Innumerable Stars Guidelines & Rules: New & Updated for 2020

[elwinfortuna]

People who participate in Innumerable Stars are:

— Interested in and excited about multiple Tolkien-based canons.
— Interested in their fellow fans’ creativity in fanfiction and fanart, and excited to explore their own.
— Are open to creating and receiving any one of a number of different prompts or ideas.
— Will create their fanwork following their recipient’s prompts in good faith, and will receive the fanwork(s) that have been given to them in good faith also.
— Generally read, draw and/or write a variety of slash, gen, het, adventures, fluff, dark, erotica, worldbuilding, etc, etc. You do not have to be open to or interested in every type of story. However, this is not a place for those who are really interested in just one character, pairing, or scenario, nor is it a place for people who find stories or art containing material they are not interested in offensive because it exists.
— Are happy to read and comment on the fanwork(s) they receive with thanks first of all, but also to read and comment on other fanworks in the exchange.
— Will, if their own time and inspiration permits after they have completed their assignment, also write or draw “treats” for others in the exchange. These are not required but they add to the fun and excitement of the exchange.

Fandoms

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Book of Lost Tales - J. R. R. Tolkien
Born of Hope (2009)
The Fall of Arthur - J. R. R. Tolkien
Farmer Giles of Ham - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Father Christmas Letters - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hunt for Gollum (2009)
The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun - J. R. R. Tolkien
Leaf by Niggle - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings (Movies)
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings Online
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Video Games)
Mr. Bliss - J. R. R. Tolkien
Roverandom - J. R. R. Tolkien
Sellic Spell - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Silmarillion - J. R. R. Tolkien
Smith of Wootton Major - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Story of Kullervo - J. R. R. Tolkien
Tolkien (2019)
Crossover Fandom

Nominations

The nomination period is two weeks at the beginning of the exchange when you get to nominate characters, relationships, and worldbuilding tags that you are interested in. This forms up what the exchange will be about, so if you have ideas for what you want to write about or receive, it’s important that you participate.

To nominate, go to the tagset: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/4507 and click on the Nominate button at the top of the screen.

You can nominate in up to five fandoms (from the list above), and 20 “characters” (this includes both single characters and relationships) as well as 10 worldbuilding tags (to be added to the field labelled ‘relationships”).

Add the fandom from the list above. It may be useful to literally copy and paste it into the ‘fandom’ field. Please note that if you want to nominate for The Silmarillion, you should use The Silmarillion - J. R. R. Tolkien and not The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-earth.

If you wish to nominate crossovers between any fandoms on the above list, they must be entered under Crossover Fandom.

Character Tags

Just below the fandom is the ‘character’ field. In the character field you can enter any of the below types of characters or groups of characters, like this:

Group: Fëanor/Nerdanel & Maedhros
Group: Fëanor & Maedhros
Group: The Istari
Group: Fëanor (Silm) & Tom Bombadil (LOTR books)
Fëanor
Nerdanel

If you are nominating multiple characters, you must put the Group: in front of the names of the characters. You can nominate both / and & relationships, as well as a group that includes both.

If you are nominating the same character or group of characters in different fandoms, or feel that there is potential for the same characters to be nominated in different fandoms, i.e., Group: Elrond & Maglor in both LOTR and Silmarillion, please differentiate them by putting an abbreviation for the fandom after the name, as in Group: Elrond & Maglor (Silm) and Group: Elrond & Maglor (LOTR books). AO3 will not let you nominate characters under two different fandoms if you have not differentiated them.

The differentiators are as below:

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil - J.R.R. Tolkien — (ATB)
The Book of Lost Tales - J. R. R. Tolkien — (BoLT)
Born of Hope (2009) — (Hope2009)
The Fall of Arthur - J. R. R. Tolkien — (Arthur)
Farmer Giles of Ham - J.R.R. Tolkien — (Giles)
The Father Christmas Letters - J. R. R. Tolkien — (TFCL)
The Hobbit (Jackson Movies) — (Hobbit Movies)
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien — (Hobbit Book)
The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son - J. R. R. Tolkien — (HBBS)
The Hunt for Gollum (2009)— (Hunt2009)
The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun - J. R. R. Tolkien — (LAI)
Leaf by Niggle - J. R. R. Tolkien — (Niggle)
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún - J. R. R. Tolkien — (LSG)
The Lord of the Rings (Movies) — (LOTR Movies)
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien — (LOTR Books)
The Lord of the Rings Online — (LOTR Online)
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Video Games) — (SoM Games)
Mr. Bliss - J. R. R. Tolkien — (Bliss)
Roverandom - J. R. R. Tolkien — (Roverandom)
Sellic Spell - J.R.R. Tolkien — (Sellic Spell)
The Silmarillion - J. R. R. Tolkien — (Silm) OR (Silmarillion)
Smith of Wootton Major - J. R. R. Tolkien —(Smith)
The Story of Kullervo - J. R. R. Tolkien — (Kullervo)
Tolkien (2019) — (Tolkien 2019)

You do not need to abide by the piped tags. Nominations will be approved in the clearest, easiest to read format, so just nominate the name the character is most commonly known by (this will generally be Sindarin instead of Quenya, if you have options in both languages). Please nominate including any diacritics if possible.

You can nominate original characters like this:

Original Character (LOTR)
Original Female Character (Hobbit book)
Original Hobbit Farmer (Hobbit movies)
Original Noldorin Character (Silm)
Group: Original Noldorin Blacksmith/Original Sindarin Blacksmith (Silm)
Group: Original Elf Character & Original Dwarf Character (Hobbit movies)

PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU MUST USE THE CHARACTER FIELD TO NOMINATE ALL CHARACTERS AND RELATIONSHIPS.
DO NOT USE THE RELATIONSHIPS FIELD FOR THIS.

Worldbuilding Tags

You can also nominate Worldbuilding tags, under the relationships field. You can nominate up to 10 of these per fandom.

Enter any worldbuilding tag you'd like to see, for example:

Worldbuilding: Trade in First Age Beleriand
Worldbuilding: Avarin Culture
Worldbuilding: Laws and Customs of the Eldar

Please differentiate your tag if it’s something that’s likely to be used in multiple fandoms, like this:

Worldbuilding: Books and Archives (Silm)
Worldbuilding: Books and Archives (LOTR books)
Worldbuilding: Books and Archives (Hobbit Movies)

Signing Up

Once signups open, when you go to the signup form, you will be able to pick the fandom you want your characters/character groups to come from, then the characters themselves.

You will also be able to choose up to 10 worldbuilding tags per fandom. These are optional and will not be matched on; they just provide more information to your writer/artist about the things you are interested in. Try to choose worldbuilding tags that have some relationship to the characters you’ve chosen.

You'll be able to have a minimum of 3 requests (in at least 2 different fandoms) and a maximum of 10. You can request the same fandom more than once, however, you must request different characters or groups.

For requests, you can also fill in a URL to a letter elsewhere, or add optional details, including any prompts. If you have specific things you do not want to see in a story/art, you must enter these into the Optional Details field, as letters hosted elsewhere can be changed after the fact. It’s also encouraged to add things you DO want to see. If you write a letter, it can be hosted on Tumblr, Dreamwidth, Google Docs, wherever you like, but you need to make sure it will be available there until the deadline.

For offers, just, again, add the fandom you want and then the characters. Make sure to choose if you are offering fic or art or both.

Again, you can offer the same fandom more than once, but with different characters. You must make a minimum of 4 offers.

The matching will be done on an OR basis, meaning that if you are assigned to someone, you need only write about one character or character group for your assignment, not all of them.

Completing your Assignment

Your assignment must be at least 500 words long if it is a story, or a nice sketch on unlined paper if it is art. There is no maximum word count. Please be sure you are noting your recipient’s likes and dislikes (if provided) and sticking to them. You must also include at least one of the characters or character group requested. For instance, if your recipient chooses to select the character Nerdanel, and separately, Fëanor/Nerdanel, you must write about either Nerdanel herself, or Fëanor/Nerdanel, but you cannot write a story that only includes Fëanor and not Nerdanel.

If you need more time to complete your assignment, but are confident that you will get it done, please contact the mod for an extension. Extensions of up to three days will be considered.

Posting your Assignment

Once you have completed your assignment, click on Fulfil next to the assignment under My Assignments on AO3. If you find that you cannot complete your assignment, click on Default.

Post the story or art as you normally would to AO3; it will fill in the details of the Innumerable Stars collection and your recipient for you. If you are posting art to AO3 for the first time and are unsure how to go about it, here is the recommended way:

Find a site that will host your art for free, such as Imgur, and also allow you to embed it elsewhere. Fulfil your assignment as above, adding in an embed link to the Work Text field. Make sure to check it in preview to be sure it comes up. If you are unsure, please contact your mod and I will check it for you. Do not post it to Deviant Art or Tumblr or somewhere it might be noticed by the recipient before the deadline, unless you have no other choice (and if that is the case, contact the mod for specific instructions).

Treats

Treats are extra gifts that may be given to anyone in the exchange, by anyone at all. (Yes, you can give someone a treat without being signed up to the exchange if you want to.) If you are inspired by a prompt, write it or draw it and give it to the person who prompted it, it’s as simple as that.

Written treats can be less than 500 words, as they are not full assignments.

Post a treat by going to the collection homepage Innumerable Stars 2020 and clicking the Post to Collection button. Make sure to add your recipient’s AO3 username to the ‘Gift this work to’ field. You can also go to Post as you do normally on AO3, but be sure to enter “innumerable_stars2020” to the Post to Collections / Challenges field just above the Gift field, as well as your recipient’s AO3 username to the Gift field.

Treats may be given at any point in the exchange, including after works have been revealed.

Defaulting & Pinch Hits

If you are unable to complete your assignment, let the mod know by clicking the Default button next to your Innumerable Stars assignment under My Assignments on AO3. This will release you from any obligation to complete your assignment, and it will be reassigned to someone else. If it cannot be handed off by the mod privately, it will be posted to the Dreamwidth community as a ‘pinch hit’ so someone can pick it up and write/draw it. For this reason, if you discover early in the exchange period that you won’t be able to complete your assignment, default as soon as you are sure.

There is no penalty for defaulting before the deadline. Post-deadline pinch hits may result in you not being allowed to participate next year. This includes asking for an extension and then not posting your work within that extension period.

If you have defaulted, you are still obligated to comment on your own gift.

After the Deadline

Following the deadline, there will be a one-week period before works are revealed. You may edit your fanwork during this time, in any way that you need to. This is a good time to get your fic betaed, if you haven’t had the chance before.

Your mod will check to be sure that the assignment fulfils the word count, or that art is present, but will not read any of the fic. (I’ve done this for a few years now, I am very good at delayed gratification!)

Once the one-week period is up, the works will be revealed, but the authors will remain anonymous. You will receive an email with a link to your gift(s). Please comment on your gift(s).

After one further week, the authors will be revealed. This officially marks the end of the exchange.

Rules

1. Stories need to be a minimum of 500 words (treats are exempt from this), and art must be at least a nice sketch on unlined paper.

2. The gift needs to meet the request with regards to at least one character or group of characters the requester has asked for. If a pairing is requested, the story or art needs to show at least some element of romance or sex between the pairing and some idea that they are the ‘endgame’ pairing for the story. A story where the requested pairing break up which ends with one partner involved with someone else does not fit the criteria.

3. You must pay attention to your recipient’s preferences with regard to likes and dislikes, if stated, and try to fulfil them as best you can. Avoid dislikes or Do Not Wants (DNWs) to the best of your ability and if you are unsure about it, please contact your mod. Try to meet at least some likes as best you can. (If no likes or dislikes are stated, feel free to proceed as you prefer, though it’s probably a good idea to avoid scenarios such as non-canon character death, graphic torture or violence, and/or unusual sexual kinks.)

4. As a recipient, if you choose to state your likes and dislikes, please do so as clearly as possible, particularly for dislikes. However, do not state why you dislike or do not want something. For instance you might choose to list out your likes and dislikes:

Likes: fuzzy kittens, walks on the beach, berry-picking, unusual musical instruments
Dislikes: burning ships, Kinslaying, dragons, Maedhros in Angband.

But there’s no need to explain that you don’t like dragons because they remind you of that time when a dragon attacked you and burned your villages to the ground, and you don’t need to say that you’re fond of fuzzy kittens because they give you a brief moment of joy in the never-ending agony that has become your life.

5. You must comment on the fanwork(s) you receive, unless you feel it has included something you have stated that you do not want. If so, this should be reported to the mod and the story refused as a gift. Your comment does not have to be any specific length but you should at least include a thank-you to your writer or artist. Anyone who has not commented on on their gift(s) will not be permitted to sign up next year until they do.

6. Minors may participate in the exchange. However, if you are under the age of consent in your state or country of residence, please do not prompt or create adult (M or E rated) fanworks. Anyone found to be breaching this rule may not be permitted to participate in future exchanges.

Comments

[likethenight]

Hi! I am very keen to participate but I have never taken part in one of these events before and I don't really understand how it works, so I have some probably very stupid questions.

Mostly, I am not clear on what nominations are, and how they differ from requests and offers. Must I nominate to be able to make requests and offers, and to be given an assignment? I am also not sure what 'worldbuilding tags' are - are these what usually goes under 'additional tags' when posting on AO3, or are they a specific subset of things (for example, would 'angst' or 'established relationship' go here, or is this for broader themes?).

I hope this is OK - I probably need a 'fic exchanges for beginners' primer, as although I've been in fandom on and off for 20 years I've never actually participated before!

Thank you in advance! :)

[elwinfortuna]

Thank you for asking, there are no stupid questions! The exchange conventions are quite well established and it can be a little tricky to get your head around them as a new person to exchanges, so it's totally understandable that you're feeling a bit confused.

You do not have to nominate to be able to participate in the exchange, but you run the risk of not seeing the characters or ships you'd like to write/draw or read about. Especially if you're interested in an obscure character or canon, it's important to get them nominated yourself rather than hope someone else will do it. It might be worth having a look at the tag set over the next few days to see if the things you want to write about are in there, and if they don't show up, then nominate them.

As for Worldbuilding Tags, we generally go by the definition of worldbuilding established by worldbuildingex: "any exploration of how a fictional world works beyond the information presented in canon. This includes (but is not limited to) more detailed extrapolation of information presented in canon, filling in gaps in the canon backstory, attempts to reconcile apparent contradictions in canon information, exploring the perspectives on canon events of characters implied to exist but not considered within the canon, etc."

So Worldbuilding tags are less about the genre of fic you're writing and more about the world you're building within that story. Worldbuilding would be like societal conventions, or laws, or geography, or the way that the world works in some way. Say you're intrigued by, IDK, how orcish society works, you might then nominate Worldbuilding: Orc Society & Conventions.

For instance, someone has nominated Queerplatonic Relationships/Romantic Friendships. In this case, this tag is saying they are interested in how these kinds of relationships work in Middle-earth. Someone else has nominated Finduilas Is Gil-galad, which is a way of saying they would like see that particular theory about Gil-galad's identity explored.

So these are things that certainly might end up in the Additional Tags on AO3 eventually. But they are very much about the world you want to see, and sort of a way of phrasing questions you might have about Middle-earth. For example, I've always been interested in trade and fashion, so I tend to nominate Trade In First Age Beleriand, and usually fashion-related tags in various eras.

I hope this helps! I wish there was a primer for fic exchanges for beginners, but please do ask any questions that come up. This is a fairly small and low-pressure exchange, so it's a good place to start.

It may help to read through some of the pages on Fanlore about exchanges such as AO3 Exchange, Gift Exchange and Exchange Etiquette and follow some of the links to sub articles about things like Dear Creator letters, Matching, and Pinch Hits. Innumerable Stars is a fairly typical AO3 exchange, though I do a combination of handmatching and automated matching. (I let the automated matchmaker set the initial matches but then check the matches for full compatibility and adjust as necessary.)

[likethenight]

Thank you so much for such a detailed and helpful reply! I'll give it a couple of days and then look at the tagset as you suggest, and have a think about what to nominate.

Thank you also for explaining the worldbuilding tags - this is one of those things that my brain sort of struggles to wrap itself around!

I'll have a look at the pages you recommend too and get myself properly familiarised - I'm super excited about participating!

[(Anonymous)]

Can you explain what Queerplatonic relationships/Romantic friendships is assumed to mean for the purposes of this exchange?

[elwinfortuna]

I think the Aromantics Wiki has a good definition of queerplatonic. It is, in brief, a relationship that is more than friendship without being sexual or romantic.

Romantic friendship would be a friendship that is conceived of like a romance without being sexual, i.e., overwhelming emotions, romantic-style gifts, gestures of affection that go beyond friendship, but with no intention to begin or have a sexual relationship.