Archive of Our Own ^beta

This a fanwork exchange for trauma-focused creations.

Participants match on at least one fandom, one character or relationship, one freeform tag, and one medium (fanart or fanfiction).

The exchange takes place through AO3. Participants will need an AO3 account.

You can find the schedule, rules and general information on the Dreamwidth community HERE.

Each participant must create an original, brand new story, or a new piece of fanart, created specifically to fulfill a request in this exchange. It must meet the following requirements:

→ Be at least 1000 words long, and a full, complete work with a beginning, middle, and end OR clean sketch on unlined paper that is at least 500x500 pixels in size
→ Include the recipient’s requested fandom, character/pairing, and at least one freeform tag
→ Must not contain any of the recipient’s DNWs
→ Fic must be written in English
→ Completed and posted to the Trauma Exchange collection by the stated deadline, unless there has been an extension arranged prior to the deadline with the mods

You must be at least 18 years old to participate.

This exchange follows a “no kinkshaming” policy. Dark subjects like noncon, incest, abuse, etc., are allowed in this exchange. If something isn’t to your tastes, feel free to skip. The point of this exchange is to have fun! Your approach to creating something shouldn’t be “what can I get away with”, but rather “what would make my recipient happy”.

The works and authors must stay anonymous until the official reveal date. Don’t share your work anywhere before the reveals, not even snippets of it (using a beta reader is allowed, of course). Don’t contact your recipient directly, either—if you have questions or concerns, contact the mods at [email protected] or PM @traumaexmod on Dreamwidth.

Sockpuppet accounts are allowed: you may sign up with up to two different accounts, as long as you are planning to fully participate with both accounts. Please take care that you do not match to yourself.

Don't be an asshole. Mods reserve the right to kick or ban participants for egregiously bad behavior, even if not explicitly covered under the rules.

A note: the email account associated with your AO3 account is how the mods will contact you if needed. Please ensure this is an email that you check regularly and that you are okay with the mods seeing it.

If you need to contact the mods for any reason, you can email us at [email protected] or PM the mod account at @traumaexmod on Dreamwidth.

Requests:

You may have 1-10 fandom requests. Each request can have 1-20 pairings and 2-20 freeform tags, plus an additional 2-20 optional freeform tags, and mus indicate if you want fanfiction or fanart, or both. You are welcome to request only one fandom, but remember: you are only guaranteed a gift if you have three unique fandom requests. If you have only one fandom request, and you do not have a gift by the deadline, you will be asked if you wish to add more fandoms before being sent out to pinch hit, but if you choose not to and no one picks up your pinch hit, the collection opening will not be held up for you.

The “optional details” part of the signup form is for exactly that: any additional ideas or clarifications you might have, as well as your DNWs. You will also be able to add a link to an optional “Dear Creator” letter, where you can give more detailed prompts, but in order for your DNWs to be enforceable, they MUST be included in your AO3 signup.

Do Not Wants:

Do Not Want: things you absolutely don’t want to see in your gift. You don’t have to justify your Do Not Wants in any way, but please don’t use unnecessarily disparaging or judgemental language.
For Example:

Acceptable DNWs:
→ “DNW cross-generational incest”
→ “DNW mentions of noodles”
→ “DNW top!Steve Rogers”
→ “DNW insects”

Unacceptable DNWs:
→ “DNW disgusting bathroom kinks” (no kinkshaming please! just say you don’t want watersports)
→ DNW anything kink too extreme (too vague! extreme can mean anything, please define your terms)
→ “DNW incest” (if the request is for an incest pairing, it makes it impossible to fill)
→ ”DNW pool noodles because I was traumatized by a pool noodle and I will have a panic attack if I read about a pool noodle” (too much detail; you don’t need to explain it)

Please DNW anything you are not comfortable receiving. For Creators: if your recipient’s DNWs conflict with their requests (ex: DNW incest, requesting an incest ship), we highly encourage emailing or PM-ing the mods for clarification.

It is absolutely okay to request tags like rape recovery or child abuse and DNW graphic depictions of those, but please make that clear in your DNWs and optional details.

Offers:

You may have 1-10 offers. If you are unmatchable, you will be asked to add more offers. If you don’t do it within the specified time, or you cannot add more, your signup will be deleted. However, please remember that if you only offer one fandom and are not matchable by the end of sign-ups closing, you will be asked to add more within 24 hours, or your sign-up will be deleted.

It’s a good idea to take another look at the requests just before the signups close, to double-check that you are going to match with at least one person. Remember, you need to match on fandom, pairing, AND one freeform tag.

You don’t have to write for the exact prompt you matched on—you just need to fulfill one of your recipient’s requests.

Matching:

You will be matched on one fandom AND one pairing AND one freeform tag AND one medium (fanfiction or fanart).

If your requests are unmatchable, you will go out as an initial pinch hit.

If your offers are unmatchable, we will contact you and ask you to add more. If you don’t respond within 24 hours, your signup will be deleted.

Defaulting and Pinch Hits:

If you are unable to complete your assignment, please default! You can do this by going to the “My Assignments” page and hitting the “default” button. There is no penalty for defaulting before the deadline. However, if your assigned writer also defaults, you will not be sent out as a pinch hit, thus you will not be receiving a gift. If you fail to submit a complete work by the deadline and you haven’t defaulted in time, you will be auto-defaulted.

If you are having trouble completing your assignment by the deadline and need to ask for an extension, please request it prior to the deadline and let us know how much time you need.

Pinch hits will be posted to this comm. Claim them by commenting on the post, or by contacting the mods at [email protected]. Comments will be screened. You don’t have to be signed up to claim a pinch hit, but you do need an AO3 account to participate.

Treats:

Treats are very much encouraged! You don’t have to be signed up to create treats. Similar to the assignments, treats must include at least one requested fandom, pairing, and a freeform tag, and avoid the recipient's DNWs. They can be of any length, however.

To be able to receive treats, make sure that you have gifts enabled under the AO3 preferences! If you want to opt into treats, please indicate it in your optional details. It’s not mandatory, but potential treaters may be more encouraged if they are sure you have gifts enabled.

If you want to write something that fits the theme of the exchange and is inspired by at least one freeform from the tagset, but doesn't match any requests, you may gift it to the collection itself without a recipient.