The Obselescence Memorial Jinglemas Twinglemas Secret Santa Sendoff: Part 2 Edition! · 12:10am Nov 29th, 2017
Art belongs to Pixelkitties, and will be deleted upon request.
I’m not sure how many of you guys remember/know about Obselescence. Heck, I don’t know him as well as some of the long-runners on the site. I did know him long enough, though, to find out that not only was he one of the chillest mods on the site, he was also one of the most likable dudes on the internet.
He isn’t with us anymore, but that isn’t to say that he’s dead. Quite the opposite, actually: he’s in medical school, learning how to keep the rest closer towards the “alive” side of the dead-alive spectrum. That being said, medical school is medical school, where sleep is considered a luxury and special training is needed to keep your tongue from tying itself in knots while trying to pronounce drug names with fifteen syllables.
But one of the nicest things that he did while i was around was start up a Secret Santa fimfiction collab. Everyone submitted their name and the one (or two) MLP/EQG characters they liked the most, the names got shuffled around and redistributed, then we all wrote fics for the name we pulled, featuring the character(s) they liked.
There were a lot of participants that time, and plenty of good fics came out of it. More importantly, though, everyone seemed to have a lot of fun writing their fics - and even more fun reading the ones written for them by their secret santa.
So I figured: even with Obs no longer around, why not keep the tradition going?
Introducing The Obselescence Memorial Jinglemas Twinglemas Secret Santa Sendoff: Part 2 Edition! A chance to brighten up FimFic with some holiday cheer by practicing your writing skills and giving the gift of words to a secret somebody (and getting a gift of words from a secret someone, too!)
I wanted to recommend giving someone a My Little Dashie for the holidays, but that idea’s already been done.
As was hinted at above, this is a Secret Santa type project. Everyone who wants to join in gets their name thrown in a proverbial hat, shaken about with a bunch of other names and pulled out at random - this determines who writes a fic for which person (without letting them know!), until everyone’s got a story to give to someone else. Then, after (hopefully) everyone’s got their stories sent in, we’ll get to “open our presents” by sharing all of our fics with each other.
Of course, like any other official event, there’s going to be a few ground rules to go over - those will be listed below. I know it looks like a lot, but don’t let it deter you from entering! Don’t think of it as a contest with judges and rankings - think of it as a group activity, where we make the prizes for each other and the “win condition” is to spread a little goodwill in everyone’s direction and brighten up someone’s day. 
Rules:
1. If you are interested in the collab, please PM me and tell me that you want to join. Be sure to include one (or two) ponies you’d like to see in your story. Please don’t post what ponies you’d like to see in the general comments. Being a Secret Santa, these fics are supposed to be a surprise for everyone involved, and it’d spoil the surprise to know who you were writing for.
2. People who wish to participate have until December 7, 11:59 PM to send me a PM and ask to join. While “the more, the merrier” certainly applies to secret santas (particularly fic-giving secret santas,) we also don’t want to keep people waiting for too long to actually get started on writing their fics. It can be easy to lose interest in a group collab that never gets around to getting started. 
3. On December 8th, everyone’s names will be collected, shuffled and redistributed. Each of you will receive a PM stating what ponies your secret santa recipient would like to see in your story, but not who your recipient is!
4. While creativity is encouraged, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Stories should be one-shots only. If you want to extend it to multi-chapter stories, I recommend making sure that your story stands alone as-is for the Secret Santa, and then go back and add chapters onto it after everyone's shared their gifts with each other.
- Please keep your fics at a E or a T rating. While M rated stories can be beautifully written, they can also be unpleasant for their recipient, and we want everyone to have a fun time. Similarly, please use the [Gore] and [Sex] tags sparingly on T-rated stories.
- The character(s) the recipient chose is/are the character(s) they want to see in the story. The stories don’t need to be exclusively about them, but they should nevertheless be significant. Please don’t throw out one or two cursory references to the character(s) and then focus the story entirely on somepony else - it’s a pretty thoughtless way of saying that you don’t really care about what your recipient wants.
- Unless you can think of a creative or original way of telling a holiday story, please try not to use mostly human characters, crossover stories or HiE/Displaced stories. Non-pony content isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and we’d like to keep things accessible for everyone. That said, if you have a fun idea that involves the Hearth’s Warming spirit and the ponies in your letter, go for it! Also, if your recipient specifically asks for human characters and/or Anon, assume that writing about humans and/or human-related things is okay.
- Similarly, EQG characters might not be everyone’s cup of tea. If you can find a creative and fun way to tell stories based on EQG, or if your recipient specifically asks for EQG characters, go for it! Otherwise, it might be best to set things in or around Equestria itself.
- To help us all get into the spirit of things, the stories should be set around or focused on Hearth’s Warming, Hearth’s Warming Eve or a similar point in the year. It doesn’t have to be the exclusive focus of the story, but it’d be a bit out of the holiday spirit to write a story set in the middle of the summer. It doesn’t necessarily have to be snowy out, though - if you want to write a holiday story in the tropics or under the sea, more power to you! 
5. Try to keep the word count between 1k and 5k words. If you have a great story idea that requires lengthy execution, going over 5k words is fine, but remember that not everyone's going to want to read "Austraeoh: the Holiday Edition."
6. Include the word “tangerine” somewhere in the first PM you send to me - it tells me that you’ve read through the rules up to this point, which helps put me at ease about your story’s content (and whether or not it follows the guidelines from the previous post. 
)
7. After you’ve written your fic, please send me a PM containing a link to your story. GDocs are the easiest way for me to access the content, though other methods are fine - and if I have a problem with viewing your story for any reason, I’ll let you know. Please don’t immediately post your story to your Fimfic page, because…
8. On December 22nd, all of the submitted stories will be posted en masse to a separate Fimfic account expressly made to host all of your wonderful stories. All of your stories will be posted in the order in which they were submitted; after the title of each story will be a note in parenthesis saying who the story is for, and who the story was from. For example: “My Crazy Project Horizons Summer Holiday (written for Petrichord by TheMaskedFerret.)” Please try to have your stories finished by [the aforementioned date,] so that you don’t keep your recipient waiting.
9. On December 29th, feel free to post the stories that you wrote to your own account. After all, they’re your stories - you should take pride in having written them!
10. On January 5th, the separate fimfic account will be closed. Please make sure that you have the stories you wrote posted on your own account by then.
11. Have fun! Clunky rules aside, this is meant to be a fun and lighthearted way of helping us enjoy the holidays together.
Got any additional questions or Obs-ervations? Feel free to post it in the comments below - I always appreciate feedback, and will try to get questions answered as quickly as possible.
Happy early Hearth’s Warming to everypony!
-Petrichord
Are you going to post them as chapters of a single fic? Because if they're going to be separate stories, then the 1k-word minimum will apply. And when people post them to their own accounts, that could be an issue, unless they already have a shortfic anthology going. Also note that as a new account you'll have to submit at least the first few through moderation. Could take a little time.
4737058
They're going to be posted as chapters of a single fic. that being said...hm. you're right that it'll take a little time to get through moderation. I guess i'll have to hope that the queue isn't too flooded at that time? ^^;
4737066
Just to play devil's advocate a little... what if someone submits a story that has multiple chapters? Or do you want to head that off and say make them all one-shots?
4737068
Hm. Obs' contest limited things to one-shots only, apparently; i guess i'll go back into the rules and post down the same.
Sounds interesting and potentially fun. I may play along if there's time in my schedule.
Well, it's not like I have anything better to do.
This sounds like a great deal of fun. My December is already jam-packed though...
Well, I have a few days to think about doing it and how I'm going to incorporate the magic word into both the PM and the story (for kicks), if I so desire!
HELL YES JINGLEMAS IS BACK
Now all we need is OC Slamjam Pt. 2!
4737066
Just ping me, or Plum. We're all about holiday cheer. I'd be more than happy to push fics through queue for the season to be jolly, provided they're all up to standard for site approval. ^^
And for the record, assuming you get 20 entries, 1.5k each, that'd be about a two-three minute scan in mod queue, at most, unless there's potential issue. Just an estimate. So don't worry about mod queue too much.
I do want to know, the Secret Santa will be done on a separate account, yes? And was the original done on Obs' account or another account?
Hmmm, I'm busy in terms of writing, but I am intrigued. I might have to think on this one for a bit. Like the idea though, I must say.
4737340 That's some dedication there.
I would join, but I want to see the stories others make, especially the new people. I started writing thanks to CategorialGrant's CuddleFic Contest, and I liked it! So what can the newbies make, and what can the veterans make?
Just poke Wanderer D or some other mod beforehand so they’re aware. They’ll probably be kind enough to speed the anthology through moderation.
1. Is there a maximum word count limit? While "one-shot, not multi-chapter" sounds intuitive enough, I find it a bit vague and I've never come across an explicit word limit to delineate it from larger works.
2. What if you don't have a Gdoc account? Is it possible to simply PM the fic to you so long as it's clear what it is? Or could we include the fic on an unsubmitted FIMFiction.net fic, simply put up a password entry requirement, and then PM you the password, ensuring no one else can access it?
3. Lastly, if you receive a request (say, someone does submit an EqG character) that you don't want to do, is there a window of opportunity to request a new one, or is this collab going to be a case of "no backsies"?
Jovial Hearth's Warming to all!
4738161
...Isn't item 8 here a rules violation?
4738161
IIRC, Obs ended up making a separate account, on which he posted all of the stories as a single anthology story - so i was planning on doing the same. I'm open to suggestions, though. And thanks for the heads-up! I'll make sure to let you or plum know when it's ready to be pushed out.
4738237 And I'll be sure to add Wanderer D to "people who I can poke in order to ensure it gets through the queue quickly." Nice to know that I've now got three approvers who want to see this up and published.
4738218 You can still read other people's stories if you join! Since all the fics are going to be posted as an anthology, everyone's ultimately going to be able to read them. But I agree - it's going to be exciting to see how both new blood and established talent tackle this sort of thing.
4738379
So long as the one submitting it was a participant, wouldn't a collaboration come under co-authorship? That's exempted from prohibition by the same rule.
4738419
Hmm, interesting interpretation. Is it a collaboration, though? The alt account created for this event had no hand in writing each individual story.
It just seems like this ought to be a group, not an anthology.
4738354
1. Maximum word count should be 5k, but it won't be strictly enforced as long as someone has a good idea that requires lengthy execution. Good catch, though - I'll go post that up in the rules.
2. I'm okay with viewing it any which way, so long as it isn't published first on your FimFic account and i'm able to actually view it (putting it behind a password is fine, but it'll be tricky for me to see it if you don't remember to tell me said password.
)
3. If people have strong objections to writing about certain characters, then they can send me a PM before the names are shuffled and distributed, and I'll try to make sure that they don't have to write about characters they'd really rather not write about. After you've gotten someone's name and ponies of choice pulled, though, there aren't going to be any take-backsies. Remember that the person you're writing a fic for really likes the characters they picked, and they'd be really happy if you tried your best to write a great story anyway.
4738424 The great and mighty Wanderer D has given his blessing just as Obs sought permission when he did the contest. We're good n_n
4738456
Well, good. It would have sucked for this nice thing to get removed for a rules violation.
4738424
No you stupid idiot, Obs was a moderator and he did it so keep your stupid idiotness to yourself.
4738470
Omg mods are breaking the rules I'M TELLING KNIGGY
4738471
Tl;dr
Quit being a dumbface and bullying Obs on his last decisions. Let the man run his holiday cheer gift exchange in peace and stop being a stupid idiot, please.
4738475
Rude I'm reporting u
4738443
1. Ho ho, I'm gonna have fun trying to keep to 5k. I will try, though.
2. No worries. If I use the password option, I'll remember.
EDIT: And obviously, I'll remember the link to the fic too.
3. Ah, OK then. Just sent you a PM on that point, so that should be my commission covered, at least.
4738483
No stones
Much excite. Can't wait to get started!
4737352
Thiiiiiis.
Another big event on this site that completely passed me by the first time around. This is honestly the first time I hear about it and that's a shame because it sounds seriously awesome.
On the bright side, now I can try to join the reboot and catch up on all that jinglemas cheer I missed.
Rules addendum: after discussion, the group has decided to distribute the names of recipients in addition to the recipient's preferred ponies. Even with this newfound power, be discrete about the name you drew, and don't blab!