Sherlockmas 2012 Information Post
Sherlockmas 2012
A holiday fic exchange for fans of discerning tastes! Who wants socks and bath bubbles when you can receive the gift of Sherlock this holiday season?
Timeline
12 October: Sign-ups Open
2 November: Sign-ups Close
5 November: Assignments Go Out
11 November: Mandatory Check-in Deadline
16 December: Fics Are Due!
17 December: Assignments Go Out to Pinch Hitters
20 December: The Twelve Days of Sherlockmas Begin!
23 December: Pinch Hits Are Due
31 December: Last Day of Posting
1 January: Author Reveals
Participation Requirements
- After sign-ups close, you will be matched by the mods with another participant who requested the sort of fic you offered to produce. (Assignments are secret, so be sure not to give away your indentity before author reveals!)
- 11 November is the mandatory check-in date. Please respond to your assignment e-mail, or leave a comment to the designated post on the comm, letting us know you got your assignment! (Failure to do so means your recipient will be re-assigned to a pinch hitter.)
- You will have 6 weeks to write your fic! It must be at least 1,000 words, and based (to the best of your ability!) on your recipient's sign-up information.
- Fics are due 16 December! If we haven't heard from you by then, your fic will be re-assigned to a pinch hitter.
- Keep the secret of which fic you wrote until author reveals! This means that fics may not be posted elsewhere (even flocked) before the 1 January reveal date. After that date, fics may be posted/archived wherever you like. (Please note that fics will remain on the sherlockmas community website as a part of the fest!)
Signing Up
(See sign-up post for full details.)
- When the sign-up post goes live on 12 October, copy and paste the template into a comment on that post. Fill it out to the best of your ability! Try to be thoughtful about what you'd like to write, and what you'd like to receive.
- You may request any type of fic you like: gen, het, slash, femslash, poly. Any rating. Any pairing/characters. Any kinks/tropes/genres. Crossovers allowed (specify additional canons). The main requirement is that you must request fic featuring characters from BBC Sherlock.
- While we encourage you to request the fic you really, really want to receive, we also want you to be aware of the difficulties of matching you if your requests are very specific! If you have a very specific idea in mind, please provide at least one back-up prompt just in case. (If we're having trouble matching you, we may ask you to provide more information on your sign-up!)
Writing Your Assignment
The following are guidelines, rather than rules. When it comes to writing your assignment, where you go with it is up to you!
The most important thing when participating in a fic exchange is to write a story you're proud of! Let the prompts your recipient provided inspire you, and use that inspiration to write to your strengths. You don't have to include all of the details from their sign-up: most of them are there to provide you with variety, not as a laundry list of elements that must be included in a fic! Pay special attention to your recipient's squicks and triggers, and don't include in your story anything they specified they don't like. (Even as a minor element!) Have your work beta-ed so it's free from grammar and spelling errors. Have fun!
The following are RULES which must be followed:
- No bashing is allowed in any of the fics: of characters, kinks, pairings, whatever.
- Fics should not contain any elements the participant listed as a squick or a trigger.
- Fics should include at least one character or pairing requested.
Turning In Your Assignment
Assignments are due 16 December! Please plan to turn your fic in then. If, for any reason, you won't be able to turn your assignment in by that date, please get in touch with the mods as soon as possible so we can work something out.
Please email finished assignments to: sherlockmas@hotmail.co.uk. Fics shorter than 1,500 words may be cut and pasted into the body of the email. Longer fics should be sent as an attachment in .doc, .rtf, or .txt format only! (Please avoid sending your fic in .docx format, as we've had a lot of problems with those in the past!)
Please include your username and the name of your recipient in the subject line of your email! For example: Sherlockmas assignment by apple_pathways for rachel2205, or gift for rachel2205 by apple_pathways.
Please include this header with your fic:
Author: (your username) (optional: real name, pen name, etc.)
Title:
A gift for: (your recipient's username)
Characters/Pairing:
Category: (Slash, Femslash, Het, Gen, Multi)
Rating:
Warnings: (this space cannot be left blank! Please read our warnings policy, linked below.)
Summary:
Author's Notes: (you may thank your betas/Brit-pickers here, but please note that specific names will be redacted until after author reveals, to avoid giving away the secret!)
(Here's the comm's warnings policy if you have questions about how to warn!)
Posting
Fics will be posted from the 20th to the 31st of December, a few a day, depending on how many participants we have.
Try to read as many as you can, and let the authors know what you thought! Comments are the big pay-off for authors participating in fests, and what makes it all worthwhile in the end. :D
Since who wrote which work will be secret until author reveals, authors wishing to respond to feedback have two options: 1. You may respond anonymously. Anonymous commenting will be enabled, so you can thank your reviewers without giving away your identity! 2. You can wait until after author reveals on 1 January to respond to your feedback with your username.
Author Reveals
Authors will be listed under clever (maybe) aliases until the 1 January, when a list of who wrote what will be posted.
Any questions? Get in touch! PM apple_pathways, leave a comment to this post, or email sherlockmas@hotmail.co.uk.