Yuletide Reveals - Your Reveals Posts

[morbane]

Another Yuletide is over! Talk about what you wrote here, or link to posts on your personal journals, if you have them. What were your setbacks and breakthroughs? What was the research you had to cut out? What was your strategy for offers and requests, and did it pay off? What would you do again?

Comments

[seal_girl]

I've been thinking a lot about the process of writing this year and I have a question.

I deliberately didn't join in with the main sign-ups this time around, but I pinch-hit.
In previous years I've pinch-hit and written a main assignment. I was looking back at these and I decided that the pinch-hits that I wrote in two days were fics that I like better than the ones I had months to fret about and faff around with.

Does that happen to other people?
If it does, why do you think it does?

And happy New Year!
-x-

[dragonbat2006]

I find I generally take a pinch-hit only if, within a minute or two of seeing the prompt, my brain comes up with a solid idea of what to write. When I get a main assignment, it's more like, "Hmmm... Okay, we match on this fandom, yeah these are good ideas, I should be able to do something with them. Think." But I generally need to mull things over for a couple of days before something starts to gell.

Maybe it's psychological. When I get handed an assignment, there's a tiny bit of coercion, in the sense of "Here's what you have to do by deadline. You can't change your recipient/fandoms/prompts; it's this list... or default (not something I've had to do, yet, thankfully!)." When it's a pinch-hit I volunteer for it on the spot. It's not, "I don't know who/what I'll be matched with, but I hope I can do it," it's "Wow, that's an awesome prompt. I'd love to do it!"

Not sure how much sense I'm making, but it's a theory.

[seal_girl]

Hi Dragonbat!

Like that theory - There is much more of an element of choice with a PH, isn’t there. We look and say “Yay! There’s fun to be had!” when we see one we like.
With the main assignment we don’t have that choice as we are given what we’re given.

And did you used to visit the Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon fandom? I’m sure I recognise your name?

[dragonbat2006]

Yup! That was actually the fandom I wrote this year's assignment in, too!

[seal_girl]

Nice!
I've not dropped by DDC fandom for ages. :D

[dragonbat2006]

Generally, Yuletide gets me out of my comfort zone a bit. I tend to write in larger fandoms (Batman previously, now OUAT). Yuletide is about, "Try your hand in something different for a change!"

[seal_girl]

That's exactly what YT does - and people always produce amazing things that are unexpected.
And in Madness and as treats different people use the same prompts in different ways - its cool :)

[choirwoman]

What dragonbat said. I took three pinch hits and every one of them was easier than my assignment, even though I'd prayed to get that assignment and went through the roof with squee when I got it.

[seal_girl]

It's weird, isn't it.
Maybe we all just overthink. With assignments I get caught up in the squee of it all, with PHs I just write, write, write and something (generally) okay comes out the other end!

[fhionnuisce]

Somewhat. I usually PH but I signed up this year. I found that I fretted a lot about the longer time period (moreso than really worrying about my assignment itself) and was a bit more stressed out as the time dragged on. I'm a natural PHer, in that various things have taught me to write quickly, and I think I got more engagement on my PHs in past years. That said, I had a lot of fun this year in madness (usually for people who ended up on the PH list. I do feel like my PHs are strong in general, and they're really fun. But I agree with the person who said I only take one if I have an immediate idea.

I think in future years I'll probably end up signing up, because at this point I have a lot of ideas for what to request. It does depend a little bit on what happens in other exchanges though, but now I no longer worry about how I might not get to 6 requests or whatever else. I might do my signup differently though.

[seal_girl]

Hi fhionnuisce,
PH and madness are always a lot of fun, as people see thing that they want to do and just jump straight in. Most of the fun comes from writing things that other people will enjoy rather than getting a present.
When I have more time, I think I faff and overthink. And stress!!

[fhionnuisce]

I so agree! I do really want to get some rare fandom fics now but I'll have to see if I just PH next year or sign up, when we get closer to October. :)

[razia]

I've never pinch-hit, but I wrote a treat in 2020, and for me at least, treats and pinch-hits have less pressure. Also, since we usually have less time for those, I also have less time to worry about the story, and consequently am able to just sit down and write instead of editing and editing and editing it until it looks worse than before xD

And what other people have said as well: you usually grab something because it immediately sparks an idea, which doesn't always happen with an assignment.

[seal_girl]

"...until it looks worse than before" - I'm guilty of doing that, and the idea that you loved so much gets squished and then you wonder why on earth you started it in the first place!

I think choice and time are big factors in whether pinch hits are successful.

[trialia]

Idk if it's worth anything to say it, but this tends to be how I end up writing my assignments, within the last week before the deadline. I think it's part procrastination and part that I write better under certain kinds of pressure. *shrugs cheerfully* One of my best stories was a pinch-hit, too.

[seal_girl]

It's often how I end up doing the assignments too - but I think I have over-thought it and by the time I write it out it never sounds as good as it did in my head.

[gingicat]

I defaulted last year, so I had to write a pinch hit.

I ended up grabbing a Murderbot prompt three? days before the collection went live. I really loved writing it.

However, at some point my friends will look and go "if it's an epistolary pinch-hit, it's probably tigerbright" so I should probably find another strategy for writing quickly ;)

[primeideal]

My reveals (FAQ: Snake Fight Portion..., Quatrevingt-treize, Blade Runner, Remembrance of Earth's Past, Wheel of Time)

[carbonel]

Heh. I read all of the Snake Fight stories before the reveal, but I noticed (mostly because of your icon) that you were assiduous in commenting, so it only makes sense that you wrote one of them, too. In fact, I suppose I could have inferred you were the author of that one by the lack of comments from you at the time I read it, but I didn't.

The stories varied a lot, but were all enjoyable.

[likeadeuce]

My reveal post in which I muse about how 'Footloose' and 'The Breakfast Club' are alike + different and what a fun challenge it was to cross them over.

[lannamichaels]

My reveal post about the 5 fics I wrote: 2 in Jonathan Strange & Mister Norrell, 1 in Superstition Hockey, and 2 in Barrayar fictional TV show.

[rachelmanija]

My Reveals Post.

I wrote six stories in Iron Fist, New Mutants, The Sandman, The Secret Garden and the You're Wrong About podcast.

[dragonbat2006]

My reveal post. All about writing my D&D Cartoon fic.

[estirose]

My reveals post! I wrote 9 fics in the following fandoms: 3 for Epistory - Typing Chronicles (one of which was IF), 2 for Slime Rancher, and 1 each for My Time at Portia, Lemmings, Chip's Challenge, and Xenogenesis series - Octavia E. Butler.

[thisbluespirit]

My stories were in very obscure fandoms, but I have reveal posts if anyone else should be interested:

The Treats - in Hammer Horror & Upstairs Downstairs
The Assignment - Dracula (1968).

[fresne]

My Reveals Post. I wrote 7 stories for yuletide this year:
1 assignment Murderbot, and 6 treats: two Gilgamesh, Phrygian Lore, Hymns to Aphrodite and Hymn to Demeter (okay so 3 Greek lore), 1001 Nights, and Slavic Lore with Baba Yaga.

[calliopes_pen]

My reveal post is here, and my longer commentary post for what I wrote is here. I wrote one story for Dracula - Bram Stoker.

[luthien]

There is a VERY long story behind the story that I wrote for Yuletide this year. The fandom is Friday's Child - Georgette Heyer, and you can read about it here.

[choirwoman]

My reveals post (I prefer to call it "brag post"). 14th century religious women RPF, Winnie-the Pooh, Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, Monstrous Regiment, Uhura's Song (drabble series), Magids series, Derkholm, Young Wizards (drabbles).

[sea_changed]

My reveals post; I wrote two fics, for the Lord John series and Society of Gentlemen.