Nirvana in Fire Fanwork Exchange
Welcome to NIF exchange 2022 Edition!
to creator reveals
special events still on-going!
About
Nirvana in Fire Fanwork exchange is a fun fandom event where we build community through our creativity! This event takes the form of an anonymous gift exchange(sometimes called Secret Santa): a fanwork exchange in which each participant gets to create a gift for a fellow fan, as well as receive a gift from a fellow creator! The gifts are anonymous at first, and there is a grand creator reveal some days after gifts are posted.
This exchange encompasses all types of transformative fanworks across Nirvana in Fire and Nirvana in Fire 2: The Wind Blows in Changlin.This year we have modified a few ways of doing things to accommodate your mods who find themselves with much less availability compared to previous years.
Please carefully read through all our procedures, especially noting changes in Claiming and Beta-ing procedures.
Timeline
| DATE | EVENT | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| Sept 14-30 | SIGN-UPS | Sign ups open for participants, pinch-hitters + beta. Treaters do not need to sign up. |
| Oct 5 | PROMPT LIST REVEALED | Prepare for claims by picking out your top 3 preferred prompt sets. |
| Oct 8-10 | CLAIMS | CLAIMS START OCT 8, 9am EDT! Fill out the claim form with your preferred sets. |
| Oct 17 | ASSIGNMENT | Assignments to be sent out by email. |
| Nov 5-7 | CHECK-IN | Mandatory! Confirm your continued participation. Failure to do so will automatically be considered for pinch hitting. |
| Nov 26 | SUBMISSION DEADLINE | All works to be posted on AO3 in the NIF exchange collection |
| Dec 3 | GIFT REVEALS | All gifts and treats available for viewing but creators remain anonymous! |
| Dec 3-10 | GUESS THE CREATOR GAME + TBA Surprise! | Guess who created which gift! Most correct guesses win a prize! Also possible return of the comment raffles 👀 |
| Dec 10 | CREATOR REVEALS | Creators are revealed and showered with more love :) |
Who can participate?
ANYONE interested in creating/receiving Nirvana in Fire 1 &/or 2 based fanwork is welcome to participate! Our goal is simply to have fun creating and exchanging NIF fanworks! If that’s something that appeals to you, come play!
Be aware that spoilers will abound, so if you haven’t finished the series, proceed at your own risk.For anyone who is interested but has limited time/bandwidth and might not be able to commit to the exchange, you can still participate in the fun!+ HELP OUT as pinch-hitter, a beta and/or a sensitive reader. SIGN UP HERE+ CREATE TREATS!
Anyone, signed-up or not, can create something (no minimum requirements) based on any of the prompts that inspire them! Prompt List available here. Treats can then be posted to our main exchange collection and tagged NIFTREAT2022. More cake is more cake!
What kind of works are welcome?
This exchange welcomes ANY AND ALL CREATIVE MEDIUMS. Any fan, no matter their skillset, is welcome to participate.
Ideas of mediums include but are not limited to:
Fanfic, Poetry, Fan Translations, Podfic, Fanart, Crafts (embroidery, modelling, cosplay, dolls, jewelry, etc), Manips, Fanvids, Filk, Gifsets, Fan Music, Games, etc.What’s the minimum requirement?
Because ANY medium is welcome, it’s hard to put a clear measure on this. We will therefore operate on the honor system and trust you to use your judgement.
Your general guideline is to create a completed original transformative fanwork for your giftee, of a quality that you would be happy to receive yourself.As a general guideline: - 500 words minimum for fic
- 5 minutes minimum for podfic+ In order to increase accessibility, we also ask that any images-based works please include an alt-text or written description for screen-readers+ For media works such as vids, that may contain music with lyrics or dialogue, please provide closed-captioning or a transcript of the lyrics/dialogue used in the work.+ For any work that is a transformation of an existing fanwork (such as a podfic or a translation), please ensure you have permission from the original work's creator.
You can use the FPSlist to check for creators with blanket permission, or check the creator's profile for their statement. If they don't have one, it is your responsibility to contact them to ask for permission.We also urge you as a creator to include a Blanket Statement of your own in your AO3 profile to specify your stance on transformative works based on your own works.If you have questions/concerns, please talk to us.
Exchange Procedures
SIGN UP & PROMPTING
In your sign-up, you will provide 3 prompts that will help inspire your gift.Prompts can be as general or as detailed as you’d like! We highly encourage participants to include a diverse range of prompts that can inspire creators of varied talents! This is also where you can specify your preferred ratings, characters, pairings, tropes, mediums, etc as well as any Do-not-wants.All prompts will be compiled into an anonymized list, with each participant’s prompts represented as one Set. The prompt list will be made viewable publicly on October 5th, a few days before claiming starts.
CLAIMING
When claiming starts on October 8th to 10th, 9 AM EDT,
(WHAT TIME IS THAT FOR ME?
participants will receive an email with a link to the Claiming Form. Participants claim their top three preferred Prompt Sets that inspire them most for the gift they will create. This will help mods make the assignments.
(Creators can chose to create for any ONE prompt out of the three in the Set they are assigned. Therefore, you don’t need to love ALL prompts from a Set in order to claim it, as long as at least ONE inspires you.)Unlike previous years, the Claiming will not be strikethrough live anymore. This mean all prompts remain available for claiming throughout the claiming period. We strongly encourage participants to indicate all prompts they would be comfortable creating, to give mods the most choice when it comes to assignments. Should your top 3 claims not make it, we will follow the order of preferences in your Others list. As such, we strongly encourage participants to RANK-ORDER your top back-up choices.If you want to get your claims in as early as possible but the timing is a challenge, you can get someone to claim for you by proxy. Email mods to notify us of your proxy's information so that we may send them the claim form when claims open.There is no absolute guarantee you will get the perfect assignment, but please be assured that we will do our best to ensure everyone‘s preferences are fairly considered and that everyone gets an assignment they enjoy.
ASSIGNMENT
You will receive your assignment by email on October 17th and have 6 weeks to create your gift.
If you have any questions for your recipient, please email us and we will forward them for you. Please do not contact them yourself in order to maintain anonymity.
MANDATORY CHECK-IN
There will be a mandatory email Check-in on November 5th to 7th. We do not require any proof of progress. The only information we need is the confirmation that you are still participating.IMPORTANT NOTE that if you fail to check in by Nov. 7, we will automatically consider your participation as default and send your claim for pinch hitting.
SUBMISSION
The gift submission deadline is November 26th as long as it’s Nov 26 anywhere in the world.
There will be a buffer period of 1 week between submission deadline and work reveals. This is to give mods a chance to manage last minute pinch-hits and prepare other posting details. Creators are welcome to use this time to make final tweaks/edits to their gifts.Any participants who fail to submit any work will be automatically deemed defaulted and their claim shall be sent for pinch hitting. Therefore, we strongly encourage participants to still submit their work, even if it is incomplete, by the deadline, and then complete it by the reveals to avoid having your gift be orphaned. In short, we encourage you to submit a placeholder of your gift in the Collection.All works should be posted to the Archive of Our Own and submitted to our NIF Exchange 2022 Collection. This automatically means your gift will remain hidden and anonymous until it is revealed.
Here's a handy guide on how to do that.If you do not have an AO3 account, we highly recommend you create one! Simply let us know and we can provide an invitation code. You can also submit your work to us by email and we can post it under a mod account if you prefer.Non-text mediums (images, audio video) should be hosted elsewhere and embedded or linked in an AO3 post as well (refer to this AO3 resource). We can provide support with hosting if needed.
REVEALS
Gift Reveals is on December 3rd, 9AM EDT. They will remain anonymous for a week, until Creator Reveals on December 10th, 9 AM EDT.The GUESS THE CREATOR game will run between December 3rd, 9 AM to December 10th, 8 AM (EDT) - an hour before creators are revealed.For Treats to be included in the game, it must be submitted by December 3rd, 8 AM (EDT) - an hour before gifts are revealed.The Guessing Form will be open where you can select your guesses as to which creator made which work while you go through the Collections. Remember to submit this an hour before Creator Reveals so we can receive your guesses!As an incentive, the participant with the most correct guesses will receive a small prize!
SIGN UP FORMS
Signing up as a participant means you will be creating a gift as a "secret santa", as well as receiving one from a fellow participant.
Please make sure to read through our Exchange Procedures for details.
Sign up closes on Sept 30th 2022
The Pinch-hitter and Beta sign ups REMAIN OPEN THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE FEST! Please sign up at any time!A pinch-hitter is someone who steps in to create a gift, usually on short notice, when a participant defaults and the prompt set they claimed becomes orphaned.
Pinch-hitters will receive emails detailing orphaned prompt sets, which they can accept to adopt, or pass on.A beta is someone who volunteers to help a creator look over their work and provide feedback before it’s final completion. Typically, writing betas might help with elements such as Spelling and Grammar, characterization, plot and flow, c-picking (similar to brit-picking but for Chinese elements.), etc. We welcome betas of any skillset!An IMPORTANT update regarding beta requests this yearThis year, due to manpower constraints, we will no longer pair up betas and creators per request. Instead, we are requesting participants to seek help from Lang Ya Hall Discord server and find a beta in the #partner-up channel. The mods have reached this decision in the hopes of fostering a closer and more active community within the Exchange and the fandom in general.To help facilitate this process, the mods will put up a list of betas who have signed up along with their preferences, which is whatever information to be submitted in this form. Link to this sheet will be shared in the #partner-up channel as well so that the creators can directly approach the betas for help. Access to the sheet itself however will be limited to creators, and only through the emails they signed up with. Betas can choose to accept or pass on the request. Beta and creator can collaborate on their own terms.For Betas:
By signing up as a beta, please be aware that you will be making your @username listed in a public sheet and be directly messaged by others. Of course, the mods will limit the sharing of the sheet to creators only and request creators to keep beta information confidential.For Creators:
Creators can also request for a beta in the server if they do not wish to approach any of the beta in the sign-up sheet, but to retain anonymity, please refrain from sharing key information about your work in the server. If the creator needs to make a post via the NIFexchange mod to stay anonymous, please let us know.Remember to include in your beta requests when DM-ing your potential beta some description of your work and what kind of help you are seeking. Betas can choose to accept or pass on the request. Beta and creator can collaborate on their own terms.Reminder
Pinch-hitter and betas can also opt-out anytime, no questions asked. Simply email us to let us know.
CREATE A TREAT
Anyone is welcome to create Treats based on the prompt list (or not!).
There is no need to sign up as a treater. Treaters do not submit prompts or receive a personal gift, but still get to take part in the fun by creating something and getting to enjoy everyone’s gifts!
Treats do not have any minimum requirements.
As the prompt list will remain anonymized, if you’d like to treat a specific participant or gift the treat to a participant by name, please contact the mods so we may assist you with the information.Post your treats to the main NIF Exchange 2022 Collection at any time, even after the submission deadline. The entire collection will be revealed on Dec 3 and remain anonymous until Dec 10.
You are welcome to tag your treat with NIFTREAT2022 if you like. Treaters are welcome to request help and support from mods just as any other participant in NIF exchange should they need it.It is NOT required to be signed-up as an exchangeling in order to be a pinch-hitter, beta, or treater. A single person is also welcome to sign up to participate with as many of these roles as they wish!
SUPPORT
CONTACT MODS
Mods are available to help you!
Please don’t hesitate to write to us at [email protected] if you desire support of any kind.
You can also reach out to us through any of our social media platforms, but please prioritize EMAILING if possible as it's the safest and fastest way to reach us.ASK US QUESTIONS
We have a tumblr where you can ask us questions. We also hang out in the NIF Discord server. Let us know if you'd like an invite to that space. You can ask us questions in the #ask-event-mods channel!REQUEST A BETA
We have made some changes about our procedures regarding beta requests. Please see our PINCH HITTERS + BETA section for more details.EXTENSIONS & DEFAULTING
Please communicate with us! Don’t feel guilty about asking for help, asking for an extension or even defaulting -- but do it earlier rather than later! We understand that life happens. If at any point you feel overwhelmed or unsure about delivering the gift by deadline, we would prefer it if you talked to us early and requested an extension or defaulted rather than stress out and not be able to deliver on deadline. Let’s give our pinch-hitters a chance to work their magic. This is for fun! If it’s causing you stress, guilt, or any bad feelings, something’s not right and we are more than willing to help you sort it out.GUIDE TO POSTING
Here is a handy how-to guide to posting your work to the NIF Exchange Collection on AO3.
NIF RESOURCES AND REFERENCES
We have compiled a list of NIF related resources and references to help those who need research materials about historical and canon items. We also included links to resources that can help creators be better anti-racist allies and conscientious creators. These are by no means comprehensive and we welcome suggestions of additional links/resources.
Many thanks to our community members who have tirelessly created so many of these amazing resources.
COMMUNITY VALUES
Community, Creativity & Respect
The NIF exchange is first and foremost a fun community event where participants get to be creative, in the form of a "Secret Santa" type event involving the creation and exchange of gifts.
We expect all our participants to treat each other with appreciation and respect.
INCLUSIVITY & SENSITIVITY
This community does not tolerate any discriminatory behaviors (e.g., racism, ableism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, sexism, cissexism, misogyny) towards participants and/or towards any other marginalized groups.Instances of behaviours that are intentionally and maliciously discriminatory and hurtful should be reported to mods, who will investigate and take appropriate action.
CONTENT WARNINGS
Nirvana in Fire contains scenes, mentions or references to: dubcon/noncon/rape, suicide, genocide, torture, prostitution, murder, death and explicit violence.
As such, works containing or referencing any of these themes may be present. The presence of these themes does not equate to us, the creators and participants, condoning these.Works containing any of these themes, as well as depictions of discriminatory behaviors such as those mentioned in the Inclusivity & Sensitivity section (ex: period-typical homophobia) must be appropriately tagged with content warnings. Mods reserve the right to ask creators to add warning tags if deemed necessary or if requests are made.We ask that participants heed warnings; in other words, if you see a tag for content or themes that annoys, offends, triggers, or otherwise upsets you, don't click on it.
Additionally, we acknowledge that despite best intentions, no tagging scheme will be perfect, as each person can have very varied squicks. This Exchange believes that Your Kink is Not My Kink and That’s Okay, and that if you Do Not Like, Do Not Consume.
tl;dr Warnings exist for a reason, so please use them!
APPRECIATION
Please leave a comment to thank your gift-creator! They worked hard on your gift, so please acknowledge their efforts just as we are sure you’d like your efforts to be acknowledged. We won’t be policing this, but you should honour your water buffalo by being a good sport!Likewise, as a creator, please consider your schedule and personal bandwidth if you will likely be able to complete your gift within the timeline. We want this to be fun and not a source of stress. The Mods are always available to help you out if needed.
COMMUNICATION
Please communicate with us in a timely manner, especially if you estimate to need extra time to create or need to default. There is no guilt! But we cannot help if we do not know what’s going on. Help us set you up for success!
HAVE FUN!
Most importantly, remember that the main objective is to HAVE FUN!!!! This is the loveliest community and we want to keep the love happening! :D
ARCHIVE
2021
NIF EXCHANGE 2021 COLLECTION ON AO3
Come give love to our wonderful creators and the 68 works created this year! Comment, Kudos and rec em far and wide!2020
NIF EXCHANGE 2020 COLLECTION ON AO3
NIF EXCHANGE 2020 TREATS COLLECTION ON AO3
PROMPT LIST 20202019
NIF EXCHANGE 2019 COLLECTION2018
NIF EXCHANGE 2018 COLLECTION2017
NIF EXCHANGE 2017 COLLECTION
SPECIAL EVENTS
Welcome to NIF Exchange 2022 Special Events! This year we bring you an old favourite, the Guess the Creator Game, and the return of the Comment Fest Raffle!ANYONE CAN PARTICIPATE, regardless of whether you have taken part in NIF exchange in any capacity before.We also have PRIZES this year! Prize attributions to be announced soon.For the Comment Fest Raffle, winners and prizes will be randomly drawn so if you win, you will get one of the prizes entirely at random. Each participant can win a maximum of one prize.Prizes will be mailed out to the winners internationally. Mods will be covering mailing fees. If you win but do not wish to share a mailing address or PO box, you can simply desist from claiming your prize. We will then draw an additional winner.Look at our pretty prizes from 2021!
GUESS THE CREATOR GAME
EVENT PERIOD: December 3rd, 9AM to December 10th, 8 AM (one hour before Creator Reveals)
Timezone: EDTOur annual game of whodunit, but instead of murder, it's guess who created each of our wonderful gifts! We have included all works in the collection in the game. There are several instances where the same creator could have created multiple gifts (due to treats, pinch-hitting, or simply double-gifting).ANYONE CAN PARTICIPATE, regardless of whether you have participated in NIF exchange in any capacity before. We also have a PRIZE! this year! This is open internationally; Mods will be covering mailing fees. If you win but do not wish to share a mailing address or PO box, you can simply default from claiming your prize and it will go to the next winner.Please see the form for the Game Mechanics!Note for Treaters: For Treats to be included in the game, it must be submitted by December 3rd, 8 AM (EDT) - an hour before gifts are revealed.
COMMENT FEST RAFFLE
EVENT PERIOD: December 3rd to 17th
Timezone: EDTOur goal is to encourage more appreciative comments to all of our amazing NIF Exchange works! Each comment per work counts as a raffle entry, and therefore a chance to win a prize!The raffle is strictly opt-in. Only raffle entries submitted through the form will be counted. That means you can leave as many comments as you like and not submit them for the raffle fest.Raffle draw will take place on December 18th to allow for 2 weeks of commenting time. Prizes will also be randomly assigned.Please see the form for the full instructions on how to submit a raffle entry and the eligibility requirements.Note about our Community Values
In accordance to our Community Values, we want to actively work to create a space that is anti-racist and anti-discriminatory towards any marginalized peoples. This means remaining critical and vigilant of our own biases and open to receiving feedback on Doing Better.Therefore, if you have feedback that you feel is important to point out (ex: cultural misrepresentation, inadvertent -ism, etc) but don’t want to approach the creator directly, you can choose to contact mods by email with your feedback. Mods will check in with the creator, and with permission, pass the feedback along anonymously.