coaltide | One Wank After Another

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2025

One Wank After Another

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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Yuletide Discord for Hippos & Exchanges After Dark for namespace ~~drama~~ 18+ discussion.

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This is phrased a little extremely, but you're not wrong. There are exchanges which support being very specific in your request, but Yuletide is intentionally designed to allow a lot of flexibility and I think a lot of of participants (and certainly their writers) could benefit from shifting to fandoms that are more bulletproof, rather than "I want this fandom but actually I only want shipfic of these two characters who have one conversation in canon and I also DNW any focus on the A-plot of the canon".

Nah. Not wanting the A plot of the canon you're requesting is a Yuletide staple.

So is requesting Any when you really just want one blorbo, but that doesn't mean it's a good thing.

Wtf?! They're at all not comparable.

Fanfic is all about saying "fuck canon!" so why on earth should not wanting anything about the A plot of the canon be wrong?!

DA

There are canons where demanding your author avoid the canon's main plot IS unreasonable, but mostly it isn't. I'm on your side.

At the end of the day, it amounts to an id mismatch between people who write fanfic because they love a canon vs. people who write fanfic because they hate a canon and want to fix it. Both are perfectly fine, but it's miserable when they get matched to one another in an exchange.

DC

Really weird to imagine that this binary exists on a person-by-person basis rather than a canon-by-canon basis. Or that it exists as a binary at all, TBH.

The A plot of my favorite fandom's canon is okay, just okay, and most fic is pre-canon, post-canon, or interstitial rather than directly about the A plot. But DNWing the A plot and demanding the writer only write missing scenes or pre- or post-canon fic would still be weird.

IDK, if I love a canon, I just tend not to want fic for it. So it's definitely a binary for me and I'm firmly on one side

NC

I always assumed it was person-by-person. I only want fic if I loved the canon and can't get enough of it. The canon may not be perfect, but I'm never interested in fix-it fic. I just want *more*. If my attitude is "fuck canon" then I don't want fic.

CYRT

Whereas I have fandoms where my creativity is motivated by liking the canon but wanting to see it explored more (especially if it's good but a bit shallow) and fandoms where my creativity is motivated by spite, or even just hating the way canon did an element.

IDK how common that is, though.

I would say that's much more common.

DC

For me, a problem also tends to come in regards to moving away from the base canon. I'm great matching to someone who's into canon divergence, even if they DNW all other AUs, because that gives me a little bit of flexibility. I have and will write canon-based fic for recipients, but if someone makes it a point that they hate any type of divergence, no matter how small, it's a solid indicator for me that we're not going to be a good match.

DC

Because you cannot assume some rando randomly assigned to you in an exchange of 1200 people feels the same way about canon you do?

Yes, that's exactly the point. Maybe you love the canon you request or offer, but you can't assume that your recip or writer will feel the same way.

Hard disagree. Yuletide is supposed to be about getting the beloved canons AND characters of your heart. If it wasn't about that, you'd only be allowed to nominate canons and 2003 Yuletide would have been a far different creature (it's never going to stop being funny that Harry Potter was eligible back then because of the rare pair rule). Now yeah, ODAO exists for a reason, you can prompt shipfic but not demand it, and if your DNWs try to box your writer in, the mods won't enforce them if they're unreasonable (like Aurae and her underage Star Wars smut she kept trying to make people write). But canon divergences, focuses on unseen/minor portions of canon, or coming up with a reason for why these two random characters are meant to be together are a time honored tradition that should almost never be that difficult to write 1000 words for if you're offering that canon.

CYRT

But canon divergences, focuses on unseen/minor portions of canon, or coming up with a reason for why these two random characters are meant to be together are a time honored tradition that should almost never be that difficult to write 1000 words for if you're offering that canon.

I mean, it's telling that the word you're using is "difficult to write" because it's not exactly beating the commissioned fic allegations. What about what's fun to write? I never argued that these DNWs are impossible to fulfill, I just think that once you start DNWing this portion of canon and that, or this kind of protagonist characterization and that, or DNW: any ending for this VN canon other than this specific ending, or DNW: anything but fluff, it's easy to end up in a place where your DNWs read more like prompts that broke containment. They may not be impossible to fulfill but when you stack them up on top of each other, the creative space of what gift you can actually get is going to be pretty limited, so you better hope the author shares your id and is also hyped about those specific prompts! Otherwise you're getting dutyfic and that's just going to be a meh experience for both of you.

Somewhere along the line, having a request that leaves plenty of room for the assigned writer to find a direction that's actually fun for them to write got completely forgotten, and that's what gives it a vibe of commissioned fic mentality.

DC

Otherwise you're getting dutyfic and that's just going to be a meh experience for both of you

If your ~dutyfic is a meh experience for the recip, that's pretty much the definition of a skill issue.

As a recip, I'd rather have "dutyfic" about something that I enjoy than enthusiastic and inspired fic about something I don't care for. And as an author, I'd rather write something my recip loves than write the thing that's fun for me because I can always write fic for myself on my own time outside of exchanges. If we all just write what we want to write anyway, we can skip the whole exchange thing and write our own stuff.

DC

"I mean, it's telling that the word you're using is "difficult to write" because it's not exactly beating the commissioned fic allegations."

No, it means some writers are more talented than others and don't immediately throw their hands into the air in despair because the recipient asked for these incredibly common tropes when you wanted to write these other incredibly common tropes instead. You can write what you want on your own time. When you sign up for an exchange you are agreeing to try to write what your recipient is asking for. It might not be possible for you because they're DNWing their way into underage noncon or they are asking for cute hair-braiding fluff about two characters you have only ever seen as bitter enemies locked in a spiral of mutual genocide and destruction, and you have to go ODAO because you can't write their prompts. That happens. But balking at basic canon divergence? Astonished that someone wants pre or post canon that ignores the A plot of the canon? Coalie, is this your first day in fandom or something? That's not a commission. That's basic fic skills. If you don't have those, yes, it will be difficult for you to write but that's because you don't know what the fuck you're doing.

+100

CYRT

Oh, for fuck's sake, it's not "telling" that I think you probably shouldn't be writing in exchanges if you can't find a way to keep characters alive, write a divergence for a portion of canon, or not include a juggernaut pairing in your story. These are incredibly common things related to DNWs and I have no idea what you think people should be asking for if you think even these are beyond the pale (I mean, wanting only a certain ending is bog-standard for fandoms, especially video games). You are likely the only person that thinks that having more than a couple of DNWs and a prompt beyond "write me anything" is commissioning fic (also, to cut this off at the pass, I have exactly five DNWs and I give a variety of wide-ranging prompts/likes). And for the record, I will take "dutyfic" that contains at least some of my likes over someone's "inspired" work where I'm sure they had fun writing it (and that's about all I'll say in my comment on it).

I mean, I don't think anyone's arguing that DNWs can get granular sometimes, making a creator feel like they're threading a very fine needle, but again, it's "telling" that for all the pearl-clutching, you still haven't provided any concrete examples of someone who's completely made it impossible to write all but one thing for them.with their DNWs (besides the wanker I mentioned, who was rightfully called out for it and booted). Yeah, no amount of DNWs and details can ensure that you're going to be an id match nor should someone go around expecting someone to read their mind and give them the perfect gift, but most of us who create would like their recipient to enjoy what they get. I know I've written things that I felt were less satisfying to me as a writer solely because I knew my recipient would be thrilled getting it (and they were). It's not "commissioned fic" as you seem so eager to throw around, it's me wanting to make my recipient happy because at the end of the day, it's not about me, it's about them. Otherwise, as coalies pointed out, I could just go write fic on my own.

+100

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