Seasons of Drabbles

Below is the schedule for the winter round!

Note that we will have a new tagset to kick off the year, so start thinking about what you'd like to nominate!

Schedule:
Nominations open: Sunday, January 4 (will remain open through signups)
Signups open: Sunday, January 11
Signups close: Sunday, January 18 @ 11:59pm Eastern Standard time (Countdown)
Assignments out by: Wednesday, January 21
Assignments due: Saturday, January 31 @ 11:59pm Eastern Standard time (Countdown)
Collection opens: Saturday, February 7 @ 1:00pm Eastern Standard time (Countdown)
Authors revealed: Tuesday, February 10 @ 1:00pm Eastern Standard time (Countdown)

Works are now revealed! Please take a moment to leave a comment on your gifts, and enjoy the haul of drabbles this round! Thank you to all who participated, especially our pinch hitters!

A change to the schedule: Many expressed wanting a slightly longer anon period, so author reveals will take place 72 hours from now on Tuesday, November 18, 1:00pm Eastern Time (Countdown), not Monday as previously noted.

Please get in touch if you have any questions. Should you receive a gift that is not for a fandom, character, and drabble type you requested, or that contains a DNW, reach out to us ASAP.

With all pinch hits now in, we can confirm that the collection will open this Saturday, November 15, 1:00pm Eastern Standard time (Countdown)! A huge thank you to our pinch hitters <3

Expect several waves of work approvals today and in the coming days. Don't worry if your fic has not been approved yet: If we have a question about a fic you posted, we will contact you via the email associated with your AO3 account.

Hi all, we have 3 post-deadline pinch hits still up for grabs! These are all due Friday, November 7, noon Eastern time (Countdown), a day before the collection is scheduled to open, though we can be flexible if needed. The minimum is 100 words.

If you would like to claim a pinch hit, please comment to this post with the name/number of the pinch hit you would like. Make sure to include your AO3 username! Comments are screened.



( PH 8 - Psychonauts (Video Games), Umineko no Naku Koro ni | When the Seagulls Cry, No Straight Roads (Video Game), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types )

( PH 10 - The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension (1984), Crossing Jordan (TV 2001), NCIS: Los Angeles )

( PH 20 - Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Limbus Company (Video Game), 機動戦士ガンダム サンダーボルト | Gundam Thunderbolt )

The deadline for assignments has now passed! We've temporarily closed the collection to take stock before once more opening it for posting. We will likely have the post-deadline pinch hits out approximately a day from now. Thanks!

Update: the collection is now open for posting once more.

Here are the 14 initial pinch hits for this round! These are due at the assignment deadline, Saturday, November 1st, 11:59pm Eastern time (Countdown).

If you would like to claim a pinch hit, please comment to this post with the name/number of the pinch hit you would like. Make sure to include your AO3 username! Comments are screened.

(This is a repost with the correct requests.)

( CLAIMED PH 1 - 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, Elden Ring (Video Game), Elden Ring Nightreign (Video Game), Dark Souls (Video Games), Bloodborne (Video Game), Gachiakuta (Anime) )

( CLAIMED PH 2 - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins, Classical Greece and Rome History & Literature RPF, Fallout: New Vegas, Daredevil (TV), Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion )

( CLAIMED PH 3 - Jem and the Holograms (Cartoon), Bits & Pieces - Judy Schachner, Chalion Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold, Nancy Drew - Carolyn Keene, He-Man Cartoon 1983/She-Ra Princess of Power 1985, Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018), Voltron: Lion Force (1984), Haunted Mansion (Disney Parks Attraction), Murder She Wrote )

CLAIMED PH 4

( CLAIMED PH 5 - The Terror (TV 2018), Titanic (1997), 80 Days (Video Game 2014), The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (TV 2022), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Andor (TV), Discworld - Terry Pratchett )

( CLAIMED PH 6 - Invisible Inc. (Video Game), Firefly (TV 2002), Betrayal at Krondor (Video Games) )

( CLAIMED PH 7 - Dial M for Murder (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), Home Before Dark (1958), The Big Country (1958), The Big Heat (1953), A Star Is Born (1937) )

( PH 8 - Psychonauts (Video Games), Umineko no Naku Koro ni | When the Seagulls Cry, No Straight Roads (Video Game), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types )

( CLAIMED PH 9 - Kamen Rider OOO, 仮面ライダーガッチャード | Kamen Rider Gotchard (TV), わが青春のアルカディア | Waga Seishun no Arcadia | Arcadia of My Youth (1982), Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider Kuuga, Choujuu Sentai Liveman, Kamen Rider V3, Kamen Rider Kiva, Choujin Sentai Jetman )

( PH 10 - The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension (1984), Crossing Jordan (TV 2001), NCIS: Los Angeles )

( CLAIMED PH 11 - เขาจ้างให้ผมจีบนักฆ่า | The Heart Killers (Thailand TV), วาระซ่อนเร้น | Hidden Agenda (TV), KinnPorsche: The Series (TV), ทำนายทายทัพ | My Magic Prophecy (TV), แฟนผมเป็นประธานนักเรียน | My School President (TV 2022), เพื่อนายแค่หนึ่งเดียว | Never Let Me Go (TV 2022), สายรหัสเทวดา | Perfect 10 Liners (TV 2024), Thai Actor RPF, We Are คือเรารักกัน | We Are (Thailand TV 2024) )

( CLAIMED PH 12 - SK8 the Infinity (Anime), Winx Club, 鬼滅の刃 | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Manga), Dangan Ronpa Series )

( CLAIMED PH 13 - The Locked Tomb Series | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir, Interview with the Vampire (TV 2022) RPF, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Movies) )

( CLAIMED PH 14 - Psych (TV 2006), The Orville (TV), Yellowjackets (TV) )

We have now closed signups and nominations! Below is the expected timeline for the next couple days:

• Like always, for the next 12 hours, people can contact us to add to their signups. This is intended for people who may have run into the character tagset bug when signing up close to the deadline, or whose nominations were approved late. However, anyone may ask to have characters/fandoms added to their requests or offers. If you would like us to add to your signup, please post on the screened mod contact post or email us at seasonsofdrabbles@gmail.com. Please make sure to include your AO3 username.

• After that window has closed, we will check the matching and send out emails to anyone who is unmatchable on offers. They will be given 24 hours to respond.

• Barring unexpected delays, assignments will go out before the end of Wednesday, October 22.

As you wait for assignments to go out, please feel free to check out the app to browse requests and start writing!

Signups are now open! They will remain open until Sunday, October 19 @ 11:59pm Eastern Daylight time (Countdown). You can browse the requests in the app!

The tagset will remain open for nominations through the end of signups. Please disambiguate your nominations to make the approvals process faster.

Reminder: We have a relatively new rule that when you sign up, you cannot exclude single drabbles from your offers or requests. You are still welcome to request or offer the other drabble types, you just can't leave 100-word drabbles out entirely from your signup. We will let you know via the email associated with your AO3 account if we notice you've left out single drabbles in your signup. Matching and signups will otherwise work the same as before. See the Guidelines for more details if you have further questions.

GENERAL SIGNUPS REMINDERS:

Is AO3 not letting you sign up for a character that you know is definitely in the tagset?

• If it is simply not appearing in the dropdown, try copy-pasting it from the tagset itself. This is a known AO3 bug.


• If that does not work, please comment here or email us with the exact fandom and character(s) you were trying to request/offer. A mod will then batch load it for you on the backend, and you will be able to request it. This is a caching issue with AO3.

Requests:

• You can request 3-10 fandoms with 1-20 characters each. Fandoms in your requests must be unique, but may be related (e.g., three Star Wars requests would be fine, as long as it was three separate Star Wars fandoms).


• Each request must include at least one freeform (Drabble, Double Drabble, Triple Drabble, Drabble Series/Sequence (Various)).


• Blank signups are allowed, but prompts, likes, and a list of DNWs are strongly encouraged.


• If you wish, you may request Any for the character section, but please note that Any = any character in the canon (NOT just the tagset). Please do not request Any unless you really are open to receiving any character from that canon. If you have character DNWs, requesting Any might not be the best idea, as this could end up with a bad match with someone who had only offered that character. We will be checking for this before we send assignments, but it's possible we could miss something, which would lead to us having to re-assign your writer and send you to pinch hit. (Note that the character DNW would still be upheld in this situation.) If you are requesting Any and do not wish to receive fic about objects, etc., you should DNW that as well.


• If you wish, you may request Any for drabble type. This means you are open to receiving any of the 7 drabble types in the tagset.


• Please note that you cannot opt out of single drabbles. In other words, you are still welcome to request other drabble types, but you cannot exclude single drabbles from your requests.

Offers:

• You can offer 3-10 fandoms with 1-20 characters and 1-7 drabble types each. Fandoms in your offers must be unique, but may be related (e.g., three Star Wars offers would be fine, as long as it was three separate Star Wars fandoms).


• If you wish, you may offer Any character. This means any character in the tagset (i.e., if your recipient has requested specific characters, you must write one of them). Please do not offer Any unless you really are open to writing any character in the tagset for that fandom (including any last-minute additions to the tagset). (If your recip requested Any, y ou may write any character from their requested canon.)


• If you wish, you may offer Any for drabble type. This means you are open to writing any of the 7 drabble types in the tagset. (Note that unless your recipient has also requested Any, you must write one of the specific drabble types they requested.)


• You cannot opt out of single drabbles. In other words, you are still welcome to offer other drabble types, but you cannot exclude single drabbles from your offers.

Do Not Wants:

• Only reasonable DNWs in your AO3 signup will be enforced.


• A reasonable DNW is a DNW that is clear and does not attempt to box your writer into writing just one thing.


• Confused about what a DNW is? See this Fanlore article.

Other:

• If you encounter any issues while signing up that are not noted above, please let us know ASAP, as AO3 bugs can sometimes hit exchanges.

• If you need to let us know something about your signup (such as not wanting to be assigned to a specific other participant), please contact us via email (seasonsofdrabbles AT gmail) or the mod contact post.

Seasons of Drabbles is an exchange for the creation of drabbles and drabble variants which runs 4 times a year.* The current round is for Fall 2025.

*Each round takes place sometime within a three-month period (March-May, June-August, September-November, December-February). Each round will take about a month from nominations through author reveals.

Schedule:
Nominations open: Sunday, October 5 (will remain open through signups)
Signups open: Sunday, October 12
Signups close: Sunday, October 19 @ 11:59pm Eastern Daylight time (Countdown)
Assignments out by: Wednesday, October 22
Assignments due: Saturday, November 1 @ 11:59pm Eastern Daylight time (Countdown)
Collection opens: [DELAYED] Saturday, November 15 @ 1:00pm Eastern Standard time (Countdown)
Authors revealed: [DELAYED] Tuesday, November 18 @ 1:00pm Eastern Standard time (Countdown)

This round's AO3 Collection | Tagset | Nomination guidelines | Requests App | Mod email: seasonsofdrabbles@gmail.com

Need to contact us or have a question? See the Mod Contact post!

The full, newly reformatted Guidelines are below and we strongly encourage you to read them! Here are some quick notes, though:

• First time doing a fic exchange? Welcome! Fanlore has some helpful explanations about how AO3 exchanges work and general exchange etiquette. Don't be afraid to ask a question if something's confusing.
• Here, "drabble" does not just mean a short fic, but a specific wordcount. In addition to single drabbles (fics of exactly 100 words), we accept double drabbles (200 words) and triple drabbles (300 words). We also accept drabble series/sequences.
• When you sign up, you cannot exclude single drabbles from your offers or requests. You are still welcome to request or offer the other drabble types, you just can't leave 100-word drabbles out entirely from your signup. See below for more details about this recent rule change.
• Participants must be 18+.
• Don't use generative AI for your gifts.

( Guidelines )

Now that the most recent round has wrapped up, we have a few topics we'd like feedback on. To give feedback, you can reply to this post, privately email us, or leave a screened comment on the Mod Contact Post.

1) Timing of next round
We're thinking of starting the next round in mid to late October, conscious of not overlapping too much with important trickortreatex dates. Let us know if you feel there are other timing considerations for the fall round.

2) PROPOSAL: A year-long beta post
Many exchanges have an optional beta post where people can offer to beta-read others' work. Is this something you would be interested in using, whether as a writer or a reader? We would probably make a new one annually.

3) Regarding our rule that participants can't opt out of requesting or offering single drabbles
This round, we implemented a new rule that stated that while participants are still welcome to request/offer other drabble types, they can no longer exclude single drabbles from their offers or requests. Overall, we are heavily leaning towards keeping this rule as is in future rounds. Some reasons why: we like that the universal minimum for this exchange is now 100 words, it was easy to implement on the modding side, it changed the signup process on the participant side very little, it allows us to still use drabble type as a matching criterion, and it is anecdotally helpful for defaults/pinch hitting. We've considered a couple other approaches (such as making drabble type an entirely optional freeform) but we believe the current approach works best for us.

However, we'd still like to hear if you felt it had a substantial negative impact on your experience, or if you think another approach would be better.

4) Anything else on your mind?
If you have any other comments or ideas not related to the above, those are also welcome!