Matching, Filling and Treats

[heartofstanding]

This post contains everything you should need to know about matching, filling your recipient's prompt and writing treats.

If you are confused about anything, don't hesitate to comment or message a mod with a question!

Matching

• Assignments will be sent out once mods are satisfied with the matches.


• This may mean assignments arrive earlier or later than the projected date. We will try to keep you updated by posting about it on the ficathon discord server, the Dreamwidth community and/or on tumblr.


• You may be contacted by the mods if they need to clarify something about your signup or if you prove difficult to match.


• As mentioned above, the mods have access to the email you used to sign-up to AO3 with but if you would prefer that they contact you on a different email or through Discord or Tumblr’s private messaging, you should include alternate contact details in your first offer. Your offers are not visible to anyone except the mods.


• We try to avoid matching people with each other directly (e.g. A writes for B, B writes for A) but given the small size of the fandom and the huge variety of interests (from King John to Richard II to Henry V to Henry VI’s minority to the Wars of the Roses to the Tudors), sometimes this is simply unavoidable.


• It is likely that not all your recipient’s requests will match what you are willing to write. In these cases, simply fill one of their requests that better suits. If there are no requests that you feel you can fill, please get in contact with the mods ASAP.

Filling

• Your recipient will have between 3 and 10 requests. You must fill one of their requests.


• Word limit for fics is 1000 minimum. There is no maximum but you should keep in mind that you must finish this fic in the allotted time.


• All stories posted for the ficathon must be FINISHED STORIES with a beginning, middle, and end. Posting an incomplete story, even one that fulfils the word limit, will be grounds for banning.


• Your fill should not be for canons unrequested by your recipient or ineligible for the ficathon (e.g. crossovers with modern media such as the MCU, non-Shakespeare canons for the same period such as The White Queen). Nor should they be tagged as such.


• You do not have to include all the options in your recipient’s prompt but you must avoid all of their DNWs. If you feel they are unreasonable, please check in with a mod.


• Please try to respect your recipient’s request and fill it as best as possible without including controversial elements such as: non-requested and/or non-canonical events, character deaths and relationships, non-requested AUs, canons, crossovers, kinks, potentially triggering content (i.e. drug use, rape/non-con, abuse, eating disorders), original love interests or readerfic. If the request asks for those things, by all means include them if you wish to.


• Your recipient may have a request that asks for details from a specific production or from a medieval or early modern text. If you are not familiar with or do not like that production or text, you of course don’t have to incorporate the production/text into your fill. However, if they ask for a fill based entirely on a specific production and you are not familiar with it (or do not like it), you should fill a different request.


• On a similar note, it is advisable not to write a fill that is entirely based on one specific production unless your recipient has mentioned that production in their requests or you know they like that production. Mods are happy to check if you contact them.


• You can, however, borrow some elements from any productions so long as these are not listed in the DNW list. i.e. if you want to give Richard II a monkey (a la The Hollow Crown), it would be fine to give him one. However, if the request says “do not, under any circumstances, give Richard II a monkey or use anything from The Hollow Crown”, do not give Richard II a monkey.


• It is likely that not all your recipient’s requests will match what you are willing to write, for instance one request might ask you to stick faithfully to a specific production you haven’t seen or to write a crossover with a medieval text you aren’t comfortable with writing fic for. In these cases, simply fill one of their requests that better suits.


• If you are unwilling or unable to fill any of your recipient’s requests, please contact a mod ASAP.


• Your fill should remain a secret from the recipient until the end of the ficathon. If you have any queries about the request, you can ask the mods to get in contact with your recipient for you.


• You must submit your fic on or before the due date. If you submit it before, you can continue to edit it up until the due date.


• When posting, you do not need to use our custom fandom tags. Instead, we recommend using the appropriate AO3 canonical tags (i.e. 14th Century RPF, 15th Century RPF and 16th Century RPF) so your fic is more readily findable in the archive.


• If you need to default on the challenge, please notify a mod ASAP.

Treats

• If you wish to, you are very welcome to fill other requests as “treats”. These requests may be for your assigned recipient or for any other participant in the ficathon.


• Treats may be fic or artwork, such as drawings, paintings, edits, moodboards etc.


• There is no minimum word count for these treat fics but they should still respect the prompt, avoid the requester’s DNWs and not introduce controversial elements listed in the rules for filling.


• Fic treats must also be a complete story.


• Treat fics can be written and posted up until the works are revealed, including the week between the due date and the works reveal.


• Any treats you fill should not take precedence over your assigned prompt. Providing a treat does not mean you do not have to write your assigned prompt.


• AO3 has the preference option: “Allow anyone to gift me works”. If disabled, you will be able to receive your assigned writer’s fill but you will not be able to receive treats. Please check your preferences to make sure this is enabled or disabled as you see fit. We also ask that you note in your requests whether you are allowing treats or not.


• For treats that are not able to be hosted on AO3 (e.g. edits), we ask you hold off on posting them until author reveals.