Secret Santa 2010 - Sign-Up OPEN

Wow, only one day left! If you want to sign up, now is the time!

We have all seen the Secret Santas set up for people who can draw but what about us who use words for our art? This is a Secret Santa for those of us who are writers and poets. No matter what you write, you are free to join! Not only is this an opportunity great for the holiday spirit, but it is an excellent test of your skills. Best of all, you do NOT have to be a member of our group in order to participate; it is open to everyone!

How Does it Work?
It is simple. If you choose to participate, you will be given the name of another participant along with some information about them (the next section will cover what that means exactly). Once you have this information you will begin to write a poem or short story for that individual to give them for the holiday season.

What Do You Need to Do to Join?
You need to note me, Mirrorakay with the answers to the following questions:
What genre do you write best in?
What genre do you enjoy reading the most?
What genre do you have trouble writing?
What three topics are you interested in reading about? (explained better below)
Do you want to be a Helper? (explained below)
By answering these questions I can assign the participants to areas that they work well in, and it assures that you get a gift you enjoy reading!

Three Topics? What Do I Mean?
What I mean by three topics you would be interested in, is one word concepts like love, hate, summer, etc. Basically if the topic is fairly broad so that someone can actually write something for it, you have the perfect three topics. I am asking for three because it allows the gift-giver the ability to choose the one best tailored to their abilities. Some may even get adventurous enough to meld all three!

Helpers?
We all know that sometimes when we commit to something, life gets in the way and we have to back out. Around this time of year even more people come across this problem and that will have an effect on this Secret Santa. In order to still get everyone their gift and allow people to do whatever life needs of them, I’d like to get a team of Helpers together. The Helpers will do their best to write these abandoned gifts after the official writing period ends. I will do my best to give Helpers gifts  that are suited for their abilities, but that is not a guarantee. So if you think you might have a few hours to spend after the writing period, let me know you’d like to be a Helper.

Timeline!
As with all events, there will be a strict timeline. Here are the dates to be aware of! I am based in the MST timezone so the deadlines will be listed for that timezone. However, I’m fairly lenient so a few hours difference won’t be a big deal.

November 14th [11:59 p.m. MST]- This is the sign-up deadline. If you have not noted me with your information by this point, you cannot participate.
November 20th [11:59 p.m. MST] All participants will be receiving notice from me or one of the other club administrators with the name of the person you will be writing for, along with all of the other information you may need.
November 20th – December 15th [11:59 p.m. MST] This is your official writing period. From the moment you receive your note from us to the last minute of December 15th is all the time that you have so use your month well!
December 16th – 22nd [11:59 p.m. MST] All Helper will be assigned the abandoned gift and do their best to write something.
December 23rd [11:59 p.m. MST] At this point all participants must upload their gifts (please do not upload before this point unless you know that you will be unable to do so at this point) and note their administrator with the link to their piece. Writers must also note the person they wrote for a link containing the link along with any other holiday saying you want to tack on.
Once all of the gifts have been received, the club will post a journal containing all of the wonderful work everyone has produced. I would imagine that this will happen sometime before January 1st, but has no set date.

Rules
Do NOT skip this area. Read through it and make sure you understand all of the rules before joining.
Pre-written pieces are NOT accepted. Your gift must be written for this event.
Do NOT be picky-choosy about the gift you receive being prose or poetry. We are all writers and this event is meant to celebrate the written word. Not to mention the person has worked very hard to write this gift for you and it is rude to not appreciate it. If this becomes a problem you will not be allowed to participate next year.
Fan-fiction is NOT permitted. Sorry guys but allowing fan-fiction brings up a number of issues that we just don’t have the resources for.
Take your time on the gift, dedicate some hard work to it, and enjoy yourself!

Last Note.
Periodically new journals will be posted to keep everyone on the same page. The next journal post will occur on November 14th containing the names of everyone who is participating. Then, when writing officially begins expect another journal that contains a minor timeline (there will be three points during the month when progress checks will be made and additional information may be distributed).  Also, please do not forget the “secret” part of Secret Santa. At no point should you know who is writing the gift for you!

Feel free to ask any questions!!
Questions should be posted in reply to this journal post or other group journal posts. However, please remember that in order to sign-up you must note Mirrorakay with the answers to the questions above. We will not accept sign-ups on our journals, and your comments will be promptly hidden. This is to retain the secrecy that is key to this event!