it in or skirting DNWs) is always better than defaulting. Yes, even in Yuletide.

It's always lovely to be able to give someone the fic of their dreams, but in my experience going to pinch hits is just as likely to result in ODAO fic as anything else. Defaulting is fine if RL issues come up or if you just can't manage to write anything decent, but it shouldn't be your noble attempt to give the recip another shot at their dream fic.

I’m replying to you not to change your mind but just to share my opinion, just fyi!

I don’t agree with this, especially for Yuletide. In exchanges or fandoms that are already big, I don’t think your opinion is that bad, but in Yuletide I find it awful. Every fic is one step closer to the fandom being ineligible. If they don’t like the fic, it’s actively worse for them/other people with their preferences than no fic being written because no fic at least doesn’t increase their odds of not being able to request the fandom again.

An ODAO fic for Star Trek sucks but it isn’t the end of the world. But fic for someone in a fandom of 1 or where the number of works are at hovering around the 1k mark, it’s injury to insult. If one author always goes ODAO to write gen for shipfic fandoms (or vice versa, or AUs for fandoms that want canon compliant, etc) and are prolific, they absolutely should default. Yuletide and other rarity exchanges require authors that are flexible in a way that hardline inflexible recips don’t.

DC

I think awful is an exaggeration when it's one story out of a thousand.

Well, this sure is something.

+100

I think going ODAO on a reasonable request makes you an asshole. You're writing a gift fic for someone. Knowingly giving someone a gift that's nothing at all like what they enjoy is a dick move.

The rules allow ODAO, and I agree that it's useful especially for when your recip asks for things outside the scope of what can and should be expected (like that they'd only want a crossover with a fandom you don't know, or the only thing they ask for is watersports porn, or they request any and then ask for a character you didn't offer). But you have to know that doing this will probably ruin someone's exchange, and most recipients don't reserve that.

As a recip, I can't stop you, obviously, but I'm not going to politely thank you for giving me coal.

(Well, if I had to anonfail on coal, I'm glad I'm anon failed on something that I repeatedly said in namespace before, I guess... /o\)

* don't deserve that

I agree. I defaulted because I just couldn’t write the fic the author wanted, and they got a pinch hit that was amazing.

DC

To me it's actually the opposite? Like, I don't need to request Star Trek for an exchange to get more Star Trek fic in general. There's plenty out there. So if I request Star Trek, it's because I want something super specific that I haven't been able to find among the million of other ST fics out there. If someone goes ODAO on my request and I end up with something I have already read a hundred times, I'm going to be disappointed.

Meanwhile, with most of my Yuletide fandoms, it's a matter of JUST FUCKING GIVE ME SOME FIC FOR THOSE TWO CHARACTERS I DONT EVEN CARE WHAT IT IS!!!

As long as you don't write me spitefic and respect my DNWs, I'll likely be happy with any genre/length/trope as long as it features interaction between those characters in my non-existent fandom.

So my personal position is: Good faith ODAO is okay - especially for Yuletide.

Do most people even sign up with fandoms that are in danger of becoming ineligible. My biggest fandom this year has 100 fics. I don't think an ODAO gift is going to make that much of a difference.

But do I as an author want to spend my time writing good faith ODAO for a recip who many not enjoy it? Or should I use the default option (which is there for a reason) and move on?

For me this depends on the kind of ODAO. If someone has dozens and dozens of likes and very varied prompts and you cannot write a single one of those things? I'd rather you default, because it is more likely that a pinch-hitter will write something that isn't complete ODAO. Imo if someone gives you THAT many option and you don't want to do any of them, it's not really good-faith ODAO anymore.

If someone has one prompt and you don't want to write that, then yeah, go ODAO, most people will.

+1

I have a long likes list and if you can't give me anything I want and go full ODAO, I think you're not a flexible enough writer to do fic exchanges and you should have defaulted. I will also immediately reject the gift.

I agree with this, from the recip end. I've gotten some fucking weird stories from the YT pinch hit list, lol, defaulting on me is not upping the odds I'll get the fic of my dreams. And I'd rather my assigned writer still be guaranteed their own gift!

I do have to agree with you. There's nothing wrong with defaulting when shit happens, of course! But don't freak out so much on not giving your recip the Fic Of Their Dreams that you end up defaulting. Some of the best YT gifts I've ever been given came right out of left field.

I think this depends on how much details you give in your request. If I have a foot long list of likes + 10 prompts and someone gives me a ODAO story that's out of the left field, it contains nothing I enjoy and I will hate it and will also wonder why the fuck they couldn't have incorporated one or two of my likes or defaulted. If your list of likes is short or incomplete, then I guess it's possible to gift you a ODAO fic you enjoy.

I agree with this if you're still planning to write something that doesn't go firmly against what the recip asks for. Even though details are optional, it seems weird to write super opposite from what they said.

I am saying this as I have gotten fic three consecutive years which include the characters I asked for but just as acquaintances, while focusing on my DNW ship. It would have been fine if they wrote gen fic about my requested characters, but I mentioned I didn't want fic focused on a DNW relationship and they wrote that! Three separate people, three separate fandoms!

Generally it would have been fine except in all three situations it was them ignoring my request for an m/m or f/f ship and writing the canon het ship, so it started to feel like a het vs slash thing even though it was probably just coincidental.

DC I think that would go beyond "skirting the DNWs" though, esp. if the "DNW ship" was actually DNWd.

Are you DNWing "het ships for my requested characters" or the specific ship or anything else along those lines? Because if not, I would definitely consider it. People writing unrequested or DNW'd het for a F/F or M/F request are assholes, and at least if there's a DNW there, you can report them to the mods.

I'm saying this as someone who got an unrequested M/F ship I said I disliked when I was requesting F/F. Technically I hadn't DNW'd the M/F, though, just said I disliked it, so the writer got away with it. It still pisses me off and I now use DNWs in situations like that, where getting the ship would ruin a gift.

The Coalies & Other Stories

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