Announcing Drop the Not! 2022
Hi again not!fic enthusiasts! After a moderately successful and highly fun round 1 of Drop the Not in 2021, we're back with another round for 2022. For those of you who are new or aren't familiar with the challenge, Drop the Not! is a multi-fandom fanwork challenge where authors create written fanworks that are prompted or inspired by oral not!fic. An oral not!fic is a type of podfic not based on existing text, such as a fic. It is often improvisational or conversational in tone. This challenge follows the idea of reverse big bangs and prompt communities, but puts a unique spin on things. Here's how it works:
Oral not!ficcers submit their prompts or inspiration in the form of oral!not fic, and writers claim individual oral not!fics and create a story inspired by the not!fic. The claiming period happens over three weeks, and then writers have five weeks to write a minimum of 1k based on or inspired by the not!fic. In some cases, the oral not!fic may be very detailed and follow specific plot lines with specific characters, and in some cases the oral not!fic may be more general, similar to the "I wish someone would write me a fic where..." prompts on Tumblr.
Not!fic can be as detailed or general as the creator likes, but we do ask that writers clearly honour the spirit of the not!fic to the best of their ability. This means that things like fandom, characters, and setting should be similar. We don't have a say in how writers are inspired or how they take the prompt, and the work an author produces may be very similar or radically different from the podfic they received. That’s part of the joy! New for 2022! One of our goals is to create new fanworks, both oral not!fics and written fics, so this year we're strongly encouraging participants to submit new works that have never been posted anywhere publicly for this challenge. This isn't an official rule (yet), but we ask that you make every effort to honour this and create new content everyone can enjoy! This challenge was inspired by the remixapod challenge. We sincerely thank the Remixapod mods for their encouragement and advice! For inspiration or to see what this is all about, check out our AO3 collection here! Authors: Your mods have created an example if you’d like to see one. We’re in no way holding you to the same style or level of detail, but wanted to provide this if needed. Feel free to put your own interpretation and spin on the challenge. We're so excited to see what you all create!
Challenge Timeline:
- Monday, March 14 - Monday, April 4: Not!Ficcers submit not!fics
- Monday, March 21 - Monday, April 11: Authors claim not!fics
- Thursday, April 28: Author Check in
- Monday, May 16: Fics Due
- Monday, May 23: Fics Revealed
Rules are largely the same as last year, with a few adjustments, so please review the rules below before before signing up. Note that we have added an author check-in at 2.5 weeks into the fic writing period. We will be contacting you with the contact information in your AO3 profiles, so please either fill those out (don't forget to add your transformative works statements!) or send us an email at [email protected] with that info. Rules:
1. All fandoms are welcome. This includes RPF. 2. Oral Not!Ficcers can submit up to five oral not!fics of any length. We cannot guarantee that any of your not!fics will be claimed. 3. When submitting a not!fic, please specify DNWs, hard triggers, and other rating requests (e.g. Teen or below) in the "description" box. This will allow your author to write a fic you will be able to read without getting triggered. 4. New for 2022. Oral Not!Ficcers can re-submit oral not!fics that weren't claimed in the previous challenge AS LONG AS you also submit at least one new, never-before-submitted work (see above about generating new fanworks!). 5. Authors may claim one not!fic at a time; in other words, you may drop a claim on a not!fic and claim another one in a claiming period. 6. Each fic must be at least 1000 words long. There is no maximum length. 7. When writing your fic, please avoid DNWs and other hard triggers listed in the "description" box (if any). If the "description" box includes a rating request, please respect it; for example, if the not!ficcer has specified Teen or below, then please do your best to keep the fic Teen or below. 8. There is to be no bashing of fandoms, ships, characters, tropes, kinks, and/or creators. If you engage in hate or character bashing, the mods will ban your participation and remove your work from the collection. That said, we recognise that there can be a lot of harmful content in fandoms or canons, and we want people to feel safe naming and critiquing racist, ableist, or otherwise oppressive content within canon or fandom without fearing banning, If you are unsure whether something crosses the line from criticism to bashing, please feel free to contact us for more guidance, and if you do include critical content in your fanwork, please tag accordingly. 9. Please use the Archive warnings as they apply. Alternatively, if you choose not to warn, please use the "Choose Not to Warn" option instead of the "No Archive Warnings Apply" option, as they mean different things.
For more, see our FAQ post here!