Announcing the Springtime Sequel-Slash-Sandbox Switcheroo! EDIT: Now with a schedule! Sort of. · 8:23pm Mar 11th, 2018
Remember the thing I mentioned last blog post— well, here it is!
With Aragon’s Comedy Contest done, I figured I’d run one of my own. All the cool kids are doing it these days, right? Buuut, seeing as of how I don’t have much to foist on people for prizes, I went for a different tack!
There’s a thing I’ve heard of called Yuletide- it’s basically a cross fandom fic exchange. I thought I’d put together a FiMfiction specific version, and now we’ve got the very first Springtime Sequel Slash Sandbox Switcheroo!
The premise is simple. When you sign up, you’ll be randomly assigned a name of another participant. After that, it’s on you to write a fic based on/inspired by the work of said author whose name you drew. So, for example, if you’re the lucky soul who drew my name, you could try an entry into The Flash Sentry Papers, or just write about Twilight having a hangover, or whatever.
In turn, someone will randomly be given YOUR name, and they’ll get to write stuff about YOUR disc. Fan fiction of fan fiction. Layers, man.
This is all in good fun, of course, so don’t write hatefics ‘cause you don’t like that author’s ships or whatever.
So yeah! If you’re interested, go ahead & comment below! Feel free to add in any guidelines you’d like your random author to follow (no clopfics, no grimdark, etc).
I figure I’ll leave the signups open for a week or so, by which point Cynewulf and I should have the randomizing process figured out!
And if you don’t wanna sign up, that’s fine- I’d appreciate any signal boosting you can do. I figure it’ll be a fun way to make new friends, write new fics, and otherwise have have fun. And that’s what we’re her for, right?
ADDENDUM:
Also, here's a tentative schedule:
SIGNUP PERIOD: Closes March 18th. Assignments will be distributed shortly thereafter.
WRITING PERIOD: How's a month sound? The official 'deadline' to have your story finished by will be, say, April 22, just to get that extra weekend in!
Color me intrigued. Throw me in the pool... though when's the submission deadline?
Should I? I could...
Yeah, sure, why not?
Feh syre kiddo, I need some new inspiration. Or at least to write what I'm waiting for.
What the heck. I toss my hat into the ring!
I guess I'm in.
My only guidelines would be no grimdark and no troll/crack.
I can use more inspiration, so sure, I'm in.
No M-rated, no grimdark, no crack.
Yes!
As a writer of porn and horror, clop and grimdark are totally okay! Though if you're inspired by one of my two E-rated stories that okay too.
No rape, bathroom stuff or foalcon though okay?
This sounds like something that'd require a crap ton of prep work, unless you happen to get someone whose stories you'd already read. Is there a deadline, or just a promise to write something whenever?
Sign me up too, no M-rated or stories involving urlocks.
4814605 Ahem. (Flips to Pascoite's page, grabs the first fic)
Time after Time after Time after...
Time being a critical component of her most recent friendship lesson, it took Twilight Sparkle until just a few seconds after it was too late to do anything before the implications of the day coalesced into an actionable epiphany. There had been a technician by her castle to repair the Cutie Map, so naturally it only stood to reason that--
"Ineedamanual!" shouted Twilight Sparkle as she burst into her bathroom, looking from side to side for the elusive red repairpony. "Withalltheupdates for the... castle..." Twilight cleared her throat and looked away before backing carefully out of the smallest library and closing the door. "Sorry, Mister Turner."
"That's quite all right," filtered Time Turner's voice out from behind the closed door. "Your repair pony completed unsticking the toilet a few minutes ago, and since the need was quite urgent, I volunteered to test his work, so to say. By the way, where is the paper?"
(See, it can be easier than you expect)
I’m in. Write whatever you want. The wackier the sequel, the better.
I've been trying to get back into writing and dead in the water on inspiration. Guess I'll take a shot at this.
All I ask is toss me something E or T-Rated that's not shipping. I'm mainly interested in works that follow the main verse, over EqG, OC-heavy, or crossover material.
(If it's not too much to ask, I'd rather whoever picks up my stuff also keep their take on it clean.)
4814622
It's nice if you can get inspired by the first one you see. What if the first 5 do nothing for you? What if the author only has one story, and it's 100k words? I could quickly get in over my head and have to bow out.
Interesting idea, reminds me a little of the Secret Santa event. Toss me into the pool, though no grimdark would be nice.
4814636 Well, that's the fun: I'm challenging myself to find some inspiration somewhere.
4814656
The question for me is more how long it'll take me to find it. Which is also why the existence or not of a deadline is pretty important.
Well, this could be a good way to branch out. In which case, nothing M-rated for me.
I like the idea, and I can see it working well for writers who have at least one or two stories of significant length or have a well established AU, but what happens if the person you're assigned has written nothing but unrelated one-shot comedies?
I can't promise results by any specific deadline (even disregarding Pascoite's concerns), only that I would prioritize my entry over other efforts and actually try to invest more effort in writing than I do now. If there isn't a specific deadline, I'm in.
Presuming that is the case:
• Preferably no crossovers, but fusions ones are okay if necessary.
• Be careful about mature/grimdark/etc.; I have a healthy supply of morbid curiosity, but that doesn't mean that I always enjoy what I find.
4814663
Well, pick out one of the one-shots you like, and extrapolate ideas from there? Maybe look at whatever whacky hijinks that went down from the perspective of a different pony?
4814636
That's a fair concern, though from my (entirely anecdotall) experience, a lot of writers on fimfiction at least have a couple of shorter stories to pool from-- the idea is to riff on a story, rather than all of them.
4814683
You know what?
Sure. Why not. Lemme at it!
Who cares about writing a senior thesis when there's ponies to be scripted!
I'll take any category, but I'll tell you now that any romance/shipping is going to come out with the emotional impact of dry toast.
Sign me up!
F'naaaa throw me in this mix. No clop unless you're real lucky.
I’m in. I don’t have any limitations. I only have the two stories a one shot and one that’s been in limbo. I look forward to seeing what someone comes up with.
I offer no promises of if I'll actually be able to get anything done, but let's try it anyway.
I share 4814605's concerns. I'm already reading an average of 30k words every day, and this contest gives a high likelihood that I'll have to add to that – possibly in crippling amounts – in hopes of finding some inspiration. On the positive side, I'm currently 3-4 weeks ahead of my writing schedule, so it's not like I don't have the time. I do want to try releasing a story once a month now, and this just gives me an excuse to do so for April.
...
Aww, what the heck? Sign me up. For curiosity's sake.
EDIT: Oh, right, personal rules.
Just one: no clop. Other than that, have at it.
I'd like to sign up, and please, no gore.
you know what... why not. since i'm mind-blocked on writing my own stories for the moment.
preferences:
Sounds like fun; sign me up!
Quick question though: it doesn't sound like writing is anonymous, so how much are authors allowed to collaborate with their assignees? I mean obviously the original fic's author shouldn't be co-writing, but is getting a greenlight for an idea off the table as well?
EDIT: Oh, and nothing M-rated for me, please.
I'm in! No M-rated for preference, but otherwise, I'm fairly flexible.
I barely understand what we're supposed to be doing with this, so of course I'm going to enter in!
*hell yeah.* count me in!
I'm interested!
Though this contest happens in tandem with my finals so uh....HUH. I got this.
Rules:
Only an odd number of vowels, the number of verbs can't be divisible by 7, and please remove the red jelly beans.What's the min-max word count for the entries?
I... want to enter. Very much do. But I'm hesitant due to my own small amount of work. I guess that just gives someone a challenge though?
crapIguessI'min
But no NSFW, please.~
Maybe....I’ll sleep on it.
4816066
Minimum? Oh, 1,000 words, so you can actually post it as a standalone series on the site?
Maximum? I don't wanna give it a hard limit, but preferably something you can complete within a month. I'm sure there are some folks who would be flattered to have a 100k fanfic novel based on their work, but something shorter would probably be a lot easier to take in. :)
4815449
Honestly, one of the ideas behind it is that whoever's writing 'your' story is a surprise, just like it's a surprise for whoever you're writing for. I mean, I can't STOP you from collaborating with whoever you're randomly paired with, but that's not exactly what I had in mind. :)
4816175
Oh, I see! So it IS supposed to be kinda anonymous. I'm totally down with that!
My bad, I must have misread things.
I'll give it a shot.
I won't put any restrictions on, even though I probably should. For my part, I won't write anything grimdark, nor explicit clop, but I might choose a grimdark or clop story for the starting point of my response.
Ech, go on then, maybe give me some motivation to bloody write!
How will submissions be handled, by the way? Posting our entries on our own accounts and submitting to a group?
Hm. Potentially productive and a source of much spontaneous enjoyment. Could be interesting...
Put me down as Schmuck Number 31. I'll tentatively accept a place, but would like to reserve the right to back out if real life says no.
As for guideline restrictions... Call me Princess Picky, but allow me to crack my joints before I begin. I want to avoid the obvious pitfalls:
Rating: Everyone is ideal. Teen acceptable, but any warning tags are a bad idea. No Mature under any circumstances.
Series: Show-exclusive. No Equestria Girls, comics, or the like, since I don't bother with them. Most familiar with Seasons One to Five, and only bits of Season Six; anything beyond that is outside my interest.
Genre Tags: No Anthology, Anthro, Crossover, Human, Porn, Random, Romance, or Second Person. Generally prefer something cheerful, not grimdark or sad, but if you're confident you could do otherwise, be my guest.
Main Characters: Preferably characters from the seasons mentioned under series, for more or less the same reasons. Also, I'm part of a group interested in increasing story counts for tags with under 100 stories at present, so bonus points if you can do something for that too. Only if you like an extra challenge, though.
Length: Anything longer than 22,500 words* is erring towards unlikely. While you're free to do as you wish within that, I'd like (if at all feasible) something relatively substantial, say over 5,000 words. But again, only if you want. It's entirely optional.
* At a standard reading rate of 250 words per minute, that equates to 90 minutes, or the length of a feature film. Allowing that I'm unlikely to see anyone write that much anyway, I am likely to get restless beyond that, just so you're aware.
Choice of Fic: Here's a helpful hint: I'm generally happier with and prouder of those fics of mine which are A) complete, and B) published post-2014. List of fics here, for convenience, and ranked according to size. You can ignore this restriction if you want, but it's not something I'd encourage.
Otherwise, knock yourself out (metaphorically). Make the magic happen!
4817491
Pretty much!
(I’ll have to make a group now that I think of it).
It's an interesting idea and I'm tempted to join.
On one hand I'm not really a writer. On the other I'm sure I can get out at least 1000 words about just about anything in a month.
If you don't mind limited quantity and questionable quality, then I guess you can add me to the list. (Why do I feel I'm going to regret this commitment and fail?)
Considering that my 2 most popular stories are gorefests, I'm not going to set any restrictions.
Sign me up!
Well, this sound interesting. Count me in.
Oh, heck. I've been waffling for two days, but my best work seems to come from someone else's expectations of me. Can I join the party?
Dang it, I keep finding things just after they close. Don't suppose you have an odd number?
This looks so fun, but I don't have the time for this, I don't think. Good luck with your contest, though! This one is bound to get crazy!
And, uh, if you somehow run out of names to give out or something, you have my permission to use mine!