thrillingdetectivetales: An American Army medic in WWII crouches over a wounded soldier while something explodes behind them, with "MOD" in white letters above them. (HA - mod Bob 1)
Tec ([personal profile] thrillingdetectivetales) wrote in [community profile] heavyartillery2024-06-22 02:48 pm
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[EVENT] Heavy Artillery Rolling Remix 2024







HOW IT WORKS

You can think of a rolling remix like a game of telephone! It's an anonymous challenge that functions like a relay, with every participating author remixing the fic of the (anonymous) author preceding them. Here's a semi-illustrated example of how it all works:

Heavy Artillery presents How to Rolling Remix, featuring Betty, Gladys, and Hazel.
After signing up, Betty, Gladys, and Hazel are each assigned a code name by the friendly neighborhood moderator. Betty is given the codename 'Rose.' Glady is given the codename 'Daisy.' Hazel is given the codename 'Petunia.'They are also provided a schedule, which dictates the order they'll be writing in. Though the names are in code, they can see that they will each have one week (from Monday to Sunday) to write their story.
Hazel (code name: Petunia) is up first. She receives a story from the friendly neighborhood moderator, but is not told who the author is.Hazel reads the story she was sent. In it, Rolf and Teddy (an RCAF pilot/navigator pair) get stranded behind enemy lines. Rolf carries the wounded Teddy on his back to safety. Back in their own barracks, Teddy tells Rolf he loves him, and they kiss.
Hazel decides that she'll keep the canon WWII setting, and she'll keep the pilot theme, but instead of writing about Teddy and Rolf in the RCAF, she writes about Oksana and Yelena, who are part of the Night Witches unit in Russia.When Hazel is finished, she sends her story to the friend neighborhood moderator, who passes it along anonymously to Betty (code name: Rose), who's next in line.
In the anonymous story Betty receives, Oksana and Yelena have been in a relationship for awhile, but are having problems. When Oksana goes on a bombing expedition, Yelena is mistakenly told that her plane was shot down. When Oksana's plane returns, severely damaged but functional, the two realize how close they came to losing each other and apologize.Betty loves Oksana and Yelena, but doesn't want to write about planes. She keeps the WWII setting, but she makes Yelena an expatriate mechanic living in the U.S., while Oksana is a recent immigrant whose car breaks down in the small town where Yelena lives.
When Betty is finished, she sends her story in, and the friendly neighborhood moderator passes it anonymously along to Gladys (code name: Daisy).Gladys loves the anonymous story, but she doesn't want to write period fiction or anything shippy. Instead, she keeps the mechanic/car aspect and makes her favorite WWII tank crew a Formula-1 driver/mechanic team.


At the end of the cycle, there are four anonymous stories revealed on AO3. Betty, Gladys, and Hazel don't know who wrote which story, or what order the stories were written in. They have one week to try and solve both mysteries (for bragging rights only), after which the authors and fic order will be revealed.


Pinch hitters will step in to fill date slots as necessary throughout the process.

And, we have a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! This year, for the first time in this event's five-year history, we'll be accepting art as an alternative to fic! If writing isn't your jam, you can remix a story into an art piece instead. That art piece will then be sent to the next participant, who will either write a story or create another artwork based on it.

Pretty straightforward, right? If not, you can feel free to reach out to me (on Tumblr [[tumblr.com profile] thrillingdetectivetales], or via Discord [thrillingdetectivetales]) or Mucca (via email [muccamukk@hotmail], or via Discord [mucca]) for clarification on any point.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the nature of this challenge, your assigned fic may include pairings or plot elements you don't usually read or write, but you're welcome to reinterpret to emphasize other aspects or be about different pairings. You're not obligated to carry over every element of your assigned fic so long as you do your best to provide a sincere reinterpretation.


SIGN-UP INFO

To participate in the Rolling Remix, you will need:

  • an AO3 account—to post your fic to the collection

  • a Dreamwidth account, or an e-mail, or both—to receive your assignment

A link to the sign-up form will be provided as soon as it goes live on July 8, 2022 at 10AM MDT.

SCHEDULE

Monday, June 24, 2024: Sign-ups go live at 10 AM EDT.
Friday, July 5, 2024: Sign-ups close at 10PM EDT.
Sunday, July 7, 2024: Assigned dates and finalized schedule go out, the starter piece is sent to the first participant on the list by 10AM EDT.

Further dates to be determined once sign-ups are closed.


FAQ

What does "remix" mean?
Exactly what it sounds like! In the same way that music artists take an original song and "remix" it by adding beats, changing tempos, or extracting samples for use in different songs, you'll be taking a completed fic and re-imagining it into something new.

(For some examples of how this might work, you can check out previous Rolling Remix collections here: Heavy Artillery Rolling Remix 2020, Heavy Artillery Rolling Remix 2021, Heavy Artillery Rolling Remix 2022, Heavy Artillery Rolling Remix 2023.)

How similar does my fic have to be to the fic that I'm remixing?
The short answer is: as close as you want it to be. While we recommend doing your best to carry through a theme or a character or a trope, the whole point of a rolling remix is to end in a vastly different place than we started with a bunch of delightful variation along the way. (For example: if you receive a fic set in the Generation Kill canon that deals with PTSD, you can write a fic about those same characters that doesn't deal with PTSD, or you can write a fic set in the Band of Brothers canon that does deal with PTSD, etc.)

Do I have to write for one specific HBO War fandom?
Nope! Band of Brothers, Generation Kill, The Pacific, and Masters of the Air are all welcome, as are crossovers and RPF. Just keep in mind that if you write a crossover, at least one of the fandoms included in the crossover must be an HBO War property.

Is there a min/max word count or other fic specifications I need to meet to participate in the Rolling Remix?
Yes! Your fic must meet a minimum of 500 and a maximum of 3000 words and be written in English.

What if my fic winds up just a little over 3000 words?
If your fic is over 3000 words, you will be asked to cut it back to that hard cap of 3000. Yes, even if it's only 3001. This is to ensure that the accepted word count doesn't slowly creep higher and higher and that all fic in the event remain manageable to read, digest, and remix over the short window of a week.

Can I choose my date slot?
We'll do our best to accommodate everyone's schedules, as we know that this is something of a tumultuous time for many of us, but we ask that you let us know your date slot won't work within 48 hours of receiving the confirmation message we'll be sending out after sign-ups close on July 5, 2024 at 8PM EDT.

How do I sign up to be a pinch hitter?
There will be an option on the sign-up form that allows to volunteer as a pinch hitter. Please be sure that you're prepared to turn around a 500-3K word fic or a finished piece of fanart in a short amount of time if you volunteer to pinch hit.

Where can I find the collection?
The collection will be hosted on Archive of Our Own. You can find it by clicking here.

RULES

As always, with every challenge and aspect of this community, the rules remain:

  1. Don't be a dick. Pretty straightforward, right?

  2. Make sure your fic is appropriately tagged. Yes, this includes the option not to tag, so long as you appropriately apply "Author Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings," etc.

  3. No kink shaming. Keep it civil or get booted.

  4. Do not troll fill. While you may not love every aspect of the fic you're remixing, trolling the author whose work you've been tasked to remix will see you booted from the challenge.

  5. Do not post your work to the collection unless it's completed. As this is a remix challenge, once you post your fic to the AO3 collection it is essentially locked in. While you're welcome to adjust minor typos or misspellings, any actual content change at this point is not allowed, as your fic will have been passed on to the next author in the list for remixing.


Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, or if you require clarification on anything. I'm very looking forward to this challenge!