![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teratornisHLH Shortcuts is imminent, and signups have moved to ao3 this year! I've only participated once before now, but this is a bit of a different process, so I've got here a bit of a guide for that process!
The first thing I'd recommend is looking at other people's signups (or for more examples, check out last year's signups). They're all publicly visible, and we've all got a slightly different way of doing things, so it can be helpful to see what sort of info is helpful to include, and what's most important for you personally. That will probably give you the best idea of the sorts of things people might ask for, and the sort of format that best suits a signup.
For your own signup, the first thing you'll have to do once you click the 'sign up' button (top right of the main ao3 collection page) is select which of the three Highlander franchises you'd want to see stories from (the movies, the series, and the Raven). You can select one, two, or all three of those. I personally selected only the series and the Raven, as I'm less familiar with the movies.
Right below that is a dropdown menu of potential characters. You can select as many of the available characters as you want, up to 20. That just means the selected characters are ones you'd like to see in a story written for you, and whoever ends up writing for you can select any one or more of those characters to write. Some people only selected a handful of characters (the minimum is three), and some people selected quite a few. I went with almost the maximum allowed, at 19, but you can select as many or few as you want (between 3 and 20). The story you receive can contain any number or configuration of those characters.
Below that, you need to select one or more preferred relationship categories (gen, m/f, m/m, f/f, multi, or other), or if you like there's a checkbox right below that for 'any category'.
Next you'd need to select one or more preferred ratings, from 'no rating', and then 'general audiences' through 'explicit', or again there's an 'any rating' button. I capped mine at a mature rating, since I'm not really a big fan of explicit sex scenes, but you can select any of those that you want.
Below that is a text box that lets you write more freely about anything you'd like to have written for you. This is where you can put general likes (romance, hurt/comfort, fluff, action/adventure, banter, capers, etc etc. Any themes you'd want to see in a story written for you), as well as potential character relationships and pairings. You can be as general or as thorough as you want with this. This is also where you can put prompts, to give your writer some ideas. Keep in mind, though, that your writer doesn't have to follow your prompts if they don't want to. They're just suggestions to give your writer ideas. So a request that the story be set in the past, for example, won't assure that your gift will for sure be set in the past if that's not something your writer is comfortable doing.
The last thing I highly recommend including in that section is a DNW list, or a Do Not Want list. This is a list of things you absolutely don't want to see in a story written for you. This is really important to make sure you don't get a story that might inadvertently upset you or be unpleasant to read. For example I included extreme gore or body horror in mine, along with bad endings, permanent character death, and a number of other things. Just think about anything you really don't like to read about, and include that. A writer can't know what you don't like unless you tell them, so it's good to really think about.
Last, below that, is a bar where you can input optional tags. This is where you would add any potential crossover options, so if you wanted Star Trek or Sherlock Holmes, you would add those to the 'optional tags' section. You can also include characters from those franchises, or other HL characters that didn't make it into the main list, as well as any other tags you like on stories. For example, I've got angst, clan denial, hurt/comfort, fix-it, and several other themes in my optional tags.
That's how the requests work, but there's still the offers section! This is where you put information about what you want to write for somebody else, and will help the mods match you up with the person you'll be gifting a story to. This section looks a lot like the requests section, mostly, with the list of HL franchises, a character list, relationship categories, ratings, and optional tags, except in this section you'll be putting in the things you're willing to write, rather than what you want to receive. So think here about what characters you're comfortable writing (between 3 and 20, again), what relationship types you're okay with writing, what ratings, and for optional tags, what crossovers you'd potentially be willing to write. All this will make sure you get matched up to somebody whose request is something you can comfortably write for.
Then you can submit the signup! You'll be able to go back and edit it any time you want until signups close, on the 19th. After that, they'll be locked in.
Additional note and tip from Killabeez: You are welcome to copy/paste previous years' signups into the "What I'd like to receive" field, as long as you also choose between 3 and 20 characters from those available under the 'Characters' dropdown menu, for both receiving and offering!
Hopefully this is helpful!
The first thing I'd recommend is looking at other people's signups (or for more examples, check out last year's signups). They're all publicly visible, and we've all got a slightly different way of doing things, so it can be helpful to see what sort of info is helpful to include, and what's most important for you personally. That will probably give you the best idea of the sorts of things people might ask for, and the sort of format that best suits a signup.
For your own signup, the first thing you'll have to do once you click the 'sign up' button (top right of the main ao3 collection page) is select which of the three Highlander franchises you'd want to see stories from (the movies, the series, and the Raven). You can select one, two, or all three of those. I personally selected only the series and the Raven, as I'm less familiar with the movies.
Right below that is a dropdown menu of potential characters. You can select as many of the available characters as you want, up to 20. That just means the selected characters are ones you'd like to see in a story written for you, and whoever ends up writing for you can select any one or more of those characters to write. Some people only selected a handful of characters (the minimum is three), and some people selected quite a few. I went with almost the maximum allowed, at 19, but you can select as many or few as you want (between 3 and 20). The story you receive can contain any number or configuration of those characters.
Below that, you need to select one or more preferred relationship categories (gen, m/f, m/m, f/f, multi, or other), or if you like there's a checkbox right below that for 'any category'.
Next you'd need to select one or more preferred ratings, from 'no rating', and then 'general audiences' through 'explicit', or again there's an 'any rating' button. I capped mine at a mature rating, since I'm not really a big fan of explicit sex scenes, but you can select any of those that you want.
Below that is a text box that lets you write more freely about anything you'd like to have written for you. This is where you can put general likes (romance, hurt/comfort, fluff, action/adventure, banter, capers, etc etc. Any themes you'd want to see in a story written for you), as well as potential character relationships and pairings. You can be as general or as thorough as you want with this. This is also where you can put prompts, to give your writer some ideas. Keep in mind, though, that your writer doesn't have to follow your prompts if they don't want to. They're just suggestions to give your writer ideas. So a request that the story be set in the past, for example, won't assure that your gift will for sure be set in the past if that's not something your writer is comfortable doing.
The last thing I highly recommend including in that section is a DNW list, or a Do Not Want list. This is a list of things you absolutely don't want to see in a story written for you. This is really important to make sure you don't get a story that might inadvertently upset you or be unpleasant to read. For example I included extreme gore or body horror in mine, along with bad endings, permanent character death, and a number of other things. Just think about anything you really don't like to read about, and include that. A writer can't know what you don't like unless you tell them, so it's good to really think about.
Last, below that, is a bar where you can input optional tags. This is where you would add any potential crossover options, so if you wanted Star Trek or Sherlock Holmes, you would add those to the 'optional tags' section. You can also include characters from those franchises, or other HL characters that didn't make it into the main list, as well as any other tags you like on stories. For example, I've got angst, clan denial, hurt/comfort, fix-it, and several other themes in my optional tags.
That's how the requests work, but there's still the offers section! This is where you put information about what you want to write for somebody else, and will help the mods match you up with the person you'll be gifting a story to. This section looks a lot like the requests section, mostly, with the list of HL franchises, a character list, relationship categories, ratings, and optional tags, except in this section you'll be putting in the things you're willing to write, rather than what you want to receive. So think here about what characters you're comfortable writing (between 3 and 20, again), what relationship types you're okay with writing, what ratings, and for optional tags, what crossovers you'd potentially be willing to write. All this will make sure you get matched up to somebody whose request is something you can comfortably write for.
Then you can submit the signup! You'll be able to go back and edit it any time you want until signups close, on the 19th. After that, they'll be locked in.
Additional note and tip from Killabeez: You are welcome to copy/paste previous years' signups into the "What I'd like to receive" field, as long as you also choose between 3 and 20 characters from those available under the 'Characters' dropdown menu, for both receiving and offering!
Hopefully this is helpful!
no subject
Date: 18 Oct 2024 04:13 (UTC)Very thorough.
no subject
Date: 18 Oct 2024 04:35 (UTC)no subject
Date: 18 Oct 2024 16:29 (UTC)no subject
Date: 18 Oct 2024 16:39 (UTC)no subject
Date: 18 Oct 2024 17:06 (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 Oct 2024 18:39 (UTC)no subject
Date: 18 Oct 2024 18:44 (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 Oct 2024 02:03 (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 Oct 2024 18:31 (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 Oct 2024 18:56 (UTC)