Hetalia Sunshine Fanworks Exchange: introduction, guidelines, & timeline

[miaoujones.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the comm for The Hetalia Sunshine Fanworks Exchange! As the name implies, this ficathon/artathon is for the sunnier side of Hetalia: the brightness, the joy, the sweetness, the laughter, the tenderness, the love, the warmth. Prompts revolving around romance, friendship, family, and gen situations (single character or multiple characters) are equally encouraged. In keeping with our theme, we ask only that all requests and all fills focus on the sunny side of Hetalia. ♥


GUIDELINES

• Hetalia Sunshine is open to fic and art. If you have something else in mind to do and aren't sure if it falls under either category, please send an email to hetalia.sunshine [at] gmail.
  
• All participants are welcome. A livejournal account is not required. (More details in the Sign Up post.)
  
• All characters are welcome.
  
• Gen, friendship, and romance of all flavors are welcome.
  
• All ratings are welcome. (When you sign up, you'll be able to specify any ratings limitations for your own request and for what you're willing to write/draw.)
  
• Requirements for fic: minimum 1,000 words; no maximum.
  
• Requirements for art: none.

HOW IT WORKS

• Go to the Sign Up post and make your request. (More details there.) ETA: sign-ups for 2010 are closed.
  
• Assignments will be sent by email (see below for timeline).
  
• You have until the deadline listed below to write/draw/create your fill and email it to hetalia.sunshine [at] gmail.
  
• Posting to the comm will begin 2 days after fills are due (see below for timeline). This gives us a day to send everyone their gift personally before we start sharing in the comm.
  
• Happiness ensues!

TIMELINE/DEADLINES

• Sign-ups open: June 4, 2010
  
• Sign-ups close: June 18, 2010 @ 11:59 pm PT (this countdown timer will tell you how much time is left, regardless of your time zone) ETA: sign-ups are now closed!
  
• Assignments sent: June 20, 2010 June 27, 2010
  
• Fic/Art due (emailed to hetalia.sunshine [at] gmail: August 20, 2010 by 11:59 pm PT (this countdown timer will tell you how much time is left, regardless of your time zone).
  
• Sunshine Day (gift fills emailed to recipients): August 21, 2010.
  
• Posting in the comm begins: August 22, 2010 (not before then, please!). Please see this post for additional details.
  
• Posting for the main round ends: September 12, 2010.

DROPPING OUT

• If you need to drop out for any reason, please let us know as soon as possible! We want this to be fun for everyone and we want to make sure everyone who participates gets something, so we'll have pinch hitters standing by. If you wait until the day before to drop out, that's kind of unfair to your recipient as well as to the pinch hitter who will be scrambling to get something done. These things happen, so if you find you need to drop out, please email hetalia.sunshine [at] gmail.

OTHER THINGS, in the form of a Mini-FAQ:

Q: Will we know the name of our recipient when we get our assignments?
A: Yes. The name might be a pseudonym for those choosing to participate anonymously, but you'll have a name. For non-anonymous participants with LJ accounts, you'll also get that so you can look around and get ideas about things they might like that weren't specified in their requests. They might even write you an open letter at their LJ. You don't have to check them out, of course, and even if you do, you aren't bound by anything you see there.


Q: When stories are posted, will we know the name of the author or artist right away, or will there be a period of anonymity and then a reveal?
A: You'll know right away. As above, the name might be a pseudonym for those choosing to participate anonymously.


Q: Does that mean we'll know the name of the author or artist who did our fill when you email it to us?
A: Nope! Identifying information will be removed before being sent, so the "reveal" will be when it's posted to the comm.


Q: What about all those awesome requests that don't get filled? Will they die ignoble deaths?
A: That certainly wouldn't be in the spirit of this exchange, would it? No ignoble deaths, though also no guarantees of fills. My idea is that once all the fills have been posted, I'll make a post of all the requests that haven't been filled, and then it'll be a free-for-all. No claiming, no requirements, no deadline. Free-for-all fills can be posted at any time to the comm, and wherever else you like as well.


Q: I have a problem with some/all of this.
A: As the end of the saying goes, you can't please all of the people all of the time. I'm just trying to make as many people as possible happy for as much of the time as possible. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the proposed system, by all means please comment here. Thank you! ♥

We'd love it if you'd help spread the word. The more, the merrier! ♥


If you have any questions, please check the here to make sure they haven't been answered there. Otherwise, please leave a comment or email Miaou @ hetalia.sunshine [at] gmail.

Comments

[haro.livejournal.com]

Hey! One question? In the signup post, it says that you can specify which characters you'd prefer not to write. I'm honestly okay with writing any character, but there are some pairings I'd be uncomfortable writing. Can I specify those?

[miaoujones.livejournal.com]

Sure thing!

[pyrrhiccomedy.livejournal.com]

I also have a question--it says we're not to post our fic/art to this comm until the due date...won't that cause a huge flood? And is it just for this comm? I mean, can we post our stories and whatnot to our own personal journals and the main comm, or whatever, and say that they're for this event, and just save posting them here until October 10? Or should we hold off posting them anywhere?

[miaoujones.livejournal.com]

Ah, sorry--I haven't had time to get the "Posting Guidelines" post done yet. To answer your questions:

As it stands now, all fills are to be posted on the due date. If the number of participants makes it seem like this will be a problem, I'll come up with another idea.

Participants are asked not to post anywhere else before October 10th. Once the story or art has been posted to the comm, of course it can (and should!) be posted wherever else you like.

Much of the reasoning behind this is that, in addition to being an event, this is an exchange in fic and art form. I think it would nice for everyone to know where to look for their gift, which will be this comm, and to be able to open their presents as it were on the same day.

[pyrrhiccomedy.livejournal.com]

Ah, all right then. =D Thank you!

[miaoujones.livejournal.com]

Thanks for bringing that up! At the moment, I'm thinking along the lines of a mini-Yuletide (if you're familiar with that one; it's the largest ficathon I know of)--although the Sunshine Exchange isn't set up with the technology Yuletide has, so it will have to work a little differently. Or maybe a lot differently...but hopefully it will be enjoyable, however it turns out!

[ryoku-chan.livejournal.com]

Hello, I have a little question. There is a lot of time to get this done, if we as fillers so feel like it, can we do more then one request? Definitely not mandatory, but can we if both requests meet our criteria?

[miaoujones.livejournal.com]

I didn't think of that, but I don't see why not! I'll put that in the assignment emails.

[dainty-polka.livejournal.com]

Erm this may sound like a really silly question but what does Pinch-hitting mean? OnO

[miaoujones.livejournal.com]

No, it's not silly. There are always some participants who aren't able to finish their stories or art, so pinch hitters are writers or artists who are willing to step in and do an extra request when someone drops out.

[tanya-tsuki.livejournal.com]

It just dawned on me that it is extremely likely that I won't have computer access from mid-afternoon October 9th until early morning October 13th. Will it be possible for me to work around that? My entry will definitely be done before October 9th, barring anything major happening that would force me to drop it, but I won't be here to post it on the due date. Is that going to be a huge problem? I really want to participate and would be willing to email it early or something.

[miaoujones.livejournal.com]

That shouldn't be a problem. You can mail it to me and I'll post it for you. There's also the possibility, since it looks like this is getting a bigger response than I had anticipated, that we'll do a week of sunshine instead of all posting on a single day--in which case I'll be happy to schedule you for later in the week. I'm not making any final decisions on that until I see how many participants we have, but either way you should be fine.

[tanya-tsuki.livejournal.com]

Alrighty. Thank you :)

[haro-chan.livejournal.com]

Sorry for asking but, to be able to participate, do you need to do a request as well? I only wish to do fill

[miaoujones.livejournal.com]

Oh! That's so sweet and generous of you! Are you sure you wouldn't want something in return? If you really only want to do a fill, the first I idea I have is that I would love to put you on the pinch hitters list. That's the list of people willing to step in to write or draw a fill when one of the participants drops out. The drawback is that you wouldn't get your assignment right away. If that doesn't work for you, or if you'd be willing to do that but you still want something else, let me know because I might have another idea. ♥

[haro-chan.livejournal.com]

eh I don't think I would like something in return, it really didn't pass through my mind to begin with^^u but the pinch hitter sounds nice except for the lack of time mm...I don't really want to trouble you with this so I might just think of something to request

[miaoujones.livejournal.com]

If it helps, the request doesn't have to be full of details. It can be something simple like Character A and Character B holding hands, or Character A eating chocolates, or something like that. Whatever brings a smile to your face. ♥

[haro-chan.livejournal.com]

hehehe that sounds cute!! thank you so much for your help I appreciate it!!^w^

[bunsonwings.livejournal.com]

Under the name, should we write our real name? I wish to be known under my handle, or under my lj name, so does it matter if I give you a real name?

[miaoujones.livejournal.com]

Sorry for not being clear! Under "name," could you just put what you want me to call you in emails? Sometimes it's obvious from someone's LJ name what they like to be called and sometimes it isn't, so I figured I'd play it safe and ask everyone to fill that out. In case I'm still not being clear, I would fill it out like this for myself:

Name: Miaou
Livejournal username: miaoujones

[digiphantom.livejournal.com]

*looks around*

Ahem.
Hahaha... awkward.

Miaou, will you be putting forth a request? This was your suggestion, it kinda' makes me sad to think you wouldn't throw your happiness out there. Just wondering...

[miaoujones.livejournal.com]

I sure will! ♥

[digiphantom.livejournal.com]

Okay! Awesome! I was so afraid you wouldn't.

C:

[berseker.livejournal.com]

This is so cool! I'm really excited to see it taking shape. =)

Aaaand I have two questions and one suggestion:

1. When we get the assignments, will we know who did the request?

2. Can we include OCs in the request? (I'm thinking of something with two canon characters and one OC).


The suggestion: it the possibility of flood turns out to be... er, possible (God, I have such a way with word don't I?), you might give random dates to the writers/artists to post. We can make the posting part a week-long event or something like that. It might be interesting, and sometimes waiting to see when your gift will be posted can make it even more exciting. I don’t know, just saying. =)

[miaoujones.livejournal.com]

I'm excited, too!

This is definitely a work in progress and I'm figuring things out as I go along. Here are some responses:

1. At the moment, I'm thinking yes. Of course, since some people have signed up anonymously, you might not really know--but you'll have a name you're writing for, anyhow.

2. Sure, OCs are fine. I think I would ask that you treat it similarly to a crossover request, and make it your third request only (so there are two requests that are purely Hetalia).

I have not made any decisions about how posting will work yet, which is why there's no post with those instructions. I'm waiting to see how many participants we have in total, among other things. My preference would be to have it like Yuletide--a burst of sunshine all on one day, so everyone can enjoy their gifts at the same time and then take their time to savor all the stories at their leisure. As you and a couple of others have mentioned, this may not be possible and so I'm thinking of other ideas. I guess I should make a post so no one worries that I'm not thinking about it!

[khittyhawk.livejournal.com]

Late question is late, but should I assume historical figures count as OCs?

(it's a bear, in case this makes any difference).

[miaoujones.livejournal.com]

I have been counting historical figures in the crossover/OC third category, yes. (And you have me intrigued with the bear.)

[deixis-dyad.livejournal.com]

Uhh, did I make the cut? *is a tard*

[miaoujones.livejournal.com]

Yep! You wouldn't have been able to post if you were too late, because I disabled comments at the stroke of midnight.

[kitamurin.livejournal.com]

Re: what kind of fill you'd prefer- is it okay to say "Either is fine, but I'd rather art", or vice versa? Or is that sort of unnecessarily bothersome...?

[miaoujones.livejournal.com]

That's perfectly fine!