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Gen ficathon - Discuss!
The response to the gen ficathon poll was fantastic -- it looks like there is *definitely* interest in having such a thing.
The big, multi-part question now is how to set it up.
I'm quite happy to run it; I don't foresee the logistics or the amount of work being too difficult, although I might want to bring in another moderator or two just to make it look less like I'm trying to make it all about me, which is not the intent.
As far as timing goes, January or February seems like it would work beautifully; the crush of holiday-season ficathons would be over, the new season would be well underway, and midwinter tends to be a not-so-busy time in a lot of people's lives. The stories could be due by April or May, perhaps to coincide with the season finale (whenever it is).
I really like the idea of posting the stories anonymously and then revealing the authors at the end, and from the poll results, it seems like a lot of other people do too. Anonymous posting puts new writers on the same footing as established ones; it lets the stories stand on their own merits rather than relying on the author's own reputation in the fandom. (As the person who would probably be posting them, I suppose I'm going to need to work out some details, though.) If anybody thinks this is a terrible idea, though, or if you've had bad experiences with this sort of thing in the past, please say something!
We should probably have some kind of prompts or themes, rather than just being a fic free-for-all. The tricky thing here is to ensure that everyone gets something they can work with. I've seen several recent ficathons that have people suggest a list of prompts, from which writers can then pick the prompt they want to write. Another possibility (which I'm totally stealing from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
mcshep_match, a recent slash ficathon) is to use genres ... in that one, they had only two ("romance" and "angst") but for a gen ficathon, there could be several -- some people would be writing humor, others would get action, some people would get friendship or angst or team, etc.
And then there's the question of how long the stories ought to be. Personally, I love the idea of setting a fairly high minimum word count (4000 words or so) to get good, solid, meaty stories, but I don't want to scare off half the participants by making it unreasonably difficult. I do want to set *some* kind of bar for length, though. 1000 words? 2000? Thoughts?
And then there's the tricky question of how to define "gen". Based on the poll results, I'm leaning towards a fairly narrow definition, either "no pairings" or "canon pairings allowed, but only if not the focus of the story". Obviously, this is not to slam anybody's preferences, but since it's meant to be a gen ficathon, I'd like to stick as close as possible to the closest thing there is to a widely understood definition of "gen" in the fandom.
Thoughts? Opinions? Snark? I'm totally open to all input -- mainly, I want this to be *fun*, and as inclusive as possible to the diverse body of gen fic writers (and for that matter, I'd *love* to get some slash/het writers who would like to try their hand at writing gen, too). The absolute last thing I want is for this ficathon to be seen as a slam against the pairing-based ficathons, or to write the rules so narrowly that a lot of fans feel excluded.
The big, multi-part question now is how to set it up.
I'm quite happy to run it; I don't foresee the logistics or the amount of work being too difficult, although I might want to bring in another moderator or two just to make it look less like I'm trying to make it all about me, which is not the intent.
As far as timing goes, January or February seems like it would work beautifully; the crush of holiday-season ficathons would be over, the new season would be well underway, and midwinter tends to be a not-so-busy time in a lot of people's lives. The stories could be due by April or May, perhaps to coincide with the season finale (whenever it is).
I really like the idea of posting the stories anonymously and then revealing the authors at the end, and from the poll results, it seems like a lot of other people do too. Anonymous posting puts new writers on the same footing as established ones; it lets the stories stand on their own merits rather than relying on the author's own reputation in the fandom. (As the person who would probably be posting them, I suppose I'm going to need to work out some details, though.) If anybody thinks this is a terrible idea, though, or if you've had bad experiences with this sort of thing in the past, please say something!
We should probably have some kind of prompts or themes, rather than just being a fic free-for-all. The tricky thing here is to ensure that everyone gets something they can work with. I've seen several recent ficathons that have people suggest a list of prompts, from which writers can then pick the prompt they want to write. Another possibility (which I'm totally stealing from
mcshep_match, a recent slash ficathon) is to use genres ... in that one, they had only two ("romance" and "angst") but for a gen ficathon, there could be several -- some people would be writing humor, others would get action, some people would get friendship or angst or team, etc.And then there's the question of how long the stories ought to be. Personally, I love the idea of setting a fairly high minimum word count (4000 words or so) to get good, solid, meaty stories, but I don't want to scare off half the participants by making it unreasonably difficult. I do want to set *some* kind of bar for length, though. 1000 words? 2000? Thoughts?
And then there's the tricky question of how to define "gen". Based on the poll results, I'm leaning towards a fairly narrow definition, either "no pairings" or "canon pairings allowed, but only if not the focus of the story". Obviously, this is not to slam anybody's preferences, but since it's meant to be a gen ficathon, I'd like to stick as close as possible to the closest thing there is to a widely understood definition of "gen" in the fandom.
Thoughts? Opinions? Snark? I'm totally open to all input -- mainly, I want this to be *fun*, and as inclusive as possible to the diverse body of gen fic writers (and for that matter, I'd *love* to get some slash/het writers who would like to try their hand at writing gen, too). The absolute last thing I want is for this ficathon to be seen as a slam against the pairing-based ficathons, or to write the rules so narrowly that a lot of fans feel excluded.
no subject
The other thing is that with a "pick your own prompt" option, I'd end up signing up to write something and then discover that no-one's written anything that I'd really like to read.
The "pick your own prompt" skews the results in favour of what's popular and provides disincentive for people like me - who have little to no interest in the "popular" genfic (ie. John and Rodney BFF) - to participate.
I don't know that there's a solution to this problem, but it's something to consider. I get involved in ficathons because very few people write the stories I'd like to read unless I specifically request it. (And even then, they usually skip out of writing it.)
no subject
If people not finishing their prompts is a common problem in story exchanges, then it seems like it would be best to avoid that and let people choose their prompts instead. (I've never organized such a thing, and have only ever participated in a story exchange once. Although I did enjoy it, it seems like the possibility for frustration and unhappiness is very high.)
I'm thinking of doing very vague prompts anyway, giving the maximum possible leeway for people to write what they want -- kind of like sga-flashfic does. Flashfic seems to get a nice variety of stories, balanced between gen and slash, featuring a variety of characters; I hope for something like that here ... only, you know, minus the slash. *g*
If you know some other writers who have writing tastes outside the fannish mainstream, maybe you could encourage them to sign up? I would love to see a variety of stories represented. Any large collection of fanfic is *always* going to skew towards the popular types of stories unless the rules are restrictive enough to force people not to write about certain things. I don't wish to do that. However, "John and Rodney BFF" stories are far from the only sort of genfic that's available in SGA, and since there are plenty of writers writing other stuff *already*, I don't see why a gen ficathon wouldn't end up fairly diverse, unless only a few people sign up.