Upcoming Exchanges

[cousinshelley]

I was working on my letter for Candy Hearts, found myself not wanting to put in the effort and thinking about skipping it. I'm going to give myself a day or two before I try again, because I love this post-Yuletide exchange time a lot. While I was debating whether to sign up or not, I stopped to look at my exchange calendar. I think I'll have to drop one or two things, considering the work load I'll have in this first quarter.

If I do everything I'd planned/hoped to for the next four or five months:

• By January 4th: no obligation, but writing some fills for fun for Fandomtrees.
• By January 21st: finishing the 10k+ FFFX assignment (and tweaking for another month, because it's what I do)
• January 29th-February 4th: Battleship testing round one
• By February 7th: Candy Hearts due
• By February 18th: Seasons of Drabbles due
• February 18-24: Battleship round two
• March 3-9: Battleship round three
• By March 4th: Id Pro Quo due
• So far unscheduled in March-April, Heart Attack with its two-week writing period to produce 10k

Feels like a lot, and that's without any flashes or small exchanges cropping up that might draw my eye. I don't do all that many, but sometimes I surprise myself and sign up. Hurt/comfort will probably be due in May. I don't normal sign up but had thought about doing it.

I was starting to burn out on Battleship by the end last year, so skipping at least one round is an easy drop, and I could drop two if I had to. Depending on the new rules and how it goes, I might not do much, but I'd like to try at least one round.

IPQ's freeform tagging and sign-ups are such a chore, and since I'm already dreading organizing my CH sign-up, I wonder how that'll go this year. But it has an almost two-month writing period as opposed to Candy Hearts' month (and it really doesn't take me much longer to write 2k than 300 words. Don't know how that works, but it's true. I tend to write longer even when I try not to, so my CH assignment would probably be IPQ length anyway.)

Sign-ups close the 7th for Candy Hearts (I'd need to sign up by the sixth at the latest because the 7th will be too busy) and the 17th for IPQ, so I have a little time to decide whether to drop one or both to focus on FFFX and maybe the first test round of Battleship. Seasons of Drabbles would also be an easy drop. I just did a drabble flash that was fun and challenging, but I find writing drabbles as frustrating as they are fun. A well-written 100-word fic is a gem, but I am not good at writing them and find it much more fun to have some breathing room. 

I should probably sit down with my project calendar and figure out when I'll probably have the most hours for fun things.

For the last few months, I'd thought about not signing up to anything this year and limiting myself to writing treats or the occasional pinch hit. I may still be in that mindset, because my Candy Hearts sign-up and letter really only require some copy, paste and a little tweaking. Not hard! I'm so lazy!

Comments

[sweetsorcery]

You're just like me. "Nope, not doing exchanges this year... maybe just a few favourites, and some small ones that crop up... I'm too tired for this, damn these letters, but... they can be such fun... maybe I'll just drop a couple? That'll help." And it never does, because you'll just sign up for something else in that little breathing space you've given yourself. Haha

I'd forgotten about Seasons of Drabbles coming up soon, thanks for the reminder! I do find drabbles a lot of fun to write and a nice way to dabble with tiny ideas and "moments" that don't amount to a full-length story.

Still, I know what you mean about 2000 words not taking much longer than 300. I too have a harder time keeping things short than letting them grow as they will.

Letters are a pain, and I keep meaning to just do ONE letter for everything that I can then link to forever, with any possible fandom in it that I might request. Freeforms are a pain too, but they also make a lot of these exchanges infinitely more customised and entertaining. Conundrums.

[cousinshelley]

Yep, I told myself that as Multifandom Tropefest and Fic in a Box were winding up, I wasn't going to sign up for or write anything else until I had my FFFX story in a final form (minus minor edits that might be needed). I signed up for two flashes and wrote several treats, and still haven't finished it. It's not lack of interest or love for the fandom, it's just being a Magpie attracted to the new shiny thing. I'm no longer surprised when I do this.

I have my letter process streamlined pretty well so that it's mostly copy and paste, but there are always things that seem to need to be tweaked for this exchange or that, and it's those little things that feel like such a hassle to me.

GMTA on the letter! Just yesterday, I was thinking I needed to make a master letter that's better organized and separates requests and prompts into friendship, shippy and sexual to make it easier to copy and paste, depending on the exchange. I might tweak my fandom/request list into a simple list of fandoms linking to the characters, pairings and prompts I've signed up with over the years to make it serve as one.

I'd probably still do individual letters, but including links within a master letter (here's everything I've ever prompted for these fandoms, go wild!) seems like a great idea. I tend to request the same things all the time anymore, so it shouldn't even be too time-consuming (she says in a fit of optimism).