coaltide | The Coal Game

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2021

The Coal Game

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

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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 ;_; )

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.

+ 1

If I honestly thought I were a horrible writer, I wouldn't sign up for exchanges. (And I'm prone to this kind of catastrophizing, for sure. I actually tested it, insofar as it was possible to, by treating several times before I started signing up for things for real - getting non-recip comments and even a rec or two for those treats reassured me that recip politeness wasn't the only thing compelling people to tell me I'd done a decent job, so I probably wasn't that bad.)

I get anxious about it, especially mid-draft, and I might be mediocre - but I'm reasonably confident I'm not horrible, or at least not so horrible that I can't write something that a) fills a request appropriately and b) is technically competent enough to be readable.

I might default if I wanted my recip to have a better fic, in the sense that something about their ODs could make me feel like we're such a mismatch that I just am not going to be able to give them what they want the way they want it. But that would be about a taste issue and a hope that a pinch hitter would vibe with them better, and not because I don't think I can write a generally decent story at all.

I've won some contests and still sometimes feel some uncertainty in my writing. (I've lost more contests. Contests usually only have one to three winners so a lot of people will lose more than win.)

What helps me when I feel somewhat uncertain with my writing is canon review - having the characters/world more fresh in my mind helps boost my confidence in writing. Also I sometimes do unrelated to Yuletide fic of the characters of the fandom - sometimes finishing an unrelated no pressure fic (or even just starting one) helps me get inspiration for the prompts I have to fulfill. Maybe that may help?

Your recip didn't sign up to get a brilliant fic by their favorite writer, coalie. They signed up to get 1000 words from a random schmuck of unknown ability. Coal is going to give you a very inflated idea of the average yuletide fic. I actually started doing yuletide *because* I felt like my writing was horrible and at least the expectations weren't high.

Go to an old yt collection, sort by kudos or bookmarks, and go halfway down the list. That's the quality you're aspiring to, if you can pull that off you're beaten par.

(If you can't manage that, go 3/4 of the way back, that's a passing grade.)

Your recip didn't sign up to get a brilliant fic by their favorite writer, coalie. They signed up to get 1000 words from a random schmuck of unknown ability.

+1

To use a food metaphor, it's like not wanting to invite your friends over for dinner because you think you're a terrible cook and they deserve better.

If you uninvite them, it's not like Gordon Ramsay is going to cook dinner for them instead. Probably some other random friend will cook dinner for them.

If you can put an edible meal on the table, congrats, you have successfully fed people! If they wanted Gordon Ramsay level cooking, they can actually go to a Gordon Ramsay restaurant instead. Yuletide is not about fancy cordon bleu, it's about the joy of a shared meal.

If you truly feel this way, why sign up for exchanges at all? It seem like a recipe for misery.

+1

This is baffling, unless OP wants to sign up, default, and hope they get a gift anyway, which would just be shitty to do on purpose.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Coal Game

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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