Ravenbell New Year Fanfiction Exchange
Welcome to our Ravenbell New Year Fanfiction Exchange!
You asked, we deliver â letâs have a New Year Bellamy/Raven Exchange! The rules are shamelessly lifted from No White Saviors Allowed Exchange that took over this blog many years ago.
Now, just to be sure weâre all on the same page: an exchange is a challenge in which you list a few prompts for fanworks youâd like someone to write or make for you, and also agree to fulfill at least one prompt from someone else. The mods will choose for whom youâre writing, based on the prompts and all the additional information we ask for in your sign-up sheet. This is how exchanges usually work, but in this one, there is a catch. Each of you will have two assignments: one will be sent by the mods, the other youâll pick yourself. In order to complete the challenge, you need to submit them both! Minimum length requirement is 500 words for each piece, so youâll be writing at least 1000 words in total.
Sign-ups start: November 2nd
Sign-ups end: November 16th
Assignments sent: November 23rd
In order to sign up, you have to submit [this form] In the form you have to give us: your email address*, 3-5 prompts youâd like filled for you, a list of things you really donât want to find in the fanfic you receive, and a list of things youâre not willing to do in the fanfic you write.
All stories you prompt need to be focused on Bellamy and Raven â together or separately. We are keeping things simple. You can have stories about just Bellamy, just Raven, Bellamy and Raven as a couple, or Bellamy and Raven in a polyamorous relationship with other people involved as well. You canât have stories in which Bellamy and Raven are involved with other people but not each other.
Please try keeping your prompts as varied as possible to give the mods some wriggle room â as much as possible when weâre all writing the same shipâŚ
*Your email address will not be published anywhere; we just want to have a way to contact everyone in case someone inevitably changes their url in the middle of the challenge.
3.1. The one from the mods
On November 23rd (or maybe a little earlier), youâll get an email with the details of the fanfic you will be writing. In the email, youâll find the name of your prompter, a list of 3-5 prompts (choose at least one!), and a list of things your prompter doesnât want you to include in the story (please respect them all). Weâll ask you to confirm that youâve received the email. From that moment, youâll have a month to work on your prompts.
3.2. The one from the list
On the same day assignments are sent, weâll post a full list of prompts submitted to the challenge. As your second assignment, you can choose anything from the list, apart from your own prompts. You have free reign, no matter what you said in the sign-up. Your second assignment can be a fanfic, but it doesnât have to. Feel free to go into graphic, gifset, meta, podfic, fanart, fanmix â anything you like. All we ask is that you provide captions if you produce any fanwork that includes images.
THIS IS A SECRET EXCHANGE, SO WE ASK YOU NOT TO TELL ANYONE WHAT YOUâRE MAKING. We want everyone to have a surprise. Well, apart from the beta reader. You can tell your beta reader. Which brings us to:
You can have a beta reader to help you work on your fic. In fact, we encourage you to find one. It can be anyone you want. If you have trouble finding a beta reader, please feel free to advertise by making a text post titled âbeta reader wantedâ and tagging it âravenbell exchangeâ. If this doesnât work, please send us a message. Weâll help.
You post your work in our dedicated collection on AO3 (there will be a separate post about this in December). We then encourage you to post a link to it on tumblr and tag âravenbell exchangeâ, but if you canât (because, for example, you donât use tumblr), thatâs fine as well. Whatâs most important is that everything is in the AO3 collection. If you donât have an AO3 account, we can help you register for one. All stories have to be rated and contain warnings (if applicable).
If, for your second assignment, you chose something that doesnât fit comfortably on AO3 (for example a gifset), it is, of course, okay to only post it on tumblr.
All works have to be posted on December 28th â not a day sooner or later. To make everyoneâs life easier, weâre accepting a very simple rule: if itâs December 28th anywhere in the world, you are free to post.
Treats are additional fanworks you can create once youâre done with your two assignments. You can post them any time you wish, starting from December 29th, following all the posting rules from point 5. You can use the same list of prompts youâll be using to pick your second assignment.
7. âDear Authorâ letter
Aka something you donât have to do, but you totally can. A âDear Authorâ letter is a tumblr text post titled âDear Ravenbell Exchange Authorâ and tagged âravenbell exchangeâ, in which you can say all the things you want your assigned writer to know about you or your prompts (think: general likes and dislikes, favorite things in fanworks, a few sentences about each prompt etc). It can also include a list of additional crossover prompts (for details about this, see point 8) You can post a âDear Authorâ letter at any moment between now and November 9th. If youâre not sure how to write a âDear Authorâ letter, please try looking at how theyâre done in popular multifandom exchanges (for example Yuletide, Rare Pair etc), or in previous challenges hosted on this blog.
As a rule, we donât allow crossovers, because matching crossover prompts for an exchange is hell on wheels. However, there is a way to get one. In your âDear Author letter (see above), you can include a section titled âCrossover Optionsâ, and make a list of as many crossover prompts as you please. If your assigned writer decides that they like your crossover prompts better than your regular prompts they found in their assignment, they can opt to write you a crossover instead. However, thatâs absolutely up to them, and youâre taking a chance here. Your crossover prompts will also be up for grabs for people writing their second assignment.
If you have any questions, please message @ravenbells (of course messaging @ravenbell-exchange is also fine). Yes, even if theyâre stupid questions. Yes, even if it feels like youâre asking about something you should know. I was a teacher for 10 years, you canât wear me down with questions. Feel free to try.