I found so much of the comm resources incredibly helpful! Thank you guys so much for your hard work!
This is going to be so tl;dr...
I committed myself to only requesting chromatic sources, albeit two with possibly non-chromatic characters, and I also volunteered solely for chromatic sources or characters. I managed two full-length stories, one my assignment (chromatic source and characters) and one a treat (chromatic characters), and also got to make them full of lots of female characters, which made me super happy. I was also happy that even though I wrote a manga source (much more common for Yuletide chromatic fandoms), mine felt like it was about Actual Japanese People (tm) instead of robot dolls and required cultural and language research. And I managed to fit in an ethnic minority Japanese character!
... uh, this makes it all sound like stuff that is Good for You, like fiber in your diet, but I squeed the entire time I was writing it and had SO MUCH FUN.
I did feel like I cheated a little because I've written Japan and Japanese characters quite a few times, and because all my requests were either Chinese or Japanese. Next year I am going to try to offer and request more in chromatic non-e.asian-fandoms (and start reading up on sources earlier so I can actually write/read the fic).
Dark Agenda was incredibly helpful; that's how I found my cultural beta. I also got into a few fandoms I wouldn't have without the early pimping posts, and the chromatic prompts list was SO HELPFUL. Especially since the main one was huge. I wish I could have written more off the prompt list, but my main fic took me forever. I also enjoyed beta-ing for other people. Oh! Uh, I completely forgot to check my LJ inbox and therefore missed someone's request to get beta-ed... maybe optional contact information in the beta-list? In case dw/lj messaging is not the best way to get in touch with the beta.
I was also really happy to have a sub-collection of chromatic fandoms; given the overwhelming size of the archive, it helped me start out somewhere. I sadly didn't get to read very much this year, but hopefully will catch up later, so I can't comment that much on the fics in the collection, but I've started reading a few (mostly Chinese mythology) that make me really happy. I was also SO HAPPY to see bits of non-English languages in things! Ditto with the list of fic and rec posts you guys compiled. I cannot believe you guys did all that! So much work!
Ways to improve... hrm. I feel a lot of it depends on the participants? Maybe trying to get people pimping the lesser-requested/written chromatic fandoms way earlier than sign up period (African, Latin@, indigenous, S/SE/W-Asian?) or brainstorming posts to think of fandoms and collaborate on nominating them? Also I was really surprised by how many people doing Yuletide didn't know about the challenge (I am biased b/c of my dwircle)... so maybe more posts about it on the main Yuletide comm? (Or I might have completely just missed all the posts about it because I don't read the main comm all the time.) (I am also okay with keeping it smaller and less publicized to avoid wank.) I also spent forever trying to figure out if my recipient was okay with non-English languages or not, so I have to remember to put that into my request letter next year.
no subject
This is going to be so tl;dr...
I committed myself to only requesting chromatic sources, albeit two with possibly non-chromatic characters, and I also volunteered solely for chromatic sources or characters. I managed two full-length stories, one my assignment (chromatic source and characters) and one a treat (chromatic characters), and also got to make them full of lots of female characters, which made me super happy. I was also happy that even though I wrote a manga source (much more common for Yuletide chromatic fandoms), mine felt like it was about Actual Japanese People (tm) instead of robot dolls and required cultural and language research. And I managed to fit in an ethnic minority Japanese character!
... uh, this makes it all sound like stuff that is Good for You, like fiber in your diet, but I squeed the entire time I was writing it and had SO MUCH FUN.
I did feel like I cheated a little because I've written Japan and Japanese characters quite a few times, and because all my requests were either Chinese or Japanese. Next year I am going to try to offer and request more in chromatic non-e.asian-fandoms (and start reading up on sources earlier so I can actually write/read the fic).
Dark Agenda was incredibly helpful; that's how I found my cultural beta. I also got into a few fandoms I wouldn't have without the early pimping posts, and the chromatic prompts list was SO HELPFUL. Especially since the main one was huge. I wish I could have written more off the prompt list, but my main fic took me forever. I also enjoyed beta-ing for other people. Oh! Uh, I completely forgot to check my LJ inbox and therefore missed someone's request to get beta-ed... maybe optional contact information in the beta-list? In case dw/lj messaging is not the best way to get in touch with the beta.
I was also really happy to have a sub-collection of chromatic fandoms; given the overwhelming size of the archive, it helped me start out somewhere. I sadly didn't get to read very much this year, but hopefully will catch up later, so I can't comment that much on the fics in the collection, but I've started reading a few (mostly Chinese mythology) that make me really happy. I was also SO HAPPY to see bits of non-English languages in things! Ditto with the list of fic and rec posts you guys compiled. I cannot believe you guys did all that! So much work!
Ways to improve... hrm. I feel a lot of it depends on the participants? Maybe trying to get people pimping the lesser-requested/written chromatic fandoms way earlier than sign up period (African, Latin@, indigenous, S/SE/W-Asian?) or brainstorming posts to think of fandoms and collaborate on nominating them? Also I was really surprised by how many people doing Yuletide didn't know about the challenge (I am biased b/c of my dwircle)... so maybe more posts about it on the main Yuletide comm? (Or I might have completely just missed all the posts about it because I don't read the main comm all the time.) (I am also okay with keeping it smaller and less publicized to avoid wank.) I also spent forever trying to figure out if my recipient was okay with non-English languages or not, so I have to remember to put that into my request letter next year.