hypothetically speaking

Yooooooltide reveal today! It turns out that my lovely, deservedly well-recced Public Service Announcements story, map was in fact written by greywash. Thank you again, stranger! :) And, um, I did pretty much already know that toft wrote me Robots Need Love Too, because . . . well. Who else could've written that? I IM'd her on yuletide morning to thank her for it. And now I have plenty of fun ahead of me, poking around the archive to see who wrote all my favourite stories.

So now you may desire to know which Yuletide stories I wrote! They were, in order of appearance:

Strong Sad's Litany of Crushed Hopes and Dreams (Homestar Runner) - this was a challenging assignment, since h*r fic about Strong Sad and Marzipan is not something I ever would've written under my own steam, but it ended up being a lot of fun (especially the part where I had an excuse to get into the source again. I watched many many cartoons). I really like how it turned out! And the recipient seemed to really like it, so that made me glad. Perhaps the most fun was coming up with easter eggs to put in the fic, since how could it be h*r fic without easter eggs? eruthros helped me out by designing the hideous, hideous advertising poster in the first egg, and doing other light photoshopping work as well.

Sailors, Convicts, Scarlet Women (Mythbusters RPF) - okay, okay, this one was pretty dang obvious. A Mythbusters RPF rural high school AU about dorks who just want to escape to bigger worlds, involving gay teen love and a puppy? I might as well have watermarked it. :) (yes, such_heights, you can have a prize for being the first to guess. Name your poison!) I started out wanting to write a high school AU like other high school AUs I've read, that sort of follow American tv in terms of, whatever, football players and cheerleaders and heads of the debate team and the chess team and all that, but then I realised that I wasn't writing about someone else's high school experience so much as my own, which means a rural school where everyone knows everyone and the only real extracurriculars are drugs, alcohol, and work, and that's when it sort of came together for me. Anyway, I really love it, and grinned like a fool when I saw how much kaneko enjoyed it. She asked for an AU, and I could not resist.

all your heart-melodies (Lilo & Stitch) - yes, 'twas me! This little story became something of a hit, which was surprising, I won't lie - I wrote it very quickly on the evening of the 24th, just on a whim because I loved the idea of the prompt, and didn't expect that it would be so popular. Anyhow, I'm really happy that people liked it, and extremely proud to have made bossymarmalade cry. Plus the recipient seemed pleased with it. :) It turned out to be the only story in the fandom, so I'm glad I did it - Lilo is so superawesome and deserves fic! I now wonder if there shouldn't be crossover fic where she meets, like, Martha at UNIT while becoming a space explorer. Or possibly Aeryn Sun and John Crichton?

So, those secrets revealed, it is now time for:

( The End of Year Fic/Vid/Podfic Meme! )

. . . I meant to mention this in my last post, but oh yeah, I also WROTE some yuletide stories! Three of them, to be precise. What's funny is that so far, the most popular of the three is not the one that took a long time to write or the really long one, but rather the one that I dashed off last night for funsies. Oh yuletide! Never change.

I don't know, should I play the "guess my yuletide story!" game? Growing up in my house we had a rule - you could shake your presents, squeeze them, weigh them, poke at them, and you were absolutely free to guess what they might be out loud - but if you ever guessed right, the present went back to the store (a rule instituted when my dad started not only guessing "book," but also the author, title, and edition of the book he was getting). Which is why we kids were always careful to never guess right. :)

Otoh, I can't really take a yuletide story back to the store, anyway, so that's a terrible analogy. Okay, tell you what, let's do it! Guess away - I'm not screening comments, so first guessed first served. I won't confirm or deny anything till January, obv. But I will write short little flashfic for up to three correct guessers, any fandom you like (out of the fandoms I write, of course). Here, I'll even give you some hints:

1) they're all over 1000 words;
2) one of them is almost exactly three times the length of one of the others;
3) two of them are in fandoms that I've never even mentioned in this journal;
4) two of them are gen;
5) one them them has a title all in lowercase;
6) all of them are inspired in some way by the life I had growing up;
7) two of them reference the same food item;
8) all three of them are popular . . . hm, cultural texts - probably all three are familiar to many people - but none of them are popular fandoms at all. Not even on the scale of yuletide fandoms.

so, I spent like seriously a month writing my main yuletide story, and now I've just spent three days writing a yuletide treat that is almost three times as long as my main story. Oooof! I don't even know what happened. Quantity took over from quality? But when you have to send a yuletide treat out to beta because you're worried about the plot structure, you may have a problem.

otoh, that's the only treat I've written so far. :( But there is still tomorrow! I've just got so many yuletide letters open, and alllll of them need fic, it's hard to choose. This is why I really shouldn't be on the pinchhitters email list - for one thing, I'm unlikely to volunteer because that kind of two-day deadline freaks me the hell out, and for another, I want to adopt every single orphan prompt that goes by.

ooof. well, it took all day, but I finally got my Yuletide story punched into a shape that I like. Certainly there are some words, and a thing resembling a story, that I can now post! So imma put it aside and look at it again tomorrow to see if there's anything needs improving. Whew. I was starting to get worried there - I've spent the last few weeks obsesssing over the fandom source, trying to find the right angle and story to tell, and it only really came together in the last few days.

ANYWAY. that's done. how are you doing, internet friends? how's your yuletide story going (if applicable)? I assume that the gradually increasing silence around here has to do with the sense of holiday-exchange-fic panic that is slowly settling in. Plus whatever, travel and holidays etc.

Okay, now on to festivids! I have my source and my music and my thoughts, and just have to, you know, do the vidding part. I dunno about this whole "doing two major exchange fests in one season" thing, though - it's a bit exhausting. And plus I also want to write some Yuletide treats! And I wanted to do a Festivids treat as well, even already edited the music for it, but that's . . . perhaps less likely. We'll see.

It makes me really, really happy to know that, twice in very recent memory, someone has created a new fannish comm, been made aware that the comm name they've selected is offensive or exclusionary or in some way problematic, and in both cases they've said, "oh, good point! I'm sorry, I should've thought of that. Let's change it." And then a name-change process has begun without the need for fuss or kerfuffle. aw, fandom! we really can be decent human beings when we try.

. . .

In other news, I AM ALL A FLUTTER WAITING FOR MY YULETIDE ASSIGNMENT. I don't even know why, it's not like I've ever started working on them as soon as I got them. But I just want it, now now now. I have heard that the thing most likely to stall the matching process is if the mods have to email someone for more info (someone whose offers and/or requests are unmatchable), and wait for them to email back. So mostly in my twiddly anxious mood I am sitting here just IMAGINING my nemesis, someone who offered to write only three things, three things that no one asked for, who then walked away from their computer and went to Mars or something. I will get you, entirely imaginary nemesis! Stop stalling Yuletide!

. . .

Sigh, I'm just twitchy. And I've tried all the things that you try to get something on the internet to happen: I've tried going to the store, I've tried showering, I've tried playing video games (MarioKart Wii fears me now), I've tried not-looking at the internet for whole HOURS even, I've tried reading really long really mediocre Harry/Draco fic from ten years ago, I've tried sleeping, I've tried baking. And, can you credit it, NONE of these strategies has succeeded in making my yuletide assignment show up in my inbox! I mean, what is the world coming to? Next thing will be, lighting a cigarette won't make the bus come, or going to the bathroom in a restaurant won't make the food arrive. Seriously!

Dear Yuletide Writer,

My requests were totally giant paragraphs and I am sure you already have MORE than enough information to write me a story! But if you want more, there's more under the cut, along with a copy of my requests. But let me just say: I will be honestly happy with whatever story is in you to write, and am much more interested in reading a story that excites you than reading a story you wrote because you thought you had to. I already know what I think about these fandoms - I'm interested in hearing what you have to say. :) So please, have fun, and don't take ANY of my suggestions too seriously.

( my requests, plus additional info on each prompt )

( and some general info on my likes and dislikes )

In conclusion, thank you in advance for making me a present! I cannot wait to open it.

xoxo

love,

twings

Last year, eruthros and I released One Night Fandoms: A Tribute to Yuletide, which was a labour of love showcasing all the things that we love about the challenge. But it took us a little over eight months to make it, looking at so many different fandoms that we actually lost count.

Now that Yuletide is rolling around again, we've been getting nostalgic about the making of the vid. And thanks to googledocs, IM conversations, and my digital camera, we have a record of the whole process. I thought I'd make a Making Of post, talking about all the hilarious things that happened and all the stuff we learned in those eight months - mostly for my own archival purposes, so that I can reminisce about the experience at one handy place. But with copious cut-tags for your reading pleasure, if you want to hear about it! Just be warned that there are some images and embedded videos under the cuts.

eta: I just wanted to mention, as well, that I feel kind of ashamed about the number of times we use the words "crazy" and "insane" in the IM conversations and stuff . . . that's ablist language that I am now attempting to keep out of my mouth, but that I wasn't thinking about at the time, so I'm sorry for it. /eta

( a googledoc called Hilarious Things We Did/Said While Making the Yuletide Vid )

( how we selected fandoms, and some of the ridiculous places we went to find them )

( a slightly more serious part: things we learned about race, representation, media and fandom )

( some talk about Homicide: Life on the Street, which became my nemesis briefly )

( stories about how we fell accidentally in love with fandoms while trying to clip them )

( as a result of loving our little fandoms so much, we put in all sorts of little in-jokes )

( and sometimes we had technical problems )

( but mostly we had fun: excerpts from emails )

( Yuletide Madness: how we foolishly decided to change the vid on the 24th of December )

( that squeaky-door sound at the end of the vid )

There's so much that comes rushing back to me when I go through these old IM conversations and look at the clips that I clipped last year; every one of those 191 fandoms in the vid, plus all the fandoms that didn't make it into the vid, comes with its own story, has its own history with me or eruthros. Yuletide was, for eight months last year, our way of looking at the world - there were few things we watched or saw mentioned or noticed on downloads communities that didn't make us stop and say, "hey, is that a yuletide fandom? Can we vid it?" Any conversation about favourite childhood books, multivids, old tv shows - automatically became a conversation about how to get those beloved little fandoms into the vid.

Looking back on it, I can't believe that we did it.

If you don't want to hear about yuletide, my journal may not be the place for you to hang out this year. :D I am already having so much fun! I've nominated my fandoms, and they are:

-Mathnet
-RPF - Mythbusters
-Dead Zone (tv)
-Public Service Announcements - this PSA, about which I have spoken before (I created a new category for Public Service Announcements! Nominate your favourite public service announcement, if you like!)
-Victor/Victoria
-RPF - Bloomsbury Group

I originally nominated Le Petit Prince, but changed it for Victor/Victoria. Anyhow, I hereby declare that I am not changing my nominations from this point forward. So if you wanted to nominate any of those fandoms, you needn't - I swear that I will keep them constant for you.

And now I am having fun browsing through the list of nominated fandoms and going, "ooooh, Robert Aspirin's MYTH series! Oooooh, Orlando! Oooooh!" I am making a giant list of fandoms to offer. Actually, picking fandoms to offer is one of my favourite parts of yuletide . . . because picking fandoms to ASK for is kinda stressful (how do you pick just four! omg!) but picking fandoms to offer is this ever-expanding joyous feeling, this magnanimity and hail-fellow-well-met glee that makes me feel like fandom just goes on and on forever. I love offering fandoms.

ALSO, PLEASE NOTE: no one has yet nominated Thelma and Louise or Kate & Allie! If you have a spare nomination, consider giving the ladies some love.

YULETIDE YULETIDE YULETIDE! What Yuletide fandoms are exciting you this year? I am particularly excited about the Bloomsbury RPF (Virginia Woolf RPS give me it), Super Mario Galaxy, The Dead Zone, Mythbusters, and Mathnet. Wheeeee!

I just wrote some of the Leverage fantasy AU that toft and I are writing (that story CRACKS ME UP), which is supercool because I have had trouble writing lately! But then, boom, twelve hundred words, pretty easily. This makes me think that I might write a little something something set-in-season-one Prison Break Michael/Sucre, because I have a hilarious-slash-adorable idea for a story.

BUT, what I am posting to say is: can I please get some fic for this anti-drug PSA that I loved in my youth? It's so sweet and gay! LOOK AT IT.



I swear, when I watched TV as a kid I got excited whenever that PSA came on. Because they LOVE EACH OTHER, you guys. This yuletide I am ttly asking for the epic story of flannel bathrobe guy and the guy with hipster hair, and how they grew up together, and how one of them OD'd on something or other but it's okay because they have hugs, and then later they make out on the worn-out shag carpet in flannel bathrobe guy's apartment, and maybe, just maybe, they'll be able to make it if they stick together. I am so serious about this. Remind me about this come yuletide season.

I have still more yuletide recs for you! But first, I want to make note of a useful resource, so that I don't forget it:

The Femslash Yuletide Master List - all the yuletide femslash listed in one convenient place, updated as people contribute more links. Yays!

And then, on to the recs. ( recs for Psych, But I'm A Cheerleader, Mulholland Drive, Fairy Tales, Transmetropolitan, The Left Hand of Darkness, A Room With a View, The Shawshank Redemption, Slings & Arrows, Homicide, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Galaxy Quest, xkcd, The Breakfast Club, and Mary Poppins. )

And, in case you missed it, here is my previous page of yuletide recs - for Casanova, Psych, Frankenstein, Miracles, Mythbusters RPF, Calvin and Hobbes, lolcats, A Dog's Breakfast, and Hot Fuzz.

Have recs for me, or a recs list on your lj? Feel free to tell me about it!