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The Hanged Man

Fic Club

The Hanged Man’s Fic Club is an event run on Discord and mirrored on the Dreamwidth and Pillowfort accounts. The goals for the fic club is to read more fic and kudos and/or comment on more fic. The goal is approximately 7k - 10k per month. This goal may be increased or decreased, based on member feedback.

Participation in fic club is voluntary, and members are free to join and leave the club as their time allows. However, if a member does participate, there are a few guidelines for participation.

General Guidelines

  • Fic Club will read between 7k and 10k per month.
    This can be accomplished by splitting a longer fic into shorter bits, adding up shorter fics to hit the goal, OR by choosing one single fic that hits this word count.
  • Fic Club members work together to suggest and choose fics.
    Facilitators are only here to help keep to the schedule and announce discussions.
  • Fic Club will have a discussion about the fic at minimum twice per month.
    This schedule is flexible based on word count and the number of fics being read. For example, if we’re reading four fics, a weekly discussion might be appropriate. For longer fics, the first discussion acts as a check-in for the halfway point and a cheer-on to help you finish.
  • We recognize that not all fics will be to everyone’s taste, and highly encourage other members to run alternate fic club selections.
    For example, if we’re reading a ship you do not like, you’re more than welcome to gather a group of people who would be more interested in alternate fics. See Alternate Selections for more info.

Participation Guidelines

  1. The first rule of fic club is: don’t talk about fic club.
    Just kidding, tell your friends. Talk about fic club. You can even tell the authors you read the fic because of fic club. We don’t care.
  2. Participation means you agree to read the fic(s) chosen and leave a kudos or comment.
  3. Comments can be left after group discussion!
    One of the goals of this is to make commenting easier through discussion between participants.
  4. You should have completed your reading by the discussion days (or shortly after) and be ready to discuss the fic.
  5. Participation in discussions is the point!
    Even if you can’t be there at the exact time a discussion starts, please join in asynchronously in the discussion at your leisure! Fic Club won’t work without the discussion!

How Fics Are Chosen

  • Members complete a form to suggest fics. The form is open at all times.

    • Fics should be in the Dragon Age fandom.
    • Fics should be hosted on AO3.
    • Fics should be complete at the time they are suggested.
    • At this time, fics should be under 20k. If there is enough interest and participation, we may run sessions for novel-length and epic-length fics in the future!
    • Members should not recommend their own fics.
      This is based on the honor system. Members may suggest other members’ fics!

  • Mods will select select 3-4 fics or fic groups for the next month, and post a poll for members of the Discord to vote on.

    • In order to keep fic choice simplified and not have to aggregate votes across platforms, only the Discord will be allowed to vote on fic choices. If you would like to vote, please join!

  • Once the selection is made, the fic(s) and reading schedule, as well as discussion dates, will be announced on Discord, Pillowfort, and Dreamwidth. Any members of these communities are welcome to join in!

Discussion Guidelines

On the Discord:

  • Discussion threads will be created off the channel most closely related to the fic.
  • Each fic will get its own thread.
  • The @fic club role will be pinged in the wicked_grace channel with a link to the thread when it’s time for discussion to begin.
  • Participants can join in at their leisure to discuss the fic.

On Pillowfort and Dreamwidth:

  • Threads will be created in the announcement of the fics for each discussion date.
  • Threads will be frozen when it’s time for the next discussion.
  • Threads will be unfrozen at the end of the month, so people can continue to comment/discuss and so people who stumble on fic club later can also read the fics and discuss!

Alternate Selections

If the group’s chosen fics contain ratings, tropes, or ships you don’t or can’t read, we welcome you to host an alternate selection. Discussions on alternate selections should happen at the same time as other selections. For an alternate selection, we recommend:

  • Posting to ask if others would be interested in an alternate selection.
    If there are not more than three people interested, it may be better for you to skip the fic, rather than host an alternate selection.
  • Posting a poll to choose between three or more fics for a group consensus.
  • Hosting a thread on the Discord in the manner listed above for discussion.
    We don’t forsee alternate selections being on Pillowfort or Dreamwidth; however, if there is interest, in alternate selections being hosted by someone on the Discord without an account on pillowfort or Dreamwidth, we will be happy to post threads for discussions on those platforms.

Mods are happy to help talk you through technical things, but will not post the polls or create threads for you. This is an opportunity for you to learn how to post polls and start threads!