Schedule and Rules

[slashmarks]

Schedule:

Prompting Period: March 31 11:59 PM EDT-April 15 11:59 PM EDT
Sign Ups Open: April 16 11:59 PM EDT
Creation Period Begins: April 30 11:59 PM EDT
Posting Month Begins: July 31 11:59 PM EDT
Posting Month/Winning Ends: September 1 11:59 PM EDT

Main AO3 Collection | Detours AO3 Collection
Discord Invite Link (note that the server is 18+ only and NSFW)
Beta Post | Posting Guidelines | Sign Up Guidelines
Win Claim Form | Crossposting Declarations
Mod contact: dreamwidth PM or shimmeringwords@gmail.com

Fandom Orienteer Challenge is a challenge for creating long fanfic and comics, which incorporates elements from prompt fests, big bangs, exchanges and other types of event. The idea behind the event is to provide structure and community for creating long fanworks.

The event will start with a two-week prompting period. Prompts will be submitted anonymously on the prompting post, and can be used by any participant. If you want to work on a particular idea of your own, you should submit it as a prompt at this point.

Prompting eligibility: RPF, Original Work and Any Fandom are all allowed. RPF featuring people famous for participating in the Nazi regime or other genocides, real life serial killers, and modern people under the age of 18 is not allowed. I reserve the right to add to this list and to ban fictional versions thereof on my sole discretion.

After prompting ends, sign ups will open, and remain open throughout the creation period. To sign up, participants will fill in a form either claiming 1-6 prompts, or requesting to be assigned prompts. (You can request prompts in certain fandoms, with a certain type of pairing, or both.) They will also choose and commit to a minimum length (20k/20 pages, 30k/30 pages, 40k/40 pages, or 50k/50 pages) and a number of works (1-2). Before the creation period begins, I will send out emails with assignments.

Then creation will begin. There will be a 3 month creation period, during which participants can use the event discord channel or check in posts on dreamwidth to keep up with other creators and receive encouragement, and for help finding betas, research materials, etc. You may begin posting works to the collection at any time during the creation period. The main collection should be used for works which you will use to fulfill your goal length, while extra works, works which were not long enough, and works by anyone who hasn't signed up for the challenge should be posted to the detours collection.

Sign ups will close only when the posting month begins, at which time works in the collection will be revealed. Posting will last one month, to allow posting multi-chaptered works as WIPs and for deadline flexibility. At the end of the month, winning will close. Winners will receive a certificate and graphics, and possibly optional stickers if they provide a mailing address. They can also opt into being publicly listed as official winners.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Instead of writing one 20k+ word fanfic, could I write a series of fics that take place within the same fic continuity, totally 20k+ words?

Ex: if I wanted to write "Harry Potter space scifi AU", could I write four 5k+ fanfics?

[slashmarks]

Sorry I missed your question! My notifications were drowning during prompting. If you consider your works part of one "book," as in a non-sequential narrative or alternating POVs, that's fine, but you can't use more than two complete works on AO3 to win the challenge.

[(Anonymous)]

Since we can claim up to 6 prompts but only commit to 1-2 works, can we combine prompts? Or is that to give us some leeway if one prompt isn’t working for us?

[slashmarks]

Sorry I missed your question! My notifications were drowning during prompting. Yes, you're welcome to combien prompts or use them however you like, although you only need to use one of the prompts you claimed to win.

[flowersforgraves]

Is collaborating with another person acceptable, and if so, should I indicate that somewhere on the signup?

[slashmarks]

Hi! Yes, collaborating is fine. You should put nicknames for both of you on the nickname field, and a contact method for the second person in the alternate contact method field (noting which of you it is).

[chacusha]

Hi, I was wondering if WIPs are allowed for this challenge? I have a (unpublished) WIP that fits a prompt, and currently have 24k written for it. If I finish it, it will be at least 50k -- could I in theory use this to win this challenge based on the amount of words the finished fic is above its current word count? Or are WIPs not a good fit for this challenge? (Likely a moot question because I don't think I'll be able to finish this fic in time but I thought I'd ask. ^^;)

[slashmarks]

Hi! Yes, that's fine, just keep in mind that in order to officially win you'll have to post an entire finished work during/over the course of posting month. I'll ask you to declare the amount you wrote during the challenge during winning.

[capsquared]

One of the prompts I claimed is the “write a sequel” one. I’m writing a story for WIP Big Bang that I already have several sequels planned for. However, WIP BB doesn’t start posting until August 8th. If I have a post date there that is before the end of posting here, would I be able to use one of my planned sequels to fulfill that prompt?

[slashmarks]

Yes, it's fine! You can interpret the prompts however you want.

Are sign ups still open?

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, I just found this challenge on tumblr (I have yet to create a dreamwidth but I’m stripedroseandsketchpads there for contact purposes, I will likely end up with the same handle on here).

I have a concept in mind for a longer project and would love to participate as I think it’s just the kind of schedule/support I need. However I missed the prompting period, though it looks like sign-ups are still open. Is it possible to sign up with my own project, or would I have needed to start out sooner back in March?

Thanks!
—K

Re: Are sign ups still open?

[slashmarks]

Hi! Yes, sign ups will remain open until the official posting month begins. Glad to have you!

[(Anonymous)]

Hi there! Also late to the party, but I saw there was an interactive fiction prompt and am turning it over in my head. If I were to go this route, how should I tally the wordcount? Total words across all branches/storylets/nodes/etc.?

[slashmarks]

Thanks for the question! Yeah, I think that's the most reasonable choice, although realistically I think you're not likely to fall short of the wordcount if you're making something playable anyway.

[(Anonymous)]

Do participants have to officially drop out if they're unable to fill a prompt in time?

[slashmarks]

Nope, since there aren't any pinch hits necessary you don't need to notify me. You're also welcome to share the work in the Detours collection later.

Detours Collection

[the_no_name_system]

Quick question! Let's say, for hypothetical's sake, you don't complete the challenge by the dealine, or your story falls short of the word count you claimed. Would you still be allowed to share that work in the Detours Collection?

Re: Detours Collection

[slashmarks]

Yep, that's what the Detours Collection is for! It will remain open after the challenge ends as well.

[tribble_of_tarth]

Hi! I was curious if this challenge will be running again in 2024? Thank you!

[slashmarks]

Thanks for the comment, and sorry about the delay in answering! I'm not currently planning to run Fandom Orienteer Challenge this year.