#match ups strictly base on vibes only :D

[r26yz]

[dictacontrion]

Hi Dicta! When you wrote your erised fic, did you know who you were writing it for? How do authors who are friends manage to keep it a secret from each other? What about authors who are friends and beta each other's work, but one of them got the other as the recipient? What if you receive a gift fic and discuss it with another author, do you have to be really cautious to give criticism in case that person wrote it?

Hi anon!!

When writing for @hd-erised​ you def know who you’re writing for, because it’s a gift exchange, so you’re writing specifically for someone else. Everyone who’s participating fills out a sign-up post saying what they do and don’t like, what appeals to them about H/D as a pairing, and leaving a couple of prompts for their gifter. You also say what you will and won’t write or draw. (You can see past sign-ups here). Then the i n c r e d i b l e mods, @gracerene09​, @capiturecs​, and sassy_cissa, do a genius job of matching people based on what they’re interested in writing or drawing and getting (also a very time-consuming and meticulous job, and they do not get *nearly* enough love for that, y’all are supremely generous and thoughtful and generally titans of fandom), and you get a lovely email with a link to your recipient’s sign-up. And then often people do additional recon - going back to read their recipient’s work, looking at their recipient’s likes and dislikes list if they have one, reading comments their recipient has left on other fic. It’s amazing, the love and care people put into writing for their recipient. So yeah, not only do you know who you’re writing for, you’re writing specifically for their tastes and preferences.

Info about who your recipient is is strictly on a need-to-know basis, and people keep it pretty close to the chest, so you don’t necessarily tell your friends who you’re writing for, and that’s normal and understood. For mine, my beta knows, people who I write side-by-side with irl know, and if I have specific questions for someone they might later be able to guess based on that (like while writing about a spoonbill I had some questions about birding in the UK for birdsofshore, and she was able to put that together and guess properly). Also, on your sign-up you designate someone who your gifter can contact with questions, and that person might know if they get contacted, but they’re sworn to secrecy on both sides. That’s a pretty small circle and people really do keep mum about it!  The surprise is fun, and people want to keep that!!

On the receiving end, people do tend to not be very critical of other people’s work, but tbh, that’s a norm I’ve observed pretty widely in the H/D community, or at least my corner of it - people are more focused on talking about what they loved than criticizing things they didn’t like. I don’t think I’ve had anyone say something more critical to me about an erised fic, before or after reveals, than “eh, wasn’t really my cuppa” or “I didn’t love this specific thing.” But (a) that’s pretty normal outside of erised too! and (b) people just genuinely love to talk about fics they loved and rec things to their friends! Which is a good use of energy, and a really nice vibe!

If you get a friend or your beta, it’s time for subterfuge!! I’m not sure I’ve heard of this actually happening, but the plan I’ve heard people throw around just in case is to write a short decoy fic. So like, tell your friend/beta that you’re writing for another participating friend, who you’ve gotten to agree to play along, and send them something short to beta. Then gifts posts and reveals come around, and voila!! Mission accomplished.