Be The First!

Hi, and welcome to the sixth round of Be The First!

This is a low-pressure challenge to write a fic, of any length, for a fandom that previously had none. That's it! If you want to take part, just reply to this post :)

Quick rundown: You have two months to write. The deadline is at 23.59 GMT on the 20th of April, and the archive will go live at 00.01 GMT on the 22nd of April. You can submit up to four stories (as per your votes last year), as long as they are for different fandoms.

If you'd like more information beyond those basic points, then you can find the FAQ right here. The AO3 collection for this year is here, and I'll be putting up a fandom promo post in roughly a week.

A big thank you to everyone who's reading this, whether you're a returning participant or someone checking out the challenge for the first time. As always, I'm really looking forward to seeing what you all write this year! ♥

[Click here for the DW version of this post.]

Sign-ups always start on the 20th, but this round will be delayed by two days. Sorry! Due to RL circumstances I've been offline for a few months (which is why the proposed September flash round never happened, sorry about that too). I'm borrowing a cell phone to make this post, but as soon as I get back home on Monday I'll get everything going — will respond to comments and PMs then, as well. Again, I'm very sorry for the wait.

Hi again, everyone! I'm back with the questions/polls I mentioned before. I hope you've all been enjoying this year's collection — there are tons of great stories in there, so be sure to check it out if you haven't already.

Now then, to the polls!





Please let me know what you think! Thank you all ♥

[Click here for the DW version of this post.]

The collection is live! We ended up with an absolutely amazing thirty-seven fics this year, the most this challenge has ever seen! Awesome job, everyone!

As usual, please do not check out the fics out via the fandom list page on AO3. Only a couple of fandoms are listed there, due to AO3's wrangling policy, so most of the stories will not show up on said page. Instead, there's an alternative fandom list below. (You can also browse the collection via the works page on AO3, where all are accounted for.)

All stories, ordered alphabetically by fandom:

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Thank you all sooo very much for taking part! I know these are all nonexistent fandoms, but I hope we can try to check out our fellow participants' stories and comment wherever possible. If you're not familiar with any of the fandoms, you can also try browsing the tag page to see if there are any themes/tropes/kinks that catches your eye.

Happy reading! I really hope to see you guys again next year ♥

I'll be posting a couple of questions/polls in a day or two, so please stay tuned!

[Click here for the DW version of this post.]

The deadline of 23.59 GMT on the 29th is almost upon us, which means that there's now one day left to finish your fic(s)! Technically, that is, because I'll throw in the same "surprise" mini-extension that I always do, and keep the collection open for submissions until an hour before reveals (which will happen at 00.01 GMT on the 1st).

There's already a whopping 24 fics in the collection — I didn't think we could beat last year's amazing record of 27, but it almost looks like we might! Either way, you've all done great :Db

Good luck to everyone who's still writing, and thanks again for taking part! ♥

[Click here for the DW version of this post.]

Hello, everybody! It's now two weeks until the original deadline. However, I've gotten a couple of messages asking if there could be an extension due to everything that's been going on lately.

That's fine with me if it's what the majority wants! Quite a few people have already submitted stories (great job *thumbs up*) and I wouldn't want to keep them waiting for ages — so, if there's to be an extension, I was thinking the 29th. That would give those who found themselves overtaken with RL worries a little extra time, while hopefully not being a too-long wait for others.

What would you all prefer? Please use the poll below or let me know by some other means — reply to this post, send me an email or a private message, etc. I'll close the poll in two days, and will edit this post with the result.



ETA: The poll is now closed! Thank you to everyone who weighed in — turns out that everyone was in favor of a little extension, or at least didn't mind it. So the new deadline is at 23.59 GMT on the 29th of April, with collection reveals happening 24 hours later as usual. Good luck to those of you who are still writing! :)

[Click here for the DW version of this post.]

I hope you're all doing okay, despite everything that's currently going on in the world. If nothing else, I hope this challenge can work as a distraction from RL stuff. Take good care of yourselves ♥

Half the writing time has now gone by, and the deadline is starting to approach -- but there's still plenty of time left, so no need to panic! You've got until 23.59 GMT on the 20th of April to add your fic(s) to the collection. As always, please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

[Click here for the DW version of this post.]

Have you already decided what fandom(s) to write for? If so, how about doing some pimping? :D

We've all chosen tiny obscure fandoms, needless to say. So by doing a little promoting you might be able to entice someone else to give it a try — or perhaps you'll even run into a fellow fan, who can't wait to read your coming fic.

Your promo can be long or short, and contain whatever you feel like. Want to post a couple of intriguing screencaps from a movie? Quote a few paragraphs from a book? Rec the best episode of an anime or TV series? Talk about why you love your favorite character/pairing from your fandom? It's all good; anything goes!

[Click here for the DW version of this post.]

Hello, and welcome to the fifth round of Be The First! Based on your requests, two things are new this year: One is that there's now a DW community in addition to the LJ one! Several of you have asked for this, and here it finally is. Please don't hesitate to let me know if I messed up some setting or whatever, as I'm new to having an actual account there myself. Secondly, another request I've gotten more than once is to raise the limit of stories that can be posted by each person. So, instead of the previous two, everyone can now post up to four fics. This is just a trial, though! After the round is over I'm planning on running a poll, asking if you guys want to keep this new amount or go back to old one — or maybe settle for something in between with three?

But aside from that, nothing has changed since the previous rounds. This is still a low-pressure challenge to write a fic, of any length, for a fandom that previously had none. That's it! If you want to take part, just reply to this post :)

Quick rundown: You have two months to write. The deadline is at 23.59 GMT on the 20th of April, and the archive will go live at 00.01 GMT on the 22nd of April. You can submit up to two four stories, as long as they are for different fandoms.

If you'd like more information beyond those basic points, then you can find the FAQ right here. The AO3 collection for this year is here, and I'll be putting up a fandom promo post in a few days.

Thank you to everyone who's reading this, whether you're a returning participant or someone checking out the challenge for the first time. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you all write this year! ♥

[Click here for the DW version of this post.]