have a nace day

Another year, another Secret Sleuth has come to an end! We are so so so pleased with the turn out this year: you posted a total of 51 gifts for 44 people. Amazing work, everyone!

We'll be posting our full 2024 masterpost shortly, but in the meantime we encourage you to browse our blog to see all the amazing gifts that have been created, or maybe check our our 2024 ao3 collection to see all the fanfiction that has been written.

We hope you enjoyed this year's Secret Sleuth! <3

If you signed up for this year's event, you should have now received your match from one of the Secret Sleuth mods. Please check your Tumblr message / Twitter DMs / Discord DMs.

What do I do now?

Make sure you respond to the mod that messaged you with your match info to confirm receipt.

Start thinking about what to create or start working on your gift!

Remind yourself of the minimum requirements for each gift type and make sure any gift you create meets the minimum word count, video length, etc.

If your giftee is on tumblr, we encourage you to send some anonymous messages using their ask box. This can help you learn more about them and build excitement! But please, make sure you are sending your message anonymously before clicking send.

Turn on anonymous questions on your own Tumblr, allowing your Secret Sleuth to anonymously message you. See how to do that here.

If you post about Secret Sleuth on tumblr (including answering anon messages), use the hashtag: #secretsleuthgiftexchange.

If you're writing fanfiction, we highly encourage you to get a friend or beta to read/edit your fic before posting. If you need help with this, please let your mod know!

What's the timeline?

Nov 11th: Matches sent out by

Dec 2nd: Check in #1 (to see how you are going)

Dec 16th: Check in #2 (to schedule you for posting)

Dec 31st: Deadline to finish your gift!

Jan 1st-12th: Posting period!

During the second check-in, we will offer you a posting slot over the 12-day posting period (1st-12th Jan 2025). Please don't post your gift before this day!

Any questions? Let us know!

Thank you to everyone who signed up for this year's event. Our mod team have now matched everyone and messages will start being sent out over the next couple of days. We will announce on this blog when all matches have been sent out, so please check back soon.

Please make sure your DMs are open to allow our mods to send you your match information.

And when you receieve your match info, PLEASE make sure you reply to your mod to confirm receipt!

The deadline to sign up for this year’s Secret Sleuth is TODAY, Monday 4th November at 8pm PT.

Secret Sleuth 2024: Sign up now! 🕵️‍♀️❄️

The Secret Sleuth Gift Exchange is an online, fanworks-only Secret Santa-style event for the CW Nancy Drew fandom!

What type of gifts can I make?

You will only need to make one gift, which should be a type of fanwork. Whatever type of gift you end up creating, please ensure it meets these parameters:

Fanfiction: 1500 word minimum, 10,000 words maximum. Completed works only.

Graphics/gifsets: 2 image minimum

Fanart: 1 panel minimum 

Playlist: 15 song minimum, 1 cover image, and a link to the playlist on Spotify or Apple Music

Fanvids/edits: A minimum of at least 1m30s of video content, across either 1 or 2 videos

What happens if I sign up?

To sign up, you will need to fill out this form confirming a) what gift types you can create, b) what gift types you would like to receive, and c) basic information about yourself, such as your social media handles and your likes/dislikes.

After sign-ups close, our mod team will create a match and send you all relevant information to help you create your gift. And don't worry: the mod team will only ever match you with someone who wants a gift type that you are capable of creating, so you don't need to worry about making something outside of your comfort zone.

You will then have ~7 weeks to create your gift, which should be posted on an assigned day over 1st-12th January 2025. If your giftee is on tumblr, we encourage you to send them anonymous messages to build excitement and ask them questions to help inspire you!

**Important: Please don't reveal who you are to your giftee until after your gift has been posted. It's called SECRET Sleuth for a reason!**

What's the timeline?

Sign-ups open: October 21st

Sign-ups close: November 4th

You'll receive your match by: November 11th

Check-in #1: December 2nd

Check-in #2: December 16th (for scheduling your posting slot!)

Gifts should be ready by: December 31st

Gifts will be posted over: January 1st-12th 2025

What's different from last year?

This year, we're extending the gift creation window and gifts will be posted later. Instead of posting over the holidays, gifts will be posted starting in January. We hope this will take the pressure off those people who have finals for school, who have to work over the holidays, or who are busy with travel and seeing family, etc. We've also tightened up the gift requirements to ensure everyone gets a gift of similar quality.

How do I sign up?

It's easy! Fill out the sign-up form here. The deadline to sign up is Monday November 4th 2024.

-- The Secret Sleuth Mods xoxo

Hi all! We're half way through September so are starting to think about our annual secret sleuth gift exchange!

We've put together a short survey to figure out if this is something you'd be interested in taking part in this year, and if there is anything we can improve. Whether you've taken part in SS before or not, we want to hear from you!

The form is completely anonymous (if you don't want to share your name), and saying you would be interested does NOT mean you are committed to taking part, it just helps us get a rough idea of the appetite for the event.

We'd appreciate it if you could fill this out and help our team with your feedback. THANK YOU!

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