Request details and 'Dear Santa' letters
This comes under the heading of 'things I wish I'd thought of before signing up for the pinch hit list'.
I noticed something about request details and the Dear Santa letters this year for the first time - possibly because this is the first year that I did pinch hitting, and I thought it important enough to state here and ask for thoughts and opinions.
Also, these are my thoughts and opinions and are not to be regarded as any sort of official stance.
I'm one of those people who gives very little detail when listing their requests and my Santa letter tends to aim toward what I don't want or actual squicks. I always figured that it was better to give my Santa as much free rein as possible... and I'm very easy to please, really.
Unfortunately, as I discovered when I went to pinch hit, if you get a request with very little detail and your recipient either doesn't have a livejournal or didn't post a secret santa letter or both, you can end up floundering a bit. Even more difficult were the stocking-stuffers, because often there wasn't enough time to go digging through a stranger's livejournal looking for specific details.
I was lucky enough in the two recipients who did not have livejournals that one had a santa letter she'd given our beloved administrators and the other had put it on her ff.net author profile and provided a link. That made life a lot easier for me, particularly as the letter - in one case - had a very important detail that I'd been missing and one which I couldn't start the story without.
Next year, my requests will have more detail - including the fact that I like slash, het and gen and that I love both plot and smut, but prefer plot-driven to character-driven pieces although I like both. Believe me, having those details would have been a huge blessing for me and I feel like a bit of a heel for not including them in any of my original requests to date.
This leads me to the point of all this. I love the Secret Santa letter post. I'd like to see more people use it and I'd like to see people whose sign-up names don't match their ljs continue to put the name they're listed under on their requests in the subject line. That post saved my bacon more than once, providing detail that kept me from writing something that would have been very much not to my recipient's tastes. However, as not all people use it or even write Santa letters, and as pinch hits get underway (and also stocking-stuffers) time becomes a premium. I'd like to suggest a few things to help those people who might be writing for you but who are not your original recipient and are thus operating under a bit of a time crunch.
1. Provide essential detail in your original request. "No slash, please." "Slash preferred." "Friendship fic only." "[blank] is a squick of mine." "H/C is my big kink." "No smut, please." etc. Not everyone (thinking of pinch hitters and last minute stocking stuffers) is going to have time to look for or be able to find your list of expansions, even though they may try - particularly if it is buried in an lj that is not associated with your sign-up name.
2. When you write a santa letter, providing additional information, be certain that someone coming on your livejournal at the last minute several weeks later can still find it. If you're a frequent poster, you might consider keeping it at the top of your journal or temporarily linking it on your profile page. The best idea, I believe, is still to post it or at least link it from the Yuletide Community Secret Santa Letter post... and be certain that the name you signed up under is in the comment subject line.
3. Also remember that a lot of writers like to read the journal of their recipient in an attempt to get a better feel for taste and style when it comes to reading matter. I found something interesting in the interests lists of one of my stocking-stuffer recipients which, I felt, gave me a really solid base for her story. Have a look at what your profile says about you and your tastes (fanfiction or no). Your communities and interests can also give your santa help and ideas in figuring out what sort of story will knock your socks off, even if your journal is friendslocked.
4. If you have squicks or moral issues with certain things, it's probably best to list them in the original request where they can be seen, recognized and carefully avoided. A last minute writer who has only your original request to go on will be appalled and horrified to discover, after the fact, that they wrote something that upset you. Avoid this by making certain that your squicks are known upfront.
Your writer is only bound to write one of your requests from one of your fandoms and to incorporate the characters specifically chosen. While the rest of your request is optional, most writers want to produce a story that you'll really love... and to do so, they need to know what you prefer and what to avoid. Sometimes this can be conveyed very easily. One of my recipients wrote only 'Friendship fic only, please' and for that fandom and those characters, that's really all I needed to know. In some of the more complicated fandoms, however, the more details you can give, the better.
No one likes to consider the fact that their writer may default, especially after you've poured your heart and soul into a story for your own recipient, but it does happen. Providing as much essential information as you can in an easy to find place and being certain that your sign-up name is clearly attached to it can make a world of difference for the person who picks up the challenge and wants to give you the story that you've always wanted even as time runs out.
... all of that having been said, at nauseating length, what are your own experiences with Santa Letters and specifics - or the lack thereof?
I noticed something about request details and the Dear Santa letters this year for the first time - possibly because this is the first year that I did pinch hitting, and I thought it important enough to state here and ask for thoughts and opinions.
Also, these are my thoughts and opinions and are not to be regarded as any sort of official stance.
I'm one of those people who gives very little detail when listing their requests and my Santa letter tends to aim toward what I don't want or actual squicks. I always figured that it was better to give my Santa as much free rein as possible... and I'm very easy to please, really.
Unfortunately, as I discovered when I went to pinch hit, if you get a request with very little detail and your recipient either doesn't have a livejournal or didn't post a secret santa letter or both, you can end up floundering a bit. Even more difficult were the stocking-stuffers, because often there wasn't enough time to go digging through a stranger's livejournal looking for specific details.
I was lucky enough in the two recipients who did not have livejournals that one had a santa letter she'd given our beloved administrators and the other had put it on her ff.net author profile and provided a link. That made life a lot easier for me, particularly as the letter - in one case - had a very important detail that I'd been missing and one which I couldn't start the story without.
Next year, my requests will have more detail - including the fact that I like slash, het and gen and that I love both plot and smut, but prefer plot-driven to character-driven pieces although I like both. Believe me, having those details would have been a huge blessing for me and I feel like a bit of a heel for not including them in any of my original requests to date.
This leads me to the point of all this. I love the Secret Santa letter post. I'd like to see more people use it and I'd like to see people whose sign-up names don't match their ljs continue to put the name they're listed under on their requests in the subject line. That post saved my bacon more than once, providing detail that kept me from writing something that would have been very much not to my recipient's tastes. However, as not all people use it or even write Santa letters, and as pinch hits get underway (and also stocking-stuffers) time becomes a premium. I'd like to suggest a few things to help those people who might be writing for you but who are not your original recipient and are thus operating under a bit of a time crunch.
1. Provide essential detail in your original request. "No slash, please." "Slash preferred." "Friendship fic only." "[blank] is a squick of mine." "H/C is my big kink." "No smut, please." etc. Not everyone (thinking of pinch hitters and last minute stocking stuffers) is going to have time to look for or be able to find your list of expansions, even though they may try - particularly if it is buried in an lj that is not associated with your sign-up name.
2. When you write a santa letter, providing additional information, be certain that someone coming on your livejournal at the last minute several weeks later can still find it. If you're a frequent poster, you might consider keeping it at the top of your journal or temporarily linking it on your profile page. The best idea, I believe, is still to post it or at least link it from the Yuletide Community Secret Santa Letter post... and be certain that the name you signed up under is in the comment subject line.
3. Also remember that a lot of writers like to read the journal of their recipient in an attempt to get a better feel for taste and style when it comes to reading matter. I found something interesting in the interests lists of one of my stocking-stuffer recipients which, I felt, gave me a really solid base for her story. Have a look at what your profile says about you and your tastes (fanfiction or no). Your communities and interests can also give your santa help and ideas in figuring out what sort of story will knock your socks off, even if your journal is friendslocked.
4. If you have squicks or moral issues with certain things, it's probably best to list them in the original request where they can be seen, recognized and carefully avoided. A last minute writer who has only your original request to go on will be appalled and horrified to discover, after the fact, that they wrote something that upset you. Avoid this by making certain that your squicks are known upfront.
Your writer is only bound to write one of your requests from one of your fandoms and to incorporate the characters specifically chosen. While the rest of your request is optional, most writers want to produce a story that you'll really love... and to do so, they need to know what you prefer and what to avoid. Sometimes this can be conveyed very easily. One of my recipients wrote only 'Friendship fic only, please' and for that fandom and those characters, that's really all I needed to know. In some of the more complicated fandoms, however, the more details you can give, the better.
No one likes to consider the fact that their writer may default, especially after you've poured your heart and soul into a story for your own recipient, but it does happen. Providing as much essential information as you can in an easy to find place and being certain that your sign-up name is clearly attached to it can make a world of difference for the person who picks up the challenge and wants to give you the story that you've always wanted even as time runs out.
... all of that having been said, at nauseating length, what are your own experiences with Santa Letters and specifics - or the lack thereof?