Welcome to secret_mutant 2012! Here are some helpful links!

Important Dates:
Sign-ups: October 10 - October 24
Assignments Out: October 29
Last Day to Drop Out: December 1
Assignments Due: December 9 - 11:59PM EST (What time is that for me?)
Gifts Posted: December 16
Author/Artist Reveals: December 22 - 8pm EST


Secret Mutant Madness will run from December 10 until December 22 at 12pm EST. More details forthcoming.


FAQ and Rules
AO3 Posting Tutorial
Dear Secret Mutant Letters
Pinch-Hitter Sign-up
Beta Reader Classifieds

And the Secret Mutant Madness collection has now also been revealed! Please feel free to crosspost, claim, pimp, and share your stories!

Again, thank you so much to all the writers, artists, readers, participants, and support people for helping make this year's exchange (and madness!) a success! Enjoy the rest of 2012 and we'll see you in 2013 for year three :)

Authors/Artists have been revealed, wrapping up the exchange portion of Secret Mutant 2012! You should now feel free to crosspost, claim your stories, and tell everyone about the great things that you produced for this exchange! On Monday around noon-ish EST, the Secret Mutant Madness stories will be revealed as well.

There were 54 stories in the exchange and 24 in the Madness collection, for a total of 78 new fanworks gifted this year. That is fancy and wonderful, guys!

I want to thank everyone for playing this year. Everyone who did the exchange, everyone who did madness...you're all totally wonderful and fabulous and it's been a joy to work with you and look at your fanworks. Thanks also to all the beta readers, everyone who advertised for the exchange, and everyone who's read, commented, and Kudosed.

Thanks, too, to the support team on AO3 who answered every stupid question as we transitioned to AO3 and dealt with issues that cropped up along the way.

Finally, I want to extend a HUGE thanks to our pinch-hitters. Thanks to everyone who volunteered, even if you didn't end up claiming a pinch-hit, I appreciated the support. Thanks extra to those who DID claim prompts. I will list you here for ultimate humiliation, like when your mom accepts a PTA award and makes you stand up during her thank you speech:

kaydeefalls, isabeau, brilligspoons, fengirl88, feline_feral, speak_me_fair, afrocurl, bessiemaemucho, professor, redwesteinde, and ClawfootTub

Guys, this literally could not have been done and opened on time without you. You are all rockstars.

AS ARE THE REST OF YOU. Thank you for all your enthusiasm! Happy holidays, internet!

The Secret Mutant Madness Collection is open!

Hurrah!

There are twenty-four stories in there! They'll be anonymous through the weekend, with authors revealed around this time on Monday, the 24th. That gives you a couple days to peruse the stories under the veil of sekrit anonymity and hopefully leave lots of Kudos and comments :)

Same reminders as before apply--please acknowledge your gift, please be patient waiting for acknowledgement, and remember that Kudos are nice, but a comment from a recipient can make a gifter's day.

Spread the word that the archive is open! And I'll be back at 8pm EST to reveal the gifters on the exchange gifts, as promised :)

Hi everyone! I hope you're all enjoying the archive! A couple quick things:

Secret Mutant Madness continues through this Saturday! So please feel free to meander through the prompts and write little extra gifts for anything that catches your fancy!

Based on the votes in the earlier poll, we'll reveal the Madness collection on Saturday and de-anon it on Monday, with the hope of squeaking by before the influx of traffic for yuletide. It's going to be a much smaller collection, probably less than twenty and works that are much shorter. If people feel strongly about having a longer anon period, though, I can extend it until later in the week.

I'm traveling this weekend, and, honestly, I expect to be eating my weight in breakfast food at noon on Saturday, so I might be a little late in closing the Madness collection, which will just give you more time to upload to it? :D? :D? :D?

The gifter reveal will be this Saturday! As planned, gifters will be de-anoned this Saturday as well. Once the gifters are revealed, you can feel free to repost/crosspost/publicly claim your gift! Until then, please continue to make an effort to comment on your gift and the other gifts in the archive :)

If you have any questions, let me know! I'll be on the road much of Friday night, but I make frequent coffee stops and I have a phone from the future, so I should be available should anything come up.

Until then, happy reading and commenting!

Yaaaaaayyyyy! You should all receive emails shortly linking you directly to your gifts, but the archive is officially open!

So please please please go read your gift and thank your gifter for their time and effort!

A few things to keep in mind:

• Even if you defaulted, someone still put time and effort into making you a present. There's no shame or embarrassment in defaulting and don't feel that by dropping out it means you should slink away from the archive. If nothing else, please thank the person who made you a gift :)
  
• Gifters - please give your recipient a day or two to comment. It's a super busy time of the year and lots of people are traveling or caught up in work or rushing to get all their holiday prep complete. I know the time before they comment is torture, but try to be patient ;D
  
• Even if the present is not exactly what you imagined, someone worked hard on it, and please politely acknowledge that, even if it's not your cup of tea.
  
• Kudos are love, but comments are even better. Comment on what you can, but please at least try and comment on the gift intended for you rather than just leaving a Kudos.

So please, go read-read-read and feel free to link to rec posts, etc, in the comments as the week goes on :)

***

REGARDING SECRET MUTANT MADNESS

So, most of you know me, so I feel like I don't have to go through the pretense of pretending I have any idea what I'm doing at any given time. With that out of the way, I'm not sure how to handle the Secret Mutant Madness Collection, so I'm putting it out to the greater wisdom of the group.

Initially I was going to reveal the works today but leave the collection open so people could continue to add to it for the next week, then de-anon it at the same time that the larger Secret Mutant collection went de-anon. Now I'm thinking that might not be best? So I've come up with a few options. Please select the one you think would be best!

Some explanations: "Reveal the works" = Allow the stories to be read; today the works were "revealed" on the main SM collection. Prior to that they were "unrevealed," meaning they were waiting on the archive for the collection to be open.

Poll #1885200 Secret Mutant Madness
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 27

How should SMM proceed?

***

Thanks for all your help so far, guys! I'll have more lengthy thanks after the reveal on Saturday :)

Hi, folks! I know the archive was supposed to open at noon EST, but there's been a bit of a time zone glitch, so it will probably be closer to 3pm EST. BUT IT WILL OPEN TODAY. We're just waiting on the last couple pinch-hits to come on.

UPDATE, 3:30PM EST: Just waiting on one last pinch hit to open the archive, so hopefully it will be soon!

In the mean time, Secret Mutant Madness is ongoing until the 22nd, so please feel free to keep creating gifts for that and to keep telling your friends, as it's open to EVERYONE and there are tons and tons of cool prompts for over a dozen different pairings, not to mention the gen prompts.

So, sit tight, kids! The archive opening is on its way! :D

So, at about 8:50am EST, I went in and defaulted everyone who hasn’t already uploaded a gift, unless we’ve had a previous conversation off-site about it.

HOWEVER, I’m battling a pretty bad headache verging on a migraine so I can’t do my normal fandom/work multi-task. This means I won’t be assigning pinch-hits until I get home this evening. If you are one of the people who was defaulted and your gift can be finished before 6pm EST, please let me know either by commenting here or emailing me.

This is your last chance to upload as part of the collection proper. If you miss this, you can still upload your completed gift to the Secret Mutant Madness collection, but after this evening, pinch-hits are definitely going out so we don’t risk pushing back the opening of the archive.

(Also, anyone else interested in being on the pinch hit list, comment here!)

Thanks for being such good sports about this, everyone. I appreciate all your support and flexibility.

As Secret Mutant Madness is open to everyone and not just secret_mutant participants, we clearly need to tell everyone about it! So here are some banners you can use to tell all your friends!

You are super encouraged to tell your friends, followers, and, you know, the people at the grocery store all about this part of the fest. Advertise on Twitter! Advertise on Tumblr! Advertise on whatever hip blogging platforms the kids are using these days! You can skywrite it if you want, even, though that doesn't seem very cost effective.

But, anyway, banners!


open to everyone dec 9 - dec 22!
click for more details!

<center><a href="http://archiveofourown.org/collections/secret_mutant_madness_2012/profile"><img src="http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/pocky_slash/433281/290360/290360_original.png"> open to <b>everyone</b> dec 9 - dec 22! click for more details!</a></center>



( More under the cut!Collapse )

Hi, folks! Welcome to Secret Mutant Madness!

Secret Mutant Madness is an arm of the secret_mutant exchange that is ~*new this year*~. For those of you who have done Yuletide Madness or Remix Madness, the format will follow those very closely. For those unfamiliar with the format, here is how it will work.

At the bottom of this post are links to posts in this comm that are full of the prompts submitted for Secret Mutant. Prompts are broken out by pairing (there is a very large gen list as well!) and list the requester, pairings, characters, and the actual prompt. You can peruse these prompts and pick any that strike your fancy to write/draw/craft an additional gift for people who are participating in the exchange.

Additional Guidelines

• Secret Mutant Madness will run until 12pm EST on Saturday, December 22.
  
• There is no "claiming" necessary. Anyone can use any prompt and all prompts can be used multiple times. (In fact, comments on these posts will be turned off to avoid confusion.)
  
• There is no word limit for fic. You can write a 100 word drabble, a 300 word ficlet, or a 30k epic.
  
• Similarly, if you're an artist, you can submit what I am going to call "sketches." Meaning that they don't have to be colored/painted/finished or whatever, it can be doodles or more preliminary work.
  
• Works will remain anonymous until December 22 at 8pm EST, when authors/artists are revealed on the main Secret Mutant collection.
  
• Most importantly, ANYONE CAN PARTICIPATE IN SECRET MUTANT MADNESS! If you defaulted on your Secret Mutant assignment, you can try to finish it for Secret Mutant Madness or pick another prompt and write something else all together. If you didn't think you'd have time to get something done by the Secret Mutant deadline, but now you find you have free time, you can participate! If you generally write shorter works and avoided Secret Mutant because of the 1000 word minimum, you are more than welcome in Secret Mutant Madness. You do not have to be a participant of Secret Mutant to play!
  
• (Because you don't have to be a participant, please tell all your friends that they are welcome to play! Feel free to pass this around Tumblr, Twitter, etc!)
  
• Similarly, if this is totally not your style, there's no obligation or requirement to participate.

Instructions
To upload your story to Secret Mutant Madness, you'll follow most of the steps in the AO3 Tutorial. Where it differs is "Step Nine: Associations." Secret Mutant Madness stories aren't assignments, so there's no ticky box for assignment. Instead, where it says "Post to Collections / Challenges" you'll type "secret_mutant_madness_2012" and where it says "Gift this work to" you'll type the name listed in your prompt. That way, it will be added to the collection and an automatic email will go out to the recipient informing them that you've fulfilled their prompt!

The collection on AO3 is located here!

Questions?
Feel free to comment and ask if you have any questions!


And with that, here are the prompts!
Gen Prompts
Charles/Erik Prompts
All Other Ships Prompts

( Secret Mutant Madness: All Other ShipsCollapse )

***

( Hank McCoy/MystiqueCollapse )

*

( Sean Cassidy/Moira MacTaggertCollapse )

*

( Hank McCoy/Alex SummersCollapse )

*

( Erik Lehnsherr/MagdaCollapse )

*

( Logan (X-Men)/Charles XavierCollapse )

*

( Erik Lehnsherr/Sebastian ShawCollapse )

*

( Irene Adler/Raven DarkholmeCollapse )

*

( Erik Lehnsherr/Moira MacTaggertCollapse )

*

( Emma Frost/Charles XavierCollapse )

*

( Emma Frost/MystiqueCollapse )

*

( Mystique/Angel SalvadoreCollapse )

*

( Armando Muñoz/Alex SummersCollapse )

*

( Emma Frost/Moira MacTaggertCollapse )

*

( Alex Summers/Charles XavierCollapse )

*

( Sean Cassidy/Alex SummersCollapse )

*

( Azazel (X-Men)/Charles XavierCollapse )

*

( CrossoverCollapse )

*

( Threesomes and MoresomesCollapse )

***

Charles/Erik Prompts | Gen Prompts | Guidelines and Instructions

Hi, folks! It's about 11:14 EST, which should technically be forty-five minutes from deadline, but I've got a meeting at work tomorrow morning and I'm wiped, so I'm going to turn in early.

"But Kaitlyn," you may ask. "What does that have to do with us?"

The long and short of it is that you guys get a surprise extra eight hours to finish up your gifts! I'll be closing the collection and defaulting those who haven't submitted around 8am EST.

So keep working! Maybe take a break for a cup of coffee. And I'll see you folks in the morning :)

Hi folks! I hope everyone's holding up well in the last weekend of the exchange!

This is just a reminder that gifts are due a little less than 36 hours, at 11:59pm EST tomorrow. (When is that for me?) If you don't have a gift uploaded by that time, you will be defaulted and a pinch-hitter will be contacted to fill your assignment.

THAT BEING SAID, please don't feel any guilt or shame about that! I completely understand that sometimes timing/life/inspiration don't converge when you need them to, especially at a time of the year that's this busy. There are no penalities. There will be no list of people who defaulted. It won't stop you from being able to participate next year. Honestly, I'll probably forget by the end of the fest.

Also, if it is just timing or bad luck and the next week looks remarkably clearer, don't feel guilty for finishing your story and uploading it to the Secret Mutant Madness collection. If another prompt in Secret Mutant Madness catches your eye, don't feel like you can't write it because you defaulted from the main exchange.

The point of this all is to generate some new fic and happiness around a festive time of the year. Please don't beat yourself up over being uninspired or too busy, or finding inspiration for the "wrong" fic. I just want everyone to have a good time, guilt-free :)


SO. As usual, if you have any questions, comments, etc, or if you just need to take the space in the comments to vent, please feel free to do so!

Hi, folks! This is a friendly reminder that you have just over one week until assignments are due! That would be next Sunday night, EST. (When is that for me?)

If you haven't started yet and you know you need more than seven days to complete your assignment, now might be a good time to contact the mods and let them know you won't be able to complete your assignment. If you thrive under pressure, then please feel free to keep on chugging along--I trust that all of you know best as to how you work best and under what conditions you can produce a gift!

In the mean time, the beta search post is here! And if you have any questions you are, as always, encouraged to ask.

Regarding Secret Mutant Madness, we have definitely decided to do it. There will be more details on the 10th, but here's, roughly, how it will work:
1) On Monday morning, whenever I wake up and get to work, a master post of aaaaallllll the prompts from sign-ups will go up on the comm, including the name of the person who requested the story, the pairings, characters, additional tags, and actual prompt.
2) People can scroll through and pick any prompt(s) that catches their fancy. There's no upper or lower work limit for stories--you can write a 100 word drabble, a 400 word ficlet, or a 56,000 word epic if you'd like and if you have time.
3) When the gift is complete, there will be a seperate collection on AO3 for Secret Mutant Madness and detailed instructions on how to upload a story to that collection and make sure it's gifted to the person who requested it.
4) Madness gifts will be anonymous for the same length of time as the actual gifts--all gifter identities will be revealed on December 22 around 8pm EST.
5) Anyone can participate in Secret Mutant Madness, not just people involved in the exchange! So if your fandom BFF was afraid to sign up because they were busy/aren't good at deadlines/missed the cut-off, this is their chance to create a gift for someone!

As I said, we'll get further into the specifics once the post goes up, but that's the general outline. If you have any questions, please let us know! And enjoy the last week of the fest!

Sorry for inundating you with posts this week!

Just so everyone is aware, secret_mutant is a moderated collection, which means that your submission needs to be approved by a moderator before it's listed on the front page of the collection as a "Mystery Work" and listed as a fulfilled assignment under your "Assignments" tab on AO3. If you go to your assignment and see it's listed as "unapproved" right after you post your gift, do not panic that just means that no one has had time to approve it yet. If you try to fix it and re-fulfill your assignment, things just get messy :)

If there's a problem with your assignment, the mods will email you directly. If you post your assignment and you think you've done it correctly and it's been a few days and it still comes up as unfulfilled, please let us know and we'll see if there's a problem, but give us at least forty-eight hours before you become concerned :)

As always, let us know if you have any questions, and I promise I'll try not to post again until December 1 when we have the Secret Mutant Madness details squared away!

By popular request, here is the Beta Reader advertisement/solicitation post!


If you are looking for a beta reader you can comment below with length, characters, pairing, rating, and any other warnings you think may be important (ie: "includes non-con" or "kid fic"). Try to specify what sort of help you are looking for: plot, characters, or general spelling/grammar/flow/etc. Avoid leaving a summary in the comment if you can, as we don't want to inadvertently spoil things for your recipient.


If you are offering your services as a beta reader you can comment below with the characters, pairings, and ratings you are willing to beta read, as well as a summary of your strengths (plot, characterization, SpaG, etc) as a beta reader and any other pertinent info (ie: "no non-con, please" or "I'd prefer not to read kidfic").


Use the comments to network and exchange emails, etc. As usual, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Several participants have asked about the possibility of doing a Yuletide Madness-esque supplement to secret_mutant. A "Madness" style arm of the exchange would be a period of time between the submission of the main gifts and the author reveal during which participants could create additional gifts for both their recipient and any other recipient with a prompt that catches their fancy. There would be no minimum or maximum word count for fics (although stories would still need to be complete)--stories could be tiny stocking stuffers or an additional gift of over 1000 words.

Participating in this would in no way be a requirement--it would just be something additional to use to spread some more holiday cheer to the participants. Also, we would probably open participation in this supplement up to those who aren't participating in the main exchange.

We're looking in to how exactly it would be easiest to launch this (and if you have personal experience running a fest like this on the AO3, let me know!), but in the meantime, before we go crazy, we'd like to take the temperature of the group and see who would be interested. Please take a few moments to fill out the following poll (and feel free to pass it around to friends who might not be following the comm!):

Poll #1878855 secret mutant madness!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 31

Would you participate in Secret Mutant Madness?

I'd be most likely to participate

Thanks, guys!

I've had four or five questions about this, so I decided to take advantage of my day off and put this post together now, rather than hold off a few weeks :)

So! For those of you who have never used AO3 to complete a challenge before, here's a step-by-step guide, with pictures, laying it all out!

( The pictures are on the large side, FYICollapse )

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask!