People of Thedas

Greetings, Thedans!

Valentine’s Day is coming up, which means it’s time for our second annual Sugar & Spice fanwork swap event! We’d all like to thank everyone who participated last year—It was a huge success and a blast to be a part of. We’d love for you to join in again, and invite everyone who wasn’t around last year to participate. The more of us are involved, the better the event will be!

Here’s the deal, Q&A style:

What’s this whole thing all about anyway?
Sugar & Spice is a fanwork swap. That means that everyone who participates will either write a one-shot piece of fanfiction or create a piece of artwork for another community member, and will receive one in return.

But that sounds like a Secret Santa, and we just did one of those! How is this different?
Unlike a Secret Santa event, participants are paired up based on compatible interests (determined using the form below). This helps make sure that everyone gets to create something they want to create and receive something they want to receive. And there’s a voting component! Once everyone’s submissions have been posted and we all get a chance to read them, we’ll vote for our favorites in different categories and declare winners at the end of the event. Also, the fanworks are split into two categories: Sugar and Spice.

Wait, “Sugar” and “Spice”?
The two categories, Sugar and Spice, refer to fanwork ratings. Sugar is anything rated PG-13 or lower. There should be no nudity or sexual images (or copious amounts of gore) in a sugar piece. Spice is R and above. It can include explicit sex and/or violence. This system helps us accommodate everyone’s tastes.

So what’s up with this whole voting thing? How does it work? What do you win?
Everyone, including those who weren’t able to participate, will be able to vote for their favorite fanworks. Categories include the following: Best Sugar (first, second, and third place), Best Spice (first, second, and third place), and a few unannounced categories the mods may come up with later. As an example, last year’s mod categories were Most Unexpected Pairing and Best Last Line, but they may be different this year! Our Fearless Leader twist_shimmy has volunteered to create icons or banners of the winners’ choosing as prizes, and there may be others. Plus winning is GLORIOUS :D

What’s the timeline, huh?
Signups open right now, and close on Wednesday, January 18. You will receive the name of your fanwork recipient and the info they gave us by Sunday, January 22 at the latest. Submissions are due by Sunday, February 12. That means you’ll have a minimum of three weeks to complete and submit your fanwork. Then we’ll get everything formatted properly and post it on thedas_ficarchive on Tuesday, February 14! At that point we’ll announce the timeline for voting. Psyched yet?

How do I submit my totally amazing fanwork when it’s done?
E-mail your completed fic or art to lennanightrunner[at]gmail[dot]com. Please submit it as a .doc, .docx, .odt, or .txt file if it’s a fic or a .jpg or .gif if it’s an image (Talk to us if that’s a problem for some reason).

That sounds awesome, Lenna! How do I sign up?
To participate, please fill out the following form and post it as a comment here. I’ll post a comment with my information as an example.

I want to [write/draw].
I like [DAO/DA2/both games].
I want to create [sugar/spice/either].
I want to receive [sugar/spice/either].
I want to create [het/slash/femmeslash/any].
I want to receive [het/slash/femmeslash/any].
Three characters I like to write/draw are ____, ____, and _____.
Three characters I don’t like to write/draw are ____, ____, and _____.
Three characters I’d like in a fic/pic are ____, ____, and _____.
Three characters I wouldn’t like in a fic/pic are ____, ____, and _____.
Comments/Other info? ____.

**PLEASE NOTE** When listing your characters, keep in mind that: 
1) PCs count as characters, so you can specify, e.g. m!Mahariel, f!Surana, m!Hawke, etc. OR you can just put Mahariel, Surana, or Hawke if it's not a gender issue. This information will give you an opportunity to a) include or exclude certain origins, b) indicate whether you'd like PCs to be involved or not. However, please do not list a specific PC (e.g. Caerwyn) as a character.
2) Avoid obscure characters. You might be a huge Alfstanna fan or think a fic about Mouse would be awesome, but keep in mind that the lesser known a character is, the harder it will be for us to find someone to write that character.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or amhran_comhrac. We’re very excited to be holding this swap again, and we hope you’ll join us!

Much love!
Lenna

P.S. If you want to know more or get a head start, check out last year’s submissions at thedas_ficarchive