dauntlessshadowice (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dauntlessshadowice) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
yuletide2024-10-10 10:39 pm
dauntlessshadowice) wrote in yuletide2024-10-10 10:39 pm
Entry tags:
Crueltide 2024
Not every story is pleasant. Not every story has a happy ending, and not all happy endings come without a dark and painful journey. And sometimes, those are the kinds of stories that we really, really want to read.
If you're one of the many people interested in either writing or receiving darkfic or horror, then Crueltide is here for you!
The short version
The long version is beneath the cut (actually a details cut, but close enough.)
Because darkfic isn't to everyone's taste. By making it easier to identify darkfic prompts and people open to receiving darkfic in yuletide, we can all indulge our preferences without placing undue pressure on our assigned writers or risking gifting unwelcome fics to our recipients. (And also: the name was the least cutesy of those being thrown around in 2014.)
What is darkfic?
Depends on your definition. But here's a (non-exhaustive) list of darker tropes to get you started:
(White text used as some content may be triggering to some - highlight to read.)
Addiction - Amputation - Animal Abuse - Apocalypse - Betrayal - Body Horror - Brainwashing - Cannibalism - Character Death - Child Abuse - Claustrophobia - Conspiracy - Degradation - Disease - Dystopia - Gaslighting - Hauntings - Humiliation - Hypothermia - Insanity - Invasion of Privacy - Lovecraftian Cosmic Horrors - Medical Experimentation - Mind Control - Monsters - Murder - Mutilation - Non-Con - Paranoia - Poisoning - Prison - PTSD - Sadism - Slavery - Suicide - Torture - Unhappy Endings - Violence
Does a darkfic story have to have an unhappy ending/some other specific trope?
No! Not at all. Just because a story is packed with darkfic tropes doesn't mean there's no light at the end of the tunnel. Also, just because you like one trope, it doesn't mean you like all of them. Feel free to specify your do-not-wants alongside your wants.
Great, how does it work?
-- If you end up writing a darkfic story, just tag it with Crueltide when you upload it to the collection, and that'll help readers find more of what they like. It would also be good to tag any particular tropes you've used, to help readers find/avoid them. That's all you need to do! If your recip requested dark or horror fic but didn't comment on this post, you can still tag it with Crueltide if it fits the theme! The Crueltide tag helps all of us darkfic and horror readers find more things to read. :)
-- If you would like to receive a darkfic story in one of the fandoms you've requested in your yuletide sign-up, you can advertise that here by replying to this post. (The template below is merely a suggestion of what to include - the level of detail in prompts/tropes is entirely up to you. But please do limit yourself to fandoms on your Yuletide sign-up - the Yuletide mods need to be sure you get a fic in one of those, and a treat in an unexpected fandom could make that awkward. )
AO3: ao3 username
Letter: dear yuletide writer (URL)
Fandoms: fandom details here
Happy Endings Preferred?: yes/no/don't mind
Wanted tropes: list any of your favorite dark tropes, themes, or prompts here.
Unwanted tropes: list your darkfic do-not-wants here.
If you want to advertise your requested fandoms as being particularly dark and of potential interest to others, feel free to comment along those lines too.
Alternatively, if you only want your assigned writer to know what you're into, just make a mention of darkfic/crueltide in your optional details as part of your signup.
If you're one of the many people interested in either writing or receiving darkfic or horror, then Crueltide is here for you!
The short version
- Read the comments to find people to treat with darkfic.
- Tag your yuletide darkfic with 'crueltide'
The long version is beneath the cut (actually a details cut, but close enough.)
Why Crueltide?
Why Crueltide?Because darkfic isn't to everyone's taste. By making it easier to identify darkfic prompts and people open to receiving darkfic in yuletide, we can all indulge our preferences without placing undue pressure on our assigned writers or risking gifting unwelcome fics to our recipients. (And also: the name was the least cutesy of those being thrown around in 2014.)
What is darkfic?
Depends on your definition. But here's a (non-exhaustive) list of darker tropes to get you started:
(White text used as some content may be triggering to some - highlight to read.)
Addiction - Amputation - Animal Abuse - Apocalypse - Betrayal - Body Horror - Brainwashing - Cannibalism - Character Death - Child Abuse - Claustrophobia - Conspiracy - Degradation - Disease - Dystopia - Gaslighting - Hauntings - Humiliation - Hypothermia - Insanity - Invasion of Privacy - Lovecraftian Cosmic Horrors - Medical Experimentation - Mind Control - Monsters - Murder - Mutilation - Non-Con - Paranoia - Poisoning - Prison - PTSD - Sadism - Slavery - Suicide - Torture - Unhappy Endings - Violence
Does a darkfic story have to have an unhappy ending/some other specific trope?
No! Not at all. Just because a story is packed with darkfic tropes doesn't mean there's no light at the end of the tunnel. Also, just because you like one trope, it doesn't mean you like all of them. Feel free to specify your do-not-wants alongside your wants.
Great, how does it work?
-- If you end up writing a darkfic story, just tag it with Crueltide when you upload it to the collection, and that'll help readers find more of what they like. It would also be good to tag any particular tropes you've used, to help readers find/avoid them. That's all you need to do! If your recip requested dark or horror fic but didn't comment on this post, you can still tag it with Crueltide if it fits the theme! The Crueltide tag helps all of us darkfic and horror readers find more things to read. :)
-- If you would like to receive a darkfic story in one of the fandoms you've requested in your yuletide sign-up, you can advertise that here by replying to this post. (The template below is merely a suggestion of what to include - the level of detail in prompts/tropes is entirely up to you. But please do limit yourself to fandoms on your Yuletide sign-up - the Yuletide mods need to be sure you get a fic in one of those, and a treat in an unexpected fandom could make that awkward. )
AO3: ao3 username
Letter: dear yuletide writer (URL)
Fandoms: fandom details here
Happy Endings Preferred?: yes/no/don't mind
Wanted tropes: list any of your favorite dark tropes, themes, or prompts here.
Unwanted tropes: list your darkfic do-not-wants here.
If you want to advertise your requested fandoms as being particularly dark and of potential interest to others, feel free to comment along those lines too.
Alternatively, if you only want your assigned writer to know what you're into, just make a mention of darkfic/crueltide in your optional details as part of your signup.
no subject
Letter:https://skazka.dreamwidth.org/180353.html
Fandoms: Asteroid City 2023 (Conrad Earp); George Smiley novels - Le Carre (Dieter Frey, George Smiley); Hannibal Lecter tetralogy - Harris (Will Graham); Strange Angels - Koja (Robin Tobias); Edward Edward - Lolah Burford (Edward Clare Armstrong)
Happy Endings Preferred?: No preference.
Wanted tropes: Ghosts and hauntings; claustrophobia; captivity; body horror; gothic horror; trauma and PTSD; manipulation; surviving terrible stuff and being changed by it; major character death; murder; consent issues and noncon; psychological horror; disturbingly intense interpersonal relationships; trauma bonding; survivor guilt; big spooky decaying houses with lots of creepy rooms; characters coming back from the dead “wrong”; vampires; power imbalances; haunted art; hauntology and the perseverance of historical wrongs into the characters' own present-day.
Unwanted darkfic tropes: noncon resulting in uncomplicated true love or the victim secretly wanting it all along; focus on pregnancy; noncanonical self-harm cutting or scratching; disordered eating; unrequested incest; unrequested CSA themes; explicit sex involving characters under 16; focus on modern-day circa-2024 right-wing extremism/ongoing atrocities.
I'm requesting one honest-to-goodness gothic novel this year (Edward, Edward is equal parts 20th century paperback Gothic and full-blast 18th century bonkers, full of philosophical struggles and incest) and one standalone horror novel (Strange Angels explores obsession, ableism, haunted art and artists, and unreliable narrators with a little lite body horror and the potential for some real mind-melting dip into what lies beyond or maybe above human experience) but darkfic is welcome for all of these. Torment Will Graham! Haunt the hell out of George Smiley! He would not enjoy it! I love all kinds of darkfic, including stories that are just barely touched with melancholy rather than overtly gruesome, and it's hard to beat just a regular old depressing character study -- I'd be happy to read anything you can come up with.