FAQ

[treatyoself_mod]

What is it?
Treat Yo Self is an exchange designed to reduce your backlog. Creators signup with works that they want to work on, and then are matched to someone who is interested in helping them. You create for six weeks, and then the archive is revealed with your work(s). Simple!

What fandoms are eligible?
All of them. There are absolutely no restrictions on what you can put here. Fandoms, characters, sentient or non-sentient objects, there are no restrictions.

What media is eligible?
All of them.

Are crossovers okay?
Yep.

What about original fic?
Also okay.

Are there any penalties for defaulting?
None. You're your own recipient, after all.

Are there any restrictions on size of works?
Nope. No size restrictions.

Can it be a WIP?
Sure! The only restriction is that it has to be in your backlog for creating.

How will signups work?
Creators will comment to a post outlining generally what their works are about. After the window for creator signups close, I will post the summaries and open it up for cheerleaders to rank which ones they want to cheerlead. From those rankings, I will assign people together. A work can have a maximum of two cheerleaders. If someone is unmatchable for whatever reason then I will post them as a "pinch hit" to garner more attention.

Do I need a cheerleader?
Nope. So long as you're having fun, that's what matters.

Can I bring my own cheerleader?
Sure!

Will there be weekly posts so that you can talk about your works?
Yes! Anonymity doesn't apply so you can be as open about your work as you like. We're all here to support you treating yourself, after all!

Any other questions, drop them in the comments!

Comments

[doranwen]

First, I have to say I am absolutely delighted by this idea. I have such a backlog of WIPs and ideas (mostly WIPs) that I'll start working on, and then peter out because I don't have someone to bounce ideas off, a beta to check my characterization, etc. And they're growing. While there are one or two I've put aside more or less permanently (though I never say never when it comes to fic), most are just waiting for the right person to help me get them back on track and finished!

I do have a couple questions:

1) Will we be posting a description of multiple works and inviting someone to choose one of them, or do we have to pick only one to present to everyone? Because I have a couple that I'm equally happy to just pick one and work on (just to get one of them done!), and someone who would be willing and able to help with one might not be able to help with the other because it's another canon, a different type of fic, contains something they try to avoid, etc. I'd be quite content to just give everyone a "here's the possibilities" and let the cheerleader pick which.

2) Are we specifying *how* we'll be in communication with said cheerleader? For instance, I do really well with live conversation, whether that's IRC, Google IM, or Skype (I'm good with all three). I do not do as well with "turn-based" communication (to borrow a gaming term) such as e-mails, because there's so much back-and-forth I need to do, and I only get a couple times a day to check e-mail (and fewer with actual time to think/respond/write). E-mail would make things drag out for ages, and I'd be concerned about not finishing in time, if it's one of the longer WIPs I have. (Though if there's no penalties for not finishing on time and the cheerleader wants to keep going… I have a couple WIPs I hadn't even considered for this because they would be truly massive - I've already got 10-15k on each one and that's only the start!)

[treatyoself_mod]

You can post as many works as you want to complete for this exchange! If you want to do one, then that is fine, but if you want to post multiple works, then you can sign up with those works. I'll post the summaries for claiming, stripped of identifying details such as potential creators, and then cheerleaders can pick which one they want to do. That said, whatever you post will be matched to a cheerleader!

As for contact with cheerleaders, that's really a matter between the creator and the cheerleader. The initial contact is by email simply because I can then give the creator and their cheerleader(s) relevant contact details and then leave them to it. At this stage I'm reluctant to have a criteria for how creators want to get in contact if only because that would involve a lot more juggling of timezones and availability than I think I'm able to do across an exchange where I'm not sure what the numbers would be. I'd rather leave that sort of thing to the individual participants, as you know your availability and timezone better than I would.

[doranwen]

That makes sense. I actually write *reasonably* fast (not at superspeed like some crazy people I know, lol) when I have someone to bounce ideas off and help me not get stuck (sometimes it's just a minor detail and my brain freezes without knowing it!) so there's a few I might consider working on. :D (Though the latter half of June will be insanely busy for me and I won't have time to write till nearly July, so will have to take that into account…) I'll leave the truly gigantic ones out of it, though - no way will I have time to finish those by deadline! (If this goes well, will you consider a longfic version of this, for a longer deadline? I mean, you didn't specify length, but there's a limit to what one can write in ~6 weeks, especially if not dropping one's life to do nothing but write.)

And yeah, I get the specifying contact details thing. Hopefully the communication will work out well for all parties involved!

[treatyoself_mod]

I haven't considered a longfic version yet - we'll see how this one goes first!

[doranwen]

*nod* I hope it goes well! I was so excited when I heard about it. :D