Yuletide query

[heathershaped]

Pardon me if the answers to these questions are easy to find, lol, BUT:

+ Does anyone know when assignments would go out approximately? Because whatever I write will need writing before the 18th due to me not being home between then and Christmas, and if signups were going out Dec 1 or something, that might make things slightly complicated.

+ Relatedly, is it really possible to browse peoples' letters and just write whatever if you haven't done a regular signup - am I understanding that right?

eta: Thanks, Cel and Emei! ♥

Comments

[celandineb]

1) In the past assignments have gone out within 3 days of the close of signups. Which would mean, uh, by next Monday I think since IIRC signups close this Friday.

2) Not really. I mean, you *could* especially now that it's all over on AO3 and you could just post the resulting story, but it wouldn't be properly a Yuletide contribution. If you don't do a regular signup there should be requests for pinch hitters, and then the last couple of days before 25 December there is Yuletide Madness which is meant to ensure that everyone gets a story. But I think what you are thinking of is the New Year's Resolution - in the past all unfilled prompts have been made available, and people write fics to fill them if they happen to feel inspired to. I've done a couple of those.

The old FAQ are here: http://www.yuletidetreasure.org/faq.shtml. Not every detail still applies, but most of it.

[heathershaped]

1) Thank you so much! ♥ I can definitely work with signups going out by early next week or sooner. Now to settle on two more fandoms...

2) Ah, okay, that makes sense.

[celandineb]

The whole assignment process is computer-generated - it wouldn't be possible otherwise! - so it takes less time than for most fic exchanges.

I vaguely remember seeing a post that explained the algorithms once. Complicated! At least to not-all-that-math-savvy me.

[emei]

Assignments should go out on November 20, says the Yuletide profile. http://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2010/profile

I think the idea is that you can browse letters to write whatever as a treat for Yuletide madness, though IDK how uploading it would work if you're not signed up for the challenge proper.

[heathershaped]

AH, thank you! Signups going out on the 20th should be more than enough time.

[sophinisba]

It's been possible to upload stories to the challenge without being signed up since they moved to the AO3 last year. It wasn't possible in the past just because it was too much work/strain on the servers for the mods to add more participants at the last minute.

[sophinisba]

Eh, the mods have said that both browsing letters for ideas and posting fics to the challenge without being a regular participant are okay. Some participants disagree and don't like the idea that some random person might steal their thunder by writing for their assigned prompt.

I tend to agree with the mods' statements that more fics for tiny fandoms are a good thing. I also like the idea that there are lots of different ways of doing Yuletide, including the low-stress way where you can write a story but you're not obligated to. Still, I can see where other folks are coming from. :/

[heathershaped]

Man, is there anything about yuletide that doesn't get wanked about? I don't ...actually mind too much whether people like it or not as long as it's okay with the mods (and my recipient likes it!), haha. But if I can write random my assigned fic, AND write random ficlets for some of the letters I've seen floating around my flist and elsewhere, and do it BEFORE Madness officially starts, that's kind of awesome.

Tonight I have to focus on getting my actual signup done tonight - I hear they take ages for some reason.

[sophinisba]

Yeah, a lot of the work at dark_agenda has been to help people find letters and requests so they can get a head start in writing extra stories before Yuletide Madness. :)