NFE 2015

[snacky]

Yes, it's that time again! Start thinking up what you want to nominate and request, because all the Narnia fic will be yours soon!

Last year was a success, so we're running on AO3 again this year. If you need a code for AO3, just email me and I'll send you one.

Collection on AO3

Tag Set

Tag nominations are open now! It will work the same way it did last year, so you might want to refer back to those posts to refresh your memories when nominating.

Here are the important dates for the exchange:

Tag nominations open: June 9th
Signups open: June 24th
Signups close: July 5th
Assignments sent out: by July 12th
Fics due: anytime before August 23rd
Madness: August 23rd - August 30th
Collections opens: August 30th
Authors revealed: September 6th

These are pretty firm right now. It worked out really well last time for everyone to have more than a month of writing time, so that's back. The collections will open on August 30th, as long as everyone has a story (if we're waiting on pinch-hitters, it will be later than the posted time).

As you can see, I've built a Madness Round into the schedule, since people enjoyed that last year, but it's not mandatory. And if you just want to participate in the Madness Round, that's fine too.

Obviously the exchange will not be double-blind (as it has been in years past) you will know who you are writing for. If people want to write "Dear NFE Writer" letters and post them on LJ/Dreamwidth/Tumblr/wherever, that is fine, but not mandatory! You can put everything you want in your signup, if you like.

In the past, you've been allowed to request crossovers, and fic set in other people's fanverses. You can still do that, but those will have to go in the optional details part of the signup.

There will also be a box in the offer part of the signup where you, as a writer, can talk about what you like to write, and also put ONE OR TWO dealbreakers of what you can't write (for example, "no incest and I hate Edmund Pevensie"). Bear in mind that it would be extremely unusual in this exchange for you to say, "I can't write slash" and then get matched to someone who only requests slash. Most participants offer several options of what they want, and I don't see this changing.

Okay, I think that's it for now. Go forth, nominate, and ask any questions you have and I will try to answer them! You can email at narniaficexchange@gmail.com too.

Comments

[edenfalling]

Yay! But, um. Link to the collection and tag nomination forms?

[snacky]

Oh right, that would help! :D

[lady_songsmith]

Snacky, can I shamelessly piggyback?

Get yourselves in a Narnia headspace before you start writing! Come participate in the reread thread over on the forums!! We've only just started LWW as of June 1. http://narniafanfiction.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=87

[snacky]

All shameless piggybacking allowed! :D

[trans-element.livejournal.com]

So, I looked at the old posts and I think I understand how tag nominations work, but I don't get what they are for. Is the tagset a list of potentially useful tags that aren't in general use, or a way of standardizing tag conventions, or a way of limiting what tags are used? Are the most basic tags included by default?

Sorry if I'm missing something obvious.

[snacky]

It's actually used for matching! This way, if you request say, "Peter Pevensie" and "Golden Age", you will be matched with a writer who offers those things.

[trans-element.livejournal.com]

So, is a tag nomination the same thing as a request for a fic?

[snacky]

Not exactly. You make the tag nominations with two things in mind: the story you want to receive, and the story you want to write. So if you haven't nominated "Peter Pevensie" and "Golden Age", when the time comes to sign up and make your request, you can't actually ask for that, or offer it. If the tags don't exist, you can't be matched on them.

These are the instructions on the sign up form:

You can make up to five requests. For each request, there's only one fandom, so please choose that one. If you prefer bookverse or movieverse, please note that in your optional details.

Each request can include up to five characters (or you could chose "any" and get a story about any character), five relationships, five categories (such as gen, slash, het, etc), and five freeform tags.

You only have to make one request. You will be matched, primarily, on characters (after that, on relationships, and freeforms), so if you don't care about relationships, categories, and freeforms, you can leave those blank, and just select the characters you want to read about.

In your optional details field, you can offer some additional details and prompt suggestions, for example: "I like to read romances, and time travel stories, and my favorite characters are Peter, Mrs. Beaver, and Jill Pole." You can give as much or as little detail as you want here, but remember, it's optional. Also in this field, you can include a dealbreaker, something you Do Not Want in your fic. You are strongly advised to limit your dealbreakers to one or two, and to word them politely. Remember, you're being matched on characters, and not on what you Do Not Want, so this is information your writer will get.

As well, if you find the details field too limiting, you can link to your journal/tumblr/blog, and give more requests details there. But again, remember that these are optional details, and your writer does not have to fulfill all or any of them.

So if I was signing up, and I wanted a story about Peter and Lucy during the Golden Age, one of the requests on my signup would look like this:





You can see I chose the tags I wanted to be matched on in the signup.

Same with my offer. I might want to write a story about Calormen during the Golden Age, with a bunch of characters from The Horse and His Boy, so one of my offers would look like this:




Again, I've chosen the tags for things I would want to be matched on.

You're not going to be matched on every single tag (someone might request Aravis, Shasta, and Calormen, and I would be matched on those, and not the others I offered). But if you nominate tags thinking about what you want to receive, and what you want to write, when the time comes to signup, you'll be able to request and offer those characters/relationships/settings.

I hope that made sense? Let me know!

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, i think that answers all my questions. Thank you for the detailed answer! I am significantly less confused. :-)

[trans-element.livejournal.com]

Urg, that was me. I forgot I wasn't logged in...

[snacky]

No worries! And I'm glad it helped! \o/

[moriwen1.livejournal.com]

OK, I'm running into a nominations problem. I'd like to nominate Emeth, from the Last Battle: I looked at the tag set and he's not listed there. But when I try to nominate him, I get the following error:

"Sorry! We couldn't save this tag set nomination because:

Someone else has already nominated the tag Emeth for this set but in fandom . (All nominations have to be unique for the approval process to work.) Try making your nomination more specific, for instance tacking on (Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis)."

Any idea what I'm doing wrong here? Thank you! :)

[snacky]

I'll doublecheck, but I don't think you're doing anything wrong! I can see that someone has nominated Emeth already, so maybe that's it? In any case, I'll try and figure it out, or wait for aurilly as she is the tag guru.

[moriwen1.livejournal.com]

Have they? Well that's all cool then. :) It's not on the tags page (I'm assuming because it hasn't been approved yet?) but as long as it gets in there, I'm happy. :)

Thanks for checking! I always get nervous I'm going to mess up these forms somehow.

[aurilly.livejournal.com]

I just approved it and now see it in the tagset. There's something super wonky going on, where it says nominations are approved, but they're not necessarily showing up right away, so that might be part of the error. But I'm keeping track of everything and will manually add it at the end if anything happens. :)

[hithwenur.livejournal.com]

I think I would like to get in on this, but I'm not on AO3 yet. I'm not sure how this works? I've just been in a dry spell with writing for a while, and doing a Narnia challenge sounds like a lovely way to get back on the ball.

[snacky]

If you need an invitation to AO3, just send me your email (snacky8@gmail.com, or narniaficexchange@gmail.com), and I'll send you an invite. Then you can create an account and take part in the exchange.

Basically, you'll request a story, and offer to write one, and you'll be matched with people writing for you, and who you can write for (based on requests/offers).

[snitchnipped.livejournal.com]

::climbs out of hidey-hole::

HOORAY!!

::sneaks back into hidey-hole::