Yuletide wrappings

[melannen]

I am back!

...I am sick. I thought at first that it was just me reacting more badly to staying over at a smoker's house every year (which, frankly, would be sad, because he is the most considerate in-house smoker I've ever visited; while we're there, you'd hardly know he smokes. Except of course for the tar all over everything. Also I have no objection to smoking in general and I actually like the scent of good tobacco burning.) but then on Wednesday I found myself draped over a couch thinking "I really want to read my new paperback book, but the thought of having to hold it up to see the pages for minutes at a stretch is just exhausting" and decided that no, I really was sick. (luckily I had loaded up my laptop with lots of good fic - thanks guys! - and could read that flat on my back with one hand languidly draped on the touchpad.)

I am much better now - I am capable of doing things now, as long as I can do them while sniffling and with a headache and and sleep-deprived and sitting down every five minutes! We got home and I went through and show=P my reading list and it sounds terrible, but it was kind of comforting to see a huge proportion of the rest of you also moaning about being ill. Hi all! I am here, being ill in solidarity.

ANYWAY. Yuletide! I got three amazing stories all about PLANETS IN SPACE:

Moonstruck (1510 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Jonathan Coulton, Milky Way (Anthropomorphic), I'm Your Moon (Song), Solar System (Anthropomorphic)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Pluto/Charon, Jupiter/Jovian moons
Characters: Jupiter (Anthropomorphic), Himalia (Anthropomorphic), Nereid (Anthropomorphic)
Summary:

Most of the Jovian satellites are contemptuous of the dwarf planet Pluto and its moon Charon, but Himalia secretly envies them their co-orbital relationship.

This one is darling! Go, Himalia and Nereid, break free! I am rooting for you! (To be honest Nereid sort of pings my creep-dar in this, so I am not completely rooting for them OTP forever, but not nearly as bad as Jupiter (arrogant gas giants, bah, and anyway they have plenty of orbits to work it out, or possibly Himalia can just use him and then dump him :P) and that is not a criticism of the story in any way, I just have STRONG FEELINGS about these characters you've created, okay, anon.)


Far From the Sun (2730 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Jonathan Coulton
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Character/Original Character
Summary:

Addison has always felt just a little lost, until she meets someone who can tell her where she came from.

This one picked up on my idea of writing humanform AU, and did a really good job of it! The descriptions of Pluto's landscape are just gorgeous and evocative, and I want to learn a lot more about these people.


Right Here Next to You (1110 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Space Vehicles, Jonathan Coulton Songs, Jonathan Coulton, Solar System (Anthropomorfic)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Pluto & Charon
Characters: Nix (Moon), S/2012 (134340), S/2011 (134340) 1, Hydra (Moon), Pluto (dwarf planet), Charon (moon), New Horizons (Space Vehicle), Ferdinand (Moon), Uranus (planet), Voyager 1 (Space Vehicle), I'm Your Moon, Neil deGrasse Tyson
Summary:

Charon comes to a cozy 19,000 kilometers away and holds Pluto as close as zie can. "I love you, dearheart," zie says, and Pluto wishes it were as easy for zie to say it back. "Everyone looks so small compared to you. I'll always orbit around you."

This one hasn't got quite as many happy comments as the others, which is a shame, because it is made of all things that are good. Neil deGrasse Tyson! Gender-neutral pronouns! Voyager 1 and New Horizons! Watching fuzzy TV signals from space (I know this is scientifically shaky, but it's one of my favorite things anyway). Footnotes! Hydra and Nix and S/2012 (134340) 1 and S/2011 (134340) 1! A link to another song about Pluto! Relationships that aren't perfect, but are perfect anyway! Family!


As for my own Yuletide writing, I want to talk about it more, but before author reveals, I'll just say that a) I had a very interesting yuletide this year, and b) I did not write the story that is so perfectly my kind of story that one could not imagine a story that is more my kind of story; what I wrote is not nearly as good as that one. :P

I am not planning to try to READ ALL THE THINGS this year, but I have opened the tabs for all the fic written for you guys that was in fandoms that made me go YAY, and that is already thirty-five tabs.

I do find myself wanting there to be a fest that is almost exactly like yuletide, except that instead of secretly writing a story for your recipient, what you do instead is squee loudly and publicly and at length about all your FEELINGS about the fandom you were assigned. Maybe we could do that in June, as the anti-yuletide? We could call it Peptide! ...okay, maybe not, but seriously, my favorite thing about Yuletide is still having the excuse to delve deeply into some favorite thing that I wouldn't have otherwise, so expect some posts about that after reveals.

Comments

[smw]

I am sick, myself, and it has made my day immensely better to realize that Yuletide is full of fic for me to roll around in. It is quite possibly my favorite Fandom event.

[melannen]

Yuletide is still the best! Even when I'm having trouble concentrating enough to get through 3,000 words.

[swamp_adder]

what you do instead is squee loudly and publicly and at length about all your FEELINGS about the fandom you were assigned.

OMG that sounds amazing.

But then I'm the sort of person who's usually too embarrassed to squee loudly about anything in public without having a good excuse. ; )

[melannen]

I am never embarrassed to squee loudly but I often need help in picking one particular thing to squee about. :D I am seriously considering trying to run this - it would be like Yuletide, with all the stress taken out! - we'll see how I feel come May or so.

[seekingferret]

Would all the stress really be taken out? Wouldn't publicly knowing who was assigned to write a story for you add all sorts of complicated new kinds of stress?

[melannen]

But there would be no requirement to write a story! The idea is all you would be expected to do is be publically excited about how awesome the fandom you were matched with is, and how it should have a longer fandom - meta posts, canon review, rambly post full of feelings, recs list, picspam, bunny collection, whatever, you could do a fic if you wanted (or fanart, or vids) but that would just be a bonus. You know, the sort of thing we all want to do during yuletide, but can't, because anon.

...I dunno, are there people who take a lot of comfort in yuletide's anonymity? It makes this recs/gifts/reviews period more exciting, but since there are eventually reveals, I'm still accountable for what I wrote, so I don't feel the anonymous writing period as being a reduction of the stress. But maybe it's different for other people? Being able to default anonymously could be helpful, I guess (I have set up 'default on yuletide' as a THING I MUST NEVER DO for personal motivation reasons, so...)

(yeah, there would still be stress around "is what I am doing good enough, elaborate enough?" for people who tend to stress about that, but that happens with Yuletide too for those who are so inclined.)

[seekingferret]

Yeah, I was specifically thinking about being able to default anon as a critical de-stressor surrounding YT. Because if I'm assigned to write a story (or meta, or anything) for someone, and they know that I've been assigned, and I for whatever reason fail... that's a lot worse than defaulting silently and a person just knowing that they went to the pinch-hit list.

Because obviously eventually YT is de-anoned, and so worrying if what I wrote is good enough is true of both YT and what you're proposing, and isn't really the issue.

I don't know... I guess I don't really see what you're talking about as a big problem. I tend to dump all my squeeing about the fandoms I'm writing into my reveal post, which ends up being fairly long as a result, but mostly I don't mind not being able to publicly squee.

[melannen]

That's valid, then. (Although, hmm, you wouldn't have to make assignments public, for what I'm thinking - it's just that there couldn't be a specific reveal date, you'd be revealed as soon as you started posting - so I could leave in a provision for anonymous defaults.)

Maybe you're just not the sort of person who this would be best for, though. *shrug* I always spend the whole writing month wanting desperately to talk about my canon rather than write my fic, and I do post about it after reveals, but that feels like a let-down, almost. And of course it's not really the focus, so nobody sees it but my reading-list, and except for the Madelyn Mack year (which was special in so many ways!) it never really gets conversation going.

I should probably sit down and work out in more detail exactly what I'd be thinking of.

[calvinahobbes]

ZOMG Peptide is an awesome idea! Do want!

[melannen]

I really want to do this! We will see how it looks in a few months.

[lady_ganesh]

One of my oldest (non-TMNT) fandom friends wrote "Far From the Sun"!