How You Can Help!

youcanhelp

This page is now twelve years old! Yay! Hugs for everyone! Thank you for being with us on FIA… no matter how long you’ve been here. 😉 Personally, I plan to keep this page around until the end of the universe. What makes this site special is the people involved—the writers, the readers, the reviewers, and all the members.

So I want to talk to you about one of our amazing members who needs our help. She’s Iridescent Dreamer on FIA, and Writerdragonfly on FFN/AO3. Something terrible happened in her family less than a week ago…. her stepdad was hurt very badly in an accident.

Here’s her story, in her own words.

“National Guard veteran Andrew Petty was hospitalized on June 20, 2016 (which was his son’s 15th birthday) following an accident while working with sulfuric acid that resulted in chemical burns over roughly 25% of his body and inflammation in his throat that resulted in intubation for more than 24 hours.

We are asking for support for Andrew and his wife Jacqueline during this difficult time and the transition afterward.”

I’ve never posted anything like this before, so you know it means something for me to be doing it right now.
Please, click on the image above and give whatever you can. And email her with support at Her gmail address.

Please let her know that we all care. 🙂

The OFIC Forums: The Early Days

Hey all,

 

Welcome to the site, and we’re very happy to have you here! :) However, if you’re a general checker-outer and stumble-across-er, the test forums are going to be in beta mode for a while. The idea is that mods and admins will do their work behind the scenes, plotting world domination and eating lots and lots of virtual chocolate cake. (No calories, you see… ;)

So there just won’t be that much to see for a while. If you just happened to find this site, we’re happy that you did! I’m mulling over the idea of putting everyone on guest status (can read but can’t post) for a while, though, until we’re really ready to open. Once we are, these forums will be moved to the actual permanent forum site. Because I want this to be for ALL fandoms, well… it can’t really be a D/G blog page, can it? ;) Also, the mod forums will be closed to everyone except potential mods and admins. I’m trying to find out if people who register now would just have to register again when we move to a different site… that’s the only thing I’m afraid might happen. (But early register-ers will  still get a very special prize! ;) (No, I’m not going to tell you what it is!!) So just sit tight and wait for a little bit… and when the test forums are moved to the actual page, we’ll open everything up to everybody. Yay!

 

Anise, the Admin

The Manifesto, Yay

SHORT MANIFESTO

 

Hi! I’m Anise. (waves)

I’ve been writing fanfic for a long time. When I started, I’d just had FOUR (count ‘em, four) original novels rejected. This was before Kindle, before Amazon, before any kind of realistic option to self-publish online… and thank GOD, I at least had enough common sense to not go old school and self-publish in print. (Unless you were writing niche non-fiction, that was almost always a BAD, bad idea.) Fanfic really brought me back to writing fiction at a point when I seriously never thought I would do it again. And I’ve come to realize a few things over time.

 

  • Fanfic teaches writing like NO other resource I know of. Authors who don’t write fanfic, who’ve never written it, and who’ve never been part of a fandom community have missed out on so much. I’ve seen this over and over and over again in F2F groups. They may be great technical writers, but they have rarely been taught how to tell a story. Fanfic writers get this (especially if they’ve been around long enough…) And it’s for one simple reason. We’ve been “writing” for about 7,000 years. We’ve been telling stories as long as we’ve been human. And the last “original” story was probably told by Ug the Caveperson in front of the campfire about 75,000 years ago. All writing is fanfic because all storytelling is fanfic, and as fanfic writers, we tell stories to each other. So are constantly perfecting what our brains have evolved to do—there are even theories that human consciousness itself evolved through storytelling! And we’ve learned how to tell these stories.

 

  • Fanfic communities are unlike any other in their quality of support and encouragement. We write together, read together, and cheer each other on! We’re united by a common love of writing, reading, and creativity, and while it all starts with a specific fandom, that’s really just the beginning. The ethos of fanfic communities is the key to supporting writers, creating a learning and growing atmosphere for all of us.

 

  • And, oh yeah… Your work in fanfic holds the secret to success with your original writing. THE secret and THE key. Understand, this doesn’t come first. The writing and the support come first. And it doesn’t work automatically; we don’t reach readers with our original fics simply because we wrote fanfic first. There will be MANY essays on this secret, based on all the time I’ve ever spent in publishing and writers’ groups, all the weird marketing attempts I’ve ever seen, all the desperate writers who couldn’t figure out why things weren’t working for them… all the techniques that failed… and the secret of what finally worked. No, I’m not going to tell you what it is right now!! Wait for the essays. And the podcasts. And we’ll all work it out together, too. J A big part of the secret is that “marketing” and “selling” have to come LAST (and it’s a whole lot better to never think in those terms at all.) That’s not what works. We are here to write and to support each other.

 

  • Finally, I want to help authors who are ready to go with their ofic work (or ononfic!) This isn’t something I’ve really seen before, especially in the context of everything else we do. Ofic authors will have their own page, links to find and buy their work, their own podcast, and so on and on.

But this is NOT self-promotion. I will say that I really need writers to not go over the top with self promos and to keep them limited on this site, and it’s BECAUSE we do this very labor-intensive thing that will help you. If you have writing ready to go/already published/about to be published, then help us to help you.

Apply for our help. There will be a special thread and an application process—we need to know if the writing’s any good and we need to be sure that authors are the real thing.

 

I have never seen this process really happen on another site, and I think it’s desperately needed.

 

I guess that overall, I have a dream. I want to do something a little different from what I really see any other writing site doing. More than anything else, I want a writing site that brings in all the strengths of fanfic, acknowledges them, and knows that the last thing ON EARTH or in the universe a writer should do as they move into original writing is to “leave fanfic behind.” We have to bring the strengths, the unique qualities, of fanfic and fandoms into our original work… and into sharing that work with a larger audience.

 

We are a community. We bring everything we are as fandom communities into original writing. And those are priceless gifts, indescribably valuable qualities, in every way imaginable. We have the potential to create something unique. And with your help… we can do it!

Working on the test forum for the OFICS…

Hey all,

I know, I haven’t posted anything here in awhile… but there’s a new announcement! I’m really intimidated by the idea of starting the OFIC forums… SO much work… so I’m working on some SimplePress test forums first, and those will be right here. 🙂 It’s just kind of a head’s up. More updates as events warrant.

The Complete Summer Challenge Art Gallery

Hey all,

So this is kind of a test post to see if a gallery will work on this blog… I’ve never actually tried it before, so it will be a first! Bear with me. 🙂

FIA D/G Summer Challenge 2014: The Official Announcement!

SMALL_SUMMER 2014
It’s time for the FIA D/G Summer Challenge 2014! Yay!

OVERALL THEME: Summer.

THEME CATEGORIES:
Setting:
Fic era:
Line/phrase:
Object that needs to be in the fic:

Suggestion Thread

Come to this thread right here, just clickety click) and add YOUR suggestions in these categories. All of the input comes from you! 🙂 Because you’re very special.


Here’s the timeline:

May 14th: All theme submissions due
May 28th: All challenge fics due. (Remember– these can be SHORT!!)
June 11th: Voting begins (we will have a poll up)
June 25th: Winners announced

Full rules are here. Click Click Click!

Fics for the 2014 FIA D/G Exchange of Doom A-Go-Go

the fics are up
Yep, y’all, the complete list is UP for the 2014 FIA D/G Exchange of Doom A-Go-Go. 🙂 (Okay, there are still 2 fics we didn’t get in, but at some point, you just have to move on. :P) And here it is!! (Hint: If there’s a Part ONE, that means there’s also a Part TWO. And maybe a Part Three. So in that case, what you’re going to do is to use the lovely FOWARD or BACK buttons on the top of the page. Depending on if, um, the mod posted the fic in the right order. 😉 Then, keep reading.)

And do not forget to review. Because…

1.) The sheer joy of reviewing
2.) Whoever leaves the MOST reviews will get a special prize!!
3.) Don’t make me come over there with that Draco/Hermione/Gollum fic, because I WILL come over there. Nobody wants that, RIGHT??

(It’s kind of a good cop/bad cop thing… 😉

And here’s the list:

Rescue Me, for Dyk3adellic Part One
A Singular Love, Which Is Far From Common. For semper-x-eadem Chapter 1

Dreaming About The Things That We Could Be, for Marinka

Double-Pointed Needles, for breereeves– Chapter One

The Love We Deserve, for a_gypsys_dance

The Deteriorating Psyche, for Pan: Part 1

A Change of Policy, for Natasha_ohl7

Intertwine, for idreamofdraco

Red Sky at Morning, for Rinney: Part One

Murder at Malfoy Manor, for Javastix

Vanished, for Sunnystorms

Christmas Cookies, for LifeofDracoandGinny

What Lies Ahead, for Gin0cide

Her Secret Boyfriend, for Writerdragonfly

The Art of Paying Attention, For akiamaya

Lighten Up, for Ori

Family Feuds and In-Laws Wooed, for Eustacia_Vye28

A Malfoy Down the Hole, for Hipokras

A Game of Thrones, for Rae—Part One

Shopaholic and Thief, for xcassisx

From Ground Up, for Seegrim, Part One

We All Come From the Goddess, for Anise, Part One

Secrets and Truth, for rainywinters

Of One-Night Stands and Drastic Plans, for aislyn813, Part One

Altered Images and Mirrored Truth, for Javastix

So. Here’s what going on now.

Here are the nomination categories:

Best Fic Overall
  Sweetest Fic Overall
  Darkest Fic Overall
  Funniest Fic Overall
  Favorite Line
  Snarkiest Conversation
  Best kiss
  Best smut
  Best prose/passage that knocks you flat on your ass
  Best portrayal of Draco Malfoy
  Best portrayal of Ginny Weasley
  Best Minor/Supporting Character
  Most in Need of a Sequel
  Best Interpretation of the prompt

Y’all, we need your nominations in within TWO WEEKS of today. That’s March 14th. That’s two weeks of reading and thinking about nominations. This would also be an ideal time to REVIEW those fics on LJ. And remember, you don’t need to be participant to REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW (and nominatenominatenominate, and vote vote vote… and maybe win the special prize… you get the idea.)

This year, we’re going to have everyone send in nominations by email. So many people don’t have LJ accounts now that it just makes more sense.So send those in to:

dgfics@gmail.com

Sempereademx has an AMAZING free prize for all participants. What you need to do is to email in your favorite Hogwarts house WITH your nomination. I’m really mulling over the idea of no nomination, no prize. That would not be good. We’ll also have t-shirts for the winner in each category, so please submit art if you would like– we need more designs!And don’t forget the special prize for whoever leaves the most reviews.

After nominations close, we will have one week of voting. Votes must be in by THREE weeks from today, which will be March 21st. One week later, we’ll announce winners and do the big reveal of authors! Even more yay!!

I think that’s everything… the evil computer erased the last version of this email, so I can’t be totally sure… but I think that’s it for now!

So read, read like the wind@!!

LIST OF DUE DATES:
March 14th: nominations must be in. Your choice of Hogwarts house on your participants’ prize must also be in. If you have art for the t-shirts, this is the due date too. Voting starts.
March 21st: Votes must be in.
March 28th: Announcements of winners and reveal of real authors. YAY to the ultimate power!!

Comments? Questions? Remarks? Email them all to me. And remember, it’s at dgfics@gmail.com

Anise

H/G = EPIC FAIL, JKR ADMITS

EPIC FAILOkay, y’all, I’m SURE that you’ve seen quotes from that upcoming interview where JKR says that she SHOULD have written H/Hr instead of R/Hr. (And if you haven’t, what are you doing reading this blog?? Anyway, we’re happy to have you here. We will convert you to D/G.)

Understand, I don’t really have a dog in the hunt one way or the other with R/Hr vs. H/Hr. I’ve read good and bad fanfic for both pairings, and there are good arguments to be made for both. (Although I have to say that considering strict canon, H/Hr probably made more sense. Then again, Harry/Luna would have made even more.)

No, the reason for happiness in D/G-land is that if H/Hr was what JKR should have done, then, by logical extension, H/G IS THE MASSIVE FAIL OF ALL TIME AND EVEN THE AUTHOR ADMITS IT.
(break for the Happy We Were Right All Along Dance. 🙂

Why is this important after six and a half years? Why do we still care? Well, it’s all in the rest of that D/G essay… but basically, it’s because of what these books meant and what the theme really was. They weren’t just children’s entertainment; they were about something important. And H/G represented the total trashing of that vital theme at the end of D/H, especially in the Epilogue of Horror and Doom.

Anyway, more later, but for now, HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

And in other news, we’re almost done getting in fics for the exchange!

Now let’s all eat chocolate. 🙂

One More Week Added to Due Date for Fic Exchange

one more week
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we’re extending the Fic Due Date for the Exchange by eight days. That means that we absolutely, positively, I am not even kidding, this-is-it, need to get the fics in by midnight on Feb 3. I really don’t like the Hall of Shame, and I truly do not want to put anyone in it, but if… IF… we just plain don’t get a fic in, and we don’t get an email/explanation until, say, 11:59 on Feb 2nd, I WILL DO EET. Don’t make me come over there.

But everyone will get their fics in by midnight Feb 3, and happiness and peace and prosperity shall reign in D/G-land. Please don’t make me post a link to the work of the only other person who know who does 3D HP computer art. He is all D/Hr, all the time. (Really. I’m not kidding!!) 😉

Also, we’ll have a list of betas up very very very soon. 🙂
Anise

It’s Beta Time!

WE NEED YOU TO BETA

So. Some authors are very very interested in betas for their D/G FIA Exchange fics, which, again, are due soon. You know what that means, right? We really need some beta volunteers. And YOU can do it! 🙂

Here’s what we’re going to do. If you are willing to be a beta, then you have some options as to how to let me know.

1. Reply to this post.
2. Email me—just click on “Anise”, and there’s a contact link.
3. Post on the forum link here. (Here’s the Beta Board, yay, check it out.

If, OTOH, you NEED a beta, we will have a list ready soon. You can also head on over to the ffnet forums (they would be right hereand do one of two things:

1. Introduce yourself in the Welcome thread, then get onto the beta threads and start looking for a beta.

2. If you don’t want to actually post, just look at the beta threads and then msg people who have already offered their services as betas. Click on the “writer services” button at the top of the ffnet page, and then on “Beta Search.”

Also, if you’re reading this and you need a beta, and you haven’t yet told me about it, NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME.

(And did you get the pic? It’s a FISH… see… a BETA FISH. Funny? Right? *I* like it, anyway.. 😉