Author Reveals & Next Time

[morbane]

Authors are now visible for all stories. Here's the collection again: http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Jukebox2013

Thank you again for participating. I had a great time. I'm still reading through the collection.


I plan to run this challenge again, so I'd appreciate feedback, on what worked for you and didn't. (Anonymous comments are still enabled.)

Here are a couple of things I think I might change:

• The dates. This has run up closer to Yuletide than I was anticipating. I was also participating in hhertzof's Exchange at Fic Corner challenge, which hhertzof says she will run again next year in July-August-September. Because of this, I'm thinking of shifting Jukebox 2014 to February-March-April (ensuring the writing time doesn't overlap too much with Purimgifts) or April-May-June (though that overlaps a bit with Not Prime Time).


• The beta reading mailing list. I'm not sure that quite worked (thoughts, anyone?). Especially, it seems a bit silly for me to be playing relay like that when I'm in such a different time zone to most other people - I suspect it decreased, rather than increasing, efficiency. (I don't think this was a problem for pinch hitting, though, since I could decide when to send emails out.)


• What fanworks are included. Currently, I don't have a strong idea about how to include podcasts or fanvids - or whether these make sense to include. But I am interested in fanart. So, question: would other people be interested in either offering or requesting art fills for song prompts?


• The definition of a song. There are many discrete pieces of music without lyrics where the creators, performers, and audience can agree on the shape of the story being told. (Programmatic music being one branch of this.) Would you be interested in offering or requesting music of this type? And if you are, could you help me come up with an appropriate definition?



Other things I'd love to get discussion on: was writing for a song outside your comfort zone, or not? Did the song you wrote for remind you of other particular songs? (I ended up buying three songs in iTunes based on other people's nominations.) Are there un-filled prompts that you especially wish had been written as well?

Comments

[senmut]

Timing is rarely an issue for me. I am accustomed to doing NaNo, having my Yuletide written first week it's open, and any other holiday events that suit me. But it would be nice to have something early in the year to look forward to.

Fanvids would really only work if the songs were being paired with fandoms. wouldn't they?

While I agree some works without lyrics are powerfully evocative, I have found they speak to people in far more different ways than those that have lyrics to guide the listener. I, personally, would fear NOT hitting the right meaning for a requester who chose music with no lyrics, as you cannot ask them to spell EVERYTHING out in their dear author letter.

(No opinion on beta; my GF touches all my exchange fics before they go up)

A list of unfilled prompts is often offered from exchanges to let people play in them for the remainder of the year, but I can't say for myself if anything is particularly making me hunger for it.

NOW! Most important part of feedback:

1. Thank you to YOU for organizing and holding it.

2. Thank you to everyone who did request and offer!

[morbane]

You're welcome! :)

Thank you for these thoughts. Indeed, I feel as though I am considering fanvids only to immediately reject them. Other works are more up in the air.

That's true about unfilled prompts. I guess I hadn't really felt the need, since the full prompt list has been visible for several weeks, but if other people think it's a good idea, I'll collate them.