Archive of Our Own

The Man From UNCLE Winter Holiday Gift Exchange 2021 celebrates the end of the year festivities. Write a fic with at least 1000 words to make another fan happy and get something in return. Artists are welcome as well! Please read the FAQ and the rules. If anything is unclear, you can ask one of the hosts via tumblr (deducitetemporacarmen.tumblr.com or coaldustcanary.tumblr.com) or email ([email protected]).

What is this and what do I have to do?
The TMFU Gift Exchange is exactly what it sounds like. You sign up right here by filling out the request and offer forms (How you do that is described below). After the sign-up closes, your offer will be matched with someone elses requests and your requests with someone elses offer anonymously (not necessarily the same participant). This Gift Exchange appears then under Assignments on your ao3 account with your assigned requests. From those requests you choose a prompt and write a fic for it with at least 1000 words in English or produce fanart for it. Only you and the maintainer of the collection know who you're assigned to and for surprise purposes it should stay this way. When you're finished, post the work to the collection. It's going to appear as a mystery work by an anonymous author and no one else can open it. Please mind the deadline. There's going to be a check-in before that. At the reveal all the works in the collection are made readable, including a gift for you by another participant, who was assigned your requests. A few days after that, the authors/artists are going to be revealed. Basicly it's make a gift, get a gift. All submitted works must be new.

Who can sign up?
Anyone with an ao3 account. If you don't have one, contact one of the maintainers, we should be able to get you an invite code.

Does the work have to be winter or holiday themed?
No, you can request or offer anything.

Will the schedule change at any point during the exchange?
I hope not. If I change the schedule, I'm going to announce it on my tumblr deducitetemporacarmen and email. Maybe this year I won't mess up with the a.m./p.m. stuff.

How do I formulate my requests?
You can fill out three to five requests, in which you prompt what you would like to get. Choose the characters and pairings you would like to read about for each specific prompt. A description of the prompts or pointers/tropes should go into the free text field, including what you don't want. Warnings and ratings can be added, but that's not a must. Optional tags are allowed to specify your prompt. As you are not the one writing your own prompts, I would advise you to leave your assigned author a little space to breathe and not to go too deep into the details.
Look at the Request Summary of the TMFU Gift Exchange 2016 for examples (http://archiveofourown.org/collections/TMFUGiftExchange2016/requests). Three of the allowed five requests are supposed to be movie-only! If you want to request something including a crossover or the Man From U.N.C.L.E. Series, please do so in the additional two requests. Of course if you don't want a crossover or something about the series, you're still allowed to submit five movie requests. More requests mean more to choose from for your gifter (but not necessarily more gifts). If you're more interested in the series in general, you might want to consider to sign up for the
Down the Chimney Affair, which is more focused on the series.
PLEASE SPECIFY AT LEAST ONE NON-SHIPPY REQUEST. We expect not many participants, so to guarantee adequate matchings we ask you to specify at least one request that can be filled regardless of romantic relationship preference. Of course you could formulate shippy requests and then add-on a variation to make it gen. Example: I would like Character X comforting Character Y after a mission gone bad, can be shippy or gen!
Also please state, if you would be open to receiving fanart as gift opposed to fic.

How do I formulate my offers?
It's not too different than formulating prompts. You state, what you would be willing to write by choosing characters/pairings etc. The form allows you to choose more freely compared to the requests, so that you can include more aspects that you would be willing to cover. Please state in the free text field, what you really don't want to write. Still, it's an offer, not a request, which means you are not supposed to state specific prompts in the free text field. What you are going to actually write is one (or more if you feel up to it) of the requests of the participant you're assigned to. If you offer to write crossovers or something about the Man From U.N.C.L.E. Series, state this in an additional offer. Stating a second offer doesn't mean that you're obligated to write two gifts, it's only for organizing purposes. If you're more interested in the series in general, you might want to consider to sign up for the
Down the Chimney Affair, which is more focused on the series.
Example: I'd like to write pairing (X), but would also be okay with paring (Y), please no blood or major character death, I'm good with fluff and H/C and I HATE car chases.
PLEASE STATE IN THE FREE TEXT, if you would be a potential PINCH HITTER. This means that you would offer to write an additional gift, if someone has to drop out of the gift exchange. This could happen pretty close to the reveal date and we would contact you with the prompts of the participant, who is missing their gift so far. Of course you can still turn them down.

Is it about the movie only or can I request/offer writing about the series or a crossover with anything?
This gift exchange concentrates on the movie. However you may include the series in one or two of your prompts. Read more about this in How do I formulate my offers/requests above or in the rules. Just be aware, that your gift is a lot more likely to be about the movie than the series. If you're more interested in the series in general, you might want to consider to sign up for the
Down the Chimney Affair instead or in addition.

How will we be matched?
Mainly through pairings and characters. Depending on the number of participants, I am going to match the requests and offers by hand or at least look over the matches ao3 provides.

Are the requests going to be public?
Yes, after the sign-up closes.

How long does my work have to be?
You need to write at least 1000 words. There's no maximum wordcount, but your work has to be finished in time.

What about fanart/other forms of fanwork?
This exchange is fic-focused historically, however we are trying to be inclusive of fanart. Last year two artists signed up and it went well. Your art gift has to be a new work and it must be one finished piece of clean lineart on unlined paper, or digital equivalent. For the matching process we will ask the participants to indicate if they would like to receive an art-only gift.

Do I have to fill all of my giftee's promtps
No, you don't. The simplest way to fulfill your assignment is to pick your favorite request of your giftee and write something for it.

Am I allowed to fill more requests than one?
Yes you are allowed to write as many fics as you want, but make sure that you fill one of your assigned requests first with a fic of at least 1000 words.

Am I allowed to fill a request of a participant, who is not my assigned one?
Yes, but please fill your assignment first.

Am I allowed to mix the requests I was assigned, as in writing aspects of request 1 and 3 in one fic?
As long as the requests don't say different, I don't see a problem with that.

Do I need a beta reader?
No, not necessarily, it is nice to have one though.

What if I don't like my assignment?
Don't give up easily, you have about two months to finish your work. Keep in mind, that you write this fic as a gift for someone else. Still if it's truly a mismatch and you really can't write or art anything for them, let the maintainers know as soon as possible.

I really need to contact my giftee/gifter!
A lot of people allow anonymous asks on their tumblr. If you're unsure or in case you need to reach your gifter, I can always ask them for you in the role of the collection maintainer. But please ask yourself, if it's really necessary to contact them.

How do I post to the collection?
You can either post your work like you always would, but check the box that your fic is filling an assignment. If it's an additional gift, fill out the field labeled "Post to Collections / Challenges" with this collection. Don't forget to fill out "Gift this work to" then as well. Another way is to go to your Assignments and link your fic directly to it. Or you can post this fic directly to the collection and press the button "Post to Collection" on top on the right side.

Am I still allowed to edit my work after posting it to the collection?
Yes of course. Still your fic must be finished by the time of the reveal at latest, so please don't post mere drafts.

I don't think I can finish my assignment in time!
Contact me as soon as possible! If there's still time, we might find a solution or a pinch hitter for you.

I missed sign-up, but I still want to participate!
Sign up as a pinch hitter! Send me an ask with your email adress and your ao3 user name at my tumblr deducitetemporacarmen and possibly save the gift exchange for one fellow fan. A pinch hitter is basicly a writer in reserve. If someone can't fulfill their assignment in time, the prompts are going to be reassigned to a pinch hitter. With some luck, the pinch hitter (If they are not already participating) might get a gift fic even though they didn't originally signed up. Of course nobody can stop you if you want to write a fic for a participant based on their prompts without signing up yourself. Contact me about adding this to the collection, if you want to.

What do you mean by resetting the publication date?
This is only important for people who upload their gift way ahead of time. Since your work is unrevealed, it won't show up in the tag at that time. However, after the reveal it will be sorted by the date you've uploaded it and not the day it is revealed on, which means it might be a lot further down in the tag than the other works and might not get the attention it deserves. To avoid this, you can edit the publication date of your work to put it closer to the time of reveal. You can't set a publication date to a future date, so the closer to the reveal date you do it, the more effective.

1. Be nice to each other. No rudeness or bashing.

2. Your work has to add up to at least 1000 words in English or it must be one finished piece of clean lineart on unlined paper, or digital equivalent for artists. All works must be new.

3. You need to request (what you would like to read) at least three fic ideas, but you are allowed to request up to five. ONE REQUEST HAS TO BE NON-SHIPPY/GENERAL. Making one offer (what you would like to write) is obligatory, you are allowed to make one in addition to that. Please state in your offer, if you would sign up as a pinch hitter as well.

4. The fandom The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015) is mandatory. If you want to include the series or a crossover, please do this in addition to three movie only requests and one movie related offer.

5, Please stay anonymous. Nobody can force you to do so, but it will ruin the surprise.

6. If you worry that you can't finish your assignment for any reason, please contact one of the hosts as soon as possible to find a solution.

7. Please read the FAQ about how you fill out the forms for requests and offers before you sign up.

8. Please consider resetting the publication date of your gift fic, if you've uploaded it early, so it's not buried in the tag. (If you don't know what this means, there's a longer explanation in the FAQ)

9. There's going to be a check in on November 21st via email. Please respond to the message. This is just meant as a reminder and a reasurance that you're still participating. It doesn't matter which state your work is in at this point.