White Collar Remix

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Introduction

What's This All About?

Ever read a story and think, wow, what a fascinating story, but if I had written it, I would have done something different...? Well, now here's your chance to do just that. Rewrite someone else's story, tell somebody else's tale. Take the work of another person and wrap it up in your vision and style, just like a remixer does to songs.

You’re not just rewriting, your reinterpreting.

Round One Schedule

Sign-Ups Open – January 20, 2015
Sign-Ups Close – February 3, 2015
Assignments Made – February 10, 2015
Finished Stories Due – March 10, 2015
Request for Pinch Hitters – March 11, 2015
Finished Stories Posted –March 24, 2015
Remix Madness Opens –March 25, 2015
Remix Madness Closes – April 1, 2015

Frequently Asked Questions/Rules

So I’m Just Take Another Person's Story And Changing Everything?

Yes and no. You can do whatever you like to the story - change POV, dialogue, mood, characterization, make it longer or shorter, whatever - except for two things: existing pairings and the basic plotline.

Why Can't I Change Those Two Things?

1. Basic plotline is fairly obvious, we think. If you change the plot, then you're really not writing the same story, right? This doesn't mean you can't change things, adding or deleting as you see fit.

Disney is the greatest remixer of all time and provides a number of good examples on how a remix can be done. In the original Hans Christian Andersen story, The Little Mermaid didn’t have a name; she didn’t have a fish as a best friend or a lobster to act as her guardian. In fact, in the end of HCA’s story, her prince forsakes her and she dies! But Disney did keep the major elements of the original story – the mermaid falls in love with the prince she rescues and the evil witch tricks her into surrendering her voice in exchange for legs. In Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, the hunchback dies in the end. But guess what? He doesn’t in the Disney version.

And probably the best remix of all was when Disney remixed their own version of Sleeping Beauty and made Maleficent - the villain of the original became the hero of the remix, all the while keeping the original and essential plot points: the baby princess is cursed, she pricks her finger and falls into an eternal sleep that can only be broken by true love’s kiss.

Of course, what are and aren't essential plot points is purely subjective, but we trust people will be able to decide what to do.

2. Pairing(s) must be kept as is. While this can certainly be argued, we think once you change who the story is about, you're pretty much writing a new story, and contrary to popular belief, that's not what this challenge is about. It's about reinterpreting a story that's already been told. So, no, you cannot change the pairing(s) in the story. We also do not want any slash pairings het-ified or het pairings slash-ified. You may, if you feel it necessary, background the pairing(s) and focus on less pairing-centric plot points if you are not happy with the pairing in your target story, to wit - you may remix a slash or het story as gen and conversely, if there are no pairings in the original story, you can slash or het-ify a gen story. Remember, this isn’t an exchange and you are not writing for your remix target. (Note – this is a difference from the multi-fandom Remix Redux challenge – as further explained below.)

How Does White Collar Remix Differ from Other Remix Challenges?

1 – Of course, this challenge is limited to White Collar fan fiction only. Although it’s sort of an intriguing idea to take someone’s non-White Collar fic and turn it into a White Collar story, that’s probably best saved for a different challenge.

2 – We’re not hosting this on AO3. Stories are posted to the White Collar Remix Community by the authors on a specific date and they are not anonymous. We kind of don’t see the reason for that in a fandom specific challenge. Also, it’s a lot more work for the mods.

3 – In the Remix Redux challenge, it’s okay to “gen-ify” a story that had a central romantic pairing, but it is not acceptable to do the reverse – add a pairing to a story without one, i.e., a “gen” story. In the White Collar Remix, both permutations are acceptable. In the first situation, a pairing can be moved into the background (e.g., if it’s a Neal/Clinton story and you don’t like writing Neal/Clinton, you don’t have to write that aspect of the story, but you can’t break Neal and Clinton up. The story can focus on anything but their romantic relationship. In the second situation, if you’re remixing a purely gen story (i.e., there are no pairings mentioned whatsoever), but you want to add a romantic relationship into the mix, that’s acceptable too.

For clarity’s sake, if the story features Peter and Elizabeth as they are in canon – a married couple – your story can’t break them up or pretend that they don’t exist as romantic partners. But you can add a character to their relationship.

If you have any questions about this point once you receive your assignment, please don’t hesitate to ask a mod for clarification.


How Do I Get a Story to Remix?

You need to sign up for the challenge. You will be asked to provide a link to your master list, list your published works in progress, any fic that was written for another remix-type, and of course, your one safe story if you choose to have one.

After the sign-up period ends, your mods will assign each participant a remixer, who will be a fellow participant, chosen at random. You can choose any story other than the designated safe story, works in progress, co-written stories, or remixes they've written previously.

Also, please note that there is no matching on pairing or genre (i.e., slash, het, or gen) - assignments are random (we’re using Neal’s hat). So if you only write het or only write a particular slash pairing or a particular character, etc., you probably don't want to sign up, because there is no guarantee you'll get someone who matches your preference on those requirements.

So you can see what information is needed, here is the sign up form:




I'm Still Confused. So, We're Just Writing Someone Else's Story?

It’s more than simple rewriting. You have to do more than just change a line here and there. You need to be creative. Remember – you’re reinterpreting a story. Have fun. Make a mess if you want (think about turning the bad guy into a hero, or making the shining hero an evil villain). It's a challenge. Don't make it too easy on yourself.

How Do I Know if I’m Eligible?

To participate, you must be eligible to if you've written at least five (5) stories of 500 words or more OR at least seven (7) stories of 100 words or more in White Collar. You can, of course, use combinations of 500 and 100 word stories to reach a final total of 7 stories. So you qualify if, for example, you have four stories between 100 and 500 words and three stories of 500 or more words.

Past remixes and your designated safe story may not be included in the story count to determine eligibility.
 
For clarification, works in progress and crossovers are not acceptable as stories to determine your eligibility. Completed stories that are part of larger series, however, may be counted on their own, though we ask that you use some judgment. If the stories in a series can stand on their own, that's fine; if understanding other stories in the series is necessary for individual parts to make sense, we'd strongly advise considering it as one fic.
 
You also need to have some form of a master list, whether it’s the one auto-generated by AO3 or it’s one you maintain separately on your journal. This way, your remixer is able to find a story to remix. When you sign up, you’ll need to link to this list.

So what is a “safe story”?

It's the one story that you don't want anyone messing with, for whatever reason. You only get one. You don't have to have one, only if you want. Any story you wrote for any other remix challenge is also ineligible to be remixed again, as it is based in part at least on someone else's story, and may contain significant bits of that original story.

Do I have to have a LiveJournal or Dreamwidth or AO3 or FF.net account?

Although we suspect that since you’ve found this community, you’re already on LiveJournal or Dreamwidth, but the answer is yes, because otherwise, how will we find your stories? Of course, you don't need your own website; hosted stories are fine as long as they're all easily available. Stories posted to Dreamwidth, LiveJournal, or other journaling site or archive are okay as long as there is some sort of index or listing for them, making them easily accessible. Stories posted only to locked LJs or LJ communities, message boards and/or mailing lists are ineligible because access to those is often limited. Please don't sign up if your stories aren't publicly available.

What if I've co-written with someone?

If you have someone you co-write with regularly and the two of you wish to sign up for the challenge together, you will be counted as one participant and only the stories you have written together are eligible. If you regularly co-write with someone but only one of you signs up, then your co-written stories are off-limits. The same goes if both of you sign up but separately.

How Long Does My Remixed Story Have to Be?

Each remix must have a minimum word count of 1,000 words. Your mods will be checking. However, given how the fandom has embraced the epic, is this really going to be an issue?

What must I pay attention to the Schedule?

This is a challenge and not an exchange, however, every writer who signs up will have one of their stories remixed. Therefore, it is imperative that notify the mods if you have to withdraw from the challenge.

If the mods do not receive your COMPLETED story (and by “completed” we do not mean just a story that merely meets the minimum word count) by the deadline, you will be deemed defaulted and your target assigned to a pinch hitter. There will be multiple notices about deadlines and due dates, and you need to keep track of them. The mods will not chase you and they will not give you extensions. The nature of this challenge does not permit such flexibility.

Defaulting participants will be banned from future White Collar Remix challenges.

Why is there such a long time between the date that the finished stories are due and the date we’ll allowed to post?

Because your mods will need time to find pinch hitters and pinch hitters will need time to write their stories.

What Is Remix Madness?

Remix Madness is a one-week period where you can go to any participant’s master list, pick a qualifying story and remix it and post it to the community. No minimum word count, no assignments. Just seven days to find a story and remix it according to the rules. Since some participants might not be comfortable in such an open forum, participants can opt in or opt out of this aspect of the challenge.

Who Are the Mods?

theatregirl7299
elrhiarhodan

Why Does It Seem That You Two Run All Of the Challenges In the White Collar Fandom?

Because we’re gluttons for punishment and we’re certifiably committed to maintaining a vibrant fandom. We think that the best way is to have frequent challenges that draw people into the fandom and make it an exciting place to be. If anyone wants to help us out, please just ask and we’ll be delighted let you join in the madness fun.

Didn’t Someone Else Recently Start a White Collar Remix Challenge?

Yes, there was another community that was similar in scope and purpose. The mod of that community decided to withdraw from active fandom participation and deleted the community before the first round could get off the ground. Your current mods love remix challenges and decided to step in and restart the community. The rules are similar, but not identical to the original White Collar Remix challenge.

These Rules/FAQs Seem Awfully Familiar. What Gives?

Thank you for noticing! We’ve adapted them from the multi-fandom challenge, Remix Redux (their LJ presence can be found at remixers_lounge and not remix_redux or remixredux, which are the sites they used before moving over to AO3.

I Need Help, I Have a Question, I’m Lonely and I Just Want To Talk, How Can I Reach You?

Since it’s unlikely that Mozzie will let you borrow Estelle and Neal’s motorized, miniaturized zeppelin is not available, we suggest you reach out to us via LJ’s private message function or you can email us:

theatregirl7299 or Theatregirl7299@gmail.com
elrhiarhodan or Elrhiarhodan1@gmail.com