Five Figure Fanwork Exchange

Check-in week

Hello, valiant fffxers! It is check-in week. If you have any* open or incomplete assignments, please comment on this screened post with the following information:

<strong>Your AO3 name</strong>: <strong>Your recipient's AO3 name</strong>: <strong>Do you intend to complete your gift(s) for this recipient by January 22 2022</strong>? (Yes) <strong>Any other notes</strong>:

You do NOT need to give me a progress report or any samples of your work as part of your check-in. Different people have different creative processes - I don't care where you're up to right now, as long as you have a plan that works for you. If you want to amuse me/yourself, consider including a line from your fic/comic, or consider including A Line That Definitely Will Not Appear in your fic/comic.

If you have more than one recipient on the go (thanks and good luck), please give check-in information for each recipient.

Comments are screened. I will not start replying immediately, but I'll reply to logged-in comments, and if you ask me to reply by email, I will do that.

Please leave your comment by 11:59pm EST, 26 November (see countdown). Sorry - this countdown has been corrected. It previously used UTC not EST. On the bright side that means the countdown is now showing 5 more hours than it did before.

If you do not comment confirming that you are still committed to the exchange, I will default you and send recipients to pinch hit on November 27.


*If you claimed a recent pinch hit (last couple of weeks) and I told you I would count that as the check-in, then you do not need to check in for that recipient.

Thank you for your interest in pinch hits! Pinch hits are due 22 January 2022. To claim a pinch hit, please reply here with your AO3 name.

If you want to swap your current assignment for a pinch hit, please say so when claiming. Otherwise I'll assume you want to keep your current assignment. Pinch hitters claiming an assignment on this post do not need to check in during check-in week (coming soon).

Minimum requirements: An art gift must be a completed comic at least 10 pages or 40 panels long; a fic gift must be a story at least 10,000 words long. You can also fulfil a pinch hit by giving two complete half-length works, if your recipient has opted into that for the fandom(s) you are creating in. Any work must be for a fandom your recipient has requested and one character/relationship/worldbuilding tag requested in that fandom, and must avoid their DNWs.

This post is no longer being updated

Please check the pinch hits tag for the most recent pinch hits.

( PARTLY CLAIMED - PH #1 - fic - A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV), Екатерина | Catherine (TV 2014), 18th Century CE RPF )

For certain fandoms only, pinch hit #1 can be fulfilled with one 5,000-word fic.

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( PH #7 - art, fic - Blaseball (Video Game), Boondock Saints (Movies), Campaign: Star Wars (Podcast), Hogan's Heroes (TV 1965) )

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CLAIMED - PH #16 - art, fic - Realm of the Elderlings - Robin Hobb, Supernatural, Final Fantasy XV, Naruto

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CLAIMED - PH #26 - art, fic - Blake's 7, Doctor Who (1963), Elder Scrolls, The Professionals (TV 1977), Sapphire and Steel, Survivors (TV 1975), Crossover Fandom, Britannia (TV 2017), Kaldor City

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CLAIMED - PH #27 - art, fic - Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Constantine (2005), Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game), John Wick (Movies), Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

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( PH #28 - art, fic - 反黑路人甲 | Al Cappuccino (TV), 踩過界 | Legal Mavericks (TV), 使徒行者 | Line Walker (TV 2014 2017 2020), Crossover Fandom x2 )

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Pinch hitters are also welcome to leave prompts of their own here.

I hope your exchange is going well! And other exchanges, if you're doing them. Triple Crown participants may be particularly interested in ficinabox pinch hits (many available! currently spread across two posts so scroll well) and the highadrenalineexchange canon promo post. Less immediately relevant but I'll mention it because I love Yuletide: Yuletide sign-ups are open.

But, back to fffx...

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Pinch hitters' prompts

Dear past, present, and future pinch hitters: thank you!

If anyone has a pinch hit for this round of fffx but did not sign up at the start of the exchange to get both an assignment and a gift, you are welcome to leave prompts of your own here, in the comments. You can take the exchange's tag set as a starting point, but you don't have to. Give prompts for whatever fandom(s) you want. Please give your AO3 name and specify if you're interested in art, fic, or both. Please do not say whom you're working on a pinch hit for.

Works for pinch hitters (including treats for past pinch hitters, at the tag) can be counted towards the achievements at triplecrownofexchanges. Or, if you were considering a treat in this exchange (thank you) and nothing in the existing requests quite suits you, maybe a new prompt will.

Next: an updated pinch hit list is coming shortly, and then please CHECK IN between the 19th and 26th of November.

ETA: fffx has no minimum treat length - works shorter than 5k / 5 pages for pinch hitters are welcome.

I have sent assignments. I hope you are pleased with what you find in your email, at the collection, or from your profile.

If there's a problem, please talk to me at mod.modzilla@gmail.com.

Good luck with your assignment! Please keep your assignment secret!

To add to these encouragements, I reintroduce you to Shadowfffx:



You may recognize the noble horse Shadowfffx from an inaugural Triple Crown of Exchanges (triplecrownofexchanges) banner. Shadowfffx is a DARK HORSE who is IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL. Be like Shadowfffx! Shadowfffx will keep pace with you on the course!


Assignment Swaps
Your assignment may be a poor fit for you, and if so, you can swap it. The initial swaps deadline (for swapping with more or less your choice of assignment) is end of August 31, EDT. Contact me at mod.modzilla@gmail.com and let me know your preferred choices. If you are swapping to a pinch hit, it's a pretty sure thing; otherwise, I'll let you know just after the 31st.

Letters
If you linked to a letter and it's currently incomplete, it must be complete by the end of August 31st.

Pinch hits
Initial pinch hits will be listed in the next day.

Treats
The collection is open. Treats are welcome for any participant, and do not have to be above 5,000 words. Click 'Post to Collection' at the top right of the collection, and make sure you fill in your recipient's name in the New Work field that says 'Gift this work to...'

Canon promo
Please consider checking out the canon promo post - especially if you're feeling uncertain about your current assignment and would like to swap it for another. There is a treasure box of canons to try. Or maybe you want to hedge your bets if you go out to pinch hit - it's never too late to promote your own canons.

Have fun!

Sign-up instructions

Sign-ups are open at AO3. They will remain open until 11:59pm EDT, August 11.

Basics
-Ask for 4-10 fandoms, 1-10 "character" tags in each, and in each of your requests, tick at least one of the additional tags that specifies what kind of gift you're interested in.

-Offer 3-10 fandoms, 1-10 "character" tags in each, and in each of your offers, tick at least two of the additional tags that specifies what kind of gift you're willing to create.

-In fffx's tagset, the "characters" field covers characters, relationships, and worldbuilding. fffx uses OR matching - you will get, or create, a gift focusing on one of those tags. The best way to request all the characters you want together is to select a single "character" tag that names all of them in your preferred configuration.

-You can repeat fandoms - ie, you can ask for Original Work twice. You still need 4 unique fandom requests. I recommend entering at least 3 different fandoms in your offers, but as long as you have someone you can create for, it doesn't matter to me if you are offering just one fandom three times.

-Please list dealbreaking Do-Not-Wants in your sign-ups. You must also put some other indication of your interests in each request - this can be a likes list, some prompts, or just talking about what you like about the canon & characters.

Please consider your DNWs carefully. "DNW: unrequested relationships" might suit a 1k relationship-based exchange that also matches on freeforms like "trapped together in an elevator", but may cause stress to someone considering a longer plot. DNWs should give guidance but not constrict your author to a plot that is exponentially narrower than the possibilities of the tag you requested.

-Participants must be aged 18 or over.

-There is a space in Offers called "Notes to Mod". You can use this space to tell me more about your matching preferences, if you like. You can also leave it blank.

How the Additional Tags Work
If you request Fanart: 1 x 10-Page Comic, you will receive 1 gift that is a comic of at least 10 pages or at least 40 panels. (Ie, if there are 40 distinct panels, it can have 9 pages. If there are 10 full pages, it's okay if there are only 36 panels.)

If you request Fanart: 1 x 10-Page Comic OR 2 x 5-Page Comics at Artist's Discretion, you may receive 1 gift that is a comic of 10 pages or at least 40 panels, or you may receive 2 gifts of 2 comics that are each half that long. (If selecting that option, I recommend also selecting Fanart: 1 x 10-Page Comic - there are no drawbacks. But you don't have to.)

If you request Fanfic: 1 x 10000-Word Fic, you will receive 1 gift that is a fanfic of at least 10,000 words.

If you request Fanfic: 1 x 10000-Word Fic OR 2 x 5000-Word Fics at Author's Discretion, you may receive 1 gift that is a fanfic of at least 10,000 words, or you may receive 2 gifts of 2 fic that are each half that long. (If selecting that option, I recommend also selecting Fanfic: 1 x 10000-Word Fic - there are no drawbacks. But you don't have to.)

It is possible that if you select both Fanart: 1 x 10-Page Comic OR 2 x 5-Page Comics at Artist's Discretion AND Fanfic: 1 x 10000-Word Fic OR 2 x 5000-Word Fics at Author's Discretion, you may get two gifts, one of which is a 5-page comic and 1 of which is a 5,000-word fic. It is possible that if you select "2 x 5" tags for more than one fandom, you will get half-length gifts from two different fandoms. This is up to your creators.

You have to offer two Additional Tags. If you are someone who creates only in 1 medium, you can select both the Fanart tags, or you can select both the Fanfic tags.

Unusual Things fffx Is Doing
Please be aware before you sign up that:

-Letters left incomplete or locked on August 31 will be removed from your sign-up. Please don't link to a letter (an external document containing prompts, general preferences, etc) unless you're confident you can complete it. Of course, you can't predict the future, but if you can't finish your letter within 20 days of sign-ups ending (preferably earlier!), I believe it's better for everyone if your creator is set free to go ahead with their own ideas. I will send a reminder before removing your letter, but depending on what communication channels I can use or you can check, you may not see it. Letters, of course, are optional - you don't have to link one at all.

-This exchange requires you to put prompts, or general likes, or something you like about the canon, in the AO3 form. It doesn't have to be long or eloquent, but something other than your DNWs is required.

-Please sign up with one account only.

-There are also extra deadlines - August 31 for asking to swap your assignment for any other assignment & for finishing your letter, and November 26 for confirming you're still committed to your assignment, as well as the posting deadline of January 22.

-You must comment on any gifts you receive or, if you cannot, discuss the situation with the mod.

Additional nominations

The tag set is open again. You have 3 fandoms with 3 slots in each. Please only add nominations that you, personally, plan to offer or request, or where you are adding them for a friend who intends to offer or request them. Please note I will not be posting round-ups of new tags.

Errors in tag set

There will inevitably be some. Feel free to let me know and I'll do what I can to sort them out (this may not be until sign-ups close). I mostly care about errors that could cause confusion.

Nominations

Nominations are open! See the tag set. Nominations close at 11:59pm EDT on July 27.

Everyone starts with 7 fandoms to nominate and 5 characters or relationships per fandom. When nominations close on July 27, I'll tidy up the tag set, then re-open nominations with a smaller slate, during sign-ups, so that you can nominate things you forgot.

Please check this community before nominations end, because I'm bound to have questions about the nominations. If I don't get answers, I may mess up and approve them wrong.

FFFX is using the Fandom and the Character tag slots for nominations. Characters, relationships, and a Worldbuilding option can be nominated in the Character slot - please read further for how to format them.

In the Fandom field, you can enter a canonical or non-canonical fandom (yes, it's okay if there's no fic for it yet on AO3).

If you want to nominate a relationship, please enter it as Group: Character/Character (Fandom) (for romantic or sexual relationships) or Group: Character & Character (Fandom) (for platonic relationships).

The Group: part is is really important and helps future tag users.

The punctuation / and & is very important to indicate what sort of relationship it is.

Putting the fandom at the end of the nomination is really helpful to stop the tags misbehaving.

Larger groups are OK - ie, "Group: Character/Character & Character/Character" means you're asking for two sets of pairings who are doing something together or otherwise relate to each other.

If you want to nominate a character, just enter their name with the (Fandom) at the end. Some may even autocomplete. Original characters are also OK as long as you describe a character who could have existed in canon, such as "Original Force-sensitive Character (Star Wars Original Trilogy)".

If you want to nominate Worldbuilding for a canon, to offer or request it, please nominate it as "Other: Worldbuilding (Fandom)" (filling in the relevant fandom).


Some fandom notes:
Please separate out Marvel movies and separate TV shows - ie, Iron Man (Movies) rather than MCU.

Please nominate the Star Wars movies according to trilogy - no "Star Wars (All Media Types)".

Arrowverse TV shows and DCU and Marvel comics are discussed here.

"All Media Types" fandoms will probably be approved last, overall, because I'll want to see if there's a more specific version of the fandom that's in conflict. And I don't know many fandoms. So if you already know that All Media Types is what's right for your fandom, consider dropping me a comment to clarify so that I can confidently approve it faster.

Where you want to nominate a relationship between characters who appear in different fandoms, please nominate them under Crossover Fandom and include the fandom for each. For example: Group: Arya Stark (ASoIF)/Elsa (Frozen - Movies). Please be specific if the fandom name could refer to different versions and adaptations. You can ask for general crossovers between fandoms by nominating "Other: Worldbuilding (Fandom 1 & Fandom 2)"

You can also nominate characters and groups under Original Work. Please indicate the genders of the characters if that is important to you. If someone requests Original Work characters or relationships with ambiguous genders, the preference of the person requesting takes precedence over the preference of the person offering. (But you can ask to add a more specific version to the tag set during sign-ups if that is an issue.)


Please feel free to use the comments to ask questions or brainstorm with others.

Unbanning & some round 2 statistics

If you defaulted, or failed to post a work, after November 16 last year, or if you did not comment on your gift (or both), you may not sign up to round 2. That is fixable, as you can comment on your gift - or discuss with me why that may be impossible - and post a make-up gift (or two half-gifts) to be unbanned. If you are posting two half-gifts, they don't have to be for the same request or even the same person. I especially encourage you to post a gift for a pinch hitter.

Some interesting stats:
-143 people signed up to round 1
-Of that number, 42 defaulted after mid-November or did not post; between this and 12 people not commenting on gifts, nearly 1/3 of the original participants are not (yet) eligible to sign up this round (so you may be in good company if you are not eligible! But please comment)
-131 accounts received gifts
-32 accounts that were not signed up created gifts. ♥

This is a good time to check if you left a placeholder comment on your gift. Or just to read it again, if you liked it.

We're back! Well, soon. Here's what I'm thinking:

Nominations start: Mon 19 July 2021
Nominations close: Tues 27 July 2021
Sign-ups start: by Fri 30 July 2021
Sign-ups end: Wed 11 August 2021
Assignments out: Wed 18 August 2021
Swap/letter completion deadline: Tues 31 August 2021
Check-in week: 19-26 November 2021 (Fri-Fri)
Assignments due: Sat 22 January 2022
Works revealed: Sat 26 February 2022


Some notes:
In light of feedback, I've moved the swap deadline & letter completion deadline closer to the time assignments go out. I get the impression that the scenario I imagined, where people try out a new canon at more leisure and take more time to swap, isn't that likely, and instead, people are more likely to know sooner if they want to change their assignment so it's better not to make you wait. Similarly, even for a 10k/comic exchange, 20 days between sign-ups ending and a Letters Must Be Done Or Else!!! deadline is reasonable.

I'm pondering allowing people to swap their assignment with any outstanding pinch hit for a much longer period in the exchange, but haven't decided what the cut-off should be.

The check-in period is similar to last round's. The planned reveals time is also similar. The deadline is one week earlier, meaning four weeks rather than three between deadline & reveals.


If you didn't comment on a gift you received last year (you are exempt if you discussed this situation with me at the time) or if you defaulted after the default deadline last year, either by pressing the default button or not turning anything in, you can still sign up this year, but you need to complete your comments and work(s) before signing up.

Discussion welcome!