Poll: Yuletide! Yay!

[thefourthvine]

I am very excited about yuletide, and I've been bouncing around like a crazed thing since I signed up. (This is the Anticipation phase of Yuletide. Yes, there are phases of Yuletide. Yes, I have actually written them down. I know, I know, so pathetic, but it's an important thing to me, okay? I was never that excited about the holidays as a kid, but as an adult, Yuletide makes me absolutely delirious with joy.)

Anyway. I deal with the Anticipation phase (This is actually Anticipation Part One, because sign-ups are still open. When they close, I will start hard-core Anticipation. It is dangerous to come within seven feet of me during that time.) in many ways, but in part by refreshing the requested fandoms list, so that I can admire the shiny numbers climbing ever higher. (Plus, this year, there is a festival of gold and green to admire there. You can even see how many people asked for and volunteered for a given fandom. It is the coolest thing ever!)

But the site went down briefly today. Suddenly, I had no outlet for my Yuletide glee. Hence, this poll.

And if any of you have friends listers who are also doing Yuletide, I'd love it if you'd point 'em over here, 'cause I don't know how many of my own friends listers are. (You all should, though. You get a story! In a tiny fandom of your choosing! And you can write a story that will make someone else's heart sing! And this year there is no qualifying requirement! Go, sign up, and then come back and take the poll!)

Yeah, yeah. 'Tis the season to abuse exclamation marks and the Create Poll function on LJ. Happy holidays!

[Poll #855532]

Comments

mass panic and obsessive writing, two great tastes that go great together

[shusu.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one who looks forward to stalking and being stalked? It's the ultimate fandom mixer! Then you scootch into IRC or these storied mailing lists and WOW. Joy everywhere. People you've never met! Panic! It's so heady, and one of my favorite fandom things.

[dhaunea.livejournal.com]

Have you ever written more than one Yuletide story in a single year?

You need a ticky box answer here for 'Yes, because I was blessed to find TWO fandoms from one person that I could write for zomgyay.' or words to that effect.

[babyofthegroup.livejournal.com]

I didn't sign up for any other fic exchanges this year because a) Yuletide can be difficult to write, depending on fandom, and b) my will to write and my inspiration seem to have gone missing.

I have a difficult time picking fandoms to write: there are a lot of fandoms I'd love to *read* in (and, golly, a whole bunch of new ones this year that I'd never even *considered* fic for), but *writing* in them is a completely different story. One of the fandoms I signed up to write for this year has a source material I'm completely intimidated by, but would love to *try* something in that world -- and as much as I don't want Yuletide to be an experiment (for the sake of the recipient, you understand), it can often serve that purpose.

[joey-wheeler.livejournal.com]

Okay so this is actually nightengale, just in the wrong journal. (Brilliant, I know.)


And why I'm signing up for Yuletide when things such as reponding to certain really involved and belated emails hasn't yet happened....is beyond me.

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

Yuletide, for me, is about making myself write at least one piece of fanfiction a year, and having it be something that I would ideally already want to be writing if I had unlimited time.

-J

[bozaloshtsh.livejournal.com]

There are so many talented writers signed up for this big bonaza brimming with... sadly I can't figure out a "b" word that covers holiday spirit. But yeah, I'm excited. I was introduced to several of my fandoms (that eventually became too large for the challenge) via Yuletide fics, and I hope I don't default. I really, really do. I write for a living, and I know how I operate, and I just hope can be a part of something that I've admired for so long. *bites ze nails*

Although, I am really genuinely excited about the challenge. I watch television like nobody's buisness (seriously? it's a disgusting amount), and so much of it doesn't have a large enough fandom to get the sort of exposure it needs for dedicated and well-crafted fanfic. *bounces on her heals*

But yeah. /contains her excitement poorly

[fivil.livejournal.com]

Cool poll. I was one of the, er, around 30 people who didn't offer to write the fandoms I requested so I feel like I should explain that.

My requests are either fandoms I feel incompetent to write or fandoms I have written but didn't feel I did a great job at them. I know the canon of all of the request fandoms, I love the characters, but there's something that makes that somehow impossible for me to work with. Though now in my pre-Yuletide excitement I feel omnipotent and think I could maybe get a good story out of one of my requests but really it's also about getting a different perspective on something. I like my own writing but it's so boring to write stories for myself, because it seems like something I do all the time. I want something new and exciting.

Am so excited for this challenge. Have written 3 NYR stories and one Yuletide story thus far and Yuletide is just overall the best, most inspiring challenge I've written in probably all the time I've known about this fanfiction thing. :D

[triskellian]

The rest of the year, I lurk in fandom. I basically write nothing, and I'm not active in any online fannish communities. My annual Yuletide story is the only fanfic I write, and I love doing it, but it terrifies me, so I'm conservative about the fandoms I offer - I actually started off offering more than three this year, but then I went back and looked at the character lists and made myself paranoid about my ability to write them, so I dropped it back down to three that I'm reasonably confident about. I'd love to throw caution to the winds and just offer everything I've got access to canon for, but I've got college work due during the Yuletide period and I have a tendency to overcommit myself, so I'm trying to be cautious. Next year, maybe ;-)

But, like you, I'm all excited about it now, waiting eagerly for my assignment, and hitting refresh on the requested fandoms page, watching the numbers change on the ones I've offered and requested, and making bets with myself which one I'll end up writing, and which one I'll receive. Yay Yuletide!

[mmebahorel.livejournal.com]

Selecting what i want:

I have one repeat fandom from last year. I decidedly dropped the one I received last year because my present rocked so hard. The other three I requested are brand new, however, and are ones I discovered since last year's Yuletide.

I decided this year that instead of suggesting, I'd see what other people wanted and volunteer based on that. One of my fandoms from last year wasn't on the list this year, and I swapped in another gay canon instead.

Selecting what I can write:

I only select fandoms to write where I know the canon well enough and/or can access the canon in order to write something that doesn't suck. Marginally less nervewracking that way, though I invariably include one fandom where I can't get access to canon and only can sort of write it. Some fandoms I can't select because I haven't consumed all the canon (mostly TV shows that air a season behind in the US). I'll write anything in any fandom I pick, largely because if in a fandom I can really only do a couple of characters, I'll wind up with a situation I just can't make work, and I don't consider the details to be optional. That still gives me 31 fandoms, though, so I'm hardly being stingy.

[lorie945.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to clarify about the offerings -- I only signed up for fandoms where I know the canon and have/can get a phsyical copy of the book/movie/script for reference. I'm VERY worried that the person will request a character I barely remember, but having the material at hand alleviates that fear a bit.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, how come "see results" is set to "none" ? I'd love to see greatest hopes and fears!

[vampedvixen.livejournal.com]

RE: For volunteering, what's your approach?

My approach is to offer almost everything and just hope I can find the canon necessary to complete the request. I mean, if I'm given 3/4 requests, I'm pretty sure at least one of them will be a movie or book. So I'll just go out and find said movie or book, read it/watch it and write something based on it. It's a little more research but I think it helps out the computer matching the moderators have to do if I offer everything possible. I think the only things I kept off the list were things I thought were anime (because its nearly impossible to find anime around here) and book series (because I can't read a whole series before December).

[blueyeti.livejournal.com]

*grin* On the fandoms I offered... I've signed up to two fandoms where I haven't read more than the blurb of the book itself - Anthony Horowitz - The Power of Five, and Diana Wynne Jones - Homeward Bounders. The logic being that DWJ is always fun, and I do have the book, unread, on my bookshelf. The other is because the author always has piles of holes in his stories, so I'm sure there'll be one or two to exploit if it comes to that. And my sister probably wants those books for Christmas, so I can pass them on to her after yuletide stressing. (Horowitz at least was on the 'neediest fandom' list, but there was no good reason for the DWJ.)

[joylee56.livejournal.com]

My volunteer method is a little strange and probably a little hypocritical, but here goes.

I'll do anything that is corporate owned (TV, movies, comics) if it meets a totally unscientific 'know canon' test. Basically I have to be able to remember who all of the characters were, the some of their history and be current on the story. The more recent the stuff the more I figure I have to be up on details.

On the other hand I'll do books by dead authors if I have ever read them and can even remotely remember the plot. As long as I know I can get hold of a copy - library, Gutenberg, Amazon, you name it - I'm good.

But I have qualms about doing fanfic on stuff that is copyrighted by living writers. Somehow it just doesn't feel right to me to use characters from people who are still trying to make a living with them. That said I violate this rule where the living author is using somebody else's stuff -Laurie R King's doing Sherlock Holmes for heavens sake, she's in no position to complain - and for one or two other authors whose stuff I really, really like and who I think would take it in the spirit it's intended.

Makes no sense whatsoever I know.

[pollitt.livejournal.com]

I adore Yuletide. It's when I can, and am *supposed* to ask for those random, five-person fandoms that I have always had a desire to read a story in. And there is something so cool about waking up and reading my story, reading the reaction of the person I wrote the story for, and then the week or two of recs and discussion that happens every year :D

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

I can't for my life do stuff by request or on deadline, really.

I usually beta a few stories, and the year of the Blackout I helped with th emad reuploading etc. And I read the stories.

It's a bit wussy, but I still get to, you know, be there. And it's fun.

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

The first year, I volunteered everything I thought I might possibly be able to write, including books I hadn't read in years, because I wanted to be helpful. The next year I only offered things I was going to be happy to write. Both years, I still ended up writing in tiny fandoms that slipped under the radar... and I'm semi-ashamed to admit that it made my Yuletide experience less happy. It's always sort of nervewracking to watch the initial days of Yuletide reading, waiting to see which stories pull ahead of the pack, and I've been frustrated in the past by stories in "stunt" fandoms that get a lot of attention despite the writing not being as good as some other, lower-profile ones. The popularity game of Yuletide can be stressful.

I know that for most people the point of Yuletide is just to write a story in an unusual fandom... but I've always written stories in non-existent movie and book fandoms, so it's not like I need that excuse. And I have as much fun reading the other thousand stories as I do reading the one written for me. So this year I decided to just to take the pressure off myself and enjoy reading the archive without worrying about writing anything. Also, I discovered the hard way last year that law school finals and challenge fiction don't mix. *g*

[chess]

I once tried to write a NYR story, because I saw one that I thought I could write, but it decided it was finished at 600 words and just wouldn't pad to 1000.