Fic In A Box 2021 Schedule And Rules!

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Schedule:

August 3-10: Nominations
August 11-13: Nominations Cleanup
August 14-21: Signups
August 24: Assignments Out By This Date
August 24-September 2: Assignment Swap Week
October 10: Assignments Due
October 20: First Rolling PH Deadline
October 27: Last Day To Submit Makeup Assignments
November 6: Work Reveals (Delayed to November 11)
November 20: Creator Reveals (Delayed to November 26)

All deadlines are at 11:59 PM EDT except for creator reveals, which will happen at 11:59 PM EST

Information

Fic In A Box is a 10k challenge where you have the option to split your 10k into as many works as you want! The minimum per work is 1k by default, but lower wordcount works will count if your recipient has opted into receiving them.

While this is primarily a fic focused exchange, there will be opt-ins for pretty much any medium, as long as we can agree on a clear and easily checked equivalent to 1k of written fic!

If you cannot complete 10k but have created one or more complete works, you can default on just the remaining wordcount. You will then be guaranteed (via pinch hit if necessary) a gift equivalent to the amount submitted (rounded down to the nearest 1k). There are also options to "earn back" guaranteed minimum amount by taking PHs or completing your original assignment.

Official Links:

• AO3 Collection
• Tagset

Post Links:

• Fandom Promo Post
• Fandom Transfer Post
• Medium Nomination Post
• Medium Rulesets
• Fandom/Relationships Slot Nomination Guidelines
• Posting Guidelines
• Changes from last year
• Screened Mod Contact Post
• Pinch Hitter Requests

( Nominations )

( Signups )

( Matching )

( Assignments )

( Posting )

( Defaulting )

( Pinch Hits )

( Editing Period and Rolling Pinch Hits )

( When your assignments will be checked )

Fandom Promo Post

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Use this post to promote your fandoms to others or to ask for recommendations! Feel free to link to legal sources for your fandoms :)

A non-complete list of things you may want to include:

• Fandom name
• What medium is it and where to find it
• A summary (try to avoid major spoilers)
• Content warnings
• Why you like it

Medium Nomination Post

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Medium Nomination Post

Links:

• Tagset
• Medium Rulesets

Nominating

Nomination is how you add things to the tagset! Mediums aren't matchable via Ao3, but participants can opt into mediums other than fanfiction and then if you're someone who wishes to match on one of those mediums you'll be able to email us (ficinaboxmod@gmail.com) or contact us via a google form (to be posted later).

This post is where you should nominate any mediums you want added to the tagset!

If you're nominating a medium where the equivalent needs to be discussed you should only nominate if you are someone who intends to create the medium within the exchange. If it's a new length opt-in, another form of something already in the tagset, or something that fits easily into the Rulesets anyone can nominate.

When nominating a medium, please include the following categories:

Medium: Ruleset(s): Unique Rules: (only add if "Unique Rules" was chosen in Rulesets) What is it: Other Info:

There is an example (and by example I mean a real medium the mods are nominating) below for reference!

Other Info

Almost all tags from last year were imported into this year's tagset. Those excluded were because they required unique rules and weren't posted last year, with some of them being potentially out of scope of the exchange upon further reflection. The following tags were excluded (those with stars are potentially out of scope):
• *Animatics
• *Board Game
• The Bookshelf Limbo' style book preview
• *Card Game
• *Conspiracy Board (Simpler Art/Comic Rules version left in!)
• *fate/Stay Night (visual novel) style Heroic Spirit status screen
• *In-Universe Social Media (Simpler Art/Comic Rules version left in)
• In-Universe Wedding Reception Menu
• Shopping list
• *Tabletop Campaign
• *Translation notes
• *Translation notes: In-Universe translation notes
• Typeface Design
• Untitled Goose Style To-Do List

All of these can be renominated by someone who intends to create them, including those which may be out of scope! Those with stars will need further discussion (either due to scope issues or due to the addition of templates and the rulesets possibly changing how they should be equated), those without can be renominated directly. If the list style mediums are renominated I have a draft of a ruleset for those.

Posting Guidelines

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This page has directions for OW tags, WB tags, and some mediums that we'll need extra information or have specific guidelines for!

All requested medium information should be posted in the top author's note, except for sourced images which can go in either author's note. You can remove everything but image sources from the note shortly before reveals if desired, but please don't do so until we give the all clear in an announcement.

If there's any situation that you think we may need more information, the top author's note is a great place to put it! This could include everything from medium information that we may not have thought to ask for to clarification about to a relationship or fandom tag if how you're tagging it differs from the tagset tag in a way you're worried might be confusing to someone not in the fandom. As stated above, we'll make an all clear announcement before reveals specifically about top author's notes, so before that point it's a great place to communicate with the mods directly on the work itself.

For the ones where we ask you to self report amounts, we will still check to make sure it seems about right.

If your recip asks for something that means you aren't hitting a required tag, please explain that in your top author's note! Note that simply opting into a medium doesn't release you from the tag.

Posting Anything Without An AO3 Assignment

• Post directly to the collection by going to the profile (https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Fic_In_A_Box_2024/profile), clicking 'Post to Collection', and manually adding your recipient on the 'Gift this work to' line.

Original Works

• If you're creating for an Original Works tag, you must tag or state in the author's note what Original Works tag you are filling.

Specific Worldbuilding Tags

• If you're creating for a Worldbuilding tag other than WB: Any, you must tag or state in the author's note what Worldbuilding tag you are filling.

Mixed Media

• If you are mixing multiple medium tags and/or fic within the same work, put what mediums and the amounts per medium if relevant.

Multiple Works in the Same Work on AO3

• Multiple Works should only be posted in the same work if they are directly connected. Please use your best judgement on what counts as connected enough. Multiple written works should only be posted together if they are part of the same narrative.
• If you have multiple fics/other in the same work, please put a list of the works including wordcount and medium in the top author's note of the first chapter.
• Do not gift anything to multiple recips.

Works that include Photos/Manips

• Photos and manips will not count towards your wordcount except for mediums that specifically include them, but can be used as supplementary material to enhance the main submission of other mediums.
• All media (including photos) must be created by the person posting the work, be part of a collaboration we were informed of, be from the official canon, be properly credited images used with permission, or be properly credited CC licensed images. You should credit these in one of the author's notes on your work.

Any submission that includes CC images, images from your canon, or art you did not draw yourself

• Please source any not-made-by-you images that you use (these won't count towards minimums but can be used as supplementary media).

Spoken Audio formats

• For audio works based on pre-existing text (eg, podfic of the recip's fic) or a text you have written yourself, please provide a link to the source.

Images containing words that are counted for wordcount

• If you've posted an image containing words that count for wordcount and haven't posted a text-only version of those words to go with it, please provide the wordcount.

Poetry

• Please state in your author's note or a tag what style of poem you wrote.

Music that follows poetry rules

• Please either provide lyrics or let us know in the author's note how many lines you used and/or what style of poetry

Twine

• Put in your author's note the wordcount of the fic you wrote. (We will still eyeball this to make sure it seems right)

AO3 Based Fanfic Exchange

• You will have to post something to fulfill the assignment on the back end and provide a jumping-off point for your recip; if you're uncertain what you should/can post while complying with the AO3 ToS, please feel free to drop us a line!
• Report wordcount for anything written.
• Please note that if there are any gifts made for the fake exchange, they will only count towards your wordcount if they also fill a recip's request by themselves.
• If there are any gifts on AO3 that need to be revealed, you'll need to either briefly make one of the FIAB mods a mod of the account to reveal it concurrently (we can remove ourselves immediately afterwards to preserve the fourth wall) or give us the password to the mod account.You can DM us password information instead of putting it in the top of your AO3 gift work if you would prefer.

Creators Choice of 3+ In-Universe Mediums Per Work

• If filling this tag, you need 3 different In-Universe mediums within the same work.
• If your recip also requested individual In-Universe medium tags, then you can still post single fills for those tags without having to follow this tag.
• If filling the "That Fit The Canon Setting" variation of this tag it has to be something that makes sense In-Universe without an AU.

Recursive Works

• Recursive works should only be posted for works which have given permission. If your recip requests recursive of their own work this counts as permission, but if they request recursive of gifts of other works please make sure the original creator has given permission for recursive.
• Your work still must fill your recip's requested relationship tags (unless your recip has opted out of that). The work you are recursing does not need to originally hit those tags.
• If the work you're recursing is on AO3 please use the Inspired By function to link to it. If not please link to it directly from the top Author's note.

Medium Rulesets

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Medium Rulesets

The mediums are all organized into rulesets that will tell you what the minimums and equivalents are for that subset of medium tags. Every medium tag is prefixed with the ruleset that you need to check! For example if a tag says "Medium Opt In: Art - [tag]" then you should head down to the Art section!

Most rulesets have multiple options for minimums and equivalents. Your work only needs to meet one of the options.

It is possible that one tag may fit into multiple mediums. If that's the case then it may have multiple tags. To account for this, during signups this year you will be able to add as many Opt-In tags as you want to the "Optional Tags" field.

While anon rules are important, they aren't reasonable in all cases so exceptions have been built into the rulesets. During the anon period it's expected that everyone should still act as though the works are anon even if the name is visible (this means no naming the creator and no claiming the work in namespace until after creator reveals).

If posting a work that requires the use of an outside account, please follow the anon rules above. In addition, if possible you must embed your work on AO3. If embedding is impossible, you must put something besides a link into your AO3 work: a screenshot, an example, instructions, and/or similar -- think of this like giftwrapping. It doesn't need to be complex, it just needs to be enough to count as a fanwork per the Archive Terms of Service [link].

You can find the mediums:

• In the tagset (link)
• In the medium tag checklist (link) which will generate comma separated lists to use in signups.

If you want a medium added, or think that we've missed a medium option for one of the existing mediums, please head over to the medium nomination page and request it here (link)!

( Illustrated Text (Visual Medium & Text Medium) )

( Writing )

( Art )

( Audio )

( Video )

( Instructions )

( Poetry )

( Typographic Design )

( Unique Rules )

Fandom Transfer Post

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Fandom Transfer Post

We had a ton of relationships nominated last year (over 8000!) so there's a good chance that many of those will be nominated again this year! Since the format of relationship nominations are not changing, we'll be transferring fandoms from last year's tagset to this year's tagset upon request. This should be a very quick and easy process for us since we already have the batch loads generated from last year's tagset.

Note that changing relationship tags or adding new ones will have to wait until nominations officially open. This transfer process is only for importing all the tags from the 2020 tagset into the 2021 tagset exactly as they appear in the 2020 tagset. (If there's a potential issue with a fandom tag, though, let me know!)

If fandom names need changed, please let me know! I should be able to add the correct fandom and then batch load the relationships into that fandom as normal.

To transfer your fandoms into the 2021 tagset please post a list of the fandoms you would like transferred! The only fandoms which are not eligible for fandom transfer are Original Works and Crossover Fandom.

Please post your list with each fandom on a new line. Fandoms must be exactly as they appear in the tagset (not including the number in brackets) or the import will fail.

2020 Tagset: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/4681
2021 Tagset: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/7471