The Coal Game

[coalcube]

We're scrolling
And watching coalies make errors
The most pathetical errors!
We're watching experienced coalies
Who stayed up all night tracking a source in its original Latin
Up, writin'
And writin' bad!

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.

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Comments

Defaulting point

[(Anonymous)]

When do you decide if you're in or out?

Re: Defaulting point

[(Anonymous)]

I defaulted once within a day of getting my assignment. The other time I defaulted in mid-November, when I could see that my sticky RL issues would not be clearing up anytime soon.

YULETIDE WANK

[(Anonymous)]

because this is COAL
should yuletide go back to that one weird year where they made people write a fic in order to sign up for the first time?

Re: YULETIDE WANK

[(Anonymous)]

YES because I personally need to be forced to write fic to write fic.

Minichallenges

[(Anonymous)]

.

Re: Minichallenges

[(Anonymous)]

What about 'em?

Vague about what you're writing

[(Anonymous)]

Coal wants to know. 👀

Re: Vague about what you're writing

[(Anonymous)]

It's sort of Peter Pan in the future, but kind of a past-future, and it's got some violence that I hope is going to be shocking, but no sex.

How do you decide between prompts in a big for Yuletide fandom?

[(Anonymous)]

There are several that are essentially the same thing, which is something I’m interested in writing, but.

Re: How do you decide between prompts in a big for Yuletide fandom?

[(Anonymous)]

Some people look at comment history. I go with whatever prompt makes a fic come spilling out of my pen; I'm a very self-indulgent writer in that I only ever write treats I enjoy writing and come easily. If it's forced at all I move on.

Do you default because you want your recip to have a better fic?

[(Anonymous)]

I always feel like I should default because I am a horrible writer and they deserve better. (And I know I'm horrible because I never win in all the writing contests I've entered ;_; )

Re: Do you default because you want your recip to have a better fic?

[(Anonymous)]

Honestly, I don't have much patience for this kind of thing.

a) no one wins at writing contests. There are millions of aspiring writers and only one winner. The odds are not in your favour. If you need to win a writing contest to feel validated, find a different hobby.

b) if you default, there's absolutely no guarantee that the person who picks up the pinch hit will be better than you. They might have a grandiose sense of their own ability, or maybe they are just here to have fun, like all of us should be. You won't ruin someone's life by giving them a subpar fic. This is a hobby for all of us. Try to enjoy it.

c) if it really bothers you, then work to improve your craft. Study it. Practice. Being a good writer doesn't just magically happen. It takes work, like any skill.

d) get out of your own head.

The Yuletide Challenge You May Want to Do (But no one else might do, unrealistic, what could go wro)

[(Anonymous)]

What silly or possibly unrealistic challenges do you like to impose on yourself during yuletide?

Something like:
Alphabet treat: Write treats for 26 fandoms, ideally with one fandom starting with A, B, C, up to Z (not sure if all letters have at least one fandom)
Pick a new fandom treat: Find a fandom you don't know, and if you are inspired after consuming it, write a treat! (more effective for five minute fandoms)
Treat per week: Write a treat per week.

I used to do the Pick a new fandom treat before the pandemic by looking for books with requests that intrigued me in bookstores...

[(Anonymous)]

Me, doing canon review for a fandom I was super excited to treat for, starting to think I actually don't like this fandom or want to write for it after all =\

[(Anonymous)]

I've had this happen too. There's a very nice recipient who asks for fic for characters from a series I loved as a child. I was really excited to treat, but while doing my canon review found I couldn't see anything about those characters that made me want to write them (and, in fact, seeing one of them through adult eyes made me actively dislike them). My heart breaks a little whenever I see their prompts, but I just can't.

[(Anonymous)]

Is it possible to write with coauthors for yuletide? Does it need to go into madness?

[(Anonymous)]

ask the mods on the comm

[(Anonymous)]

When looking for recips to treat, if a letter requests two characters whose dynamic you like together but absolutely do not ship romantically, does the letter offering gen prompts but mentioning they ship them make you less likely to treat the gen prompts?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm only interested in writing shipfic so if your prompts are only gen I'm probably not going to write for you, even if you mention shipping them once off handedly. I need some shippy likes or for you to say "I am happy for these prompts to be written platonically or shippy" for me to feel comfortable that you actually want a romance A-plot.

TREAT CHALLENGE

[(Anonymous)]

Inspired by conversation above: comment here with how many treats you want to write. Maybe include some kind of identifier, your fave number, etc so you'll remember later which comment is yours.

After reveals, we make another thread where people report back how they did.

Profit!

Re: TREAT CHALLENGE

[(Anonymous)]

Reasonable goal: two treats
Stretch goal: four treats

[(Anonymous)]

I have a gift already!!!

It might have just been posted though because I can’t see any of my fandoms listed. Or maybe they’ve put it under a different fandom. Either way time to writhe in suspense for six weeks or so lol

[(Anonymous)]

Ohhh exciting!

hits/kudos/bookmarks

[(Anonymous)]

Do you care about hits/kudos/bookmarks on Yuletide fics (as long as the recip likes it)? Do you measure them by a different standard than other non-exchange fics you post?

Re: hits/kudos/bookmarks

[(Anonymous)]

Not really. I know it's not modest to say but the rare times I'm not writing for a fandom of one, my fic usually "wins" in terms of stats vs the other fics which I guess is nice but I mainly care about the recip's reception. In terms of fics in general, I do believe in the hits/kudos ratio but when I sort for things to read I rank by bookmarks.

Word count goal?

[(Anonymous)]

What's your word count goal? For both your main gift fic and overall?

Re: Word count goal?

[(Anonymous)]

Overall:

Acceptable: 8k+
Great: 15k+
I am a writing BOSS drunk on my own power: 30k+

Canon Review Stories

[(Anonymous)]

What's your most memorable canon review/pickup story? Did you do some insane research? Binge-watch a TV show? Did something funny come up? Tell coal!

Re: Canon Review Stories

[(Anonymous)]

Popular musicals from the 1880s. It wound up being one line in casual conversation. Like all of my research, hours to make sure I'm being accurate, actual usage in fic probably so minuscule and offhand that I could have just as well left it out.

[(Anonymous)]

oh yeah fresh new page fresh new butts

ODAO

[(Anonymous)]

What's your opinion on ODAO? Are you strictly "ODAO is fine as long as it doesn't hit DNWs", or "going ODAO is bad as long as your recipient gives you enough to work with", or somewhere in between?

Re: ODAO

[(Anonymous)]

My position - ODAO means:

"Oh darling, apes only."

... hang on, isn't there someone who actually requests canons with apes and monkeys in them?

Rabbit?

[(Anonymous)]

Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Pinch hit?
Rabbit pinch hit.
Pinch hit butt?
Rabbit pinch butt.
Rabbit fluff?
Rabbit pinch fluff butt.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit yule goat?
Rabbit pinch yule goat.
Rabbit goat butt?
Rabbit pinch fluff goat butt.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit kiss?
Rabbit kiss fluff.
Rabbit kiss my fluff butt
Rabbit kiss fluff butt yuletide.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.
Rabbit.

Re: Rabbit?

[(Anonymous)]

Fluffy bun bun kisses!

If you were a Yuletide Mod...

[(Anonymous)]

What would you change? Or would you keep it all pretty much the same?

Re: If you were a Yuletide Mod...

[(Anonymous)]

1-make comments mandatory

2-put the PH prompts post up earlier (apparently this is happening this year!)

3-get rid of Madness and have treats in the main collection, tagged as such

And the rest stays the same!

Wankiest rule change you can think of

[(Anonymous)]

Let's say the mods brought in a new YT rule. What type of rule change might spark the biggest wank of all?

Re: Wankiest rule change you can think of

[(Anonymous)]

Banning anyone they suspect on coal

Predictions for the future of Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

What do you predict will happen in future yuletides? Will ship matching be allowed? Will the mods ever actually ban someone?

Re: Predictions for the future of Yuletide

[(Anonymous)]

Ship matching may eventually be allowed. As for banning someone, unless we get another obvious sock drawer, sadly nope.

YuleSwaps!!

[(Anonymous)]

candyswaps out now, the other two to come Soon!! how are we feeling, coalies?

Re: YuleSwaps!!

[(Anonymous)]

SO HYPED!!!!!!!

Madness hypothetical

[(Anonymous)]

Would you want to get a mediocre treat that is a couple hundred words long?

Re: Madness hypothetical

[(Anonymous)]

For my tiny tiny fandom with no fics of any kind on the archive?

YES!!!!

I would revel in proof that someone else in this big world knows and loves it!

Help me make an arbitrary decision about my assignment

[(Anonymous)]

What it says on the tin

Re: Help me make an arbitrary decision about my assignment

[(Anonymous)]

I'm writing a video game fic with an undefined protagonist. Shall I write it in the first or second person? (I don't usually write in either but this one's definitely not feeling like a third person fic...)

Yuletide nightmares

[(Anonymous)]

What would make you quit Yuletide altogether?
What’s the worst case scenario (overall or in a given year) for Yuletide for you personally? (Get goal, have to default, ignore a DNW, etc.??)

Re: Yuletide nightmares

[(Anonymous)]

Absolute worst would be something I'd done and that was clearly my fault leading to pain for someone else and then that thing blowing up. For example, tripping a DNW, especially if that DNW related to sensitive identity or trauma issues. Or, as a beta, advising someone that Thing A was fine and Thing A then turning out to be very much not fine. I can deal a bit with online anger, though I've never had to deal with mass outrage or harassment from individuals, so I don't really know how I'd cope with it if it happened, but that combined with feeling like I really was at fault would be pretty devastating.