he'p me!

[krickets]

I was just about to go to bed, but I remembered I have wanted to post this all week!

Has anybody reading this ever participated in, run, or even heard of, a fandom-specific slash-a-thon? I'd like to take a look and see how they've been done in the past to get an idea of how to stage one in the future.

cynthia_arrow and I are talking about putting one on for Battlestar Galactica due to the painful lack of m/m slash in that fandom and our quest to remedy that. (If only for a short while.) But neither of us have experience in holding fic-a-thons, let alone slash-a-thons.

Can anyone point me in any kind of direction?

Thanks!

Comments

[demonqueen666.livejournal.com]

(here via cynthia_arrow's post)

Heh, clearly I hang out with a completely different set than you guys, as it seems like me and my posse are making slashy BSG jokes all the time (tho I must admit, there is far more joking around and "SUBTEXT ALERT!!" type discussion than the production of actual fic). As far as I can tell, the most popular pairings fandom-wide seem to be Anders/Lee, Tigh/Adama, and...well, do I really need to say the last one? *jerks thumb at icon* (It's like, one inappropriate bathroom stall encouter away from canon. OH WAIT, THAT ALREADY HAPPENED.)

On a more serious note, I would love to participate in such a ficathon (because like I need more excuses to write the boy-touching). As far as things in general go, I second halfdutch's comment, and especially the part about assigning prompts making for a more effective go (at least, I know *I* feel way more motivated when I know there's actually someone waiting for my submission specifically).
I don't have any experience or anything, but if you feel overwhelmed by the workload possibilities and would like an extra hand, I would be willing to volunteer somehow. I dunno, for modding or helping organize submissions or whatever. Just in cases. I really like slash.

[cynthia-arrow.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's looking like the consensus is that structure is better--assigning prompts or having people write for others. That makes sense, since it means people have more impetus to finish.

Although, how do you get away from people getting stressed out over deadlines and assignments and whatnot? (Perhaps I've been scarred by the stress-fest that is the Lost Luau, which, God love our fandom, is fun...but people give themselves ulcers over what they percieve as their responsibilities.) That's why my inclination is to leave things open with a prompt and pick your own pairing, but yet the idea of an exchange sounds lovely, too...

GAH. Sorry for the ramble. Thanks ever so much for your input, especially from the Baltar/Gaeta corner of BSG fandom, which is probably the only slash stronghold we have, LOL. :)

[demonqueen666.livejournal.com]

Sadly, with this kind of thing there are certain inalienable truths one must accept: some people will freak out, some people will beg for extensions, and some people will never complete their fics at all. You just have to do what you can and hope for the best.

My suggestion is to pick a deadline not too close or two far: too close and obviously more people will stress out and/or just not have the time, but too far and they possibly might forget or get into the trap (of which I know all too well) of thinking they have more time than they really do. A month or maybe two from the time you post the prompts ought to do it.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Yeah we were thinking, a month to write and a month for posting so that essentially gives them two months to write if they need it.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Hi! Thank you so much for the input!

I totally see the Tigh/Adama thing, although I don't know that I've seen any of the fic for it haha. And yes, Gaeta/Baltar. That's probably one of the only slash pairings I see consistently. Or at all should I say.

I'm getting what you guys are saying about a request-driven 'thon, though my concern is logistics. That's not to say I wouldn't know how to set it up, but would there be enough prompters/requesters? And would there be enough writers willing to write each request? Maybe somebody really wants to see some hardcore NC17 Tigh/Crashdown smut? How many of our (probably limited) writers would be willing to write that?

That's my number one concern with participator initiated requests/prompts. I don't want anybody to leave empty-handed, and I don't want anybody to feel forced to write a pairing/situation they have no interest or desire to write.

I think you're right though, in an ideal setting, that would work best, but our pool is so small, it might just backfire on us.

[demonqueen666.livejournal.com]

I see your concerns and, based on fic exchanges and ficathons I've seen past, here are my suggestions:

That's not to say I wouldn't know how to set it up, but would there be enough prompters/requesters?

You could make it a requirement that in order to be a writer, you must also submit a prompt. Ala "yuletide", in a way. That way you are always guaranteed to have exactly as many prompts as writers.
(And, BTW, I'd recommend setting some guidelines for the prompts, like "a pairing and some words", because otherwise you'll get some people who just give you a pairing and nothing to work with, and other people who'll give you an entire outline of a scenario, which might just be me, but always smacked to me of the unfair.)

And would there be enough writers willing to write each request?

Well, there are two ways to work around that: one is to tell people they're going to have to suck it up. The very popular mctabby Cat's Birthday drabblethon is worked this way. She collects all the prompts and pairs them with users via the highly scientific method of writing them on notecards and letting her cat paw at them, and whoever gets paired with what just has to deal with it. Of course, it's a bit easier in that case, as these only have to drabbles so it's easier to fake it, and it's also for the Harry Potter fandom which, you may be aware, is jackass crazy.
Of course, I understand why you might be a little leery of putting such a restriction down the first time out. But I offer the caveat that you'd be surprised how willing some people can be, and also that if you keep the prompts at only a pairing and some words, at least people are free of having to write hardcore sex for a pairing they're not quite comfortable with (for the aforementioned Drabblethon, my prompt asked for Hagrid/Snape, a pairing I never would have thought of and sure as hell was not going to write a full-on sex scenario for; I had them get drunk and turned it into a humorous innuendo-filled thing which still fulfilled the prompt without breaching my comfort zone).

The second option is to allow people to give a brief list of things they don't want to have to write when they sign up: pairings, characters and/or (depending on how specific the prompts are going to get) certain scenarios/ratings. Of course, this makes prompt matching a little more complex, and also opens the possibility that there will be prompts that can be matched with nobody. I've seen other fic exchanges combat this by asking ahead of time for people to volunteer as back-up writers in case of this eventuality. (really, what I'm noticing looking back over all the advice I've just given is that this really a less-is-more scenario: the less info you allow people to give in prompts, the less things you have to worry about.)

but our pool is so small, it might just backfire on us.

I dunno; again, maybe it's just the corners of fandom I hang out it, but I think you'd be surprised how many people might be eager to do some BSG manslash. I think it might be quite sucessful...if properly pimped, of course :)

[crickets.livejournal.com]

First, you need to be pointing me to these corners! LOL.

And secondly, I think you've covered a lot here, and given us a lot to think about. I really don't want to force writers to "suck it up" because I want everybody to have fun. But your ideas of having prompters list options is a good one to get around that. I think we may be going a different route, but you've definitely given us some food for thought! So thank you very much for that.

[demonqueen666.livejournal.com]

First, you need to be pointing me to these corners! LOL

About 50% of what I catch is just by crusing the round-ups in the_wireless, although a good place to go to get bombarded with the slash is gaeta_squee where, I shit you not, they will pair Gaeta with anything. Seriously. A. Ny. Thing. Right now someone's doing a series with him and that guy from Torchwood. Also, I recommend good buddy cerebel's fic journal (it's linked in her user info), because she will write pretty much any pairing you can dare her to, and WELL.

I think we may be going a different route, but you've definitely given us some food for thought! So thank you very much for that.

Well, you're very welcome! And I'm looking forward to the ficathon, whenever you get it set up.
(BTW, it seems like we have a lot of common interests, so I friended you ^^;)