Happy holidays, TWEWY fic recs, and pondering fic exchanges

[lostboywriting]

Hope everyone's been having as peaceful and happy an end-of-December as their lives allow, whatever this time of year looks like for you. It's been a quiet time here. Eating homemade pizza, playing cards with my parents, taking dog for walks in the snow, and trying to finish up a horrible novella draft has been about the extent of it.

I did get the courage up to join in the first fandom gift exchange I've ever done, which was a lot of fun--this TWEWY exchange on AO3. Very small, cozy, and low commitment/low stress, and I really liked having a holiday thing to do that was about making something special for someone rather than buying things. The fics that came out of it were really lovely, too; I have to reread a couple of the longer ones more closely, but I enjoyed all of them. Going to refrain from commenting in any more detail for now because--well, there are only six fics in total, and the authors are anonymous for the next week, so I'd have to either (a) make it obvious which one was mine or (b) wax poetic about mine alongside all the others, and I don't want to do either of those things. But if you're into TWEWY, definitely check them out.

I enjoyed it enough that I suspect I'm going to jump into the Chocolate Box (chocolateboxcomm), which is NOT small but has a very low required wordcount. That one's a bit more daunting in that I'll have to offer to write for at least four fandoms, and it's been a long while since I've written anything but TWEWY. With a 300 word minimum, though, I figure it's a good way to dip my toes in. Poking through things that people have nominated, I'd definitely be comfortable writing GLaDOS/Chell Portal ficlets or--if I brushed the dust off a bit--some of the pairings in Utena, so I just need to pick at least one more. I think I could probably write at least a halfway passable MCU Loki, so maybe I should make this my way of nudging myself to try it.

How's the end of the year treating everyone else?

Comments

[tarantula]

I'm doing Chocolate Box again this year. It's a really good choices for a first multi-fandom exchange. Since there's such a low word count requirement, a lot of regulars like to write extra fics. I got three last year and they were all lovely.

Another thing to consider is the Original Works nominations. I enjoy those a lot. It's always fun to see how people interpret the tags and what prompts and stories come from them.

[lostboywriting]

Gah, sorry for the belated response! Thanks for the rec on the Original Works front--that was a good idea that I hadn't thought about prior to your comment. I did end up picking enough fandoms and pairings I'd feel comfortable writing for, but it was fun just reading through the Original Works tag nominations--I quite like "Author & Anthropomorphic "Darling" Line That Author Tries to Kill," hee.

I gotta get my letter up today, but I'm really looking forward to doing the exchange.

[dendriteblues]

My holiday's gone great except for being sick and being with my weird in laws, but I think that's true of most people.

I always like the idea of exchanges, but when it comes to doing them I have regrets. ahah There's always some new shiny idea of my own that I really want to write. I'm participating in the snowflake_challenge which is reportedly a very chill way to get yourself writing. No word count, just prompts and community encouragement. So you might check that one out of the Chocolate Box is daunting.

[lostboywriting]

Eep, sorry for the late response. Hope you recovered smoothly from whatever illness got you over the holidays.

The Snowflake Challenge looks fun and I like the low-stress 'no time limit on the daily prompts' approach--I did sign up for Chocolate Box but I may jump in late and do at least a few of the Snowflake prompts as well. Thanks for the rec!

[dendriteblues]

No problem! It’s been a great experience for me so far.

[sushiflop]

I loved doing Yuletide and recommend it, though I've slipped up with registering the past... few years, woe! In the hopes of being on top of things for Yuletide 2019, I've already started my letter and devoted some thought to what I might offer. I've received great TWEWY fic for Yuletide in the past, and was glad to see it had a single-fandom exchange run this year. If I'm really, really on top of things in 2019, maybe I'll try joining in if it runs again.

[lostboywriting]

Apologies for the slow response, and thanks for the rec! I'll have to check out Yuletide for the coming year as well.

[sushiflop]

Hi! As you can see, I'm also a belated respondent so no worries lol.

Yuletide is very much worth it (imo) and there's a great community built around the exchange. that said, it's only for small/rare fandoms, so you have to think of the most obscure stuff you love to write and offer! that ALSO said, things like calvin&hobbes qualify for yuletide, and twewy has qualified multiple times, so there might be more options for participating than one initially things.

it's a great exchange and i hope to participate again eventually, if not in 2019!