Yuletide, of course, what else is anyone posting about?

[brigdh]

AHHHHHH YULETIDE.

I'm back in Ohio now, this time by driving rather than by plane, which is nice, because I've flown more times than anyone should in the last few months. I had honestly and completely been planning to write my yuletide story on the way here, because I'd assumed that being trapped in a car for eight hours with nothing else to do would make it easy. Of course, I hadn't reckoned on the temperature inside a car in December, which meant I instead spent the entire time wrapped in a blanket and staring vaguely out of the window.

I have four words of a story, and I suspect I'm going to be violently ill in the next few hours. (Not from Yuletide. My stomach is making strange noises and I'm beginning to run a fever; what the fuck is up with me catching diseases just as I get home?) As the Yuletide website rather terrifyingly informs me, there are 23 hours and 22 minutes left to finish it. I'll make it, though I'm sure my shame will make me wish the stories could stay anonymous forever.

AHHHHHH YULETIDE.

Comments

[chiasmus.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping to write mine on the plane; I don't think this is going to actually happen.

AHHH.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

AHHH.

I finished mine with a whole 15 minutes to spare! How'd you do?

[chiasmus.livejournal.com]

I ended up defaulting since I was dead after my plane trip, adn I've been having to fight with the Internet to get connected at all here. D: D:

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Aw, too bad. But it's not terrible; I had to default last year.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

AHHHHHHHHHH.

DOOM.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

And you wrote two stories! I am in awe of you, dear, so hush your wailing.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Other than teh nausea, I'm in teh smae boat. Luckily, I'm fast, but I have the hardest one EVER.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I managed to finish mine with fifteen minutes to spare, which is pretty fast for me, but I hate the story. Hopefully you like the results of yours better!

[rm.livejournal.com]

Mine's okay. But it could have been so much more. Part of the problem though is the fandom is new (recent movie) and i couldn't even pour over the DVD, so I had to focus on my memory and my knowledge of the source material, which is critically different in places. I suspect my reader will be dissapointed that the smut is only offscreen and alluded too. On the other hand, I think I did the conceit of the original work justice with what I did with it.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's happened to me too, though I managed to find a copy of the movie on the internet and download it.

I always worry so much about what my recipient will think, which is funny because I never think about the story *I'll* recieve enough to be upset at even the worst thing.

[ravenbell.livejournal.com]

That countdown bar is terrifying.

I actually finished Yuletide a week ago, but I'm stuck on another story due Friday for a different exchange. And it's finals. Eep.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Isn't it?

Ooo. Good luck on that one; I'm so glad my finals finished last week.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

I'm sure my shame will make me wish the stories could stay anonymous forever.

I'm beginning to think that feeling is just inherent in the structure of anonymous fic exchanges, and that having it says precisely nothing about the actual quality of the story. Or at least, I hope so, since I feel pretty much exactly that way about the last one I did. I have perfect confidence that it will be Just Fine, and indeed, better than Just Fine.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Well, if I've guessed your story correctly for your anonymous ficathon, I can reassure you that it is indeed better than just fine. It was lovely, and I would have included a rec to it in my last links post, except I wasn't sure of the etiquette of recommending anonymous stories.

I think it has more to do with deadlines than the anonymity, in truth; I was impatient for the summerflinging names to be revealed, because I liked that story and wanted to be able to claim it and post it to more communities. This story I do not like at all. And several of you will know it right away, so I will not even get those few days of anonymity! I'm not sure if I would have liked it with more time spent at it or if it was a hopeless idea, but at least more time would have ensured that I'd like it better. But at least any story is better than giving my recipient nothing, right? Right?

I feel so guilty for it that I almost hope the same thing happens to me that's happened before, and that my recipient has dropped out of participating.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

I agree that the loathing of one's work probably has a lot more to do with those deadlines than with anonymity per se, but the anonymity prevents one from being able to talk about it immediately. Which means that you don't have extra readers reassuring you that it's okay and that you're just having a fit of temporary revulsion from your own characteristic sentence structure. And that, in turn, is a thing you're likely to need when you've posted something to a deadline you weren't sure you'd make.

I still think it's probably much better than you realize. Especially when you consider that there are nearly a thousand participants: many of them are going to be much worse natural writers than you are. But if tomorrow comes and it's still gnawing at your brain, isn't it the case that as long as you made the upload deadline tonight, you can pull it down and substitute a revised version at any point until the pinch-hit deadline on the 24th? I seem to recall seeing that someplace as I skimmed over the rules, although I certainly could be wrong.

As for that thing of mine, I'm sure you've identified it correctly. After all, you were kind enough to listen to me babble about it until I came up with some notion of what I was doing. I only wish I hadn't run out of time and had to post without asking you to read it over for inadvertent awfulness first. But my point remains: if I was wrong in my own assessment of that story, you may be just as wrong about this one.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Very true. The anonymity will be reassuring once recommendations start to go up, though: if you see your story mentioned, you can be certain that it's not just your friends attempting to make you feel better. Or, well, normally you would, though I've given away my identity to a whole handful of people. But that only works with big ficathons like yuletide; yaoi_challenge doesn't have the accompanying recs lists. Remix did, but so many of them were entirely focused on the big fandoms that it didn't worry me not to see myself on them.

you can pull it down and substitute a revised version at any point until the pinch-hit deadline on the 24th?

I'm not certain. I know you could keep re-uploading new versions as often as you wanted before the deadline, but I think now it might only be accepting pinch-hits. I could be wrong, but I'm afraid to try it on the chance that something I did would cause the whole site to crash again.

And now I'm annoyed, because looking over the FAQ I see that I could have added HTML tags for bold and italicized font; when I'd realized that changing the fonts in the file didn't work, I'd changed all the story's formatting to use a different sort of scene break that what I'd wanted. It's hardly important, but I wish I'd seen that earlier.

Well, I can only hope so!

[veleda-k.livejournal.com]

I could never do Yuletide. The stress would kill me.

And I'm sorry for never responding to the email you sent me. First, I had finals, then I wanted to get to know the canon (which I did), then I had no computer. I did read it though! I just don't know how to help.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

It's not so bad if you don't wait until the last day to do it! Of course, me and procrastination: I would never not wait until the last day to do it.

No worries! It was really more for me to be able to babble at people than to get a response anyway. And hey, if I can spread the enjoyment of the canon, then it was most definitely worth it.

[veleda-k.livejournal.com]

Heh, you're talking to the person who thinks that one AM is a good time to start a paper due that day.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

It will be fantabulous, of this I have no doubt. I offer music (http://www.sendspace.com/file/3tozd3) by way of inspiration.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I think I hold reservations about the quality of the story, but I do not withhold my love, because: music! And just when I needed it to write! Excellent choice, my dear.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

I couldn't remember if you had that piece, but I thought it went well with the fandom in question, so I sent it just in case. *G*

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Nope, new to me. And, of course, I always appreciate music.

[childofatlantis.livejournal.com]

OH GOD I KNOW. I ONLY STARTED TODAY. AAAAAAAAAARGH *FLAILS*

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

*FLAILS WITH YOU* I FINISHED WITH ONLY FIFTEEN MINUTES TO SPARE, AND I HATE MY STORY. HOW'D YOU DO?

[angharadd.livejournal.com]

Good luck! I'll hold my fingers crossed for you.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I managed to finish just in time.

[angharadd.livejournal.com]

Congrats! You rock!