your yulexperience / talking about writing

[morbane]

belatedly -

This is another semi-traditional Yuletide thing: reveals posts for talking about how it went. Did you match on the last fandom you expected? Did you lose the canon you were writing for and need to reacquire it? Did you re-write everything at the eleventh hour? Etc.

(Please be circumspect in discussing a negative experience with your author, your recipient, or someone else. If you have an unresolved issue, mods would like to hear about it at yuletideadmin@gmail.com.)

Otherwise - replies welcome in comments, or you can link to reveals posts you've made elsewhere.

This post on LJ

Comments

[tehexile]

I enjoyed mine a lot, both writing and receiving a gift. I got it done pretty early on.

[primeideal]

Reveals post on DW!

[minim_calibre]

Woo! My post-reveals post exists here.

My authors were all fantastic, my recip was great, and, as usual now, I couldn't have done it without the Discord word wars! I even got to beta read a couple of things! (Which is how I somehow wound up reading both of one person's gifts before they saw them.)

[alexcat]

As usual, I loved it and I';d forgotten what I asked for so my story was surprise and I loved it. I also got an unexlected treat that was delightful as well. MY recipient sent a nice review so I assume they were happy too.

I had to rewatch some movies for mine and that was fun! I usually try to choose fandoms that I know but have not written much in so it's an adventure for me.

[firstlovelatespring]

This was my first Yuletide and I am so beyond thrilled about how it went! The community (mostly re: discord) has been so lovely and always willing to explain things that I didn't get; it was fun to be in a space of writers excited about all the same things as me. I matched on the fandom I was most excited to write, and that was the fandom of my gift as well! My fic was finished with lots of time to spare, and I surprised myself by writing a treat. I am blown away by my gift fic, and by the lovely comments my recipients left on what I wrote. I'm so glad I signed up for Yuletide, and so grateful to the organizers and other participants!

[rosefox]

I got matched with someone I knew, which was both extra challenging and extra fun! I ended up writing two fics to increase the odds of there being one that he liked. 😅

[doranwen]

I spent ages writing my assignment this year - because it ended up longer than anything I have *ever* written for Yuletide before (I basically rewrote the canon - it ended up longer than canon, I really did not expect that), and almost the longest thing I've ever posted. (But it was good! And people—including my recip—loved it! So it was all worth it.) I got so many amazing comments on that fic and the treats I wrote. :D

And I got an awesome gift, and a (very good) unexpected treat, so it was a fantastic Yuletide all around.

[arcanetrivia]

Just curious, what was the fic? I looked at your AO3 page but I'm not seeing something in Yuletide (maybe I'm just missing it).

[doranwen]

It was this fic, for Boxcar Children (modern post-apocalyptic retelling of the story).

[isis]

My reveals post is here.

I had a delightful experience! For the second time in my Yuletide "career" I received a lovely longfic that is the first work on AO3 for that canon.

I matched on two fandoms and wrote a crossover (for the third year in a row), though it's really mostly a story for one of the two fandoms, with a few elements of the other.

I picked up a new canon for a pinch hit, and that was a wild ride!

[rosehiptea]

I had ambitions to write all kinds of treats but wound up only writing a short poem treat and my assignment. Which was a great fandom and prompt so I hope I did it justice. I also had ambitions to start early and finish early but that didn't happen at all. Maybe next year.

I got a really long fic in a very tiny fandom, which was wonderful, and a fic for a song I nominated that isn't even a famous song. I totally wasn't expecting that and it was wonderful too.

[ilyena_sylph]

I was waay too bonkers to sign up, but as per my usual I sat on the pinch-hit list and eventually saw one that was perfectly up my alley.

I don't know if my recip liked it all that much or not, because all I have received is a kudos, but several people loved it very much, and it was a delight to write.

And the amazing and wonderful mtgat grabbed my pinch hit off the post y'all put up for us pinch-hitters and wrote me something absolutely fantabulous.

So yuletide was amazing!

I also had a lot of fun beta-ing.

[hhg]

I enjoyed YT a lot, although I feel kind of bad. I had pretty bad writer's block for most of the period, so I failed to get nearly as much treating done as I would've liked to.

[morbane]

That's frustrating. Congrats on what you did get done.

[implicated2]

This was my first Yuletide in a few years and I very much enjoyed it. I wrote a monotone Catherine (web series) story, Adventure Zone kinkfic, and 17776 fanfic-about-fanfic. Reveals post here.

[moetushie]

I signed up and then defaulted, which made me feel a bit down. But I ended up getting a second wind and writing two pinch hits and two treats. Reveals Post 1 and Two.

[ashling]

A nice first yuletide! I definitely was way too ambitious, so I'm a little sad that I didn't publish half the treats I started, but my gifts were absolutely gorgeous. And as a bonus, my assignment was for a ship that I really like, but the fandom's so dead and old that I wouldn't have gotten anything written about the ship any other way. All told, a good time.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before, To Whatever, and Which Witch?

[innie_darling]

I had a lovely Yuletide, getting two fics and writing three, as detailed here.

[sweetsorcery]

This has been the best Yuletide for me. My two gifts were both delightful.

As for my assignment - oh my. I looked at the requests and Yuletide letters during the signup period and thought, "I really want that one, should I just offer the bare minimum of fandoms for better odds?"

I didn't, because I'd have felt bad about it when I could offer quite a lot, but karma smiled at me like the Cheshire cat: I got THAT assignment. Which was even more fun to write than expected and has netted me some of my loveliest feedback ever: Adonais, Besieged (Romantic Poets RPF)

[kaz_shirakawa]

My first Yuletide!

Of the fandoms my recipient listed, I had only heard of the one we matched on. Another one was a movie which I decided to obtain and watch... and I was a bit surprised that my muse went with that one!

I found it easier to write for that fandom I had never seen before (in connection with the prompts I was given) so I ended up submitting that first, then writing a story in the matching fandom as a bonus treat later on.

And I'm glad that stories are not revealed until well after submissions end: when I saw what others had written, I felt that my offerings were rather lacking, even though I had been reasonably happy about them before! There were some amazing works written!

[blueinkedfrost]

This is my Yuletide experience post! I wrote for Baldur's Gate and The Merry Widow, and received a gift in Heathers.

[hiddencait]

I had an awesome Yuletide this year! I didn't get to write any treats like I hoped, but I really enjoyed the full fill I was assigned, and I was spoiled with not one but two fics for me!

https://hiddencait.dreamwidth.org/2624.html

[vae]

My recip wrote a really lovely letter that gave me lots to go on, and I have no one but myself to blame for not starting writing until the Saturday before reveals. Although apparently that gave the fic lots of time to percolate my brain since it wrote pretty quickly!

I was absolutely thrilled with my gift fic and treats, didn't expect treats at all but was delighted to get them.

And I had so much fun in the discord channels that I've installed the app on my phone.

[lmizutani]

This was my first Yuletide...and my first story posted on AO3. I matched only on one fandom, did a rough draft of a story. That subsequently went out the window (temporarily) in favour of another brainstorm which combined said fandom with a tv competition premise. Thank goodness for word sprints on Discord.

I revamped my original story offering and posting that as well. That story is almost done.

I enjoyed my gift as well - from a fandom I knew from a long time ago.

[rabidsamfan]

It took me forever to finish my assignment. But then I managed to write over a thousand words in drabbles for Madness in the space of three days. So, a pretty good finish for Yuletide. And my recipients all seemed to like what they got, so yay!

[lovepeaceohana]

I had, I think, a rather unique experience this year: I ended up fulfilling the challenge in a fandom my recipient had requested in their letter, but which hadn't actually appeared among their sign-ups. In my defense, my assignment as it appeared on the AO3 was the standard list of fandoms, but the "details" section all pointed to the same letter, so I worked off that as I wrote and totally failed to notice the discrepancy until I began hunting through the all-letters spreadsheet looking for opportunities to write treats. Everything turned out all right though, so, other than that burst of last-minute panicking, Yuletide went really well! And I'm glad to have been able to jump back in for the first time in forever.

[china_shop]

I didn't sign up for Yuletide, but I wrote a treat in Guardian (Cdrama) and a Madness fic in Moonlight Drawn by Clouds (Kdrama), and spent most of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (NZ time) betaing two excellent assignments for friends. So I did get caught up in the whirl of it all. :-)

My reveals post is here.

[nic]

A person I didn't know and I randomly treated EACH OTHER in the same fandom.

I now have a new fandom friend because we obviously think the same. It's awesome! :D

[iomixit]

I really enjoyed it! It was my first year and so I was a bit apprehensive but it was a lot of fun. Thank you so much for organising!

[(Anonymous)]

How long does it take for the mods to respond to email queries?

[(Anonymous)]

Depends on the time of year and the complexity of the problem. Queries sent after January 1 will be read and considered but may not be answered swiftly as it takes more time to get mods together to discuss them. We currently have one DNW issue outstanding in the inbox, and there doesn't seem to be anything in the spam folder. If you think we may have missed your question, please send it again!

[morbane]

(Above reply is me.)

[(Anonymous)]

That is likely mine. Thank you.

Amazing!

[(Anonymous)]

I took a long time writing/programming my gift (it was an ambitious IF project and I'm frankly surprised I finished it!) and many, many people commented on it telling me I did a good job (except my recip, but oh well. you can't have it all.) which was VERY validating! I need to make more interactive fics/games, to be honest.

And somewhat ironically I also received some really lovely IF for one of my most obscure fandoms which was wonderfully crafted. I spent about five whole minutes squealing over it and I still smile every time I think about it. ::hearteyes::

[lyr]

I always write down to the wire, and this year was no exception (posted with 12 seconds to spare!)

But this is the first year that I got my assignment and realized I could actually happily write any of the requests on the list. That was a wonderfully encouraging feeling!

[fhionnuisce]

I missed a lot of signups because I didn't check for stuff in fall (now I know!), so I was a pinch hitter and this was my first year. I'm not super active on Dreamwidth except for checking for challenges/checking a few comms, so there aren't many actual humans reading my DW. So no reveals post, just a summary of where I am at with life and writing after it all went down.

I love pinch hitting and it was very fun. I was glad to be assigned one! I also threw some things at Yuletide Madness.

Overall: very much enjoyed it and being part of it this year. The only weird thing for me was that I had no idea how to get back to the Discord (I was on it a year or so ago? I just really don't understand Discord, despite many years that I was on IRC. lol. I'm silly.)

Anyway it was a lot of fun. I'm still thinking over one thing for a New Years resolution that I didn't have time to write for Madness.... (I just love taking prompts, what can I say.)