Nominations are what you want to read? What you want to write? Are there prompts? WHAT?

[amanuensis1]

For some reason, I am incapable of understanding the way yuletide works.

Every year I mutter, "Maybe I should sign up for that," and every year I share my mutterings with people and am met with, "Oh, it doesn't work that way." So is there someone out there who, rather than saying, "The rules are distributed over these nineteen pages" can summarize the process in, say, something like three long bullet points of text stating, "Go here, do this, be sure not to do this, and your obligation will then be to do this by this time in this way"?

HELP MY TINY BRAIN.

Comments

[nimori.livejournal.com]

Are you on? I can walk you through it.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

It's really very simple! There are just three things to do:

1.) Nominations! This part is entirely optional! From now till Halloween, if you want to, you can nominate up to six fandoms that you'd like to see represented in some way: things you want to read, things you want to write, things you just think someone ought to be writing even if it's not you.

2.) Sign-ups! This will happen after Halloween. You don't have to have nominated anything to sign up! You can just choose from among the 1600 fandoms that other people will have nominated. You can request up to four fandoms, and offer to write in as many as you like.

3.) Writing! You get an assignment after signups close-- it'll be sometime after Election Day. You'll have until a few days before Christmas to write your story and post it. You can stalk your recipient and see if they have any additional requests or preferences, but you don't have to.

And then on Christmas morning, everything goes live and we all rejoice. It's easy! It's the best thing there is about Christmas! You should do it!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

This is a NICE summary! One offers to write in as many fandoms as one likes, but does one specify what one wants to write? (Like, do I say I'll write certain pairings, won't write certain pairings, etc.?) Does one get an assignment for every offer one has made?

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

You can request specific characters-- not pairings, just request that those characters appear-- and you can restrict your offer to specific characters. There's also an optional details section of the request, in which you can specify smut or gen, or give prompts, or even outline a whole plot, but writers are not bound to honor anything except the requested characters; the only hard-and-fast rule is that that the story has to be in on time, at least 1000 words, and must contain all the characters requested.

Of course, most people do honor their recipients' details, and even stalk their journals to find out what sorts of fic they like. But it's not required.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

the only hard-and-fast rule is that that the story has to be in on time, at least 1000 words, and must contain all the characters requested.

Oh, that's good to know!

I'm honestly more interested in the writing than the requesting, so it's not a problem in that direction.

[franzeska]

But the stalking is the good bit! Fie on people who don't have unlocked ljs! :-D

[sophinisba]

You can offer as many fandoms as you like and will just get one assignment.

For each fandom that you request or offer to write, you can specify one or several characters or "any" if you are open to any characters, and that will affect how the assignments get assigned. If you say "any" in your offer to write, you might well get a request for a pairing you wouldn't have thought of writing.

Filling out the form is a little tricky but the fest is all kinds of awesome. I think you'll have a good time if you join in.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I better specify the characters, then. ^_^ Thank you!

[florahart]

To an extent: you can offer up to a certain number of characters you'll write (so as to not make the programming completely impossible). You will get at least one match of something you said you would write with one of the requests the requester made.

So, like, you offer to write the aforementioned Newsfic, Jesse's Girl, Scarecrow and Mrs King, Garfield, and Toy Story. You MIGHT get someone who requested four of those, and then you would be lucky and get to pick. Or, you might get someone who requested M*A*S*H*, Garfield, Stone Soup, and the Mary Tyler Moore Show. You COULD see the MTM prompt and go OH I like that even better! and write that even though it wasn't your match, but you would only be guaranteed one match, which you got.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's TERRIBLY valuable info; what a great illustration, thank you.

[florahart]

Er.

You sign up when it's time (not yet), and then after signups close, you get a set of 3-4 assignments of which at least one will match what you said you could do. And then you write that, and upload it by the deadline. There will be about 5ish weeks.

Do you want me to poke you when it's time to sign up?

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

But what's up with the nominations? Someone said once someone nominates one it's taken down? As in, ineligible? What?

[florahart]

No, it's not.

It's made note of. Taken down. Written down. Every fandom that gets nominated on your final list of six is on the eventual list of possible fandoms. However, if you pick six, then redo and pick a different six, your first six will only be on the giant list if someone else nominated them.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, vastly different interps of the phrase "taken down"! Thank you!

[florahart]

Oh, also.

Nominations are not a part of the sign-up process, technically, but if there is a/some fandom(s) you want to be really sure you get to ask for fic in, you should nominate them. The list of fandoms on the nomination page can be added to, and as long as this is not a fandom that is excluded (because it is non-tiny), it's okay.

So, like, if I really wanted to read, um, Mike Wallace/Paula Zahn/Dan Rather porn, I would first look in the ginormous list in the fandom pull-down to see if I could find a "RPF - News Anchors" fandom or similar. If not, I would make one, consistent with the format there. Then, after submitting that, I would populate or add to the characters list for my (new, if I just added it) fandom; I might possibly also throw in Katie Couric and Ted Koppel just to add flexibility, though not if I don't think I would ask for them ever.

Then, when it was time, I would make one of my requests be for RPF - News Anchors, and specify the fic had to include Mike, Paula, and Dan. This wouldn't guarantee I get porn or a threesome, and since I have to give at least three requests and I only get one back, wouldn't guarantee newsfic, either; I might have another of my requests be the one that matches the author who gets it.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

This wouldn't guarantee I get porn or a threesome,

But...but that's tragic. *sobs*

[exbentley]

When requesting;

You pick a fandom. The main characters for the fandom you choose from the list which appears by holding "ctrl" when you click them. Then there is a text box to give extra details; it's actually ENTIRELY OPTIONAL for the writer, but people are so thorough as to go to the person they're writing for's LiveJournal and check for extra detail, so feel free to be spare; pairings, scenarios, prompts, kinks, etc. This is all fairly standard. You do this four times, preferably for four different fandoms.

When telling them what you will write for, once again you go through and select fandoms. Once again, the list of characters is available for you to pick (who appears there is all decided during nominations)

Picking the "Any" option available in a fandom with only say, Harry, Draco & Snape, would mean you're saying, I don't mind writing requests for Harry/Draco, Harry/Snape, Draco/Snape, Harry/Draco/Snape or fic about any of those three alone. If you just want to say you'll write for Harry/Draco and Harry/Snape, you would select Harry Potter, then Harry and Draco. Then select Harry Potter again and select Harry and Snape.

Offering is a long tedious process, and it's often better just to go through and look for minor fandoms you know than scroll through waiting for ones you're willing to write for. Also, Murphy's Law states that the fandom you are most concerned about selecting (Did I really just click 'Enid Blyton'? Oh well, I've read all the books and no-one will want fic anyway...) is one of the fandoms you will end up with.

You have to select more than four fandoms. In return, you get someone else's request; the four you filled out go on to someone else. You may have requested fic in say (pretend it's not Yuletide and major fandoms are allowed) SGA, Death Note, Harry Potter and Loveless. However, your writer has only offered to write SGA and doesn't know any of those other fandoms. There only needs to be one match, there's no guarantee the other three requests will be fandoms you even recognize.

But then, that's the fun of Yuletide; trying new things, discovering new canon, writing for characters you would barely think about otherwise, scrambling for the deadline, discovering virtue in new pairings and always the joy of giving someone something they could have received nowhere else.

If it really does seem like way too much hassle for you, there is usually a pinch-hit mailing list to cover dropouts, and unfilled requests are thrown out to anyone and everyone over Christmas in "Yuletide Madness".

Some final things:
- Everything's anonymous until the Christmas deadline.
- Failing to produce a fic can get you banninated from future Yuletides.
- There are a lot of people available for hand-holding, walking through uploading a story, or anonymous beta-reading over at yuletide; make use of them!


...I hope this didn't tell you anything you didn't already know.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's AWESOME. Thank you. No, this is exactly the level of tailored-to-me detail I needed. Thank you so much!

One other thing: Must one request? Can one decide to offer only? That is, say, "I'll write in any of these; no one has to write anything for me, thanks"?

[exbentley]

You're welcome!

I don't know; it's not really covered in the FAQ. I think, because the actual sorting is done by some strange and marvellous code/program which matches everyone up, the answer might be 'no'. You'd definitely have to ask. Though I do know if you join the pinch-hit list, you get to reply and say "hey, I'd like to write that one" without having anything written for you.

[ishafel.livejournal.com]

I think that would probably cause something to self-destruct. BUT, you could sign up to pinch-hit (there's a Yahoo group, IIRC) and then volunteer if you can write any of the pinch-hits. They are posted to the Yahoo group as they occur, so one at a time until the deadline when there are like a hundred. And the first person to reply to the email gets the pinch hit.

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

As others have said, you can join the pinch-hit list and offer to write stories where the original assignee defaulted. The downside of this is that 1) you have less time to write, sometimes as little as three days, and 2) you might not get assigned a pinch-hit. In the oddness and wonder that is Yuletide, there is actually competition to get pinch-hit assignments. Assignments can be snapped up in less than five minutes.

[franzeska]

Also, after this year's yuletide is over and author names are revealed (they're hidden Christmas-New Year's or so), you can write New Year's Resolutions fic, which means you write a story for an unfilled prompt (each participant makes 3-4 requests and gets 1, leaving 2-3 per person). So if you just want some interesting prompts, you could always check back in January.

[ausmac.livejournal.com]

I dont fully understand it either. I signed up but I couldn't see any option to request slash or het or gen or whatever, just the fandoms and the characters you wanted written. So I just put in the characters and hoped for the best. *shrug* first time for me, so I guess I'll find out how it works.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, good, we can be newbies together! :D

(Actually, you can read the comments on this post; they help a lot.)

[sophinisba]

What's going on now is just the fandom nominations process. Actual signups will be in November and at that point besides requesting characters you can request extra details like a specific situation or how porny you want it to be. Most writers will do their best to put in whatever your request, and they might stalk your journal looking for extra clues as to what you might like. But by the rules they're only obligated to write at least 1000 words about the characters you requested. :)

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

Just to emphasize, you can specify the characters involved and state in the details that you'd prefer slash/gen/het, rating, etc., but your assigned author isn't obligated to follow the details, only the characters.

To use florahart's example, you could make a request of
Fandom: RPF - News Anchors
Characters: Mike Wallace/Paula Zahn/Dan Rather
Details: I really want hot porn between Mike and Dan while Paula watches.

Most authors will try to write what you asked for. But the person assigned to write for you might only write gen or het. If they write a gen story with Mike, Paula, and Dan arguing about the economic crisis, that's what you're going to get, and it (technically) satisfies all Yuletide requirements. And, just like with Aunt Emma's itchy sweaters, you're expected to thank the giver and be polite.

Similarly, you might prefer to write slash but be assigned to write for someone who includes the detail "No slash." If that happened, you certainly could write slash anyway, without penalty. But it would be nicer to try to write what your recipient wants.

The best thing about Yuletide, of course, is that you get everyone else's presents as well as your own. If your own gift is a clunker, you can console yourself with one of the other 2000 stories. And it takes a little of the pressure off you as the writer knowing that your recipient has other options if your story isn't to their taste or isn't the best thing you've ever written.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I can see why the requirements/restrictions are few--makes it easier to write if the author doesn't have a million "No this, no that, no these, them, and those" that must be followed. Thank you so much for all this detail!

[luthien.livejournal.com]

Thank you for asking this. I've never taken part in Yuletide before but I've been considering it this year - the proviso being that I could work out how the hell it worked. *g*

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Everyone's been so helpful! I may give it a go. ^_^

[hpstrangelove.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you asked about this; I'm actually considering doing this, now that Anne P has gotten me hooked on Alex Rider. I also started reading another series by Anthony Horowitz (Gatekeepers), so I could include that one too.

Now I guess I have to decide on another two at least? Sounds like fun.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

DOOOOOOOOOO EEEEEEET.

[hpstrangelove.livejournal.com]

You are an enabler!

But I entered my nominations: Alex Rider, Gatekeepers, Life tv show (I just fell in love with Damien Lewis after watching him play Yassen in the Alex Rider movie), Life on Mars UK (I figure that's a fandom I know and could probably write in), and I added the Diamond Brothers (another Anthony Horowitz series) and the Young Bond series.

I guess there is just something that appeals to me about teen-age boys being in peril!

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

Gatekeepers.....I tried to watch that. I was actually kind of excited about it, and then the first two eps really dragged. Should I give it another try?

[hpstrangelove.livejournal.com]

Ack, sorry - I was using the Americanized name for the series. It really should be Power of Five and it's another book series by Anthony Horowitz.

Gatekeepers - the anime? I've not seen it. It looked interesting though.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, the anime. It was decidedly NOT interesting. It reminded me of a boring cross between ROD and X.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, part of the fun seems to be looking for the obscurer fandoms!

[melpemone.livejournal.com]

Looks like you're covered with the rules-explaining - never fear, I was incredibly confused as well, until I finally had the patience to sit down and read very carefully through the rules (which took me, I believe, three years to get around to doing - I really should have just asked :D). Last year was my first Yuletide, and the handholding and encouragement was completely wonderful - I ended up writing my fic in one marathon session just before deadline, with the IRC chatroom open in another window, filled with people cheering us on. It really is brilliant fun.

Summary: Do Yuletide!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I may! The word requirement seems reasonable (though knowing me I'll be bunnied for a 30,000-word monster). ^_^