coaltide | And another one!

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2023

And another one!

I see my nemesis getting a fic that I love
And I'm like, "Fuck you"
I guess my 10k letter wasn't enough
I'm like, "Fuck you and fuck morbane, too"
Said, "If I was a long commenter, they woulda gamed for me"
Ha, now ain't that some shit?
(Ain't that some shit?)
And although there's pain in my chest
I still comment it's the best
And runs to coal to shout "Fuck you"

Nominations: Monday 18 to Thursday 28 September (Coordination | Evidence Post)
Sign-ups: Friday 13 to Saturday 21 October (NYR | Promo Post)
Assignments Out: Monday 23 October (may be earlier)
Default Deadline: Monday 11 December
Assignment Deadline: Monday 18 December
Main Collection Opens: Monday 25 December
Madness Opens: Tuesday 26 December
Author Reveals: Monday 1 January

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Read all my recipient’s fic for the fandom, read selected works from their back catalogue to get a feel for their taste, read stories in the fandom tag that they commented on to see what they specifically like, now reading the wiki biography of someone they mentioned in one of their stories and considering reading a work by them, still need to rewatch canon and maybe a couple of movies in the general tone I’m aiming for…

does everyone treat their Yuletide assignment like a research paper/thesis on the fandom or just me

I write something that conforms to the details box and move on with my life.

Just you.

I do this too! My Yuletide prep is a third canon review; a third recipient background check; a third general atmosphere and thematic inspo.

Every year I tell myself if I get in too deep, I can always just write a short story that will meet the requirements, but it’s both fun and also what distinguishes YT from other exchanges for me to really dig into the canon and what kind of recipient I have, and to try to come up with something thoughtful. My recipients have always appreciated it a lot, so I guess I’ve had good matches over the years! This one wrote all the best fic in this teeny fandom, and based on their stories I’m extra motivated to do something unusual.

Kind of, not in exactly the same way. I review canon and take notes on little things like setting details that could come up in a story. Once I start writing I sometimes review some of the canon again to make sure I have the characters' voices in my head. How much outside research I do depends on what I'm writing.

I almost never read other fic though. I try to make sure I'm writing directly from my impression of canon and not fanon.

In this case my recipient has written several stories in the fandom and commented on others, so I read the former carefully and skimmed the later just so I could carve my own niche/make sure no one had done my exact idea yet.

I'll be honest. I have never once checked to see any of my recipient's bookmarks/written works. I guess I just read the letter/sign-up, do canon review, cross my fingers and hope for the best.

I hope you are my writer then bc my bookmarks are a total mess and not indicative of what I like 😂 I bookmark things I want to find again, full stop

my recipient doesn’t have any bookmarks and their letter specifically said to look through their works for the type of thing they like to read!

CYRT I mean, I guess this is fine. But I guess I'm always a bit miffed at recipients who want me to do more homework than just researching canon and their sign-up/letter. An exchange isn't a commissioned fic (and if you're looking for a commissioned fic, I wouldn't recommend doing an exchange?). I tend to assume that people write the things that they want to write about and that the things that they're requesting are things that they're looking for someone else's take on. I don't know--am I the crazy one? (insert the "am i so out of touch?" meme)

Also, if someone has like BNF, grade A fic bookmarked, I'm not a BNF and while I think my writing has improved over the years, I'm not going to claim to be a professional, A+ writer, and knowing that's what they like isn't exactly going to make my writing magically better? I'm certainly not expecting more than a good faith effort to be put forth based on my sign-up from my writer.

In fairness to my recipient, it was really more like “I don’t bookmark, but if you want to see the kind of thing I like then check my works.” And most people on coal always seem to want a lot of guidance from letters, so I would have assumed that would be generally considered helpful? But hanging out on here you definitely learn everyone approaches YT differently.

(I was trying to poke fun at myself in my initial post, but I really do love doing canon review, recipient research, and then lots of side research because for whatever reason I set myself very high standards for YT years ago. I try to write things I don’t write during the rest of the year, and put a lot of effort into both quality and just trying to do something different and unusual. I actually don’t expect that from my author in my own gift, it’s just part of the YT writing challenge for me, and every time a recipient really loves their gift it makes me feel like I need to keep it going.)

+1

and also, if there’s something that shows up a lot in my bookmarks but was not listed or requested in my letter, maybe there is a reason for that! maybe i only like it in specific circumstances, or i have caveats and didn’t want to overwhelm my writer. you can’t intuit that just from looking through bookmarks

I do this, too, but it doesn't necessarily end up with me writing fic they're particularly into, so

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