Hear ye, Hear ye!
With this, the First of December, we face the dawn of another season of writer-based joy and wonderment. That’s right, gang, we are once again at the threshold of the single greatest event in all of human history*! Break out your prompts, refill your inkwells, and brush the dust off your keyboards because it’s time once again for....
THE FOURTH ANNUAL SEKRIT SOLSTICE SCI-FI/FANTASY STORY SWAP!
I feel like this every SS-SFF-SS kickoff thread.
For those who have not participated in the SS-SFF-SS in the past, this is a writer-focused word party wherein folks gift stories to their fellow authors based on prompts provided by the giftee. If you want an idea of the general madness involved, feel free to review last year's SS-SFF-SS Thread.
That said, because NaNo just finished and the holidays are soon upon some of us, we decided to give folks enough time to rest before jumping back into the story-making process. As such, we're aiming for a more realistic and less stressful delivery date of FEBRUARY 29th. This ensures that folks don’t feel pressure to write during the holiday season AND have enough time to get their stories to betas as needed.
So what exactly is the SS-SFF-SS you may ask? Essentially, it’s a 10-ish week write-a-thon filled with joy, merriment, words, wine, and other government-sanctioned and emotionally reasonable celebrations.
Basically, the gist of the event is this:
Not this:
In other words, we prompt, we write, we trade stories, we guess, we share the joy of the event, and we create life-long bonds with our fellow writers.
So, if this sounds like your kind of literary playground, then here are the rules and such.
The Rules and Such:
RULE #1) HOW TO PLAY: There are two primary ways of participating: RECEIVING and GIVING. (See Rule #6 for The Beta Option.)
Signing up to RECEIVE a gift means signing up to GIVE a gift. No exceptions. Since the spirit of this event is giving, you ask for treasures, you have to give treasures. To do so, you’ll make a post with what you want to read as well as what you’re willing to write. I will then put the names of participants in The Sign-Up List of AWesome** which is located at the bottom of this post.
RULE #2) PROMPT PARAMETERS: When you sign up to RECEIVE, please include a prompt that provides parameters for your gift. This can be anything: a word, a quote, an author name, an idea, a theme, etc. Just give your gifter a direction in which to run.
Also, please specify themes/topics that you are okay with/not-okay with, i.e. boo to violence, sex, swearing, gore; yah to kittens, marshmallows, and smexy emo teen vampires.
Unless otherwise specified, the person writing for you will assume all bets are off.
mwahahaha
Example:
Queen Novella Von InkyQuill said:
While the above is a joke, please keep in mind that broad/vague prompts tend to give your gifter more latitude. HOWEVER, it's your prompt, so if you really WANT a light, humorous Sci-Fi-Fant-UF-Western-Zombie-Erotica-Self-Help story, by all means, ask for it!
Also, I'd read that.
Final Prompting Note: If there are topics you absolutely don’t want to write about, please include that as well. Similarly, if you're both GIVING and RECEIVING and a prompt really excites you, rep me and I'll try my best to
accommodate you. Otherwise, it’s fair game for me to assign you to a prompt.
mwa. ha. ha
But CM, what if I don't want to RECEIVE a story, but DO want to GIVE one?
I'm glad you fake-asked, fake participant! It's a perfect segue to:
RULE #3) GIFTING ONLY: Should you so desire, you may absolutely sign up to GIVE a gift, but not RECEIVE one. If you’re the benevolent type that loves to give and give, I’ll forward you a copy of my Wish List. I’ll also hook you up with a giftee. Please let me know if you want to give a story in general or for a specific prompt that inspires you so I can match you appropriately.
RULE #4) NO THANK YOU: If there is someone you don't want to write for, no matter the reason, please rep me with your request. I will do my best to honor it.
RULE #5) WRITING TIME:Once the sign-up thread closes, you'll have approximately 9-10 weeks of writing time to create your masterpiece. As always, if you hit a snag or have questions/concerns, you can contact me via the e-mail that I'll send your prompt from. Or you can reach out here on AW. Either way, please keep me in the loop and I'll do my best to assist you.
RULE #6) THE BETA OPTION: This is the tangential way to participate since beta volunteers are always welcome. If you're not interested in giving or receiving, but would like to play as a beta, let me know via Rule #10. Just don’t use this to your advantage when we open the guessing thread! Authors may also seek out betas exterior to this thread/genre as they desire.
RULE #7) WORD COUNT: There is no limit to story length. We’ve seen everything from 2k to 20k. A good story is a good story, so don't fret the word count.
RULE #8) SUBMITTING COMPLETED STORIES: When it’s time to deliver your story to me and my team of Story Elves, please make sure to include a 200-400 word section (pasted directly into the e-mail) that you feel best represents your tale of wonders. I’ll use this for the guessing thread. For those unfamiliar, here is a link to last year's Guessing Thread.
RULE #9) OWNERSHIP: The author of the story owns the story outright. This is especially true if the author decides to polish/expand the story for a professional market. The prompt they used is merely a motivating tool, but does not transfer ownership of the story to the giftee in any way. Everyone who participates in this event agrees to this.
RULE #10) THANK YOU!: *NEW FOR 2016!* In the past, a few people have expressed concern about whether or not their giftee liked their story. Once you receive your gift, PLEASE rep your gifter to thank them/weep crocodile tears of joy before them. You can also generically swoon over your gift in this thread. Either way, a heartfelt “thank you” goes a long way to convincing someone that the hours and hours spent building something special were not in vain. So please be courteous and vocally appreciative.
RULE #11) GOT IT!: To ensure you have read ALL THE RULES, including this one, please rep me (on this post) a statement that says you have read and agree to all the rules AND that you swear to give your gift by the deadline. Please also provide an email in the rep, even if you've played in the past, so the Story Elves and I can send you your gift when it’s time. Addresses change from time to time, so I don't want to send prompts to the wrong folks.
To ensure everyone has a warm and fuzzy moving forward, I will send you a confirmation e-mail so you know I gots it and youse are all good and stuff.
I also ask that you please avoid PMing me. My inbox is stuffed with messages as far back as 2010 and I’m finally willing to admit there’s no way I’m cleaning it out anytime soon.
*sigh*
Here ends The Rules and Such.
The Timeline of Excellence:
December 1st: Sign-ups open. Masses flock to this thread. A new dawn of storytelling breaks and hope reigns supreme.
December 21st*****: Sign-ups close. Late-comers reap a harvest of sorrow.
December 25th: Assignments are lovingly wrapped and hand-delivered direct to your inbox. Hooray! Presents for everyone!
December 25th – February 29th: Plots generated, characters drawn, and words flung.
February 29th: Stories due to moi. Everyone celebrates Leap Year with the knowledge that their masterpiece is a mere hours away from arriving in their giftee’s inbox.
(NOTE: We’ve extended the due date by two weeks every year, so this year we’re programming it in early. This will give everyone TWO WHOLE MONTHS plus a little extra to write/edit their epic stories of epicness.)
March 1st: Stories delivered to giftees who are overwhelmed by teh awesomez. Guessing Thread open in SYW. Stories are read. Friendships are forged. Joy spreads through the valley and there is peace.
March Somethingth: We crown this season's Supreme Guessinator who lords over all of us with her/his story-guessing might.
All hail last year's Co-Winners: zanzjan and Riv!
We are, indeed, not worthy.
In an unprecedented turn of events, zanzjan and Riv tied for the win. Together our 2014-2015 Supreme Guessinators ruled justly, spreading goodwill to all the lands. But will this season's winner do so as well? Only time will tell.
Personal Note: This is hands-down my favorite writing event. There’s something magical about writing specifically for another person using their prompt. Not only does it allow you to move outside your comfort zone, but also helps you explore a genre you may have never considered before. The more people who participate, the more fun we have, so feel free to tell your friends, family, kids, cats, or even that strange neighbor who mows the yard in nothing but a sheen of sweat and a smile.
And now, without further ado....
The Official Proclamation:
Let it be known through all the writing lands that he 2015-2016 SS-SFF-SS season is now officially open!
Let's get this party started!
I am Groot!
The Sign-Up List of AWesome:
Name: | Both Give and Receive(B)/Give Only(G)
1) TAMaxwell: B
2)Riv: B
3) Shadowflame: B
4) eyeblink: B
5) aliwood: B
6) JJ Litke: B
7) Michele AKA Twig: B
8) Filigree: B
9) tianaluthien: B
10) Ari Meermans: B
11) CheG: B
12) Bobo the Bard: B
13) mrsmig: B
14) Aggy B: B
15) Damoclian: B
16) tiddlywinks: B
17) zanzjan: B
18) paddismac: B
19) Tamlyn: B
20) Cliff Face: B
21) Lillith1991: B
22) kuwisdelu: B
23) shortstorymachinst: B
24) Religion0: B
25) PastyAlien: B
26) maxmordon: B
27) Kitkitdizzi: B
28) SianaBlackwood: B
29) Friendly Frog: B
30) ashehata: B
31) Williebee: B
32) Sage: B
33) Cath: B
34) Niccolo: B
35) oceansoul: B
36) Sian: B
37) hutton1323: B
38) Silenia: B
39) AshleyEpidemic: B
40) smokymountainlvr: B
41) Glyax: G
42) feyngirl: B
43) tjwriter: B
44) Glass Valkyrie: B
45) Blinkk: B
46) griffins: B
47) Tazlima: B
48) CobraMisfit: B
49) CuddlyClementine: B
50) themindstream: B
The Beta Option:
I CAN HAS BETAZ?!
ORGANIZER'S NOTE ON THE ABOVE LISTS: It's easier to list what I need from folks, so I'm putting everyone in the Sign-Up List of AWesome and what items are missing. I've also moved Beta-ers to their own list and will do the same if/when we get Givers Only. That helps keep the list neat.
*individual experiences may vary. Void where prohibited.
**see what I did there? See?! Aw, never mind.
***except, I really don't want to write smexyemoteens. Please don't make me.
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Can it be done? (Yes, yes it can. *dork*)
and the few times I've tried to write smexytimes I did this:
) Otherwise I can do horror, fantasy, SciFi or anything else. Toss me an interesting combination and I'll see what I can do. 
I'm willing to write hard sci-fi (I studied physics at university for a year and a half, and still love that stuff), epic fantasy (well, a short-story version, anyway...) or urban fantasy / paranormal romance. I like writing dark situations with relatively positive people in them, so I don't really fancy writing emo teen vampires. I write adult fiction, but am willing to give YA a chance - but please, no MG or younger kids' stories, for both our sakes!
