Chromatic Yuletide 2010 Challenge Summary & Discussion

[dark_administrator]

Authors have been revealed and yuletide has opened an AO3 collection for New Year's Resolution 2011, thus, marking the end of the main yuletide challenge.

Last year, dark_agenda was started as a collective effort to promote representation for chromatic sources and characters in yuletide. This year, with your continued help and support, we extended our effort and sought to provide more resources. Among them included the lists of Chromatic Yuletide 2010 Fandoms & Characters (html version), Chromatic Yuletide Fandom Promotion Posts, Source-Sharing Resources, Chromatic Yuletide Beta Offers, Chromatic Yuletide 2010 Prompts (html version), Critiques & Common Pitfalls and Chromatic Yuletide 2010 Stories & Resources. We amassed:

• ~1000 fandom meta tags for the Chromatic Yuletide 2010 Fandoms & Characters list
  
• ~700 requests for the Chromatic Yuletide 2010 Prompts list
  
• ~500 stories for the Chromatic Yuletide 2010 Stories & Resources list

And our challenge AO3 collection received ~260 submissions!

Thank you for all the participants, beta volunteers, readers, wranglers and passersby who contributed to and supported Chromatic Yuletide 2010 Challenge -- we can not truly thank you all enough!

Of course, our AO3 collection will remain open for New Year's Resolution 2011 submissions and we will continue to collect more fandom meta tags, requests and stories. (For New Year's Resolution 2011, we would love more help in adding requests from Yuletide Complete List of 2010 Prompts to our prompts spreadsheet -- you can use this form or add prompts directly into the spreadsheet, thank you!)

We realized that despite these awesome numbers and achievements there's still much we can to do to increase visibility of chromatic sources and characters. Stories from chromatic sources and/or featuring chromatic characters still only comprised less than 20% of yuletide output and the percentages for stories from African, First Nation, Latin American and South/Southeast/West Asian sources are even depressingly lower (some even non-existent).

With that in mind, how has your experience with Chromatic Yuletide been so far? We'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback! If you participated in Chromatic Yuletide 2010 Challenge:

• To which challenge components did you commit yourself and how did it go?
  
• Did you have specific goals in mind while writing your story? What were they?
  
• Do you have any tips and tricks for writing chromatic sources or characters you'd like to share?
  
• How were dark_agenda helpful for you in achieving your goals? And what do you think dark_agenda could do to be more helpful?
  
• How effective were the promo posts? Were there some formats that worked better than others?
  
• Was the information provided on the beta list sufficient? Are there other categories that we should include for next year?

As readers:

• What were your expectations for the Chromatic Yuletide 2010 Challenge? And did the challenge meet them?
  
• For yuletide stories in general this year, what were some portrayals of chromatic sources and characters that work for you? What didn't? How do you think those latter portrayals could be better?
  
• What do you wish to see next year with regards to chromatic source and character representation?

Comments

[dragonfly]

I don't know that I can give you much feedback. I do want to say how regretful I am that I didn't end up receiving or writing any chromatic characters. So, the best I did for the challenge was to prompt one non-Western request, which wasn't the request that was met, and to deliberately offer in some fandoms with chromatic characters. I will try to do better next year, and, in the meantime, have some plans to write chromatic characters in my mainstream (non YT eligible) fandoms.

[schemingreader]

This is the second year that dark_agenda has brought me an amazing fic for a request that I am positive would have gone unfilled. This is my third year participating. I have requested fic for A Suitable Boy each year, and this year, I got an impressively researched and beautifully written fic. I had no sense of entitlement where this fandom was concerned--it is one of the longest novels in the English language, written by an intimidating genius. I am, as you can imagine, thrilled.

I made myself as agreeable as I could this year by offering some insane number of fandoms, and was matched to another fan of the television show Treme, set in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The original canon has many well-drawn characters of color dealing with racial bias in nearly every episode of the first season that's been shown. I had help from a beta-reader on your list.

I appreciated your work on this very much.

[florahart]

Hm. I wrote a fic that maybe qualifies, although because the source material doesn't actually seem to have a whole lot to say about the Asian-American-ness of the character, it's not exactly about the color of anything. Hm.

I asked for two things specifically about women of color; neither of those source materials had a damn thing written about them, as far as I know. Which is irritating, because the characters I was asking for are awesome kickass women who should have fic. Grah.

[allchildren]

I knew that dark_agenda was going on, but I admit I was pretty disconnected with the community's direct efforts and challenge. I was assigned a chromatic source and was happy to work with it. I cared very much about the racial aspects of my story and source, and worked hard to do them justice, but I didn't use the comm as a resource. (My final product, btw, was Sincerely, Cindi. for Metropolis: the Chase Suite - Janelle Monae)

I do however credit Dark Agenda for generally and steadily reminding me to prioritize stories about people of color. This year all four of my requests included women of color; last year maybe two did. It wasn't something I was particularly conscious of, but I thank the community for being a constant reminder that I can do better.

[starlady]

I wrote three chromatic source fandoms, and nominated a mixture of chromatic character and chromatic author fandoms, and wound up requesting two fandoms with chromatic characters, which paid off in spades due to the requests being included on the Prompts list (Disney Princess Superheroes). The Chromatic Prompts list was also hugely helpful to me as a Treat resource, since I had time to write but not to go trawling the full prompts list myself--I know it was a lot of work, but it was very much appreciated, and I definitely would like to see it become a permanent feature of the challenge.

[havocthecat]

Was the information provided on the beta list sufficient? Are there other categories that we should include for next year?

The beta list was super helpful, and it made me feel all kinds of better about my fic to find an expert in my historical era and fandom who was volunteering to beta. (And the fact that they were willing to help out a complete stranger with no idea of the fic quality or what kind of story they'd have to read over was also amazing!)

[jlh]

Two of my requests were focused on chromatic characters, and most of my offers were as well. My primary Yuletide fic was about a chromatic character (Motormouth Maybelle of Hairspray) as was one of my two Yuletide treats (Jade of Double Happiness). But, I was defaulted on not once but twice! My pinch hitter was flat-out amazing, but I can't say that it didn't cross my mind, especially when I saw my prompts on the pinch hit for a second time, that the prompts had something to do with it.

While I offered only chromatic characters or women, I ended up matching with someone who requested "any" for the fandom (Community) and ended up writing about all the characters, not just the chromatic ones. So I'm hesitant to link the story to the collection. I'm not sure if it "counts" if it's an ensemble fic that includes non-chromatic characters. (This is a challenge for me generally, in all of these challenges to write more female and chromatic characters. If you have a story with several leads, does that "count"?)

All that said, I don't think I would have skewed my requests or offers in the same way without this challenge, especially since the database helped me so much to find canons that I was familiar with but hadn't thought about in a while, such as Double Happiness. So that fic, absolutely, would not exist if not for this comm. I didn't have time to write Treats this year, but definitely putting together a database for the prompts once they become available is a great resource, not only for Yuletide Madness but also for people writing New Year's Resolutions or searching through the database to get ideas for next year's Yuletide.

Thanks to everyone for all their hard work!

[jetamors]

I really appreciated the beta list; I was able to contact someone there to beta my fic, and it was much better for it. Even without that, I think the existence of dark_agenda was helpful in itself; I don't know if it would've occurred to me to look for a cultural beta if I hadn't been in that mindset already.

This year, everything I requested was from chromatic sources; all but one requested chromatic characters. I don't remember exactly which fandoms I offered, but I did get matched on a chromatic source. I found the spreadsheet to be very encouraging, both in bringing attention to chromatic sources and characters, and in making my decisions on what to offer.

[beatrice_otter]

There was no one on the beta list who had exactly what I needed, but my need was pretty specific. I was able to find what I needed through Yulechat. Nor did the challenge really affect what I offered or requested; I offered everything I could reasonably write, and there are only four requests. Out of all the requests I considered I picked the four I most wanted to see, regardless of chromaticness. (One request was about a chromatic character.) My recipient and I matched on only one fandom, with a choice of two gen character pairings, one chromatic and one not; this challenge may have been the deciding factor for me picking the chromatic one (Diana and Paul from A Chorus Line).

I did, however, link to this com a couple of times in my own journal, and hope that it may have contributed to greater awareness of the issue.

[springgreen]

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.

[loreleif]

This! I found a wonderful beta, and it was good to have the community resources as well; it made me a lot more confident I could write a chromatic character well, and therefor more willing to do so.

Thank you so much for dark_agenda!

[redsnake05]

I didn't officially sign up for anything, but I did know about the challenge and followed all of the comm's posts. Three of my four requests were for chromatic sources and characters, and about six of my ten offers, but I didn't get matched for any of them. I wrote a treat, though, and enjoyed that very much. My requests were for Central Asian and Polynesian sources, so I totally agree about under-representation. I know that at least one other person besides me offered in two of those fandoms, though.

I'm not familiar with many US or Japanese sources, so I did find it harder to find things to write for treats and madness using the spreadsheet just because of the things people requested. That's fine, it's just that they weren't things I am into and definitely didn't have the time to go and find out about.

Next year, I think I will sign up properly to the dark agenda challenge and see what happens.

[littlebutfierce]

I think I did all the components? 8 out of 9 offered fandoms were chromatic & all my requests were. I wrote my main fic & two Treats in chromatic fandoms (& received two fics in a chromatic fandom as well). In a way I feel like I cheated slightly b/c they were all animanga fandoms, but then again, this year I felt like I saw the Western media bias in YT that a lot of people have mentioned before, so.

I LOVE the list of promo posts; I intend to use it as a starting point for media consumption over the year (I've already enjoyed a few things off the list, although sadly I didn't offer them).

I was glad to see the comm promoted in main YT spaces -- & impressed w/how you all have dealt w/hostility/wank.

Maybe the challenge could be promoted earlier in the year, though, especially w/the link list for promo posts, to get people started more in advance? (Though tbh this was my first YT & I can't remember when I first saw posts about it, & have no idea how early it might've been promoted previously)

[wistfuljane]

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.)

We made about 5-6 posts to both yuletide and yuletide and dhobikikutti asked elynross to link to our community on yuletide_admin a few times. We tried to balance between not wanting to spam yuletide/yuletide and wanting to spread the words about the Chromatic Yuletide Challenge and its resources, but...

Hosting a Yuletide fandom promotion and nomination brainstorming fest maybe right at the start of October -- or ealier -- is an idea and I like the suggestion to indicate in "Dear Yuletide Writer" letter whether you're okay with non-English languages and/or codeswitching in stories (I totally went \o/ too) -- will have to remember to suggest that advice to the dark_agenda team for inclusion in various challenge advices and stuff next yuletide season.

In any case, I'm glad your yuletide experience this season was wonderful and fun!

[the_future_modernes]

As a reader I was absolutely THRILLED to see the stuff featuring chromatic characters in a list in one place so that I didn't have to search through so many pages of yuletide. I really appreciated your efforts.

[ceares]

I love the effort you guys put into this. I don't know that it affected me directly except to make me all thinky about how many of my fandoms actually have chromatic characters, even if they are not the lead, but I think it's an amazing project and I'm so very happy to see it expand as it has from last year's Yuletide.

[rabidsamfan]

I didn't exactly intend to participate, but two of my stories seemed to qualify so I linked them. (One in Yuletide and one in Yuletide Madness.) I loved being able to see the prompt table so easily though -- the Madness ficlet owes much to my knowing what someone wanted to see. The challenge definitely had me reading more widely than I might have otherwise too.

[crossedwires]

Thank you for the encouragement and spreadsheets and posts on Chromatic Yuletide!

I ended up defaulting on my assignment, but completed it as a treat (white western source, a few chromatic characters in the ensemble -- though if you didn't know the show, I'm not sure you'd know which were chromatic from my fic, since it's mostly dialogue; I should probably work on that). I received a fabulous story (chromatic source, chromatic characters). I also wrote a NYR for a chromatic source, in which all the the characters are chromatic. I think if I do Yuletide again, I'll try offering (only? more?) chromatic sources or fandoms in which the chromatic characters have a main role. All my requests had at least one chromatic character.

[crossedwires]

Oooh, Double Happiness fic!

So I'm hesitant to link the story to the collection. I'm not sure if it "counts" if it's an ensemble fic that includes non-chromatic characters. (This is a challenge for me generally, in all of these challenges to write more female and chromatic characters. If you have a story with several leads, does that "count"?)

I have the same worries. One of my fics is about an ensemble, and only 2 of the characters are chromatic. I ended up using the 'chromatic character' tag, but not the chromatic yuletide one.

[beccastareyes]

I didn't request only chromatic canons, but several of my requests ended up fitting. (Come to think of it, all but the one I ended up getting...)

My assigned story may or may not have been eligible*, so I didn't submit it, but both my pinch hit and the treat I wrote were.

I felt a bit weird submitting the pinch hit to the Chromatic Yuletide because... well, I'm an anime fan, so it feels like Japanese characters from Japanese media (at least, anime/manga/video games) aren't under-represented in fandom, which seems to defeat the point of Dark Agenda.

OTOH, I did learn a bit about the Japanese university system and becoming a doctor in Japan that I didn't know, and part of the fic was addressing that.

The other story I wrote was for an anime fandom, but was about a Latina character who had moved to America as a child and who was rediscovering her native language/culture after meeting with another expat who had returned to their birth country to start a company to manufacture spacesuits. Which felt different than, say, writing about one of the Japanese leads in the series, or the fic I got last year in the same fandom about the African-American character and her family.

I don't know. I never really know what to do about anime and manga when it comes to these things, since both the primary audience is the same ethnicity as the characters and author, and they aren't under-represented in fandom as a whole (though maybe Yuletide, but that's a separate issue).

* It was for Super Mario RPG, which was originally developed in Japan by Nintendo and Square, but the only human-looking characters in the fic were Mario and Princess Toadstool.

[snowynight]

As a reader, it's really helpful to have a master list of fic and recs in the same place. Thanks!

As a writer, I nominate and request four sources with chromatic creaters, chromatic characters, or both, and offer as such. I end up write two full length fic of both chromatic source and characters, and my main assignment is of a source with a chromatic creator. So I think I fulfill the challenge. The nominated fandom list helps me decide what to offer and request. Though I don't have much time writing treats, I think the prompt list is helpful. My gift fic is of a chromatic source that I also requested last year, and it's the first full-length fic of the fandom. I suspect that the challenge contributes to it being written a lot.

To conclude, Thanks for all the effort.

[kurushi]

I didn't participate in the Chromatic challenge, but this year is both my first year participating in Yuletide and noticing the existence of the challenge, so I thought my feedback might be useful.

To begin with, the labels 'Dark Agenda' and 'Chromatic' put me off. For a challenge supporting cultural diversity, using skin colour based words to identify the challenge turned me right off from the start.

I was incredibly confused as to whether you were endorsing the exploration of wider cultural sources through Yuletide, or trying to increase the presence of specific genetic groups. I think I'd have read more and cared more about Dark_Agenda and the Chromatic challenge if it had been clearer.

The lines drawn for qualifying fandoms and characters seemed arbitrary and poorly explained; shows from all countries (especially Japan, which was heavily represented in the source lists) can also include racist or exclusionary themes. 'Chromatic' creators are at times liable especially in comedic shows to play up racist attitudes towards their own ethnicity and can also adhere more strictly to stereotyped behaviour. I think I would have had less of a problem with the challenge, if I'd been able to figure out whether it was about skin colour, geography, or multiculturalism (or a mix of all three).

All that said, I was quite pleased and delighted once I read some of the pages in this comm to discover that the challenge was endorsing a greater cultural awareness of characters and settings. I myself try to contemplate not only the canon character but the context of their setting, upbringing and personal history. I try to write in a wide variety of gender and cultural identities, and I thought it was great that (whether as the focus or a sideline of the challenge) this was being supported.

I don't think I'll participate next year, but if I see some/any of the following I changes I'll possibly change my mind: A re-think of the comm and challenge labelling; clearer identification of WHAT the challenge actually is (clearer language, less ambiguity about whether this is based on skin colour or culture or geography); the consideration for inclusion of smaller European cultures (I think I heard these were all excluded?); and finally perhaps during Yuletide including in some promo posts language that encourages more culturally aware fic-writing irrespective of qualifying for or undertaking the chromatic challenge. After all, it's the spirit of the writing and research, not the label, that will improve fandom in general.

I hope I haven't come across as too nitpicky. I'm really curious as to how this challenge will evolve, and I have enjoyed reading a lot of chromatic tagged fics this year. I love the idea of proofreaders with culturally sensitive context. Congratulations on this year's turnout.

[cyphomandra]

I requested two chromatic sources and offered two. Although I didn't end up writing in either of them, I did end up using the very useful dark_agenda beta resource post, to ask for cultural beta for an Iliad AU with contemporary Japanese characters (one segment of the story), and busaikko was incredibly helpful and efficient with this (thanks again!). I've also used the dark_agenda prompt lists and collections for browsing.

I think greater non-English language representation in Yuletide would be fascinating. I'm aware of a number of Latin fics, but not other languages.

[wistfuljane]

To address one of your concerns, we define the term chromatic and its shortcoming in our announcement post:

We use the term 'chromatic' as an umbrella definition for 'sourcelander', 'hyphenate', 'diasporian', 'person of colour', 'non-white', while we acknowledge that it has shortcomings. Similarly, we accept that there is a certain flattening in our 'White / Western /Other' terminology.

Chromatic is not a term dark_agenda coined, but it's one coined and adopted by some non-white/people of color as one of the many umbrella terms to which they refer themselves, with its shortcoming and all. One that have gained significance and momentum in recent years (e.g. Chromatic Realities Press, chromatic_fanfic and chromaticvision among others).

dark_agenda seeks to promote representation of chromatic sources, sources by non-white/creators of color in general and sources both from non-Western origins and by non-white/creators of color in particular, of chromatic/non-white/characters of colors and the responsible portrayal of. The community supports diversity and multiculturalism of chromatic characters, cultures and the respect of.

While dark_agenda also supports general diversity and multiculturalism, one of its purposes is to create a space where we, non-white/fen of color especially, can and are encourage to produce (and/or consume) fanworks centering on chromatic characters and cultures responsibly and respectfully and our focus is on that. We'll try to be clear about the community's purposes in any posts made outside the community (e.g. possibly adding a "dark_agenda, a community promoting chromatic sources and characters,..." introduction perhaps), but we're -- I'm less willing to compromise on our community's name or our usage of the term "chromatic".

Thank you for your feedback!

[troisroyaumes]

well, I'm an anime fan, so it feels like Japanese characters from Japanese media (at least, anime/manga/video games) aren't under-represented in fandom, which seems to defeat the point of Dark Agenda.

As a fellow anime fan, I agree with you that anime/manga is not necessarily underrepresented in fandom. However, I think some of the rationale behind including anime/manga was that the fact that these fandoms are Japanese (and therefore, non-white and non-Western) in origin is often denied. E.g. you probably know Matt Thorn's post debunking the idea that anime/manga characters all look white, a common misperception that erases the identity of the characters. Last year, dhobikikutti compiled some posts (all from anime/manga fans, most of whom were also fen of color) that discussed this issue: The problems of White and Western consumption of Manga and Anime. In that sense, the fact that you can say the following:

OTOH, I did learn a bit about the Japanese university system and becoming a doctor in Japan that I didn't know, and part of the fic was addressing that.

suggests that you fulfilled the spirit of the challenge to its fullest, since the act of writing the fic allowed you to engage with a culture that is not your own.

Perhaps a step for next year is to revive discussion of anime/manga during the nominations and writing period to make it clear that in addition to our goal of underrepresentation, we also aim to improve thoughtful representation. On the one hand, the mere label of "chromatic" may remind some people to be more thoughtful towards anime/manga fandoms. But it may also be worth discussing these issues explicitly to help people be aware that anime/manga isn't exempt from questions of representation merely because it's a large subset of fic-writing fandom.

I also think it's important to note that people are at different stages when it comes to writing chromatic fandoms/characters. East Asian media, and Japanese media in particular, has high visibility in the U.S. and many other Western countries, and there tends to be more resources available for research when it comes to Japanese culture. So I can imagine that someone who hasn't written many chromatic sources or characters before may find it easier to tackle a fic for anime/manga. For those of us who are involved in anime/manga fandoms already, perhaps we should set the goal a little differently: either to write about characters that are ethnic minorities in Japan or to do more research into Japanese culture or to not write a Japanese fandom but another chromatic one. The mod team wanted to aim to be as inclusive as possible by allowing people to approach the challenge in whatever way that is most comfortable. At the same time, I think it will probably become more of a priority for us to also promote fandoms that are from underrepresented regions (esp. Latin America, First Nations, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, West Asia, etc.).