Coalway to Hell

[coalcube]

Yuletide Weather Forecast:
 
Temperatures are estimated to fluctuate between active panic and total apathy into the next weekend. Main assignments will have a minimum temperature of regret and a complete climate change once editing is complete. Expect treat writing to continue at all free hours unless the dangerous front of procrastination cropping up in the Northeast successful moves into the area, effectively killing the treat storm conditions for the season. 

 

Mini-Challenges (App):
YuleSwaps | Interactive Fiction | Wrapping Paper | Seasons Treatings
Yuleporn | Femslash Festivus | Tide of History
YuleBuilding | Two for One | Crueltide | Cheftide

 

Yuletide Discord for Hippos. Google Group for PHs. F_F wiki for history. yulefairy for treats you can't find a recip for.

 

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

2020 App (Easter Eggs) | Letters Post

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

 

Comments

Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

Coal mining is hard work.

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

I believe that fics are as long as they need to be and it typically has noting to do with how the author feels about you as a recip, but a part of me really hopes my main recip does look at what else I wrote after author reveals. Your fic could have been that good too, recip, if you'd given me something to work with! In this case you should feel bad that your author wrote more for someone else!

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

This is such a crazypants way to do Yuletide. Some people (hi!) aren’t good at writing letters and prompts, or had very low energy for it this year but wanted to participate anyway. If my author is like you (or is you) then I guess they must hate me, but honestly I usually prefer shorter fic anyhow, and I had fun writing my assignment, so whatever.

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

My recip is a BNF (in other fandoms) with some of the prettiest prose I’ve ever read, and I’m worried about how they’ll perceive my fic. Their letter was pretty generic, and while my gift doesn’t ODAO, it focuses on a subplot of canon that’s a bit slanted away from the main fandom’s focus. (Sorry for being vague, but I don’t want to reveal myself.) I really struggled to write the gift fic as well thanks to writer’s block. So that’s my mood right now. Couple that with no one has commented on several (non-Yuletide) fics I’ve posted in the last few days, despite several people saying they’d love to read them, and that’s where I’m at. Wallowing in self-pity on a Sunday afternoon.

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

SC. And yes, I’m aware it’s the holidays and the weekend and 2020 in general, people have more important things to do than comment on fics right now, this is a venting thread for what’s weighing you down, and facts aside, that’s how I’m feeling right now.

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

Aw coalie I'm sure the audience for your fics will come once people start getting holiday breaks, and I bet you BNF recip will adore their fic.

I love subplot fic and most of my prompts deal with that, so if it's in one of my fandoms then I'll definitely be commenting at least!

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

My Yuletide is not going great. I don’t feel great about anything I’ve written and posted, but revising is like pulling teeth, and as of the moment, I’m treatless and it’s really tanking my mood in a way I feel quite ashamed about. Here’s hoping the treat I’m writing now gets done and goes over well and that maybe I get a treat?. Or that inspiration strikes and I manage to finish two treats before reveals.

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

Coalie I have at least 3 more treats I plan to post within the next day or two for people who currently only have their main fic and I hope one is for you!

Then I will be frantically editing at work and in my free time because why in the hell did I write so much this close to the wire...

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

I'm in a similar boat-- not pleased with what I wrote for my assignment but struggling to edit it, and no treats for me. That said, I have a complete draft of a treat written that I still need to post, for someone with only one gift so far-- I hope it's for you, Coalie!

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

I'm treatless and a bit glum about it but I, too, have two unposted treats for single gift recips (that I should be posting soon, they just need some finishing...). Let's hope we all get treats this YT.

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

Same, and it's why I decided not to write any treats. There's a couple of tempting prompts and I have one really good idea, but I know writing it would only make me feel worse in the long run.

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

This treat I'm working on just keeps increasing in scope. I'm starting to wonder if I can pull it off in time -- and if I can, it may end up longer than my original assignment and pinch hit combined (both pretty short). That gives me weird Yuletide anxiety that those recips will think I didn't like their prompts or was trying to shaft them (assuming they look up my profile, connect the dots, and care, which obviously I assume in Yuletide Anxiety Brain World), and that's absolutely not the case! Those stories just ended up shorter! Argh, why is my brain doing this?

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

As a recipient, I might go read other fic posted by my author, if what they wrote for me was AWESOME! And, in that case, why would I be unhappy about finding other, longer stories by them that might also be awesome?

Length is no indicator of quality or the enjoyment your recipe will take from it. Stop worrying!

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

This happened to me one year and I ended up writing an almost 20k word fic in a really rare fandom which I posted as a NYR the following year. It is still one of my favorite fics.

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

I came up with a brilliant idea for a treat today, but my assignment took longer than expected to finish and edit and I don't think I have enough time to write the treat and edit it so the idea can really shine.

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

Argh in a very similar situation. Wishing us both the best!

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

I wanted to refresh my memory of canon for a treat, but apparently it's on no country's Netflix. (The search sites claim it is on several but when I VPN up and look, nada.) I only own the first part, so I guess I'll have to bury this story, or at least make it just a short and vague one, in order to avoid any canon errors. :(

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

My beta DM'd me 'The story doesn't work. I'll explain why when I get up.'

That was 3 hours ago. That gives me, what, another 5 hours before I can ask them WHY NOT?!?

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

lol oh no, coalie, that's terrible. A betaing cliffhanger! Here's hoping the notes when they get up are useful.

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

I'm laughing because that's so terrible. Get another beta stat.

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

This is violence

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

Dithering over how to refer to this character in my fic. They have four different names used in canon, and three of them are options for the story I've written. There are only a handful of fics out there for the fandom and there's no standard accepted way to refer to the character they all do different things so ughhhh.

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

I spent all my free time tonight rewriting my cover letter instead of working on this treat, and I hated every second of it. I want to go back and slap undergrad me.

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

Writing 70% of this fic post deadline was a very bad idea, I'm prematurely sorry to my recipient, and all I can do at this point is revise and edit as much as I can. It's not going to be a good 8k words but hopefully it can be a slightly better 8k words than it is now

yeets the fic to beta (whom I am also extremely sorry to, for cutting it this close and also for handing over something this long) and goes to do all the holiday stuff I have let pile up

Re: Vents and struggles

[(Anonymous)]

I left a comment pointing out a mistake on an fic with an author's note asking for people to do that, and it got deleted?

Sensitive...