December 24, 2020
Twelvetide Drabbles 2020 - DAY ONE
by Twelvetide Drabbles
Greetings Twelvetide Drabblers!
Welcome to Day One of our fourteen day creative challenge. I believe we have a number of first-time participants this year, so I have a few introductory remarks as we get underway. If you are a veteran participant and are just looking for the day's prompt, feel free to scroll down to the DAILY STATS and TODAY'S PROMPT sections below.
If all you need is the link to upload your first work(s), the Archive of Our Own (Ao3) collection is now open. This year we also have a Google Form for those who are participating but do not have or want to create an Ao3 user account.
INTRODUCTION
History of the Challenge
Welcome to year six of the Twelvetide Drabbles challenge! I began coordinating this challenge in 2015 as a way for a group of fanfic authors to keep our spirits up during the holiday season. In 2017 we added a fundraising component to the two-week challenge in order to support disaster relief efforts in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the wake of hurricanes Maria and Irma. That year we raised $154.00. Since then, we have continued to run the challenge as a fundraiser, selecting a different charity each year. In 2018 we raised $250.00 for HIAS and in 2019 we raised $237.60 for the Environmental Defense Fund. This year, we are raising money for the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies.
In the past four years, we have seen between 100-150 works created during the challenge and a total of around $2.00/work in the pledge fund. This year, as of this morning, we already have $4.50/work pledged (!) and I expect we may have a record number of works posted as well! Thank you in advance for your generosity and enthusiasm. (If you would like to pledge a per-work donation you may add your pledge amount here at any time before 9pm EST on January 6th.)
The challenge is hosted on the fanworks website Archive of Our Own (links to years 2015-2020 may be found here) and participants create works in response to daily prompts that they then post to the collection between December 24 - January 6 in order for the works to be counted for the purposes of the fundraiser. The prompts and challenge guidelines may be found on the Twelvetide Drabbles 2020 collection page on Ao3.
The Daily Prompts
Each year, the series of prompts have a theme -- for example, one year was Christmas carols, one year was cooking ingredients. The 2020 theme is colors. The goal of the prompts is to provide a daily focus for creating that is narrow enough to spark ideas but flexible enough for creators to take the prompt in a direction that works for them. People have different approaches to using the prompts: Some write a series of fourteen chapters in a single story arc, others create fourteen independent pieces. If you are creating fanworks, your pieces do not need to be in all the same fandom. You could also try different forms of writing -- to my memory, for example, we have never had someone write poetry as a prompt response! This year, one of my planned story arcs will be a series of letters exchanged between two characters, one letter per prompt.
What am I Expected to Produce?
The primary goal of the challenge is to have a creative outlet during the holidays while we also raise money for social justice labor! Participants can create a work or two ... or create a work in response to every prompt ... or multiple works in response to each prompt. Please engage with the prompts at the commitment level that works for you. "Drabbles" in fandom parlance are strictly speaking 100-word pieces of writing, but for the challenge we use the word loosely to mean something short and stress-free for the creator to make in whatever time they have available.
Participants can write, create visual art or create audiovisual media. Visual art and audiovisual submissions are also welcome; these will have to be uploaded to a different site and embedded into the Ao3 interface as Ao3 does not host image or media files on its platform. Works related to all fandoms are welcome, and non-fandom works (or "original works") are also welcome. You can respond to the daily prompts on a daily schedule or when you have the time; all works submitted to the challenge within the two week period between 9am EST December 24, 2020 - 9pm EST January 6th, 2021 will be accepted to the collection and counted for the purposes of fundraising.
A Word About Sexually Explicit Material
Since I don't know if all of our new participants are familiar with fanworks or Archive of Our Own, I want to make all participants aware that creators on Ao3, and in this challenge, may create sexually explicit media. This media should be identified appropriately using the Ao3 system of ratings and tags which indicate whether a work includes sexual or romantic content, what type of content one can expect, and how explicit that content is textually or visually. A work that is labled "G" for General Audiences can be assumed not to contain sexually explicit content, and if the relationship category is designated "Gen" for General that means that the focus of the work is not a romantic or sexual relationship.
Who Runs the Challenge?
The challenge is coordinated by me, elizajane (a.k.a. Anna Clutterbuck-Cook) on a completely volunteer basis and to date most of the participants have been family and friends whom I know through fandom. I am happy to welcome newcomers and will gladly answer any questions that people have.
Email: feministlibrarian@gmail.com
Twitter: @feministlib
Finally, here is the information sheet I created for easy sharing and signal boosting if you want to encourage people in your networks to join the challenge.
Welcome aboard! I hope you have a lot of fun.
First, a CORRECTION: Please note that the list of prompts sent out on 12/15 included prompts through January 9th rather than January 6th. Mea culpa it's 2020. What is time anymore? The challenge ends, as it always has, on January 6th (Epiphany) and the total number of prompts equals fourteen. I have revised the full list of prompts over at the Archive of Our Own collection page. Apologies for those who had their hearts set on Ecru, Magenta, and Indigo.
Your prompt for Thursday, December 24th:
"Do you think amethysts can be the souls of good violets?"
~ L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Image: Purple violets blooming against a soft-focus background of green leaves.
Image: The crown of a white person's head from the forehead up showing long, light purple hair and a delicate crown of gold leaves.
Image: Interior of a 1950s retro-style kitchen with black-and-white checkerboard style floor and white cabinets and walls and light violet accent coloring including a light violet colored fridge.
And here are three creme de violette cocktail recipes from Food & Wine.
Happy creating!
Elizajane
Welcome to Day One of our fourteen day creative challenge. I believe we have a number of first-time participants this year, so I have a few introductory remarks as we get underway. If you are a veteran participant and are just looking for the day's prompt, feel free to scroll down to the DAILY STATS and TODAY'S PROMPT sections below.
If all you need is the link to upload your first work(s), the Archive of Our Own (Ao3) collection is now open. This year we also have a Google Form for those who are participating but do not have or want to create an Ao3 user account.
INTRODUCTION
History of the Challenge
Welcome to year six of the Twelvetide Drabbles challenge! I began coordinating this challenge in 2015 as a way for a group of fanfic authors to keep our spirits up during the holiday season. In 2017 we added a fundraising component to the two-week challenge in order to support disaster relief efforts in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the wake of hurricanes Maria and Irma. That year we raised $154.00. Since then, we have continued to run the challenge as a fundraiser, selecting a different charity each year. In 2018 we raised $250.00 for HIAS and in 2019 we raised $237.60 for the Environmental Defense Fund. This year, we are raising money for the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies.
In the past four years, we have seen between 100-150 works created during the challenge and a total of around $2.00/work in the pledge fund. This year, as of this morning, we already have $4.50/work pledged (!) and I expect we may have a record number of works posted as well! Thank you in advance for your generosity and enthusiasm. (If you would like to pledge a per-work donation you may add your pledge amount here at any time before 9pm EST on January 6th.)
The challenge is hosted on the fanworks website Archive of Our Own (links to years 2015-2020 may be found here) and participants create works in response to daily prompts that they then post to the collection between December 24 - January 6 in order for the works to be counted for the purposes of the fundraiser. The prompts and challenge guidelines may be found on the Twelvetide Drabbles 2020 collection page on Ao3.
The Daily Prompts
Each year, the series of prompts have a theme -- for example, one year was Christmas carols, one year was cooking ingredients. The 2020 theme is colors. The goal of the prompts is to provide a daily focus for creating that is narrow enough to spark ideas but flexible enough for creators to take the prompt in a direction that works for them. People have different approaches to using the prompts: Some write a series of fourteen chapters in a single story arc, others create fourteen independent pieces. If you are creating fanworks, your pieces do not need to be in all the same fandom. You could also try different forms of writing -- to my memory, for example, we have never had someone write poetry as a prompt response! This year, one of my planned story arcs will be a series of letters exchanged between two characters, one letter per prompt.
What am I Expected to Produce?
The primary goal of the challenge is to have a creative outlet during the holidays while we also raise money for social justice labor! Participants can create a work or two ... or create a work in response to every prompt ... or multiple works in response to each prompt. Please engage with the prompts at the commitment level that works for you. "Drabbles" in fandom parlance are strictly speaking 100-word pieces of writing, but for the challenge we use the word loosely to mean something short and stress-free for the creator to make in whatever time they have available.
Participants can write, create visual art or create audiovisual media. Visual art and audiovisual submissions are also welcome; these will have to be uploaded to a different site and embedded into the Ao3 interface as Ao3 does not host image or media files on its platform. Works related to all fandoms are welcome, and non-fandom works (or "original works") are also welcome. You can respond to the daily prompts on a daily schedule or when you have the time; all works submitted to the challenge within the two week period between 9am EST December 24, 2020 - 9pm EST January 6th, 2021 will be accepted to the collection and counted for the purposes of fundraising.
A Word About Sexually Explicit Material
Since I don't know if all of our new participants are familiar with fanworks or Archive of Our Own, I want to make all participants aware that creators on Ao3, and in this challenge, may create sexually explicit media. This media should be identified appropriately using the Ao3 system of ratings and tags which indicate whether a work includes sexual or romantic content, what type of content one can expect, and how explicit that content is textually or visually. A work that is labled "G" for General Audiences can be assumed not to contain sexually explicit content, and if the relationship category is designated "Gen" for General that means that the focus of the work is not a romantic or sexual relationship.
Who Runs the Challenge?
The challenge is coordinated by me, elizajane (a.k.a. Anna Clutterbuck-Cook) on a completely volunteer basis and to date most of the participants have been family and friends whom I know through fandom. I am happy to welcome newcomers and will gladly answer any questions that people have.
Email: feministlibrarian@gmail.com
Twitter: @feministlib
Finally, here is the information sheet I created for easy sharing and signal boosting if you want to encourage people in your networks to join the challenge.
Welcome aboard! I hope you have a lot of fun.
DAILY STATS @ 9pm ET 12/23
- Amount Pledged: $4.50/work
- Participants: 0
- Works posted: 0
- Total raised: $0.00
First, a CORRECTION: Please note that the list of prompts sent out on 12/15 included prompts through January 9th rather than January 6th. Mea culpa it's 2020. What is time anymore? The challenge ends, as it always has, on January 6th (Epiphany) and the total number of prompts equals fourteen. I have revised the full list of prompts over at the Archive of Our Own collection page. Apologies for those who had their hearts set on Ecru, Magenta, and Indigo.
Your prompt for Thursday, December 24th:
VIOLET
"Do you think amethysts can be the souls of good violets?"
~ L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Image: Purple violets blooming against a soft-focus background of green leaves.
Image: The crown of a white person's head from the forehead up showing long, light purple hair and a delicate crown of gold leaves.
Image: Interior of a 1950s retro-style kitchen with black-and-white checkerboard style floor and white cabinets and walls and light violet accent coloring including a light violet colored fridge.
And here are three creme de violette cocktail recipes from Food & Wine.
Happy creating!
Elizajane