Fic in a Box 2023 Schedule and Rules!

[fic_in_a_box_mod]

Schedule:

August 13-20: Nominations
August 21-23: Nominations Cleanup
August 24-September 3: Signups
August 29: Swap requests open
September 6: Assignments Out By This Date
September 7: Swap requests close
October 15: Assignments Due (Countdown)
November 5: Last Day To Submit Makeup Assignments
November 11 December 2: Work Reveals
November 25 December 16: Creator Reveals

All deadlines are at 11:59 PM EDT except for those in November, 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 1-10 works! The minimum per work is 1k by default, but lower wordcount works will count if your recipient has opted into receiving them. We also have "swaps" event where you can trade parts of your assignment for parts of other people's assignments!

Although everyone in this exchange is requesting 10,000 words of fanfiction, participants are able to opt in to pretty much any medium, as long as we can agree on a clear and easily checked equivalent to 1k of written fic. Our collection therefore also ends up full of things like art, podfic, knitting patterns, and so on. Participants who work in non-writing mediums get specially matched so they'll have an assignment they can complete.

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:

• Email: ficinaboxmod@gmail.com
• AO3 Collection
• Tagset

Post Links:

• Screened Mod Contact Post
• Medium Rulesets
• Posting Guidelines
• Assignment Swaps
• Google Forms (Defaulting, Extensions, Summaries)
• Pinch Hitter Requests
• Fandom Promo

Nominations

• Participants can nominate relationships (both / and &), single characters, groups, worldbuilding tags, and optional opt-in mediums
• There are no fandom restrictions or rarity requirements for this exchange. Original works, crossover fandom, and RPF are all allowed.
• Please read the nomination guidelines before nominating (link)
• We primarily conduct nominations through a google form, although the tagset is still an option for people who are confident about their tag formatting. Please check the above guidelines for a link to the form!
• An AO3 account is required if you choose to nominate via the tagset. (You will also need an AO3 account to sign up!)
• You may transfer fandoms from the 2022 tagset to the 2023 tagset on the Fandom Transfer post here (link)
• Two rules we would like to highlight:
  • Ships in Original Works should be nominated with all details you see as essential for the ship included. For example, if the gender of the character is important to you, make certain to include that in the tag. Anything not included in the tag will be considered optional details.
  • If you request an ambiguous group (eg: The [fandom] ensemble) we will assume that any member(s) of that group fulfill that request, rather than assuming that every member of the group must appear in your gift.

Signups

Signups will be here (link). An AO3 account is required. An AO3 account is required, and you must be 18+ to sign up.You may sign up with a maximum of one sock. (Two accounts per person).

Because assignments can be split between multiple works all accounts that sign up must be open to receiving gifts. You can confirm this on AO3 by going to Preferences > Collections, Challenges and Gifts, then make sure "Allow anyone to gift me works." is checked.

Fandoms & request minimums

• You can request 1-10 fandoms, each with 1-20 tags in the relationships field, across 1-10 requests.
• You may request a fandom more than once.
• You do not have to put anything in the "Additional Tags" or "Optional Tags" fields; those fields are for medium and length opt-ins. Leave them blank if you're just here for fic!
• You must request 3+ fandoms to be guaranteed a gift, and this rule does apply to recursive fandoms. See the "Matching" section for more information about this rule.

Relationships field:

• You can request up to 20 tags in the relationships field, but your gift(s) only need to match one tag each.
• If you request a relationship that involves an ambiguous group or character description, we will side with the author on the interpretation of the tag. So, don't request "Solo: Creator's Choice of Jedi" if there are some Jedi you hate, you know?
• You can't DNW parts of tags you've requested. If you request "Solo: Creator's Choice of Jedi" and then try to DNW some Jedi, we will ask you to revise your sign up (if we catch it before assignments) or we will side with your creator(s) (if it's only brought to our attention at work reveals.
• Anything you opt into has the potential to be your entire gift! While it is unlikely you will receive 100 drabbles if you choose "Length Opt-In: Drabbles", it is technically possible!

Medium/length opt-ins (the "Additional Tags" and "Optional Tags" fields):

• The "Additional Tags" field will allow up to 20 medium/length opt-ins.
• You may opt into as many mediums as you want — put your medium//length opt-ins numbers 21 through infinity into the "Optional Tags" field.
• Tags in the optional tags section must be copy/pasted directly from the tagset. Do not put anything besides medium opt-ins from the tagset into the optional tags field.
• You must use the medium/length tags we've provided or otherwise clearly say you'd like to opt in within your optional details to opt in to mediums besides narrative fiction or lengths below 1k.

DNWs & Optional Details:

• Include anything you absolutely don't want to receive (Do Not Wants) in the Optional Details field in your AO3 signup. In the event that a DNW is included in your gift, only reasonable DNWs noted in your signup will be enforced. (Please bear in mind that DNWs cannot be used to box your creator into producing a very specific work, and cannot DNW parts of tags you've requested.)
• You must include something in your optional details to indicate what you like or have an unlocked letter before signups close. This can be short (For example: "I really like h/c and fluff!") or long, but it needs to be present. If you're linking to a letter which already has publicly visible information to this effect, that is also acceptable.
• Dear Creator letters may be linked to in your signup in order to give your gifter further details on your likes and dislikes. These are optional.

Matching

• If you would like to match on an opt-in medium, please contact us at ficinaboxmod@gmail.com or fill out the google form!
• If there is someone you do not want to be matched to as a recipient and/or creator, please contact us. We'll need their AO3 name(s) and how you would like us to handle it if you're their only possible assignment or they try to pick up your pinch hit.
• If you are unmatchable as a creator (i.e. no one is requesting anything you are willing to create), the mods will contact you when signups close and ask you to add more offers. If you do not reply within 24 hours, your signup will be deleted.
• If you are unmatchable as a recipient (i.e. no one is offering anything you are requesting), your requests will be posted to the Dreamwidth community for claiming as a pinch hit.

If you are requesting less than 3 fandoms with distinct lore, you will go out for pinch hit, but we won't hold up reveals for you. We will hold reveals until everyone who requests 3+ fandoms with distinct lore has a gift. You may contact us to add fandoms. The last day that you can add fandoms to guarantee your gift is November 5th.

(Recursive fandoms almost definitely do not count as having distinct lore from the fandom the recursed fic belongs to. For example, Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen doesn't have distinct lore from Naruto.)

Assignments

Assignments are only guaranteed to match on one fandom and one relationship field tag. When you get your official assignment email from AO3, it will list all of your recipient's requests, but you're not obligated to fill all of them. Some people (swaps participants, pinch hitters) will also receive assignments via email from the mods.

If your assignment does not match the fandoms/ships you offered, or if there are any other issues, contact the mod as soon as possible.

Assignment minimums

• Minimum requirements are 10k total works of fanfiction, which may be split into multiple works with a minimum of 1000 per work. Everyone who signs up is opted into this by default.
• Your 10k may be split between multiple requests as long as each work matches a fandom and ship combination that your recipient requested.
• We only round down for PH purposes! If you submit one fic that is 1,001 words and one fic that is 8,999 words then you have written 10k for your recip and completed your assignment.
• Each work you submit should fill only one requested fandom and at minimum one requested relationship field tag. For example, if you're filling a request that has an A/B tag, a C/D tag, and a worldbuilding tag, you're only expected to create a work focusing on one of those tags, not all three of them. Your assignment should focus on one of your recipient's requested characters, ships or worldbuilding tags.
• Each work you submit must avoid your recipient's DNWs.
• Works containing excessive spelling or grammar errors (enough to hinder comprehension) will not be accepted.
• Works may not be wholly or partially created by generative text or art programs (so-called “AI”) such as chatGPT or OpenArt.ai. This includes content which you don't intend to receive wordcount credit — AI content is not allowed in the collection.

Assignments & medium/length opt-ins:

• If your recipient has opted into other mediums or a minimum lower than 1000, those are also eligible with a requirement of 10k equivalent submitted to complete your assignment. Please see this post for equivalents (link)
• Opt-ins can be done with tags or optional details. If you usually have "epistolary" in your likes, you can leave it there to opt in without selecting the tag. Unless you don't want epistolary for this exchange, in which case do remove it!
• All mediums except for fanfic (which for the purposes of this exchange is defined as narrative fiction to distinguish it from the less usual formats that must be opted into) must be opted into by the recip. The only opt-in tags that can be accepted without an opt-in are narrative structure tags ("Rashomon (1950)-style Conflicting Narratives" and "Non-Linear Narrative").
• Please don't give people mediums they haven't requested.

Swaps

• Swaps is a section of the exchange where you have the option of trading in some of your assignment for the same amount of someone else's assignment. For example, you might give up 1k of your assignment to write a 1k gift for someone else. This keeps your assignment total at 10k, but lets you create for more than one person!
• During nominations a swaps post will go up explaining how swaps work and how to tell us what swaps you want.
• Swaps are 100% optional. You can ignore them completely and simply fill your assignment yourself if that's your preference. If we don't hear from you about swaps, we will just assume you don't want to swap.

Posting

• For guides on how to post your assignment or treats in their various forms, please see this post (link)
• If there is anything you think may be easy to miss or that you think may make it easier to check your work, please add a note about it to the author's note at the top of your work. For example, if you have art embedded within a fic, let us know how many images. If you've posted a podfic, let us know how long the original fic was.
• If you are posting parts of your assignment from different accounts, you must let the mods know what your alts' names are for those works to be correctly counted towards your minimum.
• All mediums except for fanfic (which for the purposes of this exchange is defined as narrative fiction to distinguish it from the less usual formats that must be opted into) must be opted into by the recip. The only opt-in tags that can be accepted without an opt-in are narrative structure tags ("Rashomon (1950)-style Conflicting Narratives" and "Non-Linear Narrative"). Opt-ins can be done with tags or optional details.
• As works should remain anonymous during the collection's anonymous period; do not post your work elsewhere before creator reveals. Some mediums have exceptions such as signatures or identification within recording, please check the rulesets (link) for these.
• Saved drafts do not fulfill assignments. Please ensure that you post your gift!
• There will be a four week editing period, but all assignments posted by October 15th should at least be complete and readable first drafts that could stand as assignments if revealed.
• Treats are welcome! All treats must meet the same minimum requirements as works that count towards assignments, including length. Opt-in mediums and lengths must be opted into by the recip.
• Gifts to the collection are allowed.

Defaulting

If you cannot finish a full 10k for your assigned recip, please default. You will still be sent out to PH up until October 15th. The only penalty for defaulting is not being guaranteed a gift (or, if you partially defaulted, only being guaranteed the total sum of the amount you completed rounded down to the nearest 1k increment) during this round. There is no year to year penalty.

There are two kinds of defaults in this exchange: full defaults and partial defaults.

Full defaults:

• A full default is a default that lets us know you won't be able to complete any of your assigned word count. This is the kind of default you should do if you haven't finished any part of your assignment.
• If your assignment was given to you via AO3, default by navigating to your AO3 dashboard, clicking 'Assignments', locating your Fic In A Box Exchange assignment and clicking 'Default'.
• If you need to default on an assignment that you don't have on AO3, you can do so by either emailing the mods or using the google form (link).

Partial defaults:

• A partial default is a default for when you've completed and posted one or more works for your recipient, but you haven't reached your assigned word count.
• Whether your assignment was given to you via AO3 or if you received your assignment from us via email, you will need to either emailing the mods or use the google form (link) to let us know you're defaulting on part of your assignment.
• If you have completed more than 1k of your assignment or equivalent, you will still be guaranteed a gift in this exchange. The amount you are guaranteed is equal to the total you have submitted, rounded down to the nearest 1k.
• This means if you submit a 3.5k fic and a 1.6k fic for a total of 5.1k before defaulting, you will still be guaranteed at least 5k, which will go out according to the rules in the Pinch Hits section.
• If your full gift is not posted by October 15th, the mods will default you on whatever wordcount you haven't yet submitted. If you were given a different deadline then follow that deadline.

Earning back your minimum after defaulting

You may earn back up to the amount that you defaulted, for a maximum owed amount of 10k. The amount you're guaranteed as a gift will be the total sum of what you have submitted to your original assignment before defaulting plus the total amount you submitted to the methods below, rounded down to the nearest 1k.

There are four ways to earn back the minimum wordcount you are guaranteed to receive in this exchange!

Earn your minimum back via completing pinch hits

• Any pinch hits you pick up will immediately add however much you picked up to your minimum. (So if you defaulted after writing 5k, then pick up 1k, your new minimum is 6k)
• The deadline for earning back your minimum by picking up pinch hits is November 9th at 11:59PM EST.

Earn your minimum back via completing your original assignment

• If you need to default early on and then things change and you are able to complete your assignment, you may do so without penalty.
• If you swapped, your original assignment may always be completed for up to 10k, and any swaps may be completed for up to the assigned amount of the swap.
• The last day to post a defaulted assignment to earn back minimum is November 5th 11:59pm EDT.

Earn your minimum back via completing a gift for a PHer request

• If you post a completed gift for a PHer request (link) that will count towards your minimum amount.
• The deadline for earning back your minimum by gifting to a PHer request is November 9th at 11:59PM EST.

Earn your minimum back via posting a workskin and tutorial

• Many works in the exchange will use AO3 workskin templates in order to display documents, social media sites, and a lot of other things! There are a lot already out there, but there's always more that are needed and an exchange like this is likely to expose some of those gaps.
• You can earn up to the full 10k by creating new workskins, writing tutorials for those templates, and posting them to the collection with no recipient. Each workskin/tutorial will be worth 2k of your minimum.
• These workskins will be revealed immediately (still anonymous until creator reveals) so that the rest of the participants may use them!
• In order to count towards making up wordcount, the workskin and tutorial you create should be something that doesn't already exist. You can check with us ahead of time if you want to be sure.

Pinch Hits

Pinch hits will be posted to the Dreamwidth community. We will attempt to send pinch hits out in chunks in an effort to avoid making any defaults obvious (without limiting time for writing too much either).

Notes:

• Pinch hits will not always be for 10k. If a pinch hit's original creator has partially submitted their assignment, the pinch hit will go out for 10k minus those submissions, rounded up to the nearest 1k. For example, if the original creator gave them 3.5k, the pinch hit will go out for 7k. Swaps and defaults on swaps also sometimes create pinch hits that are less than 10k.
• Pinch hits can be claimed in increments of 1k. For example: if a PH is out and needs 6k, you can offer to pick up 6k, or you can offer to pick up any amount of that in 1k increments (1k, 2k, ect).
• Since each recipient comes with limited AO3 assignments, not every PHer will be assigned through AO3. Everyone who doesn't get an AO3 assignment will be emailed and will still be getting officially assigned in our spreadsheet.
• You can claim a pinch hit even if you aren't signed up for the exchange, but you will need an AO3 account.
• If you submit more than the amount you claimed and that recipient is still out for pinch hit when you submit (or if they later need to go out again), the amount you submitted rounded down will be what is used to calculate how much they still need.
• If you have treated your recipient prior to picking up their pinch hit, any treats you have given them that meet the assignment requirements will be automatically counted towards your assignment! This is a side effect of how we're automating the tracking for this exchange. If you have given your recipient a treat that you do not want to count towards your assignment, please let us know when you post to the DW to claim the pinch hit.

Extensions

Assignments and PHs with due dates of October 15th:

• May ask for an extension to October 22nd, October 29th, or November 5th!
• If you ask for an extension and need more time, you may ask for an additional extension up to November 5th.
• The absolute last extension date is November 5th. The only exceptions for this are PHs that were assigned with an initial due date of later than October 15th. If you had a normal assignment or a PH with a deadline of October 15th then you will not be given an extension past November 5th for any reason.

PHs with initial due dates after October 15th:

• May ask for an extension to October 22nd, October 29th, or November 5th!
• May ask for extensions past November 5th as we get closer to that date, these aren't guaranteed and will be handled on a case by case basis.

Extension Defaults:

• Anything not turned in by your extension deadline will count as a full or partial default. If you need to confirm your extension deadline, please contact us!
• We will be automatically defaulting extensions that are not turned in by their deadline, even if they could have been extended further.
• If you default before your deadline then there are no consequences.
• If you are no show defaulted by the mods on an extension this round you won't be able to request an extension the 2024 round. This applies only to the 2024 round and only to extension requests! This does not affect normal defaults, only no shows. You will receive an email letting you know if this applies to you.

Delays

To make things easier for us and more predictable for everyone, we're setting rules for exactly how any potential delays will go this year!

• The absolute latest due time for a PH will be 12 noon before reveals. If a PHer needs to bump their due time into the afternoon we'll delay a day to avoid down to the wire announcements and give us plenty of time to do a final check of everything.
• If there are still PHs up on the wednesday before scheduled reveals then delays will happen in one of two ways:
  • If there's a PHer ready to pick up the final PH who needs up to a week of extra time, then the exchange will be delayed based on their timeline.
  • If the PH needs to stay up then the exchange will be delayed a week to the following saturday. We will reassess the following wednesday if the PH is still up at that point.

Comments

[dauntlessshadowice]

On the ao3 collection itself, it says that works will be revealed on September 3rd at 11:59 P.M. EDT. Is this a mistake?

[fic_in_a_box_mod]

Yes that's when signups close haha. I've fixed the AO3 dates to reflect the correct ones! Thanks!

[(Anonymous)]

Hi! I had a quick question. It says that the minimum number of requests to be guaranteed a gift is 3, but I was just wondering whether there is a minimum number of offers? Thank you!

[fic_in_a_box_mod]

The only requirement for offers is that you need to be matchable to at least one person (that is, whatever you offer you need to match at least one request so that you have someone to create for).

If you are unmatchable (none of your offers match the requests in the exchange) you'll get an email asking if you want to add offers or drop out.

If you are an artist, vidder, or other non-writer creator who needs help matching to someone you can create for, you should email us!

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, thank you so much! I am a writer, but I was wondering because I figured I would be matched in only one fandom so I thought I might have less than three offers. Thank you!

[(Anonymous)]

Hi! Where it says that treats have to meet the same length requirements as works that are counted towards assignments, that just means treats have to be at least 1k, right (assuming the recipient didn't opt into shorter minimums)? Not that they have to be 10k?

[fic_in_a_box_mod]

Yes, correct! And same for other mediums — for example some poetry is required to have a certain number of stanzas to hit the 1k minimum.

Participants can indicate in their optional details if they're open to receiving treats shorter than 1k even if they haven't selected any of the length opt-ins for their requests. It would be helpful for us if that information was in the OD box on AO3 rather than in a letter, although either is fine.

Posting from pseuds

[kitsunerei88]

Question regarding posting from pseuds: is there a way you want us to do this so that it's easier for you to track? E.g. posting to main, and then once accepted into the collection, moving it to the pseud? The posting info above references posting from different accounts, but pseuds are pretty closely tied to the main accounts.

Context: I post written works on main account and use pseud for art and pods.

Thanks!

Re: Posting from pseuds

[fic_in_a_box_mod]

When you post from a pseud AO3 still shows us the main account name in the backend (it appears as "Pseud (Main)"), so that isn't an issue! Thank you for checking though!

[(Anonymous)]

Hi! If our recipient has not chosen one of the smaller word count mediums in their Freeforms, but then in their optional details/letter has said that they are happy with any length of fic, do we need to confirm this with the mods via email if we wanted to post a series of drabbles for them?

[fic_in_a_box_mod]

You don't, but mentioning it in the top author's note or giving us a heads up may be helpful to make sure we don't miss it in their letter!

(In the worst case, if we do miss the letter opt-in you'll get an email asking about it and will be able to point us at it then!)