Summary & Genre Feedback

[longficmod]

Hey, everyone! Hope you’re as excited about this as we are. Nominations open on 7 February, just a couple of weeks away.

Before we kick things off, here’s a quick summary of how the exchange will work. We’ll give more information on each step of the process later on.

Questions can be left in the comments or sent to fandom5kmod@gmail.com.

Tags for Matching:

Matching will be done by fandom, character/relationship, and (hopefully) genre. We’ll use the Character field in AO3 for individual characters (Character A), gen relationships (Character A & Character B), and ships (Character A/Character B). We’ll use the Additional tag(s) field for genre. More on how the genres work below!

Nominations: Select up to 4 fandoms and 4 character/relationship tags per fandom. Genre tags will not be open to nominations, though we are taking feedback on those now--see below.

Signups: Request a minimum of 4 fandoms, with at least 1 character/relationship tag and 3 genre tags per fandom. Offer a minimum of 5 fandoms, with at least 1 character/relationship tag and 3 genre tags per fandom.

Genre:

We’ll try to match based on genre, but if that results in an unmanageable number of initial pinch hits, we’ll just match on fandom and character/relationship. AO3’s matching functionality will still prioritize offers and requests that share genre tags, so hopefully most of you will be assigned to someone requesting a genre you offered, and if not, you’ll at least have a better idea of your recipient’s tastes.

Because we’re not guaranteeing a match based on your genre selections, you will not be required to write a fic in one of the requested genres, though you’re certainly encouraged to do so!

We’ve defined a list of fifteen genres that we hope are specific enough to give some sense of your tastes in fic without being so general as to be meaningless. We want a good range of options for individual characters, gen relationships, and ships.

• Darkfic
• Angst
• Hurt/Comfort
• Fluff
• Getting Together
• Established Relationship
• Smut
• Canon-Style Plot (casefic, etc.)
• Worldbuilding
• Mundane/Modern AU (coffee shop, high school, etc.)
• Genre AU (historical, space opera, fantasy, etc.)
• Action/Adventure
• Interpersonal Drama
• Bildungsroman/Character Development
• Slice of Life

This is one area where we’d like some feedback. Did we miss anything obvious? Do these need additional clarification? We’re hoping to keep the list near this size.

We discussed canon-divergence AUs but decided that genre doesn’t give a good sense of the “feel” of a story, since it could either be a fluffy fixit divergence or a horrific apocalypse scenario. Feel free to request those in your optional details!

Defaults and Mandatory Check-In:

This is important, so we’ll include reminders as these dates approach.

Midway through the writing period, we’ll have a no-fault default deadline. You may default without penalty up to 1 April. Defaulters after that date will be required to fulfill their assignment if they want to participate in the next round.

On 2 April, we’ll make a post here with comments screened, and you’ll have until 8 April to leave a comment confirming that you’re still committed to the exchange. After 8 April, anyone who has not checked in will be defaulted automatically.

Explanations and Feedback:

Most of these decisions were made because 5,000 words is a big commitment, and we’re guaranteeing a story of that length for everyone who fulfills their assignment. We want to keep initial pinch hits low and, in the event of defaults, give pinch hitters more options to choose from.

To do that, we could either increase the number of fandoms required or the number of character/relationship tags per fandom. We’ve decided to try a slightly higher number of fandoms but only require one character/relationship tag in each. We’ve also instituted the mandatory check-in period to give pinch hitters as much time as possible.

We’ll see how the first round works with these rules, and then we’ll consider changing things up for the next round based on how smoothly this goes and on your feedback. Keep an eye out for a feedback post after reveals!

Note that we’re still finalizing the list of genre tags, though, so please review that section and leave a comment if you have suggestions!

Comments

[muccamukk]

Could you add Canon-Divergent/Turn Left AU as a category? ETA: Sorry, I missed the line. I'd still find it more useful than say "fluff", but will include it as optional.

I know this is picky, but would you mind not hard-coding the font? It shows up as black on dark grey on my feed.

[longficmod]

Oops! Sorry about the formatting--that's what I get for being lazy and pasting into the rich text editor instead of doing my own html. It should be fixed now.

We left Canon Divergence AUs out of the initial for the reason mentioned above, but we can reopen that discussion, particularly if others would find the addition useful. We'll keep you updated as we finalize the list!

[muccamukk]

Honestly, I'd rather have mandatory prompts than the vague "mood" categories, but I suppose they're better than absolutely nothing.

(Would you mind turning anon commenting on? I know a lot people aren't DW users and have trouble with open id.)

[longficmod]

Re: anon commenting--not at all, meant to do that earlier. It should be on now, and IP logging is off.

[muccamukk]

Thank you.

I'm really looking forward to this fest.

[sirvalkyrie]

I don't really like the split between AUs just being mundane/modern AU and genre AU. Can there be some tag to specify non-mundane elements instead of lumping it all in to the same tag as things such as historical, westerns, and detective noir?

[longficmod]

We can discuss it! So, you're thinking a split along the lines of a mundane genre AU (historical, westerns, noir, spies, pirates) and SFF AU (space opera, any sort of magic system, daemons)?

[sirvalkyrie]

Yes, something lie that would be perfect.

[burglebezzlemen.livejournal.com]

Would it be possible to separate out casefic (and similar procedural plots like Monster of the Week, medical patient of the week, etc.) from Canon-Style Plot?

I'm definitely interested in potentially offering and requesting casefic/MotW, but some of the canons I'm thinking of don't actually have cases in canon. (I'm thinking of canons like sitcoms, family dramas, classic novels, RPF, that sort of thing.)

[longficmod]

So Mystery/Procedural vs. Pastiche, essentially? We're talking it over--thanks for the suggestion!

[burglebezzlemen.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And definitely yes, I would love to see Mystery/Procedural as a category.

I'm not sure if Pastiche is quite it -- that always makes me think of canon-typical voices (e.g. pastiche for Nero Wolfe fic) rather than canon-typical storylines. (Not saying it wouldn't be a great category, mind you!)

The Canon-Typical Story option seems like a good one, because it could cover a lot of different types of plots people might want to request (sports plots for sports RPF, shenanigans for sitcoms, etc.). It just gets tricky if any of the more general plot categories get folded in under it (e.g. Interpersonal Drama or Action/Adventure), since some of the specific types of plots are present in some canons and not in others.

Thank you again!

[ars_belli]

Wouldn't "Mystery/Procedural" be a genre AU? "Procedural" conjures images of a noir PI or an everyone-is-a-police-officer AU format. Or do you mean a plot which centres around mystery solving, which might occur in any canon? (Maybe I'm just being dense today, sorry!) If it's the latter case, then I'd be all for adding this as a genre option.

I stared at "Canon-Typical Story" for a good five minutes before I realised that it probably meant "Canon-Typical Plot of the Week" instead of "Canon Setting for Story" so it could be clearer. Your last paragraph hit the nail on the head, really, that's exactly what I'd love to select...

[snowynight]

Another vote for Mystery/Procedural as an option for a plot which centres around mystery solving, which might occur in any canon

[pameluke]

Another call to add Canon-divergence type of AUs, or AUs in a Canon Setting. I love reading and writing all kinds of trope heavy AUs (ranging from soulmates to separated twins at birth to arranged marriage to werewolves etc...), with the caveat that they still take place in the canon setting as opposed to a modern/mundane/non magical version.

I don't think these would fall under the feelings listed here. Simply Getting Together doesn't necessarily cover Getting Together Because Soulmates...

[ars_belli]

What about "Trope-Focused AU in Canon Setting" or something? You're describing exactly the sort of canon-set AU that I would like to filter out (to each their own, eh?), but I can totally understand why you'd want to differentiate this from Modern AU as well.

[pameluke]

Heeee. While I was writing this up, I realized that this would probably not be everyone's cup of tea (I love regular Canon-Divergence as well!), but since I write/request in mostly Historical and Fantasy settings, Modern AUs really don't match with what I'm looking for.
Canon Setting With a Twist maybe?

[ars_belli]

Canon Setting with a Trope?

If we're trying to separate these from For-Want-of-a-Nail AUs and that sort of thing, "Twist" might not be direct enough, or might be interpreted as "a slight plot twist" instead of "in which everyone is an octopus"*. (This genre separation is unexpectedly challenging!)

*I'm sure that's not what you meant by "twist", but it would really make the Roman Republic interesting...

[(Anonymous)]

I'd really, really like to see Canon Divergence make the genre list! If you're worried about it being too vague, you could perhaps split it into a few different ones? Like "fix-it" and, uh, I dunno, "bad ending"? There are some fandoms I'd want to request fix-it for, so I'd be over the moon if I could actually choose it as a genre.

As for other genres, how about "humor"?

[(Anonymous)]

Emphatically seconding the request for adding a "fix-it" genre.

[(Anonymous)]

I'd also like to see canon-divergence and/or fix-it as a genre.

I'm a bit confused by "Bildungsroman/Character Development". Bildungsroman is a very specific literary genre that not all character development stories fit, and it's hardly a term used a lot for fanfic anyway. Wouldn't it be easier to just call it "character development" to avoid possible confusion?

I'm not sure if this is really feasible, but maybe "smut" could be split into PWP and porn-with-plot? I figure a lot of people would be happy to receive smut, but not necessarily 5k of exclusively smut and nothing else.

[(Anonymous)]

Seconding the request to remove "Bildungsroman", or at the very least not pair it up with "Character Development".

[snowynight]

Agreed. They are really not the same thing at all

Bildungsroman as a specific genre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bildungsroman

[badass_tiger]

Speaking up for the crowd that would prefer to keep canon divergence out here. Labeling a story with a genre should give a feel for what the story is, even if it's a parody, deconstruction, etc. of that genre, and canon divergence is definitely too open to be a genre. Any of the genres listed could be a canon divergence AU (e.g. character development by exploring a divergence AU, getting-together through a soulmate AU, etc.). I think some people might be a bit confused by the definition of genre, especially as used in this post, but this is my understanding of the OP's definition of genre.

[ars_belli]

Seconding keeping canon divergence out. Basically, I can't imagine that someone who wanted a canon-divergent AU would be unhappy with something that retained the canon setting but wasn't necessarily AU and vice-versa.

Maybe "Canon and Canon-Style AU" is a better label than "Canon-Style Plot" to emphasise the role of the canon setting? This contrasts with "Mundane/Modern AU" and "Genre AU" where the characters are similar but the setting is fluid -- to the extent that the discord with canon might irritate some people (including me!). It is also distinct from "Worldbuilding" which sits at the other extreme, where the canon setting is all-important, but one might not particularly care about the characters.

[(Anonymous)]

If having Canon Divergence among the genres "irritate" you, then just don't request it...? The majority of people seem to want it, and wouldn't have any problem understand the differences (sorry, but the reasons you gave were just confusing).

[(Anonymous)]

I can't imagine that someone who wanted a canon-divergent AU would be unhappy with something that retained the canon setting but wasn't necessarily AU and vice-versa.

That makes no sense. I think you misunderstand what "canon-divergent AU" means - it means that it does retain the canon setting but veers off at a certain point in terms of plot development.

[ars_belli]

I'm glad that we agree on the definition of "Canon-Divergent AU."

Since I can't edit my comment to make my position clearer, here it is in detail. Somewhat excruciating detail, to be honest!

• I agree with everything said: in sum, "Canon Divergence AU" is too vague to be helpful.


• Currently we have two categories of AU-ness in terms of setting—Modern/Mundane and Genre (the latter possibly being split into two, even clearer)—and I welcome the chance to opt-out of these things.


• Now that the mod has handily clarified the "Canon-Style Plot" tag, there is no catch-all option for, as you say, "retain[ing] the canon setting" whether or not the story "veers off ... in terms of plot development."


• The only option that suggests anything at all about keeping the canon setting is "Worldbuilding." If everyone who wants a canon setting ticks this box, what happens to the people who really do want to focus on the construction or aspects of the setting?


• As you point out, "Canon Divergent AU" doesn't indicate anything about what sort of plot change is requested. Without a letter, is the safest possible option to assume it means Fix-It fic, or to keep the canon tone?


• What about someone who just wants a canon setting, and doesn't care about whether there is a divergence or not? Do they opt into or out of this tag?

If all I got was a placeholder letter and my recipient's tag choices, what tags are useful? "Fix-It fic" gives a sense of tone, and valuable character direction. It carries strong implications about what the recipient would be comfortable reading. "Canon Divergent AU" assuages precious little of the writer's uncertainty.

TL;DR: The popular vote for "Fix-It fic" makes sense, so does "Canon Setting with a Twist/Trope", just please don't leave us with the uncertainty of "Canon Divergent AU."

[shadowsapiens]

"Canon Divergence" on its own is vague, but when paired up with a requested character or ship, it's enough for me as a writer. With the other two genre tags to meet the minimum three, it's plenty.

In your hypothetical placeholder scenario, all I'd need to do is review canon until I hit a point where I go, "ok, what if!" And then I write the fic.

Having "Canon Divergence" as an option for the people who find it useful wouldn't force it upon the people who don't find it useful.

Up to the mod, of course.

[ars_belli]

Fair enough. I didn't notice that there was a minimum of three genre tags, which does solve the problem. (One wonders about the matching algorithm, but we'll just have to wait and see.) I'll vote for a "Canon Divergence" tag then.

2017-02-04 17:22 GMT+00:00 shadow_lover - DW Comment <dw_null@dreamwidth.org</p>

[(Anonymous)]

Character development or established relationship also aren't exactly genres, though, even less so than canon divergence. Any of the genres listed could be a canon divergence AU, sure, but any of the genres on the list could also be combined with smut or angst or getting together. That's hardly a criterion.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't agree at all. I think Canon Diverge would give just as good of an idea as most of the other genres on the list. It's not like they're super-specific either, and if it's labeled as Fix-It then there's even less of a chance for confusion.

[(Anonymous)]

I second-third-and-forth the canon-divergence AU genre tag. As a writer and a reader, I prefer canon-divergence AUs above any other genre, and it is definitely different than modern AUs (not all fandoms are contemporary).

I am not, however, for "canon with a trope." Canon-divergence does not necessarily include a trope. It could be, for example, one small change in a character's history that sets the story off on a different track. It could also mean a trope (soulmate AUs, etc.), but not necessarily.

[(Anonymous)]

Are you very committed the genre tag? Because frankly, I think it'll do more harm than good.

As it is now, it also strongly favours groups of people who like certain things (like AUs) over those who don't because they get more tags to choose from.

Personally, I'd have trouble picking three genres I like from the list above and would most likely end up picking at least one I feel lukewarm about. So I hope you'll either drastically expand this list or scrap the category altogether.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not a fan of the genre tag either. If the concern is not leaving any writer with a blank signup and no idea what their recipient wants, wouldn't it be easier to make ot obligatory for participants to put some optional details in their signup? Even if someone's optional details are sparse, they'd tell me more than three vague genre tags.

[(Anonymous)]

NA

wouldn't it be easier to make ot obligatory for participants to put some optional details in their signup

I'm easy either way, without or with the genre tags, but if it goes this route, I think it would be best to specify that it should be optional details that aren't solely "do not wants". Even if it's one-word prompts.