Challenge Taking Commissions From Your Fellow Users

Ways of the Force by MsLanna, commissioned by Gamiel

 

Step 1: Advertise for Commissions

The basic idea for this challenge is that over a period of a month, writers can declare themselves open for commissions. Each writer posts a bit of information about what their interests and specialties are, and perhaps post the names of some fics that they consider good examples of their work. The mods have declared that you can link to up to 2 of these fics.

This is what my info would look like, as an example:

Writing specialties
Fandoms: Star Wars
Eras within fandoms (if applicable): Primarily Saga
Characters: Obi-Wan, Anakin Skywalker, Jedi in general
Genres: Any
Piece Length: Under 50,000 words
Please no: EU-centric commissions. I know almost nothing about the EU.
Misc: Particularly fond of OC's and outrageous silliness
Work examples: (All on the Classic Board) Hell Hath No Fury, The Sith Who Brought Life Day, Spirit Warriors of Angharad
Open to commissions: Yes

Once I have as many stories as I feel I can handle at one time, I'd change the last item to "No." Here's a blank version to copy and paste. Post your "commission ad" in this thread.

Writing specialties
Fandoms:
Eras within fandoms (if applicable):
Characters:
Genres:
Piece Length:
Please no:
Misc:
Work examples:
Open to commissions:

Step 2: Getting a Commission From Someone Else

This challenge will work best if most people both write and ask others for writing. Keep in mind as you "shop" for an author that writers have posted their personal specialties, not necessarily everything they're willing and able to do. If someone says they write Leia but haven't mentioned Han & Leia romance, it's still worth a PM'ed question if H/L is what you want. The only absolute "no's" should be listed under the "Please no" section.

The way you choose to PM an author and work out your particular commission are of course up to you. Some writers work best with only vague direction, others want more precise details from you. Several PM's back and forth may be necessary as you work out a way to make the experience as fun as possible for both of you.

Here's a copy-and-paste commission request template if you want to use it:

Fandom:
Eras within fandom:
Characters:
Genres:
Piece Length:
Please no:
General story information:

Step 3: Getting Your Stories Listed

Once you've gotten your story done and posted, send its title and a link, along with the commissioner's name, to me via PM. I'll list it in the reserved post above. Use this format:

The Great American Fanfic by User_A, commissioned by User_B

I chose a month's time because that's about as long as I can swear to faithfully maintain a list. If this challenge seems like it would benefit from going longer, I'll talk to the mods about continuing it, and I'll figure something out. As of right now, however, you've got until midnight board time on 6/1/14. Consider pacing yourself and only taking on as many stories as you can complete in that amount of time.

Have fun!

 

My writing specialties
Fandoms: Star Wars
Eras within fandoms (if applicable): Primarily Saga
Characters: Obi-Wan, Anakin Skywalker, Jedi in general
Genres: Any
Piece Length: Under 50,000 words
Please no: EU-centric commissions. I know almost nothing about the EU.
Misc: Particularly fond of OC's and outrageous silliness
Work examples: (All on the Classic Board) Hell Hath No Fury, The Sith Who Brought Life Day, Spirit Warriors of Angharad
Open to commissions: Yes

 

Are people who aren't participating in the challenge allowed to commission things? If I were less chicken, and able to write fast enough, and not being gnawed to death by multiple projects...

Though I don't think I'm up for trying to write something in under a month, I like this as an idea. It sounds like it has potential and I hope a lot of the writers here will find it.

 

I find this to be an intriguing little proposition, however there are two things that I can see which might need some small measure of reconsideration. First, is the deadline for posting a commission a month from the date the commission is received, or does the commission have to be done by the date set in the challenge post (i.e., 1 June) no matter when the commission is asked for/accepted? Second, is there/will there be a specific format to how commissions are posted, i.e., if you've accepted a 20,000-word novella request, would it have to go all in one post or could it be put in multiple posts one right after the other, both of which seem like they would push the TOS to the breaking point. As an addendum, would it also be possible and/or more desirable for such commissioned works to remain private between the party making the request and the party writing it?

All that aside, it seems rather a stretch to expect this kind of thing to happen for free. There needs to be some incentive on the part of the writer to meet such deadlines, beyond simple advertisement of previous works and the possibility of further readership in future, for this challenge (of sorts) to succeed.

 

Absolutely.

Answers to your questions:

A) My thought was that June 1 would be the fic-finishing date, so long as you wanted your completed story placed in the list at the top of the thread. However, I'm flexible on that if it looks like people can't get work done in a month.

B) People could post their longer fics in any manner that suited them, all at once or over several days, depending on how long their stories are and how they would like them to be read.

C) If an author wants to make sure that they're not going to get requests that will be so much trouble it's not worth doing it for free, they can put "please no" criteria in their posting information. Examples might include, "Please no works over 10,000 words," "Please no [insert your least favorite romantic pairing here]," "Please no character death stories," etc.

 

If all this is the case, how you want to run things, then I don't really see the point in making it a Challenge at all (especially with such an artificial deadline). Rather, it would be easier to organize it as a Resource, wherein like-minded writers and readers can get together to ask for stories that they want and provide what the reader likes. In essence, this could be a sort of cross between a year-round version of the Fic-Gift Exchange the forum does during the holiday season, and a request hotline. If that were the case, then you might get more signups going for a longer period, thus making a viable idea sustainable.

Please understand that I'm not trying to rain on your parade or anything. Hopefully this helps to firmly establish what's going on and gets folks involved.

 

I'm in for the writing bit. Don't feel like commissioning, so ignore me if it helps the challenge.


Writing specialties
Fandoms: Star Wars
Eras within fandoms: Saga, a bit Beyond but only AU for NJO and after
Characters: Clones, Clan Skirata, Mandalorians, I'll write you an OC no problem, anything else is up to negotiation
Genres: Any, even poetry, let me write you a sonnet cycle about Jaing Skirata
Piece Length: depends on how good an idea you give me
Please no: Sith, fighter pilots, pure mush
Misc: can Mando'a, addicted to bad puns, tends not to physically describe characters
Work examples: all on AO3 (same username) because truncated here: Whispers of Wire for dark stuff, Loved&Found for silly humour,
Open to commissions: Yes

 

I'm in for writing!

Writing specialties Fandoms: Star Wars
Eras within fandoms: Beyond
Characters: Any NJO or post-NJO character + Mandalorians/troopers
Genres: Action, Adventure, Romance (light, not much heavy)
Piece Length: Any
Please no: Anything that requires killing off a canon character
Misc: I can use Mando'a if need be
Work examples: http://boards.theforce.net/threads/fight-for-justice-cast-of-fotj-ocs.50019257/]Fight[/url] for Justice
Open to commissions: Yes

 

I don't fully understand how you make a commission. Can you explain? bitte

 

Sure . .. you just pick an author who seems to write what you'd like to read, and then talk to them via PM about writing a story you want to see. You can be more or less specific about what you want, depending on your and the writer's wishes.

 

Writing specialties
Fandom: Star Wars
Era: Saga
Characters: Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and Original Characters
Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama, Jedi Philosophy, Sith Philosophy
Piece Length: Open
Please No: Mush
Misc: Enjoy writing introspection and action scenes
Work Examples: A Darker Truth
Open to commissions: Yes

 

Writing specialties
Fandom: Star Wars
Era: Beyond the Saga, soon to be Legends LOL
Characters: Han/Leia, Jaina/Jag, primarily though Luke/Mara
Genres: Humor, Drama, Romance
Piece Length: Viggie to short story
Please No: Slash or character deaths
Misc: Enjoy writing missing scenes, introspection and stories revolving around character relationships and/or inner growth.
Open to commissions: Yes

~~~!!

Note: I will also take NSWFF commissions related to LOTR and Star Trek, rebooted. Same provisos as above.

 

So did anybody but me make a commission?