Writing Post 2021

[coalcube]

Assignments out by: Mon 25 Oct
Default deadline: Sat 11 Dec
Assignment deadline: Sat 18 Dec
Reveals: Sat 25 Dec

Mini-Challenges:
Yuleporn | Make the Yuletide Gay | Jewltide | Three Turtle Doves 
YuleBuilding | Two for One | Crueltide | Yuletunes | Yule Be First
YuleSwaps | IF | Wrapping Paper | Yumadrin | MultiLingYule
....and a Partridge in a Pear Tree!

Yuletide Discord for Hippos & Exchanges After Dark Discords for Namespace drama 18+ discussion. Google Group for PHs.

yuletide |  yuletide_admin 
2021 Collection | 2021 Madness | 2021 App (bonus) | Letter Post

Comments

Anyone writing treats already?

[(Anonymous)]

Vague about them here while we wait for assignments!

Re: Anyone writing treats already?

[(Anonymous)]

For my first Yulteide ever I'm thinking of writing Christmas fic. And by Christmas fic, I mean tender Christmas morning blowjobs.

Re: Anyone writing treats already?

[(Anonymous)]

TWO people wrote letters asking for my ship and my general kinks, I have no choice but to write treats for both of them.

Re: Anyone writing treats already?

[(Anonymous)]

I missed signups, but it's okay - I'm writing at least two treats!

Re: Anyone writing treats already?

[(Anonymous)]

Yes! 500 words into a cross dressing fic for an M/M historical romance.

Profound clash of fandom and DNW

[(Anonymous)]

I got my Yuletide assignment. The piece of media is unequivocally horror.

I look at my recip's letter. "No darkfic please!"

h o w

Re: Profound clash of fandom and DNW

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe they mean nothing darker than canon, or no additional dark events that don't already occur in canon? Could you get a mod to pass a clarifying question along?

[(Anonymous)]

*looks at original fandom with request*

*looks at second favorite Yuletide fandom with requests*

POST LETTERS YOU BASTARDS

Thoughts on Assignments

[(Anonymous)]

How's everyone faring so far?

Re: Thoughts on Assignments

[(Anonymous)]

I initially thought I might have a hard time with this assignment but I woke up with a fully-formed idea of how to go about it and have already written 800 words. (This makes me feel justified in gaming so hard for a fandom I feel this level of comfort writing, another fandom with the prompts I got would have been much harder for me)

I'm someone who can't do treats without at least a finished draft of the assignment, so I'm really happy how fast and smoothly it's going thus far, because I have really ambitious treating goals and the sooner my assignment is finished the sooner I can start making progress on those as well.

Regrets

[(Anonymous)]

What are you already wishing you'd done differently?

Re: Regrets

[(Anonymous)]

I should have deleted that one request.

Where

[(Anonymous)]

Where do you write best? What is your optimal situation?

Re: Where

[(Anonymous)]

I've found I write best in a crowded cafe - something about the anonymity and also being in public makes me feel like I am able to do work without judgement. Although who would judge me normally I do not know. Best writing time is in the mid-morning, with the rest of the day stretched out before me. Best drink is iced oat milk latte.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Questions about...comments

Re: Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Have you ever not commented on your gift? If so, why? I have not received comments about half the times I've participated in various challenges including Yuletide, including on 15k+ fic.

[(Anonymous)]

I want to write a treat for everyone who requested this fandom. There are enough requests to make it challenging, but not so many that it'd be impossible.

The requests with letters are all great, now I just have to hope that none of the ones without a letter are unworkable.

[(Anonymous)]

I wish you luck!

I wrote myself into a corner

[(Anonymous)]

But then I managed to think of a way out of it!

Re: I wrote myself into a corner

[(Anonymous)]

Climb the wall!

[(Anonymous)]

I got a comment on an old fic that was just a string of hearts and it got me so motivated I wrote three treats in a row.

[(Anonymous)]

That's amazing, coalie!

[(Anonymous)]

Do you have to be familiar with the people who're singing/dancing/acting in music videos to write fics for a music video canon? I'm looking at requests and prompts and it's hard to tell. Is a requester looking for fic about the vampire and witch in the music video they requested? Or do they want fic about the singers who just happen to be dressed up as a vampire and witch and are dancing spookily to the beat in this particular music video?

[(Anonymous)]

I think they're treated similarly to live-action movies, where it's about the character rather than the actor. I did notice that the character tags for some were saying things like "X's character" (where X is a member of the music group), in which case you may need some familiarity with the group to make sure you've got the right person.

[(Anonymous)]

Finished my assignment. Am now obsessively worrying over if I've managed to somehow acccidentally hit a DNW. Reading it over, DNW list in hand, is failing to reassure the paranoid part of my mind. (In particular: What if my platonic scenes sound romantic enough to hit a romance DNW?)

... This is why I write treats, so I can progressively move my anxiety onwards to the next one and not just stew and stew until reveals.

[(Anonymous)]

gosh you're fast. i am very proud of you!!! congrats on Finishing Assignment and good luck on treating further; you're doing great

Treat Fail

[(Anonymous)]

I started writing this treat, but now I like it so much that I kind of want to just write it for myself and post outside Yuletide, so I can include all my own id. It would still fit their prompt and not include any DNWs though, so...maybe is fine?

Re: Treat Fail

[(Anonymous)]

If you're not hitting DNWs, it's basically their request, and it's anyway a treat: follow your id! Follow your id!

(Anyway it'll probably make it a stronger fic)

[(Anonymous)]

Haha I was planning to wait until December to write my assignment (doing nano this year soooo.) But I am on a vacation right now and was reading folklore set in the country my canon is set in and … got super inspired? To the point I ran to my computer and banged out 2k inspired words so far. Here’s hoping this isn’t a fluke and I can keep the momentum up and maybe even finish this weekend!

[(Anonymous)]

that's awesome, coalie! keep on going!!

Word Count Tracking

[(Anonymous)]

How's your progress, coalies? Brag or lament here.

Re: Word Count Tracking

[(Anonymous)]

I have 102 words of my main gift, and 21 on a treat! I'm just happy I've started and have a sense of how both of these things are going to go, plot-wise.

[(Anonymous)]

Does anyone else here participate in NaNo? I've been doing it for years, and with the donation weekend upon us, I'm looking at their dono rewards and they seem kind of... lackluster? The difference between $25 and $50 is one of those cheap rubber bracelets. Like, really? And going up to $100 gets you a logo pen. The kind of cheap crap people hand out at fairs and conferences.

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't know this was even a part of NaNo. What do they usually offer?

[(Anonymous)]

I have a great plot outline/scene breakdown I'm excited about. However, I have now made and scrapped three separate efforts at writing some of the scenes. Something isn't working, something about the tone or the character voice, I'm not able to get into the right zone and I don't know how to fix it.

[(Anonymous)]

Is it a canon you can easily go back and review a scene of, to try and get back into the characters voices?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a bit nervous about my assignment. My idea falls within the (very broad) prompts that my recip gave, but the plotline involves some (eventually resolved) miscommunication and jealousy (both of which my recip DNW'ed in the sense of "no unnecessary drama in otherwise healthy relationships"). The ship my fic centers on is a background ship in canon (main character's parents), so we don't know /too/ much about the dynamics of their relationship. The fic also involves one character unlearning some societally ingrained prejudice, and my recip didn't DNW it specifically, but it does involve taking an otherwise positively portrayed (albeit background) character and giving them an unlikable flaw (which is resolved by the end of the fic).

[(Anonymous)]

Find a new idea or get a Hippo/Alpha involved who can look at the letter and give a specific judgement.

[(Anonymous)]

The good news is my assignment is all polished up and ready to go. The bad news is my brain has decided it's "everything I write is shit" time and it's seriously cutting down on my motivation levels for treats. Gotta push through this... (But hey, at least it only hit after the assignment was done this time around?)

I have two treats with first drafts over halfway there I am going to push through this or so help me.......

[(Anonymous)]

Your writing is great. I know this, because of reasons, and I hope you are treating me :)

brat

[(Anonymous)]

Waaah waaah why are all my treats stuck in the deathly middle bog why is writing so hard skkdjsjdn

First weekend of December: goals

[(Anonymous)]

What are you going to try to get done in Yuletide, coalies?

Re: First weekend of December: goals

[(Anonymous)]

-Figure out my plot
-Brainstorm for a technical thing
-Write 2,000 words