Annual Yuletide Terror Poll

[rachelmanija]

[Poll #1802584]

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I just want to say that I cannot believe that I AGAIN stuck myself with a structure which requires the story to be ridiculously long and/or complex. This is even worse than the year I decided to write a story which inherently required that I write thirteen duels and an orgy.

[shveta-thakrar.livejournal.com]

. . .did the orgy include the duels?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

No, it went:

Scene 1: Introduce situation and characters.

Scenes 2-14: Duels.

Scene 15: Orgy.

Scene 16: Resolution.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

Link, plz.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

The Star in the Sapphire. Based on the L. J. Smith series about teenage witches.

[shveta-thakrar.livejournal.com]

As you know, Bob, I didn't get to participate this year, but my state of mind is Dog, anyway!

I finished watching The Twelve Kingdoms anime on Friday and adored it and was heartbroken that it cut off in the middle. Now I am starting Natsume Yuujinchou. Then it is on to one of your recommendations. And it is ALL YOUR FAULT. Yes, yours, and Cora's, and Andrea's, all for getting me interested in this strange cultural phenomenon!

I love it!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

AWESOME! Which of mine will you watch?

There are also Twelve Kingdoms books. Unfortunately, the English publisher went belly-up, so they too don't end.

[skygiants]

All of a sudden I have reached the point in the semester where everything is due by the end of this week, and I have spent all my paper-writing time writing 50% of a novella-length Yuletide story . . . and I can't even say 'at least I don't have to worry about my Yuletide' because I still have 50% of a novella-length Yuletide story to go. WHOOPS.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Pro: I am SO GLAD my quarter just ended and all my papers, etc, are turned in.

Con: I estimate that I have written exactly one-fourth of my Yuletide story. Uh-oh.

[skygiants]

I always get really excited at first when I discover my Yuletide story has a complex plot to it, but I don't know why, because complex plots in the end only lead to delirium and despair!

[innocentsmith.livejournal.com]

My recipient requested a specific plot...thing happening which wouldn't fit into any of the half-mapped out stories I already had in my head for this canon. On the good side, it's a brilliant idea and one I think I can write? On the bad side, it's one that, at least in my mind, requires a LOT of plot to explain how the story got to that point, and then a lot of plot to explain what happens from there. And since I've been in finals the last couple weeks, I've been actively not thinking about Yuletide in order to concentrate on school, so. Yeah.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

"Denial" has traditionally been the most popular choice in this poll.

[(Anonymous)]

It's in the DVD player. Right now. Pushing start. Really.

[larryhammer]

I've finished my assignment but haven't uploaded it - I want to read through it one more time first. I've started a treat, and am about halfway through and cursing the fact that the source requires me to write as beautifully and evocatively as possible, which means polish polish polish till it gleams until the last possible minute argh.

---L.

[notemily.livejournal.com]

I'm not even doing Yuletide, I just had to click "dog."

DOG

[lionpyh.livejournal.com]

I finally skulked into beginning to write the other evening and a plot immediately descended like a net. If I can extricate the character from it before Yuletide proper, he'll be making very good time.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I was in Italy and missed signups and now I am Sad.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

There's always Treats: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjOXjZrXlRmgdGtpbE1zRmNfZWRHeEptRGVOaEdxWXc#gid=1

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

How about: it's a really, really great story--but unfortunately still completely in my head. And when it's actually written, I'll drop from desire to disgust in a sickening fall. Oh, and also, if I write all I have planned, it's a multi-volume series...

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I have written fifty words of my assignment, sort of . . . and five hundred or so of a treat.

It isn't that I'm not excited about the assignment; I am. It's just a more complex thing, and I'm not quite sure yet where to go with it. The treat, on the other hand, is kind of writing itself.

So I voted Dog.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

BEARS. Total BEARS.

I have 100 words of a treat. I have zero words of my assignment. BEARS.

[taelle.livejournal.com]

PRO: I have 700 words.
CON: I think it's trying to grow a plot. And requires medical research, probably.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Bowwowwowwow!

[genarti]

Pro: I have an outline, and I don't think the plot is going to sprawl into its own suburbs or require lots of research beyond some spot-check stuff!

Con: I have only 150 words of actual fic, outline or not, and those 150 words are pretty clunky. And the weekend before things are due, which would traditionally be my crunch time to finish this up, I will have my recipient for a houseguest...

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

468 words, each and every one of which will probably get edited into vapor by the time I post. If I post.

BEARS.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

The one thing my recipient specifically asked me not to do in their letter was the one idea I had for this fandom.

I have sixty words, the most boring idea in boringdom, and a growing fear that I will have to default, change my name, and run away to darkest Peru.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

60 words is not much. Can you take a third option and try to come up with a different idea?

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

That's already what the 60 words is. But it keeps edging back towards the thing I want to write and my recipient doesn't want.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

Arrrrgh! How inaccessible are the other two fandoms?

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

One of them I could get from the library tomorrow, but I think I'd have to do a fair amount of ancillary research once I finished reading it.

I think I may have to write my story first to get it out of my system, and then write my recipient's story.

[lferion]

Someone will be delighted with your first story as a treat!

I am in a somewhat similar situation (except my recipient did not say anything that would make my first idea unacceptable, just it's quite clear what she does want & that isn't it) and am hoping to get both written. There's another request I can fill with my shiny idea as a treat.

But I entirely sympathise!

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

I wish I could just do the first one as a treat, but no one else requested that fandom.

[jjhunter]

If you need someone to bounce ideas off of, I'd be delighted. (Anything to distract from my state of stressful DOOM™ currently dominating my offline life would be most welcome.)

[ambyr.livejournal.com]

On the plus side, I have completed three stories. On the minus side, none of them are the story I originally wanted to write, which is currently at [redacted] words and grows new subplots every time I look at it.

I mean, I don't have to finish it. I do have something for my recipient. But I want to!

[lferion]

Ticked 'Dog' because 'BEARS' was not an option :D

Speaking of which I really need to get myself a Yuletide BEARS icon -- I always seem to need one about now.

[the_rck]

I have two thousand words and no actual plot. My recipient asked for something very specific that I thought would be relatively easy to write. Unfortunately, the characters aren't cooperating. I may not manage exactly what my recipient wanted.

[jjhunter]

The options for the second question 'Delight' me, though perhaps 'Delegation', 'Dancing', and 'Duck' ought to be added to the list. :o)

All in all, this poll is a wonderful tradition.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

"Denial" invariably wins.

[jjhunter]

On the 'Doom'/'Despair' end of the scale, I keep telling myself it cannot possibly be worse than last year when I decided I must write it all in epic poetry. Now that was stressful!

[amai-kaminari.livejournal.com]

I was very tempted to join this year, but in the end I decided against it because I had already committed to the secret_mutant exchange.

[kate_nepveu]

I have reviewed source for a forthcoming beta, and if I can get to the library I will get source for another.

Since the Pip is in a phase where he will only be put down for about ten minutes at a time, reading, watching TV, and stitching is about all I'm good for anyway.

Process question

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

Is this a snapshot in time, or do we come back and update our entries, or will you post this periodically?

Re: Process question

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

It's meant as a snapshot in time, but I can always post it again closer to the deadline.

Re: Process question

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

Please do!

[maratai.livejournal.com]

I double-answered b/c original assignment already in, almost done longhand on pinch hit, probably have it typed up & submitted tonight. Still, doing a pinch hit while injured wasn't my brightest idea, but the prompt!

[fourthage.livejournal.com]

I have one scene to go and have reached the point where I can see all of the seams and think the story is completely awful. I'll get over it, but it's making it difficult to finish up.