Faith-orientated ficathon?

[kangeiko]

ETA: Current availability seems to be in January, so it's looking like an end-of-Jan deadline, with writing taking place mid-Nov to Jan.

In the case of the gift-exchange, should this be settled on, the format would be matching people according to fandoms, with everything else being an optional prompt (so, for instance - "Fandom: Carnivale (matched on basis of this), Prompt: Iris Crowe & birth rituals;" "Fandom: X-Men comicverse, Prompt: Magneto & crisis of faith, Ororo Munro & giving thanks;" "Fandom: DSN, Prompt: Kira & childhood, Kai Winn & penance, Sisko & being a father." The writer would not be obliged to write for the characters specified if they do not wish to, as they would be matched on the basis of the fandom.

I hope that this clarifies things for people - do let me know if it looks like this will cause a lot of problems/ any other better ways of doing it!

***

I'm interested in running a faith-orientated ficathon, and would like to judge the level of interest before I go ahead and set it up.

What would this ficathon be about?
There isn't enough fic out there celebrating the faiths of all our favourite characters. For that matter, given recent world events, there isn't enough understanding out there of other people's beliefs, full stop. In this fic challenge, you'd write about a character's relationship to their faith. It doesn't have to be something we see on-screen, and they don't have to be uber-religious. We're not all going to write about Shepherd Book, for instance - but how did Mal Reynolds lose his faith? Inara was lighting candles in a temple in Serenity - how does she relate to her beliefs? President Bartlet's faith is well-explored, but what about Zoe's, or Ellie's? How does Sisko square his own religious beliefs with being declared an Emissary of another people's faith? For that matter - how does Lister feel about being Cloister?

This would be a ficathon where we look at faith - lightly and irreverently, or deeply and with warmth - and see what part it plays in the lives of our favourite characters.

What would this ficathon involve?
Well, currently, showing an interest! The thought was to run an ideas-based gift exchange, along the format of: "I'd like to see birth rituals/thoughts, with characters X, Y, and Z from fandom A, or characters F, G, H, from fandom I, or any characters from fandom K" The options would be clarified a little, of course, and it would depend on how many people signed up.

Isn't writing about religion scary?
Well, I won't bite! Fandom seems terrified of even breaching the subject, and that is just unnecessary. Come write about Sayid or CJ or Kira Nerys. We'll all be doing it, right alongside.

Where is my handy poll?
Right here!

[Poll #1053102]

Please leave thoughts etc in the comments, I'd be interested in seeing what people think!

xposted to IJ

Comments

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I was trying to find a link for an old fic in my LJ, and noticed how often I said that I was writing about religion again, so...I'm there! I even have a suitable icon! (And, indeed, icons and iconoclasm are an important topic.)

I don't think you'll get a huge number of sign-ups, and they'll be scattered all over fandoms large and small, so I think you'll have a MUCH happier life if it's a challenge and you just take sign-ups and don't have to match people.

BTW in the HLOTS S5 episode where Pembleton has to re-take the firearms test there's a shot of him kneeling to pray even though he's officially an atheist at the time.

[kangeiko]

I was trying to find a link for an old fic in my LJ, and noticed how often I said that I was writing about religion again, so...I'm there! I even have a suitable icon! (And, indeed, icons and iconoclasm are an important topic.)

Yay! I, too, have an appropriate icon... well, sort of! (It works for ficathons as well as religion. *g*)

I don't think you'll get a huge number of sign-ups, and they'll be scattered all over fandoms large and small, so I think you'll have a MUCH happier life if it's a challenge and you just take sign-ups and don't have to match people.

I know... *sigh* The flip side of that is, though, that people are more likely to actually write something if they're writing for someone...

BTW in the HLOTS S5 episode where Pembleton has to re-take the firearms test there's a shot of him kneeling to pray even though he's officially an atheist at the time.

Hey, whatever works! *g*

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I understand the pile-up of obligations (even for those, like me, who don't do Yuletide) at the end of the year, but I must also point out that having a really long deadline tends to lead people to forget that they even said they were going to write something, and paradoxically to avoid actually working on the story.

PS to viciouswishes downthread: I wouldn't say sight unseen that a bornagain!Spike story would have to suck--I wrote a Jesuit!Avon B7 story that I think is ace.

[kangeiko]

I must also point out that having a really long deadline tends to lead people to forget that they even said they were going to write something, and paradoxically to avoid actually working on the story.


That's a concern as well. I think the issue is that currently people would rather have the ficathon after their existing obligations, which makes sense, and would rather have a prompt-based one rather than a gift exchange. Individually, these are fine, but together they'd mean a lot of sign-ups but not a lot delivered. I'm trying to work out what would cause the least amount of hassle - to me & to the writers - in terms of compromise.

[lady1raven.livejournal.com]

Icon love. :-D

[kangeiko]

Snap! *g* Toby is love. :)

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

This is awesome and amazing and I am so up for it - as long as it's nowhere near November/December. I have a 30 page thesis to be writing, as well as Yuletide to do (because really, all the theses in the world couldn't stop me from doing Yuletide), and I will be going crazy enough. Any other month - specifically Jan/Feb - would be fantastic.

[kangeiko]

*g* It just so happens that I'll be doing my finals in November/December (hence the lack of that option!), and given that most people will be doing Yuletide, I suspect that December/January/February will end up winning in some way.

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

While I do think that this is an interesting idea and would be a cool ficathon, I can't see myself participating, mostly because I wrote my religious fic and don't really feel another one coming. I do, however, worry that you'll get some really bad!fic, like that one where Spike becomes a born-again Christian.

[kangeiko]

I do, however, worry that you'll get some really bad!fic, like that one where Spike becomes a born-again Christian.

*g* I'm not the least bit worried about that, I've got to say, 'cause I think that the type of writer who'll sing up for this isn't going to be writing about a born-again anything. I'm more worried that it'll turn into a BtVS & West Wing fest, as one is a v. large fandom with many writers in it, and the other tackles religion canonically. Keeping it nice & varied (and not limited to Christianity) is going to be more of a challenge, I think, but the people that have already expressed an interest are awesome writers, so I'm confident that it's gonna be great.

...

*looks around for the other shoe dropping*

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I definitely think made-up religions should be included--especially since one real possibility about writing about religions that exist on Earth in the present day is getting flamed by people who charge that you've vilely slandered their beliefs.

[kangeiko]

since one real possibility about writing about religions that exist on Earth in the present day is getting flamed by people who charge that you've vilely slandered their beliefs.

See, I really don't think that this'll happen. I mean, if someone went off and wrote something on their own, that's always a risk - and that's possibly why so few people write about religion - but we're going to be doing it en masse. It's harder to yell at a whole group of people. I'm hoping that those signing up will be doing it because they want to write something fab, rather than stirring up a hornet's nest and, anyway, you can get just as much crap going by writing about race and ethnicity in a crappy way - that doesn't mean that people shouldn't. *shrug*

OTOH, I know that a lot of people wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable writing something that criticises a specific religion for any particular reason, hence the thought that 'created' religions would serve a useful purpose there. Also, given that we're writing about 'faith', it doesn't have to be a religion we recognise to be about a person's faith, and I think that B5 did a far better job of exploring that in some areas than a lot of other media, for instance.

[darlas-mom.livejournal.com]

I think this idea is completely BRILLIANT. I'm available any day of the year, pretty much (work-at-home, stay-at-home mom), so "when" isn't much of an issue for me.

I totally think that there shouldn't be a cap on the number of fandoms, but at the same time, if there's not, you should have a space where people can list which fandoms they can/will do, like gen_remix had. It'd take a bit of work, I think, but if it was done as a gift exchange (which is my personal favorite way to do fic-a-thons--I find I work harder on my assignments if I'm writing for somebody else, and not just me), people should be able to be matched by fandom.

I also agree with just about everybody else who's voted so far, fictional religions should be included. I say this not only for the fans of shows like "DS9" and the like, but...well, I wanna see somebody explore what faith means in the Order of Aurelius. The Master is worshipful of the Old Ones, awaiting a Second Coming that'll allow vampires to rise to the surface and take power, but seriously--what does that mean to him? And to the rest of his followers? Also, on the subject of the Old Ones, I think it'd be really fascinating to write Illyria in a faith-based fic-a-thon. How many chances do you get to write a faith-based character introspective from the POV of a god?

...sorry, I'll save the challenges for the actual event. But all the same! There's SO much to play with here! I think it'd be great, and I think it'd go miles towards building a new kind of awareness in fandom.

Also, I'd get to spend weeks studying things. That always makes me happy. ;-)

[kangeiko]

if it was done as a gift exchange (which is my personal favorite way to do fic-a-thons--I find I work harder on my assignments if I'm writing for somebody else, and not just me), people should be able to be matched by fandom.

Most people seem to want a prompt-based thing, which I can kinda see their point about - faith is a hard enough thing to write about without fulfilling someone else's requirements! Also, there is the risk of offending them without meaning to. *sigh* On the other hand, I agree that people are likely to try harder if writing for another person, at least in terms of turning something in on time.

I do like your idea of matching people according to fandoms. I thought if it does come to a gift-exchange, it might be something along the lines of - list some fandoms you'd like looked at, and match on the basis of those, and then in the 'prompt' field we can have characters and the sort of story people would like. That way, everyone gets something in a fandom they're familiar with, and people wouldn't feel trapped into writing about a faith they know nothing about.

Although, that said, part of this is the impetus to go off and research like a mad thing.

...sorry, I'll save the challenges for the actual event. But all the same! There's SO much to play with here! I think it'd be great, and I think it'd go miles towards building a new kind of awareness in fandom.

Which as kinda my thoughts on the whole thing. I don't think that people should be afraid of writing about sensitive subjects just because they're sensitive - I think they should write about them *more*.

[lady1raven.livejournal.com]

This sounds awesome. And now I have plot bunnies about Cloister The Stupid, curse you! (I wanna know what Holly thought of it, since he was there for the whole development of that religion.)

For when: Any time other than November. I'll be busy with NaNoWriMo in November.

Also, I think that the writers should be able to pick which religion/s they write about as well as which fandom/s, 'cause writing about religion can be scary and people should have the option of sticking to something they're more comfortable with.

[kangeiko]

This sounds awesome. And now I have plot bunnies about Cloister The Stupid, curse you! (I wanna know what Holly thought of it, since he was there for the whole development of that religion.)

Mwahahaha, I am win! *gloats* See, now, you *have* to participate!

For when: Any time other than November. I'll be busy with NaNoWriMo in November.

The deadline isn't going to be during November or the first month of December, as that's when I have finals. (And I'm not writing x number of pinch hits when I'm supposed to be in the exam hall!) So no worries on that score. It'll likely be a late December/early Jan deadline, or Jan/Feb. I think the issue is figuring it out enough time for the sign-ups and writing period, so people aren't expected to be writing during a particularly busy time. That said, it *is* ficathon season...

Also, I think that the writers should be able to pick which religion/s they write about as well as which fandom/s,

If it ends up being a fic exchange, people would be matched on the basis of fandom, and the rest would be a suggestion on the part of the recipient (i.e. character, and the type of story they'd like - a birth in the family, a crisis of faith, childhood beliefs, etc.). I'm not going to specify what religions people should cover, and neither should the recipient - they can ask, sure, but it's the fandom aspect that they will be matched on.

'cause writing about religion can be scary and people should have the option of sticking to something they're more comfortable with.

Yes, exactly.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

This is a brilliant idea.

[kangeiko]

*g* Thank you! I do hope that you'll participate!

[lilka.livejournal.com]

This sounds like fun. I don't think I could sign up before January, though, since November is NaNoWriMo and December is Yuletide.

[kangeiko]

Yeah, that's an issue for a lot of people. I was um-ing and ah-ing about a January deadline - writing period mid-November to January, and handing it in for 31 Jan, maybe. That way, people who want to do it before Yuletide can do so, and people who want to do it afterwards can as well. Not sure yet, as people's availability is still fluctuating, but January is looking like the best months for most.