Challenge 17th Annual Non-Denominational Winter (for Some) Holiday Fic-Gift Exchange!—It's a Wrap! Thanks All!

December is around the corner, good people! That means it’s once again time for...

The 17th Annual Non-Denominational Winter (for Some of Us)
Holiday Fic-Gift Exchange!

​

Previous gift exchanges in the “three wishes” format: 2020, 2021, 2022.

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).

Here is an example of the PM you might write to sign up. 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:

​

Timeline
Please submit your wishes by 11:59pm (23:59) PST on November 29, 2023. (That means two weeks get them in.)
I will try to have requests sent out on or about November 30, 2023.
Fic-gifts must be posted by 11:59pm (23:59) PST on January 10, 2024.

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.

​

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

​

 

Index of Gifts, Givers, and Giftees

• Kylo’s Metaphysical Life Day Journey by devilinthedetails for gizkaspice
• Putting Your Best Out There by WarmNyota_SweetAyesha for devilinthedetails
• Dexter's Dabbles with Idiosyncratic Imperials by gizkaspice for Chyntuck
• Unholy Matrimony by Chyntuck for UltramassiveUbersue
• Silver Flash on the Steppe by Findswoman for Raissa Baiard
• Just Dance by Raissa Baiard for Findswoman
• An Acquired Taste by UltramassiveUbersue for WarmNyota_SweetAyesha

 

Oh, yay, it's time for the Holiday Gift Fic Exchange, which I look forward to every year



I will most certainly be signing up for this to get myself into the warm Holiday Spirit and can't wait to see all the fantastic stories that will be given as gifts this year

 

Welcome back, Brodie, great to see you again! We definitely would love to have you on board again, should you feel up to it.

Thanks so much to all who have signed up—we are indeed glad to have you all on board! Just a quick reminder that there is one week left to get your request PMs sent in to me—they are due the 29th, so I can send assignments out on the 30th.

 

All right, everyone, three (3) days left until our sign-up deadline of the 29th! Now’s the time to get your wishes in if you haven’t yet but would like to participate. This is a definite “more the merrier” type of thing!

Also, are there any folks out there who might want to do a non-SW exchange with @brodiew ? If so, let us know! (Brodie, are you interested in doing a SW exchange as well? If so, do PM your wishes to me as well. )

 

All right, everyone, today is the very last day to sign up for our 17th annual gift exchange! You have until 11:59 pm (23:59) PST today to get wishes sent in to me, as I intend to send them around to their writers tomorrow, and I regret that I won’t be able to accept late requests. So if you’ve been thinking about it, now would most certainly be the time!

And @brodiew and @UltramassiveUbersue , if you happen to get a non-SW exchange worked out, please let me know—I just want to make sure everyone gets what they want!

 

OK, everyone! It give me great pleasure to announce that all the wishes have now been sent out. If you for some reason have not received one but should have, do let me know.

Also, this year's cohort turned out to be very difficult to match up, with many very different eras and interests! I did the absolute best I could to pair people up, and I realize some of the matches may not be 100% ideal. In particular, I tried to make sure that at least two of the three wishes each gift-giver received line up with the eras, properties, etc. they said they could write for. That means some of you might find that one of your giftee's requests is in an area you don't know well, not quite your cup of tea, etc.—but hopefully the other two will work. If perchance anyone has ended up with something you really and truly cannot work with, then please let me know, and we'll see what we can work out.

Finally, a quick reminder that all gifts are due by the end of the day on January 10, 2024! If for any reason you think you might not be able to complete yours in time, let me know, and again, we'll see what we can work out. (We did have one very generous person volunteer to pinch-write if needed—thanks in advance! <3 )

Thank you all once again for your participation, and to all happy writing!

 

The first chapter of my multi-chapter gift fic for @gizkaspice is posted:

Kylo's Metaphysical Life Day Journey

Heavily inspired by a Christmas Carol because I love to channel the holiday spirit of one of my all-time favorite stories.

I plan to post more chapters throughout December and into January as needed

 

Great to see gifts coming in! @devilinthedetails and @WarmNyota_SweetAyesha I’ve got your contributions in the index now—thank you so much for sharing!

 

Yay! Great to see another gift posted—got it in the index now! Thanks so much.

And now that the calendar has turned to January 2024: happy New Year to all! Seems like a good time for a quick check-in: for those of us still working on gift stories (and that’s a real “us,” as I am in that category myself), how are things going? All right, not so all right? Does January 10 still feel like a workable deadline? Do let me know; I’m here to support you all as best I can, and there is a pinch writer standing by if needed.

 

Thanks, Chyn! Appreciate your letting me know. That’s about where I am as well; I was on vacation tbe last week of December, which made things like reviewing in the review race easier to keep up with than starting a new story. Now that I’ve started, I think I’ll be able to manage it. (Famous last words! )

And with that, there’s now just under one week left until that due date of the 10th! Are things still going all right, I hope? I’m here if any of our writers—or giftees—needs anything.

 

Yay! Got it in the index now; thanks so much!