Only sad fanwork need apply

You now know who created that masterpiece of sadness for you! If you have not yet commented on your gift, please make a point to do so.

A big thank you to everyone who participated! Whether you nominated tags, or signed up, or nabbed a pinch hit, or wrote a treat, I am very grateful to everyone who pulled together to make this awesome. I know there are a lot of exchanges running, and I feel honoured that all of you took the time to do this one.

With that being said, now is the time to air any thoughts/opinions on what you liked or didn't like or what to see changed with this exchange. Some questions I have in particular are:

1. Freeform tags. There are a lot of freeform exchanges out there, and I know that for some of us it can be a little exhausting trying to comb over freeforms for multiple exchanges. Do you feel like this exchange would be fine without freeforms, or did you like the inclusion of them/feel that you might risk getting something upsettingly sad without the guidance of the freeforms?

2. Timing. How did the schedule work for you? Did you have enough time to create? Did we run up against too many other exchanges in the same period (although that might be a problem year round)? Is there a period you think this exchange might work better in?

And I'm curious about other thoughts/ideas/opinions you may have. Let me know!

EDIT: Also, I am planning on running this again next year, so keep your eyes peeled!

You've done it, you magnificent, fandom-loving, dedicated people! Everyone should have a gift (and if I've overlooked something and you don't have one, please email me at logladymargaret at tutanota dot com and tell me your username), so we're ready for the collection to open tomorrow, June 21st, at 9pm EDT.

This is a reminder that, from the time of this post, you have 24 hours to make any final edits, make sure that your work is not in draft format, replace any placeholder titles or summaries, and generally polish and shine! If you are working on a treat, it does not need to be posted before work or creator reveals so don't drive yourself crazy trying to push it out. In a very very late note, if you don't have anyone you want to/can gift a creation to, you are welcome to gift it to the general collection.

Otherwise, in 24 hours I will be sitting with a glass of wine in hand and weeping pitifully if someone needs me.

We're coming down to the wire, so hopefully this will be our last pinch hit! The minimum word count for this assignment is 500, and needs to be completed and uploaded by June 21st at 9pm EDT, as that is when the collection is opening. If you are willing and able to take this pinch hit, please either comment here (comments are screened) with your AO3 name, or email me at logladymargaret at tutanota dot com.


Pinch Hit No. 12

So, there are two Summertime Sadness exchanges. One was done in 2015 and was a single fandom exchange for the One Direction fandom. The other one is this one!

I know that at least one person from this exchange has posted a work in the One Direction exchange. Since that exchange has to approve works before they are posted, it is currently in a limbo where only the One Direction mod can see which user submitted. I've emailed said mod, but considering the exchange was 6 years ago, I'm not expecting a response (although will be very happy if I get one!).

So the safest way to make sure you're posting to the right collection is to:

In the case of your assignment, go to your 'Assignments' tab on AO3, find your SS assignment and click 'Fulfill'. It will automatically post to the right collection.

In the case of treats, your safest bet is to go the main page of the collection and in the upper right hand corner, click 'Post to Collection'.

If you want to live dangerously and just click 'Post New' from your dashboard, I would advise against it. The correct collection is 'Summertime Sadness 2021', but when I attempted to find it via "post New', it wasn't coming up for some strange reason (although the parent collection did). I may just be missing something.

If you've posted for Summertime Sadness 2021, please double check that you've posted in the correct collection. The incorrect collection has the word 'Fic' in it. There is one user who is very excited to see what has been created for them, and is worried they won't get to see it!

Thank you, and let me know if you have any questions. Comments for this post are NOT screened.

One more beautiful pinch hit for your consideration! The work is due June 14th, and the minimum word count is 500. You must write one archive warning, one character/pairing and one tag that has been requested. If you're interested in either this one (pinch hit no. 8) or pinch hit no. 6 from the post below, comment on this post (comments are screened) or email me at logladymargaret at tutanota.com.

Pinch Hit No. 8


EDIT: We now have Pinch Hit No. 8 covered, but still need one more pinch hit covered.

Our wonderful pinch hitters have us all covered on pinch hits for the moment!

Hello!

We have one more pinch hit. If you're interested, the work is due on June 14th at 9pm EDT. Fic has a 500 word minimum, and fanart should be a clean sketch on unlined paper. Comments on this post are screened, just let me know your AO3 username.

Pinch Hit No. 5 is gone!

Hello everyone!

Sign-ups have closed and I have run the matching algorithm. We have a couple of people who cannot be matched as a creator to anyone, so if your username starts with an R or a V, please check your emails and get back to me within 24 hours (which is 11pm EDT on Saturday, May 1st).

The wonderful sirvalkyrie identified the problem, and I have good news: I don't have to delete the existing sign-ups. Apparently the button I misclicked was not one that requires 'burn-it-to-the-ground' levels of rectification.

Sign-ups are open once again, but as usual let me know if there is anything wonky.

You've all been very kind and it fills my heart with joy and gratitude! However, we're not here to feel good - we're here for some deep pain and sadness. So go forth and lay the foundation for a truly sad summer (or woeful winter)!

EDIT: For those who signed up before the tag set situation was figured out: You may have chosen some pairings without disambiguations (e.g.: Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy instead of Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter).) Unfortunately unless the wording exactly matches what is in the tag set, AO3 will not let you edit your sign-ups, and it will not match you on the tag. If you're having issues editing, what you have to do is remove the undisambiguated pairing, and then choose the version that comes in the drop down menu.

Once again, my apologies! I wish I could edit your sign-ups for you to correct my mistake, but my powers don't extend that far. I'll review the previous sign-ups and send an email out advising of any corrections that need to be made.

Thank you for your patience!

Sign-ups are open! You've got 10 days to request the saddest, most heart-wrenching pain imaginable for the characters you love! Or torture the ones you hate. Your motives for signing up for this are yours and yours alone.


The minimum you may request/offer is:

3 unique fandoms with 1 character/relationship each, 1 archive warning tag each, and 4 freeforms each.

The most you may request/offer is:

10 unique fandoms with 10 relationships/characters each, 5 archive warning tags each and up to 20 freeform tags

You may request the same canon multiple times with different ships/characters/freeforms, as long as you sign-up includes 3 unique fandoms.

If you choose the 'Any' tag for relationships, this means you are requesting/offering ANY relationship in the tag set, not the fandom.

DNWs (Do Not Wants, a.k.a things you don't want your gift to have in them) can only be enforced if you include them in the 'Description' box on your AO3 sign-up. If you only list them in a 'Dear Creator' letter that you've linked to, the mod cannot determine if your creator has violated your DNWs or if you edited your letter after the fact to include something that your creator may not have been aware of while they were creating. This means if your DNWs are not in the description box and you reject your fic due to it hitting on DNWs, you will not be sent out as a pinch hit.



General notes that might be helpful or that you can skip over

Archive Warnings: The archive warnings you select are ones that you would be open to receiving. So if you think "I wouldn't mind character death in this, but I don't absolutely need it", you can select both 'No Archive Warnings Apply' and 'Character Death' so that your creator has the option of whether to include it or not. On the other hand, if you absolutely do need someone to die, make sure you only select 'Character Death' so that your creator must kill.

Offers: If you haven't done a freeform exchange before, this is possibly the most pain-in-the-behind part of it. To minimize the pain, what an experienced person taught me was to initially click the 'any' tag for the freeforms. Then later in the sign-up period, go and peruse the requests of other people and see which requests I'd like to offer for. Then go back to my own sign-up and unclick the 'any' tag, and put in the requested tags that others asked for. This both makes the mod happy (as you're much more likely to be matched) and it saves you from trying to personally narrow down all 300-odd freeforms and decided what you could create for each fandom/pairing. Warning: If you forget to come back and do this before nominations close, you might get an assignment that does not float your boat. Remember to come back!

As usual, any questions/concerns/complaints, leave a message here or e-mail me!

Hello everyone!

The tag set is looking awesome, and all of your delicious nominations made me over-the-moon happy! Everything has been approved, although I'm just working out some of the kinks in the tagset that various people have brought up and checking the freeforms over for duplicates/things that can be combined. That post will be coming out later tonight, so stay tuned!

Meanwhile, this is your Last Chance Nomination post. Forget a ship? Thought of a great freeform two minutes after nominations closed? Let me know and I'll add it to the tag set up until 9PM EDT on Monday, April 19th*.

*If I feel that a freeform is ineligible/too close to a pre-existing tag, I will not add it to the tag set. But it never hurts to ask!