Dreams and Swords

A multi-fandom, low-pressure gift-giving fest. Ask for up to ten things from whatever fandom, then trawl through the list to see if there's anything you think you can fulfill. No minimums, no maximums.

Remix Redux 2011 is open for sign-ups, and AtLA is on the qualifying fandoms list. This is something I've always wanted to play with, and it is so very very tempting.

But I've got a Big Bang, five auction fics, and atla_crackfic to write. The Remix does not allow extensions. Spyri has already given me an extension on the crackfic that I'm going to need. My auction winners are probably getting impatient, since most of them won their fics in 2010. My Big Bang needs all the time I can devote to getting words onto page. Work is basically burning me out.

However, sign-ups don't close until the 19th. So if my schedule for week after next looks more sane, I will strongly consider signing up. I wanna play with this so badly.

On the other hand, the lack of a clear fic index anywhere may stymie me. Unless I can figure out how to make a URL that covers multiple LJ tags and/or they'll accept my FF.Net profile.

atla_valentines are up!

Go here and post some anonymous valentines for your fellows in the AtLA fandom!

Here's how this works:

1. Choose as many people as you want from your fandom. Write a sentence or two about how you feel about them. It could be as simple as "you always make me smile," or "I love your icons." Just something you would like to tell them.

2. Post your list here. You have until midnight (US Eastern time) on February 13th to send them in. No exceptions. You can post anonymously or not; no posters will be revealed and comments are screened.

3. On February 14th, a list of all the people who received comments and the comments they received will be posted without revealing who sent them. Hopefully, you will wake up on Valentine's Day to all kinds of anonymous love!

Please make sure the LJ names are correctly noted!

Water-Tribes-Unite does not accept slash or femslash art.

This would not be a problem if they had actually said so upfront.

atla_crackfic sign-ups close on Friday! If you're interested in getting a special bit of fic on your favorite rare or crack pairing written just for you (and are willing to write for someone else), sign up! The minimum is only 500 words, and the mod is doing her best to get everybody sorted so we've all got options to write pairings we like or at least don't actively dislike.

Rules

FAQ

Timeline

Sign-Ups

1) I had to stop reading sign-ups on atla_crackfic because of people's amazing abilities to phrase things in ways that make me want to gnaw their face off. That said, y'all should still sign up because it looks like it'll be pretty awesome.

2) Cinnamon + cayenne truffles are fucking delicious.

Person A: "I'd really like to read more of X, but it is almost impossible to find in fandom."
Person B: "Then write it yourself."

Ignoring the assumption Person B has that Person A is a writer at all, the joy one gets from writing is not the joy one gets from reading. If I want to go read Jeong Jeong/Piandao, going back to read my own writings is not going to satisfy me as much as finding something new. Writing new Jeong Jeong/Piandao isn't going to satisfy my urge to read it at all.

Equally frustrating is the assumption that writing a certain pairing or scenario will encourage other people to write it, thus creating more for you to read. Ten years experience in writing fanfiction says no, it doesn't work that way.

To illustrate, here are my personal instances where it did work that way:
- My Drago/Jade story came in just the right time in the Jackie Chan Adventures fandom to be a game-changer in terms of pairings. Sadly, I wrote it solely because I had a cool idea and not because I wanted to read more Drago/Jade.

- My constant championing of Motormaster/Silverbolt in Transformers has led to a handful of stories from people who've never met me involving the two of them.

Ten years, and it's happened all of twice. In neither case did it produce a substantial number of the kinds of fics I wanted to read. This is not a good return-on-investment in terms of time and enjoyment.

My experience in fandom has been if you want something off the beaten path in terms of pairings or ideas, you are pretty much shit-out-of-luck. There may be a handful of people writing what you want to read, there may be a limited number more of people who would come in if they heard of the concept, but the big fandom pairings/ideas are always going to be the ones getting the most time, attention, and stories.

This has probably contributed to why I hardly read fanfiction anymore, in all honesty.

dark_puck is doing a Wild Hunt AtLA meme. It's awesome. Go over there and make requests.

As a moderator on atlaland, I am sometimes called on to make mod's choice awards. When crystaldrake is running the voting, this is easy. I give her my top three choices, she goes down the list and grabs the first one that didn't place.

When I run the contests, on the other hand...

Me: "Okay, here are four of them I really like that didn't place. Friend! Which one should I pick?"
Friend: "I like these two best of those four."
Me: "Excelente! I shall get a coin! Heads, it goes to this one, tails, it goes to the other one."
*the coin is flipped*
Me: "Heads it is! :D"