Challenge 16th Annual Non-Denominational Winter (for Some) Holiday Fic-Gift Exchange: Done for 22–23! TY all!

December and all its holidays are upon us, good people! That means it's time once again for...

The 16th Annual Non-Denominational Winter (for Some of Us) Holiday Fic-Gift Exchange!

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Now that our beloved @mavjade has retired from modding, I (Findswoman) have taken over the administration of this challenge. We'll use the same format as we did in 2020 and 2021.

The Rules!
PM Findswoman with the following two (2) things:

1. What era(s) for which you are willing to write, based on the era tags list.

- Please let me know your preferred Saga era(s) (PT, OT, or ST—the reason will be clear below).
- Please include, if any, TV shows or games you are willing to write for as well.
- If there is a character or a source material you really don’t want to write, let me know and I’ll do my best to avoid it.
- Please be willing to write in the era/category for which your wishes take place (so, for example, if you have a Rebels story, please be willing to write a Rebels story). Not having this makes it extra difficult!​

2. Your three (3) wishes—story ideas you’d love for someone to write for you.

- One of them must be a PT, OT, or ST Saga film based not requiring having seen or read any other material.
- It's helpful if you give an indication of where each story should belong timeline-wise. If you don’t specify, the author gets to choose.
- Your wishes can be as detailed as you’d like, but please keep it reasonable. Too much detail will make it harder to write. Feel free to indicate things you don't want as well as want. (If you’d like, you may write your wishes in the "three things I want, one thing I don’t" format used in previous years.)
- If you want, you can rank the wishes or specify if there's one you are most interest in receiving. If so, I'll use that information to try and pair you with someone able to write that wish, but please be aware that I can't make any guarantees in this area.​

Once I receive your requests, I’ll do my best to match up wishes with writers. Your Secret Author will then choose one of your wishes to write and post by the deadline (see "Timeline" below).

To make it more fun, let’s write a letter to our Secret Author! (You don't have to use this format if you don’t want to, but it's kind of fun!)

Example PM to Findswoman:

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Timeline
Please submit your wishes by 11:59pm (23:59) PST on December 10, 2022. (That makes 10 days to get them in.)
I will try to have requests sent out on or about December 11 or 12, 2022.
Fic-gifts must be posted by 11:59pm (23:59) PST on Sunday, January 15, 2023.

Other Info

• In the title bar of your story, please include “Fic-Gift for [NAME]” in the title.
• When you finish and post your story, please link to it in this thread, and I'll index it. It’s also fine to tag the person here in the thread using the @ sign.
• Please post the story in its own thread. This makes it easier to find and more like a gift. You may link to it in a short story thread if you have one, the Prolific Writers' Index thread, or post it anywhere else you post your fanfics.
• There is no minimum word count, but please remember this is something people have wished for. Even if you can get all of their request into a mini-story, maybe take your time and try to add more.
• If you realize you aren’t going to be able to write your story, no worries! RL happens to all of us. But please let me know as soon as possible so I can find someone else to write it, as I don’t want anyone to be left out.
• On that note, I can always use pinch-writers to write stories others aren’t going to be able to do! If you'd like to help out in this way, please let me know.
• This is suppose to be a secret until the story is posted, so if you have any questions about the wishes, please PM me (Findswoman) rather than your assigned giftee. I'll ask that person your question (without naming your name) and get back to you.

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Non-Star Wars Fanfic
If you would like to participate in the NSWFF Fic-gift exchange, please post in this thread saying which fandoms you are willing to participate in. If there is someone else who is willing to write in that fandom, they can reply directly to you that they are willing to do that exchange. Then via PM you two can either use the format described above or the previous “three things I want, one thing I don’t want” format.

Please link your Non-Star Wars Fic-gifts here in the thread as you would for the SW Fic-Gifts.

Note: I can’t guarantee everyone who wants a NSWFF fic-gift will get one, because I can’t know what fandoms will be picked. But I think most everyone who's applied for NSWFF exchanges in the last few years has received at least one story!

Example:

Q&A
Q. Do I have to submit 3 wishes?
A. Yes, please. This is the most fair way to ensure every author gets the same number of wishes to pick from.

Q. What does “reasonable” mean with regard to the wishes?
A. I’m not going to put a hard line on it with this format, but just remember this isn’t the Dare Challenge. You want someone to be able to write the story you’ve wished for. If I think your wishes are too difficult, I may PM you back and ask that you adjust them.

Q. One of them HAS to be a movie request?
A. Yes. I know this might not be ideal for everyone, but because it’s gotten so hard to match people up with stories they are willing to write, we need a common ground. We can be reasonably sure that everyone has seen the Saga movies or are at least familiar enough with them that they could write for them. For material beyond that, we can't be sure.

Q. Are you still going to try and match people with like interests?
A. I will! As always, if you tell me you’d like to write for, say, The Mandalorian and I have a wish that is Mandalorian-related, I’ll match the two up. I can’t guarantee that will happen since it depends on what wishes come in. If you let me know your top wish, that's what I'll use to try and match you up with another writer. Again, though, I can make no promises.

Q. Do my wishes need to be holiday-related?
A. Nope! This is what you want, so it only needs to be holiday related if you want it to be.

Q. Can my wishes feature my original characters?
A. Yes, but with the following stipulations: (1) only one of your wishes can include your OCs, and (2) the mandatory movie-based wish can’t be it. If you have more than one movie-based request, only one of them can include OCs. This way writers have a choice.

Q. Can I request that my Star Wars gift story include characters or elements from non-Star Wars fandoms?
A. No, sorry, not for the main Star Wars exchange. There are so many fandoms out there, and it's simply not possible to know who knows which fandoms and who doesn't.

Q. Can I do both the Star Wars and NSWFF exchange?
A. Yes, you may do both exchanges, and you may do more than one exchange in NSWFF, but please do not volunteer to do more than you can reasonably deliver by the deadline.

Q. I missed the deadline to submit my wishes! Can I still participate?
A. No, sorry, not in the SW fic-gift exchange. Mav tried to allow this in the past, and it just made things way too complicated. However, you could still do a NSWFF exchange, you could do so. If you are in the giving mood, you could also volunteer to pinch-write, but I can’t say you’ll for sure get a story back.

Q. Can I write a multi-chapter fic?
A. Sure! But please make sure to include the elements requested before the deadline.

Q. Can I write all three (or two) of the wishes?
A. This is difficult. It's great when people are inspired to write what other people would like, but I also don't want any author to feel like they have to write more than one story (because I know not everyone will have the time or interest to do so), nor do I want any recipients to feel bad if someone else received more than one story while they only received one. So here's the deal: it's fine to write more than one of the wishes, but any extra stories will not be counted as an officially part of the challenge, and you may not link to them here or label them as being part of the fic-gift exchange.

Q. I wasn’t able to finish my story on time and someone else wrote the wish. But I worked so hard on this story and I ended up finishing it, can I post it?
A. Please do! I’m sure the person would love to have your story to read as well!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask here in the thread or via PM. Happy holidays and best greetings of the season to all!

Cheers,
Finds

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The Index
(because I was dumb and didn't reserve a separate post for it)

Memory and Smoking Ash by devilinthedetails, for Jedi_Lover
My Fair Dameron and Two More by Nehru_Amidala, for UltramassiveUbersue
The Will of the Force by Jedi_Lover, for Nehru_Amidala
Once a Pirate by Raissa Baiard, for Seldes_Katne
The Talk by Ultramassive_Ubersue, for devilinthedetails
Better with Sauce by Seldes_Katne, for Raissa Baiard

 

So excited for this as I am every year

Thank you for hosting this wonderful winter event, @Findswoman

Time for me to decide on my three wishes and then submit my PM!

 

You are so welcome, @devilinthedetails ! It is an honor and privilege to take the reins of this classic JCF challenge.

There’s now exactly one week left to sign up to participate and submit your story wishes! Do send ‘em in—can’t wait to see what we’ll get!

 

Three (3) days left to send wishes in, good people!

 

And today is the last day! Looks like there are about 19 hours left. Can’t wait to see what we’ll get!

 

So far, the due date for pinch-writing stories is the same as the regular due date for writing the stories (namely, January 15), but I’m willing to stretch it depending on the circumstances that come up. Pinch writers are always great to have, and it would be great to have you on board in that capacity if you so decide!

 

Great, thanks so much! Very glad to have you on board in that capacity.

And now about eight (8) more hours left to get wishes in, everyone! So excited for the exchange so far—I think we’ll have some fun stuff!

 

All right, everyone, assignments have been made and wishes have been sent out! Any questions, just let me know.

That is a wrap for the SW assignments, though if anyone else is interested in a NSW exchange, we can still negotiate that.

Happy writing to all!

 

A fic gift for the wonderful @Jedi_Lover featuring Luke and Force Ghost Obi-Wan:

Memory and Smoking Ash

Happy holidays!

 

A1, great work! Our first fic-gift of the season! I've got it in the index (which is at the tail end of the OP because I very foolishly didn't set aside a second, separate post) and am looking forward to digging in!

 

Great! Our second gift of the season! Just added it to our index; thanks so much for sharing!

 

Excellent! Adding it to the index now. Thanks for being part of the exchange; so wonderful to see these all coming in!

 

Hello again, everyone, and a very happy New Year to all!

Sorry for this double post—but this seems like a good time to post a friendly reminder that all fic-gifts are due in two (2) weeks from today, on January 15. If you are concerned that you might need a pinch writer, now would be a great time to let me know. Thank you all, as always, for your awesome participation!