An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Sign-ups will close on Friday, May 15th at 9:00 PM EDT, and assignments will go out that weekend.
Stories will be due by 9 PM EDT, Wednesday, July 22nd. The archive opens for reading on Saturday, August 1st.
Authors will be revealed Saturday, August 8th.
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NEW THIS YEAR: Artwork is allowed.
1. You only have to write/illustrate one of the requests you receive; however, if you wish to do more, knock yourself out.
2. Your story must be at least 1000 words long. No maximum word count as long as you finish by the due date (Wednesday, July 22nd). Do not post an unfinished story (like, chapter 1/?), because that's not fair to your recipient.
3. Your story/artwork must be set before, during, or after the apocalypse. The apocalypse can be naturally occurring (the ice caps melting, an asteroid striking the planet, the Yellowstone caldera exploding), manmade (nuclear war, biological warfare), mystical (whatever that might entail in your particular universe), or whatever works within the confines of the request. Exercise good taste and use your imagination to write about a fake disaster; writing about other people's real-life tragedies is just tacky. Don't write the fic to which fandom awards the "fail of the week" when you could write one people will love!
4. Don't tell anyone but your beta or betas which assignment you've gotten, especially the person whose assignment you've received. If you really need to ask your recipient a question, anonymous comments on the announcement post are allowed, and the mods can act as go-betweens.
5. You must click "Post to fulfill" on your AO3 assignment and upload your fic/link to artwork by 11pm eastern, Wednesday, July 22nd. If there is no story/artwork in the archive by you at that point, we will assign a pinch hitter to ensure that your recipient gets a something. If you miss the deadline but think you can finish before the archive opens, great! We'll give the assignment to a pinch hitter as well and maybe your recipient will get two stories. :)
6. If you need to default, press the "default" button on AO3. If you do this before the deadline there is no penalty. (Of course, if you determine that you cannot write your story, the sooner you default, the sooner I can line up a pinch hitter.)
If the deadline has passed and you haven't posted and haven't defaulted, you'll be banned from future participation. Also, if you never posted your assigned story in 2014 and never bothered to tell the mods or contact them about it, please do not sign up, as you are disqualified from playing.
7. Get your story beta-read before posting; it's good etiquette. You'll be able to edit in any changes your beta gives you after the July 22nd deadline and before the archive opens for reading.