Welcome to Innumerable Stars!
This is our tenth year. We're trying something a bit different this year - we'll do a single brief explainer post, then do separate posts about Nominations and Sign-Ups. (We're trying to make it simple to find the information you need, and easy for people new to the event to get the gist.)
What is Innumerable Stars? Innumerable Stars is a low-pressure, low-key Tolkien fanworks exchange. The event is run on AO3, so you will need an AO3 account to participate.
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grundyscribbling and
elwinfortuna are the event moderators. If you want more of a flavor of the event, see the
About & Links post.
What are the key dates? Nominations Open: Sunday, 03 August 2025, 8:00 PM UTC
Nominations Close: Sunday, 17 August 2025, 8:00 PM UTC
Sign-ups Open: Sunday, 17 August 2025, 11:59 PM UTC
Sign-ups Close: Sunday, 31 August 2025, 8:00 PM UTC
Assignments Due: Sunday, 05 October 2025, 8:00 PM UTC
Our full 2025 schedule is posted
here, and in the unlikely event of any changes, that is where updates will be made.
How does Innumerable Stars work? There are three phases of the event - Nominations, Sign-Ups, and Assignments.
In
Nominations, we create the tagset for the exchange by submitting characters, pairings, and worldbuilding elements participants are interested in seeing. The only requirement to participate at this stage is a valid AO3 account. No sign-up is required, and you are not committed to do anything more. There will be a post no later than one week before Nominations open explaining Nominations in full.
In
Sign-Ups, participants commit to creating a fanwork, and submit their requests (the things they would like to receive) and offers (things they are willing to create for.) There will be a post no later than one week before Sign-Ups open explaining Sign-ups in full. This post will also cover expectations regarding assignments so that everyone signing up has all information before making requests or offers.
The mods then match the requests and offers, and send out the
Assignments. An assignment includes ALL the requests from the participant you are matched with, but you are only required to create for one of them - it is up to you which one. The period to create the fanwork for your assignment is 5 weeks. (The participant you are assigned to create for will not necessarily be creating for you.)
There is a short period after the assignment due date for the mods to ensure all fanworks have been received, and then the collection opens and squeeing commences.
What are the requirements?- Fanworks for Innumerable Stars must be a minimum of 500 words or a nice sketch on clean, unlined paper. (Note that we welcome various artistic mediums, so artists, please translate 'nice sketch on clean, unlined paper' to your medium.)
- Participants must abide by any Do Not Wants listed in their assignment.
- Participants will create for one of the requests listed in their assignment; it is their choice which one to create for.
- Participants will comment on the fanwork created for them after the collection opens. If they feel they cannot leave any positive comment, they will bring the issue to the mods.
- Participants will be respectful of others. This is a welcoming, inclusive event.
- Fanworks must be the creator's own work, without any use of generative AI, such as MidJourney or ChatGPT.
Why do you post the rules and other key information on Dreamwidth? Better editorial control - if we need to update a post, we know there aren't versions in circulation that aren't up to date.
Is there a way to get in touch with the mods other than here or Tumblr? Yes, you can email us, innumerablestars.exchange at Gmail dot com.
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