anaisonfire

This is mostly to get my thoughts out & coherent. Maybe I'll think of something else while writing it out XD (opinions welcome, one person who's likely to see this and know what i'm talking about)

Okay so. The main problem I have with this is still art. On the one hand, including artists would be a great thing. Many of them in this fandom, obviously. I've even got min reqs (likely, subject to change):

Art pieces must be new and original, i.e. created specifically for the gift recipient. Both digital and traditional art is allowed. Art doesn't need to be fully colored but should look finished - no WIPs! In the case of traditional art, it can't be on lined paper and the quality of the digital picture must not be so bad as to not be recognizable (i.e. no blurry pictures).

Art styles vary a lot so I can't really make it more specific than that but I think it works fine. People can ask if they need clarification lol.

There still remains the question of pinch hitters though. I couldn't do ph art, no matter how much I might want to. I think the only way to get around that is to ask around on tumblr and discord and collect interested parties. I think having 3 or 4 ph for art would be enough. And obviously people will be allowed to be both participants and phs, or just phs if they don't want to participate.

And I'm thinking 3-4 phs for for writing, as well. I'm good but I'm not so good that I could bang out several fics on short notice XD /deliberately doesn't look at the dozen prompts sitting in my tumblr inbox for months

The writing min reqs will mirror the art ones:

The minimum wordcount is 1000 words. All fics must be new and original, i.e. created specifically for the gift recipient. The fic cannot be a sequel to another fic or part of a series or specific AU of yours that the recipient did not request.

Tbh I'm still not sure if I want it to be 500 words or 1000 words. 500 feels like... too little? But then I think about pinch hits and *sweats*. I'm leaning towards 1k for now.

Also people will be able to specify if they'd be open to receiving art, fic, or if either is fine. Pinch hitter would also be good here, in case there's people who I can't match bc of not enough offers. Unlikely, since a lot of people would probably go for 'either is good' (again: so much good art! and who tf joins an exchange if they don't like fic lol). And I can also always ask people if they'd reconsider requesting only one thing if I can't find anyone to write/draw for them.

As for offers and requests, I was thinking of making listing at least 2-3 characters/ships for both categories a requirement but I reconsidered - lots of people are likely only writing for one pairing, and I don't wanna exclude them. (Pinch hitters needed again!) I should also explicitly tell people that if they request, say, "Kerry Eurodyne" they will only get matched with someone offering him as a character and not anyone offering "Kerry/V", so they should be specific about what they want and are offering.

And then you've got DNWs - must remember to explain what a DNW is! And to remind people that if they don't specify a DNW there's nothing I can do about it if they get fic/art they don't vibe with!

I'll also add optional 'Likes' and 'Prompts' sections (this is all happening over google forms, I'm not strong enough to use AO3 for matching). Likes for people to go in detail about what they like, either in general or specifically about whatever characters/ships they're requesting. And Prompts if they've got anything in specific they'd like to see. (Must also remember to emphasize that Optional Means Optional and just bc they prompted/said they like something doesn't mean they'll for sure get that.)

As for dates, I think a creating period of two-ish months (November and December) will be good, especially since there's one month overlap with the Big Bang and December is busy for a lot of people. (Having a wordcount of 1000 words feels better with this timeline, ngl.) Posting will be from the 28th to the 31st (timezone pending decision). I want a long sign up period, so all of October goes to that. I think I'll start advertising/looking for PHs in late August and through September.

Also I should definitely find one or two mods for discord, to help with community wrangling. And also finish setting up the discord itself... Make a logo/profile pic...

Lots of work still! Think this is all though. (Holy shit how did this get so long.)

Did I write all of this out to avoid working on my Big Bang idea or my Press Start assignment? Maybe. Maybe. But hey, Jedi: Fallen Order is downloaded now and I've managed to get a coherent idea for the santa (I keep. wanting to abbreviate secret santa but uhhhhh shouldn't do that lol) down! Productive morning!

THREE posts in one day? What is this sorcery.

Anyway, journaling! Keeping track of things that happen!

A thing that happened is that I put out the word on tumblr that I'd like to make a comm for Cyberpunk 2077 meta & fic - to combat tumblr's atrocious search & tag system that makes it straight up impossible to find things. So much nice meta and fic that never get posted to AO3 and are then lost forever... I must object 😂

So far I have, like, almost 10 people who liked the post (as I said I'm counting likes as interest) and another that responded over discord which is more than what I was expecting (like, 2 at max) so! Tentative success!

Of course, an important part I forgot to take into account while being excited is that I have a zine check in today and an exam tomorrow so uhhh comm's gonna have to wait to be set up 😂