One Wank After Another

[coalcube]

A blank assignment is a funny thing, isn't it? When you have it, you don't appreciate it, and when you miss it, it's gone.

Wednesday 10 December: Default deadline (9pm UTC)
Wednesday 17 December: Assignment deadline (9pm UTC)
Wednesday 24 December: Main collection works reveals (9pm UTC)
Thursday 25 December: Madness collection works reveals (9pm UTC)
Thursday 1 January: Author reveals, end of event (9pm UTC)

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Comments

Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

The prompts my recipient left for me were uninspiring and lend themselves to short fic. I'm 900 words in and I'll reach the end somewhere around 1400, and the story is going to be pretty bland because that's what they asked for.

I found a much meatier prompt that I would love to write, but it will be much longer and also it will probably be obvious I enjoyed writing it more. Will anyone be able to tell that it's a treat?

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

Not unless you tag it that way. Well, I mean, the mods I assume, but why would they care?

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

Only if you tag it as a treat to announce that fact. (Which some people do as a courtesy thing but is by no means required or expected.) Otherwise it's theoretically possible to reason out (say if your assigned recipient only has that single gift vs the treat recipient's two or if you post the assigned fic pre-deadline and the treat post-deadline) but someone would have to go to a deliberate effort to scrutinise and compare your two recipients post-reveals to spot as much, and I can't see why they'd bother unless they were already your sworn nemesis feverishly hunting for petty things to hold against you.

Or if your recipient is a Yuletide mod, I guess. Then they could probably see which one was your assignment.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

I assume your recipient will know, if they only receive one story. But otherwise no, you can’t tell just by looking at a fic on ao3.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

If your assignment is the only gift your recip receives (or the only one posted before the deadline, assuming no redating), and they don't default, then yes, they'll be able to tell it was your assignment.

But really there's nothing wrong with writing a treat longer and meatier than your assignment—especially when short and bland is genuinely what your assigned recip wants.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

If your assignment is the only gift your recip receives (or the only one posted before the deadline, assuming no redating), and they don't default, then yes, they'll be able to tell it was your assignment.

It might also be a treat that became elevated to a main gift when their actual author defaulted at deadline.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, that's happened to me more than once. I didn't go out to PH because someone had written me a treat before the deadline.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

How did you know?

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry nonnie, that sucks, especially if it happened more than once.

This is why I always try to wait at least until the recip has another gift before uploading a treat.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

It doesn't suck. They gave a gift and got a gift, and the gift they got was something someone chose to make for them out of being inspired.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

CYRT

It sucks when you know you could have had two gifts and you only got one because Yuletide has this stupid policy.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

But really there's nothing wrong with writing a treat longer and meatier than your assignment

Yes there is? Jesus, this is why exchanges suck now.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

DC

This has always been true, in every multifandom exchange I participated in in the last 20 years.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

There's not, eat a dick

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

That's right. Exchanges were better places when if you had a miserable time writing your assignment and it came out short despite your best efforts, you weren't allowed to write anyone else a treat of any greater length of complexity.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

Why is there something wrong with that? Are you assuming that the author half-asses their assignment?

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

Jesus, this is why exchanges suck now.

Lol at you trying this exact same weak-ass trolling on two separate memes today.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

I had someone do this to me in a couple of exchanges and sorry, but it's always really obvious which story they enjoyed writing more.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

I've also been at the receiving end of this, but it's fine. Sometimes someone doesn't vibe with your request. They shouldn't need to hold back on a treat just because they got an assignment that they didn't enjoy much.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

Same. I don't think people should feel forced to make sure their assignment is the longest gift they write, especially if the recipient doesn't give them much to work with. At the same time, it really does suck when you try to give a variety of prompts and likes so your author can pick and choose what works for them, only for them to end up going ODAO minimum word count and writing a much longer, meatier treat for someone else. I know id mismatches happen, but it doesn't make it sting any less when you can tell you're an afterthought to your author.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

Them being more enthused about the treat they wrote doesn't mean the fic they wrote for you is "an afterthought." It might be, but it also might not be. You don't have enough information to determine that.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

CYRT

Look, I don't normally care if my author ends up writing longer stories for other people; I might check to see what else they've written if I loved my gift, but most of the time, it's not even in my brain to compare since if I enjoyed my gift, who cares? But that year, I could tell my gift was an afterthought when they completely breezed past my likes and prompts to write almost exactly 1000 words of the blandest gen that stopped when it hit word count and turned it in right at deadline, whereas the tagged treat was almost three times as long. That's why I checked at reveals - I wondered if they'd just overcommitted and taken on too many pinch hits or something.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

Still seems like the problem is the part where they wrote you a bad gift, not whatever other things they may have written.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

You can add the bland story to an anonymous collection just so people don’t get weird about it.

I usually take it out after a few months or year or never.

Re: Can anyone tell which was the assignment and which was the treat?

[(Anonymous)]

I doubt they'll even check to see what else you've written, unless you're writing for one of the extreme Yuletide freaks on Coal. I mean, I am one of those and I still have never checked to see what else my author wrote. (The one time I got the perfect story, I was going to, but it turned out I knew the author and had read everything by her already.)