Questions and concerns

[nfe-gremlin.livejournal.com]

If this is your first time signing up for the NFE, and you have any questions or concerns about it, please feel free to ask them here. And people who have participated in the past, feel free to help out and answer.

One specific thing I wanted to note: You do not need to have a Livejournal in order to participate in the NFE. You can sign up via an anonymous comment, and as long as you have an email address we can reach you at, that's all you need. A Livejournal account is helpful, but not mandatory, for participating in the NFE - the mods will do all the posting, and anonymous comments are always enabled. We just ask that you identify yourself in any comment you leave, so we'll know who it is from.

So any questions you have about prompts, requests, what you do not want to receive, what you do not want to write, and anything else you can think of, go ahead and ask away!

Comments

[jn208505.livejournal.com]

Hello! :) I just signed up for the nfe in the sign-up comments and a little box popped up saying my entry was "spam". Is that supposed to happen? Just wanted to double check to make sure my sign up was submitted! :)
Thanks!

[snacky]

Evidently Livejournal is having some problems and a lot of comments are getting marked as spam. But don't worry! I caught it and it's all set.

[ladyairy.livejournal.com]

Are we allowed to note fic about a whole book in the series as 'won't write'?

[snacky]

In the past we've had people who only watched the movies say they couldn't write about any of the other books, and someone mentioned the events in The Last Battle as something they didn't want to write about, so yeah, that's fine. :)

[jn208505.livejournal.com]

Great! Thanks! :)

[tantella.livejournal.com]

I know you're diligently keeping watch, but I wanted to let you know that my entry was also marked as spam, just in case! Thanks!

[adaptationdecay.livejournal.com]

Hi,

Just a quick question before signups close. Is the exchange still set up so that participating writers receive an anonymous prompt and don't have any way to find out who their recipient will be?

[nfe-gremlin.livejournal.com]

Hi, yes! Still a double-blind exchange. I am happy to be an intermediary between writers and recipients though, to get all questions answered. And if there's a concern about specific recipients, please feel free to email me to discuss (narniaficexchange@gmail.com).

[adaptationdecay.livejournal.com]

No concerns about specific recipients. I'm sure everybody in the fandom is lovely! This is all about me being a fraidy cat/perfectionist.

Basically, in exchanges I tend to stress out about whether my recipient will like their gift. The way I deal with this, if I'm writing for a known recipient is to take a look before I begin writing at things like what other stories they have written or recced, meta they may have posted, anything along those lines.

So if the initial prompt was something like "Anything containing Pevensies would be great!", well that is the sort of vague prompt that would really stress me out!

Now if I could see that the interests listed on their LJ profile included things like "politics", "worldbuilding" and "spy dramas", that they'd made posts about how much they shipped Aravis/Cor and talked a lot about their headcanon regarding the inhabitants of the Western Wild, then I would feel much more confident. I'd write something set in the Golden Age with the adult Pevensies undertaking complicated diplomatic negotiations and using spies. I'd throw in some background Aravis/Cor and I'd be sure to throw in a tiny reference to the recipient's headcanon about the Western Wild. I'd submit the story feeling like - even if it wasn't perfect - I'd done my level best to give the recipient something they would enjoy.

If I don't know who I'm writing for and have a vague prompt, I'm going to feel like I have to play it safe. So I'd probably submit a plot-free gen vignette about the Pevensies as children. It would still be as well-written as I could manage and it would fulfill the prompt, but neither I nor the recipient would be half as pleased with it as with the shippy spy drama.

I could go through the mods to check what I was writing was okay. "Hi recipient, could you confirm that you're okay with G rated school stories?" but it would slow things down and it's unlikely I'd ask the exact right questions (and if I did, then the final story wouldn't be much of a surprise for them!) Also, as soon as my recipient's name was revealed after the challenge, I would inevitably go look at their fic, recs and journal anyway and sink into a pit of inadequacy seeing all the different ways I could have made their gift better.

I'm sure the rules have changed for a reason and I imagine the anonymous-recipient thing has led to some nice moments of "OMG, I was writing for my BFF all along!" but it's stopped me from participating and a few people I've spoken to about it have said they found it offputting too, so while I may be a minority, I'm not alone..

Basically, if I wanted to write a fic for my own pleasure based off somebody else's short prompt I would go find a kink meme or something. In a gift exchange I want my story to be a personalised present for a specific recipient.

Obviously it's too late to go changing things this year (and too late for me to sign up now even if you did!) but I hope in the future you'll consider going back to the pre-2010 system, because I would really love to participate in the future.

[snacky]

Okay, first I want to apologize for replying to you before using the mod account - I know that seems impersonal. I was logged in to the mod account at the time, but I should have taken the time to log out and reply to you under my own name.

Second, I want to thank you for bringing this up - it's not something that anyone ever brought up before, and I have to admit, it's not a perspective that had occurred to me. So I have to thank you for letting me know about how this would stress you out! I know that's not an easy thing to do, and honestly, the last thing I'd want is for the exchange to be a stressful thing and not a fun thing, so I'm glad you said something.

Basically, in exchanges I tend to stress out about whether my recipient will like their gift. The way I deal with this, if I'm writing for a known recipient is to take a look before I begin writing at things like what other stories they have written or recced, meta they may have posted, anything along those lines.

Totally understand. I know I hunt down my Yuletide recipient everywhere like a creepy stalker for the very same reason. ;)

I could go through the mods to check what I was writing was okay. "Hi recipient, could you confirm that you're okay with G rated school stories?" but it would slow things down and it's unlikely I'd ask the exact right questions (and if I did, then the final story wouldn't be much of a surprise for them!) Also, as soon as my recipient's name was revealed after the challenge, I would inevitably go look at their fic, recs and journal anyway and sink into a pit of inadequacy seeing all the different ways I could have made their gift better.

I understand this as well, and really would hate for the exchange to put you under that kind of stress.

I'm sure the rules have changed for a reason and I imagine the anonymous-recipient thing has led to some nice moments of "OMG, I was writing for my BFF all along!" but it's stopped me from participating and a few people I've spoken to about it have said they found it offputting too, so while I may be a minority, I'm not alone.

Honestly, I'm not sure why the rules changed? I know Caramelsilver, who created/modded the exchange before I came on board, set it up that way in 2010, and I think it was just that she thought it would be a fun twist. And no one has mentioned any problems with it, so I just kept it going that way. I'm sorry to hear that you and others have found it off-putting, and again, I'm glad you spoke up about it.

I don't see it as a dealbreaker on my end, to be honest. I mean, I think the exchange would be just as much fun if participants knew who they were writing for, so I don't see why we can't go back to that in future rounds. Especially if it's something that's kept you (and others) from participating! I'd like to have as many people join in as want to.

Basically, if I wanted to write a fic for my own pleasure based off somebody else's short prompt I would go find a kink meme or something. In a gift exchange I want my story to be a personalised present for a specific recipient.

Good point, and yes, that's a great way to look at gift exchange fic. And again, thank you for bringing it up.

Obviously it's too late to go changing things this year (and too late for me to sign up now even if you did!) but I hope in the future you'll consider going back to the pre-2010 system, because I would really love to participate in the future.

Yeah, I don't think I'm going to be changing it this year, only because people have signed up expecting it. Although I could throw a quick poll up, and see what people think.... let me think about that.

However, it's actually not too late to sign up! Sign-ups don't close until midnight tonight (pretty much, if it's in my inbox before 8 am EST tomorrow, you're good) And if you'd like to participate this year, I can certainly work with you to make sure it's fun for you - some of the prompts are extremely detailed, and I could make sure you get one of those. It's a small exchange and I do all the matching by hand, so that's easy to do. Let me know.

Thanks again for taking the time to let me know.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

Hello. I've read this exchange with much interest, because I am a 'fraidy cat/perfectionist', too - maybe more of a fraidy-cat than perfectionist.
I do really get where adaptation/decay is coming from, in wanting to write precisely for her recipient, and in wanting to check out what works the recipient has written, or what works she admires. I would especially want never to put in something which made the recipient unhappy. (a crossover which they just hated, for example, or too much violence.)

But to throw in another aspect of fraidy-catism: Some writers in this exchange are so really, really dauntingly good that if I were told I was writing for one of them, I would freeze up in terror. That's the reason I voted not to know in the survey. :(

[snacky]

No worries about the way you voted! That's perfectly valid - everyone has their own reason for voting whichever way they chose, and one person's reasoning doesn't trump another's.

Regarding this:

I would especially want never to put in something which made the recipient unhappy. (a crossover which they just hated, for example, or too much violence.)

That is why we ask all participants what they do not want in their fic, so that isn't on the writer. As well, if there's an aspect the writer is unsure of, we encourage you to ask the mods, so they can check with the participant.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Snacky! :)