Multi-Fandom Lyric Wheel Sign-Ups
Welcome to the Multi-Fandom Lyric Wheel. This is a story-challenge where each participant writes a story from the criteria given by another participant -- but in this case, what you get given are song lyrics.
Sign-ups are now closed!
The way it works is this:
- Sign up by putting a comment in this post. In your sign-up comment, give your name, email address, fandoms you can write, fandoms you prefer to read and two sets of lyrics.
- Join or friend multific, so that you will receive important notices and reminders.
- I will make the assignments, and send them out individually, so as to keep the assignments secret.
- Each writer works on their assignment, and finishes it by the deadline. They then email it to me, in plain text format.
- I will post the stories in my fiction archive, and make "comment" posts here for folks to comment on the stories.
- Everyone rejoices!
The Rest of the World (Americans, this means you):
(Greenwitch Mean Time)
Sign-ups begin: Thursday 18th January 2007
Sign-ups end: 10pm Thursday 25th January 2007
Assignments sent: Saturday 27th or Sunday 28th
Stories finished: 10pm Friday 9th March 2007
Australia and New Zealand:
(Australian Eastern Summer Time)
Sign-ups begin: Friday 19th January 2007
Sign-ups end: 9am Friday 26th January 2007
Assignments sent: Sunday 28th January 2007
Stories finished: 9am Saturday 10th March 2007
Sign-up Template
Name:
Email:
Fandoms I can write:
Fandoms I prefer to read:
Lyric Set 1: (either the lyrics or a URL)
Lyric Set 2:
Are you willing to write a backup story?
Questions
What do you mean, song lyrics?
I mean, the words of songs. Each participant must bring, as part of the sign-up process, two sets of song lyrics; that is, the lyrics from two different songs. This can either be the full set of lyrics typed in, or a direct link to the lyrics on a particular web-site. There are plenty of lyric sites around.
You cannot just say "Song Title by Artist". You must include the actual lyrics, or a link to the lyrics, when you sign up (as well as the song title and artist, of course!).
Why two sets of lyrics?
So that people can have a choice, instead of being stuck with something that doesn't inspire them, that doesn't fit their chosen fandom(s). Keeping that in mind, it's probably a good idea to make sure that at least one set of lyrics isn't a love-song, since not all fanfic is about "pairings".
What sort of song lyrics?
Any kind. Popular songs, folk songs, songs from musicals -- even opera if you want (though it would be a good idea if it was actually in English). So long as you provide the full lyrics, we're good.
How many fandoms should I list in the "fandoms I can write" section?
A minimum of three one, a maximum of five ten, to make it easier for me to make assignments.
How many fandoms should I list in the "fandoms I can read" section?
A minimum of one, a maximum of ten. Note that if you only list one, then the chances of getting something written in a fandom you like probably won't be that high.
How are the assignments made?
I will look at all the sign-up information, and try to match people by the fandoms they have in common. The fandoms list is mainly to guide me in the assignments; since I expect this to be a small ficathon with not that many participants, it may not be possible to match everyone's fandoms, so it wouldn't be fair to require participants to write in fandoms they don't know.
I will then mail out the assignments to the participants.
Can I tell everyone what my assignment is?
No, they are supposed to be sekrit.
What do I write?
- A minimum of 500 words.
- Try to write in one of the fandoms your requester has requested, but you are not obligated to do so.
- Write a story based on the song lyrics of one of the songs you were given.
- No slash, no real-people-fiction.
- Ratings from G to PG-15. In other words, nothing pornographic or gut-churningly gory, but if it's something they'd do on Buffy, it's okay.
What if I want to quote huge slabs of the song and have my characters react to the song?
Sorry, no can do. If you want to quote one or two lines of the song, that's okay, but the idea is to capture the atmosphere/intent of the song, not regurgitate it.
What do you mean by "no slash"?
No stories with m/m or f/f pairings; this is overridden by canon pairings, where canon is explicit and unambiguous about the relationship, such as Willow/Tara in Buffy. The reason for "explicit and unambiguous" is because people can argue until the sky falls about what is and isn't canon, since three people can look at the same action and one would consider it to be slashy subtext, one would consider it slashy text, and the third would wonder what the other two were talking about.
What about het pairings?
Sure, whatever you want, so long as it isn't above PG-15. Canon or Alternative Universe, just something that fits the chosen lyrics.
What about no pairings at all?
Yes, indeed! Why do you think I mentioned providing non-love-song lyrics? Not everything is about pairings.
What about requests? Isn't that what ficathons are about?
The "request" is the lyrics.
To a lesser degree, the list of preferred fandoms is a request too, but it isn't obligatory.
Because this is non-slash and non-adult, the likelihood of folks writing stuff that hits people's squicks is pretty low, so I don't think it's necessary to have "things I won't write" and "things I don't want".
Can my story be beta-read?
Better ask, "can my story not be beta-read?". Yes, get a beta-reader. I am not going to do any editing whatsoever of these stories.
What do I do when my story is finished?
Email it to in plain text. I will not accept any other format. The plain text can include the usual things like * for italics and # for bold and _ for underlines.
The story must include, after the end of the story proper, the full set of lyrics the story was based on (so that people can admire it properly).
The stories will go up at http://www.katspace.org/fiction/multi_lyric_wheel/ when everyone has their stories in.
Last time I concealed the authors for a week, but this time I'm not going to, because it's more hassle to conceal the authors.
Why plain text format?
I want things in plain text in that format so I have a standard format which will be easy to convert to HTML, and give people the option of having either plain text or HTML versions of the story.
The reason I don't even want things in HTML is that I would, sure as apples are apples, have to spend an inordinate amount of time fixing up the horrible, horrible HTML which MS-Word produces. Better to start completely clean, and require plain text. Even if that requires tidying up (and it probably would, for some people) the amount of tidying up would be smaller, in my experience.
What if I'm late?
Then everyone will be kept waiting. And I will make a list of the delinquents and point to them when people ask "why aren't the stories up yet?"
That's mean!
Yes it is. So?
Edited To Add: Now that I've got myself some software to aid in making assignments, I am lifting the original restriction in the numbers of fandoms required in the "Fandoms I Can Write" section. Now you can have a minimum of one fandom, and the same maximum as "Fandoms I Read" (ten).