coaltide | C.R.E.A.M

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2021

C.R.E.A.M

Coal ruins exchanges around me - spitey spitey fic y'all.

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Anyone else intimidated by their recip? Mine is regularly regarded as one of the best writers in the fandom and I’m so scared my gift won’t live up

Honestly some other writers may not think your fic is "worthy" of being given to the BNF. That's just how writing for a BNF goes. All that matters is that the BNF likes it, and they probably don't think their writing is a gold standard - they're person just like you. If they felt like their amazing fic satisfied them and no other writer came close to delivering, they wouldn't have requested the fandom. They're probably extremely eager to read your fic (especially if you include their prompts or likes) and will be so happy that you wrote for them.

some other writers may not think your fic is "worthy" of being given to the BNF.

Disagree... I haven't seen this often at all, at least not expressed in namespace

ayrt

It depends on the fandom/space. There’s a Draco/Harry discord my friend is on that isn’t private or anything and they talk in public about this exact thing (and it’s even more vicious in private). Obviously this Yuletide fandom can’t be that big but the mean girl “wow can you believe NNF gifted BNF that basic fic” is alive and well. They suck and luckily that mid-tier grade of writers and their insecurities are not how 99% of BNFs are, so you shouldn’t worry about them feeling anything but positive towards your fic.

OC
Yeah, this is part of what I'm worried about/intimidated by. Obviously the fandom is small but that just means that the drama is kind of harder to get away from/you hear about it more easily. I'm kind of worried because apparently there was this group chat with a few BNFs where they basically made fun of other fics in the fandom. I don't know if my fics were part of that or if the BNF I'm writing for was part of that, but I'm just paranoid by it now and that just adds to my nervousness/paranoia. Sigh, I guess that's on me for offering this fandom in the first place though :/

i'm sorry coalie! it's not your fault these people are assholes.

cyrt
thanks haha, i'm probably just letting my anxiety get the best of me :/ fandom drama is too much sometimes

ayrt

Wow this fandom sounds messy as hell. (Succession? Some Cdrama?) Check out their comments on other gifts but honestly if they requested it I can’t see why they would bother if they dislike the talent pool. They’re playing themselves if they were a part of that group. As long as you’re acting in good faith you shouldn’t be worried. As for the rest of the fandom/other BNFs, usually their fic isn’t that great so I’m sure there will be many readers happy for fic that isn’t full of that BNF bad karma ego.

ayrt

Yeah, it's definitely very messy. I've mainly stopped interacting on socials for the fandom besides liking edits and fics because it was just too much and I wasn't even actually involved (again small fandom probs). Yeah, I haven't seen any evidence that they were a part of that group chat so it's probably just my paranoia. They seem to kudos some other BNF's works but that's about it (they don't seem to comment much on anything though :(). And yeah, honestly I've read a lot of the fic by the BNFs who I know were in the group and it is actually really great, but not worth the drama tbh. And like, I've also read the fic they were making fun of (at least the one in the screenshots that were posted, which was how this all came out) and like it was just really mean when the author was obviously trying. Social anxiety of me being next strikes again :( But you're probably right though, they did request it for and of course I'm going to try to give them the best fic I can!

I've seen that said in cases where the fic was just gifted out of the blue and there's no particular reason it should have anything to do with them, and it feels like either blatant sucking-up or the writer hoping the bnf will feel obligated to rec them. (Despite having been only a very minor temporary bnf in a couple very small ponds, I have had out-of-the blue gifts from strangers and it does in fact feel a bit weird.)

But none of that applies if you're filling a yuletide prompt; that's not out-of-the-blue and random, unless it's an ODAO treat, in which case it's wanky even if it's not a bnf.

TIL ODAO treats are wanky.

I’ve gotten ODAO treats and it sucks. ODAO gifts or even spitefic as a main gift at least makes sense (they had to turn something in) but an ODAO treat is like wtf. It’s insult to injury too because some people don’t write treats for people with multiple gifts, so the ODAO could’ve cockblocked them from getting one that at least contained one thing they mentioned liking.

You can’t ODAO on a no details sign up so they’re fine to give ODAO treats to but anyone with some indication of a preference it is seen as NAGL or wanky. That increases if you’re gifting to a good egg or BNF because then the assumption beyond “wtf” is that you wanted to force them to give you their well regarded praise or to get more eyeballs from people who know their username and would think a gift given to them would be relevant to the driveby’s shared interest.

+1

I had someone give me a treat one time that technically incorporated a prompt I gave but did it in a way that was totally counter to everything else in my request. (Like if I said I wanted fluff and nice things for this request, and they wrote the spanking I asked for but wrote it super angsty with a lot of self-hatred.)

And it was like, you could have given this to someone else! Multiple other people asked for this ship and would have loved this treat! It felt like spitefic honestly, although I think it probably wasn't. It ruined that whole exchange for me that year.

I mean it's not as bad as dnw-violating treats but yes? ODAO assignment fic is sometimes just a thing you gotta do, but if it's not an assignment and you're ignoring their signup and preferences then . . . Why are you posting it to yt? Just to force someone to give you an awkward recip comment?

It depends on your definition of ODAO.

If you use it in the lose sense of "didn't exactly follow their prompt but it incorporates some general likes and it's in the spirit of their request and is written with that request in mind and something they'll probably enjoy", carry on.

If it's actually ODAO and doesn't match anything they say they like or goes against the spirit of what they ask for, then it's wanky as fuck because it's not really for the recip, is it but just so you can get a comment out of it. (If it were me, you wouldn't, because I'd insta-reject.)

There is only one definition of ODAO. Failing or choosing not to use any listed likes/prompts/information beyond the criteria used for matching (characters, fandoms, a ship, a rating, whatever) means you have created something that is ODAO.

If you include at least one of the detail that were given, it isn't ODAO.

If no details were provided to you at all, it's not ODAO.

AYRT

Technically, you're right.

But in practice, lots of people use ODAO for "I didn't write their prompts but only incorporated some general likes", so it helps to keep that in mind when people talk about going ODAO.

If you include at least one of the detail that were given, it isn't ODAO.

Eh. I think it depends on what that detail is. If the recip says "I prefer past tense" and you write a past tense fic that otherwise ignores everything they say and goes against the spirit of their requests, I would still call that ODAO.

Re: Intimidation

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-31 19:22 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Intimidation

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-31 19:28 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Intimidation

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-31 19:58 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Intimidation

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-31 20:01 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Intimidation

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-31 20:01 (UTC) - Expand

If it's based on general likes, or it sort of mostly fills a prompt, it's not ODAO, go for it.

If they say in their letter that they are okay with ODAO and want anything, go for it.

If it's for a friend or mutual and you heard them say "oh man I wish I'd put this in my letter", go for it.

If it's a stranger or bnf, and they asked for something in particular and what you've written is not that, then don't.

OC
the first one! That's why i don't consider them wanky, but after what you and everyone else has said, yeah... i see why ODAO treats have such a bad rep.

AYRT

Coalie above is right that this is not technically ODAO, but I can see where the confusion comes from. Don't worry, that's perfectly fine. :)

I can see that for a ship like Draco/Harry and its intracommunity exchanges and events, but I want to believe that that doesn't exist for yuletide because it's multifandom and the fandoms are so small? Like a NNF writing a fic for a fandom with 10 fics, someone can't be a BNF for that fandom (not like Draco/Harry or similar), and the anon period encourages people from everywhere to comment on the fandoms they know. Plus, if someone was snarky about receiving a nice gift then they would get wanked about on here or other memes, so they wouldn't come off well.

The OP says in the comment below that the people in the fandom they would be treating in do this though, so it does happen even in Yuletide fandoms.

I'm a researcher coalie and even then I'm sorta "oh boy" at my recip this year. Clearly they know a lot about these canons for which I am going to have to do a lot of research! And not even because of the nitpicky details; there's just so much cultural history that I want to make sure I get it right.

OC

ahhh, that's intimidating but it sounds like you have a good start and know what you need to research! Good luck!

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