Merlin Holidays

• When you're ready to submit, all you have to do is rock on over to AO3 and click on "My Assignments" on your user menu. Find your Merlin Holidays assignment, click on "Fulfill" and then fill out all the necessary bits of the usual upload form. The collection name and your recipient should be pre-filled for you. Your submission must be a standalone work that is complete at posting time.


• Alternatively, you can also go to the Merlin Holidays 2021 collection on AO3 and click on "Post to Collection." That will pre-fill the collection name, but not your recipient.


• The collection is set to await the Mods' approval for the works submitted so you may see a message that it's awaiting approval. You will also see a message that says  "This work is part of an ongoing challenge and will be revealed soon!" at the top.

Important: Please only list the Merlin Holidays 2021 collection under collections. If you also include the one called "Merlin Holidays", your work will be impossible for us to reveal.

Content Notes: We will be following the AO3 warnings scheme for our fest. If your fanwork contains Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-con and/or Underage, you must include these warnings in your header Content Notes and your AO3 post. You may add additional tags you feel are appropriate for your fanwork.

Posting Notes: All submissions will be listed and held as Mystery Works in the collection until posting begins. Mods will be posting 1-3 fanworks per day for the duration of the fest. We will also post headers on this community and our Tumblr & Twitter when new works are revealed, with a link to your fanwork on AO3. Fanworks may not be posted anywhere outside of our AO3 collection prior to the conclusion of the fest. Once the reveals go up, you can crosspost to your heart's content.


2. Email us your header

• Once you’ve successfully uploaded your fanwork to our AO3 collection, we need your header! Email us at merlinholidays@gmail.com with the information we will use to announce and promote your fanwork on this community and on our Tumblr and Twitter.


• In the subject line, please put: From [your AO3 name] to [recipient's AO3 name]


• Copy the contents of whichever of the below box applies to your fanwork and paste into the body of your email and fill in the relevant details:

• When you're ready to submit, all you have to do is rock on over to AO3 and click on "My Assignments" on your user menu. Find your Merlin Holidays assignment, click on "Fulfill" and then fill out all the necessary bits of the usual upload form. The collection name and your recipient should be pre-filled for you.


• Alternatively, you can also go to the Merlin Holidays 2020 collection on AO3 and click on "Post to Collection." That will pre-fill the collection name, but not your recipient.

• The collection is set to await the Mods' approval for the works submitted so you may see a message that it's awaiting approval. You will also see a message that says  "This work is part of an ongoing challenge and will be revealed soon!" at the top.

Important: Please only list the Merlin Holidays 2020 collection under collections. If you also include the one called "Merlin Holidays", your work will be impossible for us to reveal.

Content Notes: We will be following the AO3 warnings scheme for our fest. If your fanwork contains Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-con and/or Underage, you must include these warnings in your header Content Notes and your AO3 post. You may add additional tags you feel are appropriate for your fanwork.

Posting Notes: All submissions will be listed and held as Mystery Works in the collection until posting begins. Mods will be posting 1-3 fanworks per day for the duration of the fest. We will also post headers on this community and our Tumblr & Twitter when new works are revealed, with a link to your fanwork on AO3. Fanworks may not be posted anywhere outside of our AO3 collection prior to the conclusion of the fest. Once the reveals go up, you can crosspost to your heart's content.


2. Email us your header

• Once you’ve successfully uploaded your fanwork to our AO3 collection, we need your header! Email us at merlinholidays@gmail.com with the information we will use to announce and promote your fanwork on this community and on our Tumblr and Twitter.


• In the subject line, please put: From [your AO3 name] to [recipient's AO3 name]


• Copy the contents of whichever of the below box applies to your fanwork and paste into the body of your email and fill in the relevant details:

• Pairing nominations have been increased from 5 to 10 to improve chances of a solid match for all you rarepair lovers!

• If you're open to receiving art, please also include some art-friendly prompts in your sign ups for the fabulous artists among us!


• Be generous with prompts! Please give as many prompts as possible to enable easy matching, don't be shy! Remember that your gifter is going to need as much help as possible to give you something you will enjoy! If your requests are very few and very closed to interpretation, it will be very difficult to make sure you're happy with your gift! Give the elves as much to work with as you can, and be as open about them as you can to ensure a match and a happy outcome for all!


• Be open minded with requests! Please remember that this is a gift exchange fest, and as such, you are signing up to write or create art for someone else's preferences and likes. There are bound to be elements of the request that do not suit your personal tastes, but we are asking all of you to keep an open mind about your giftee's requests, and to concentrate on the things you can do, rather than those you can't. Please remember that the mods work very hard to ensure that participants are carefully matched up. We don't rely on automation, we do this manually, one participant at a time! Please check your giftee's promps carefully and choose what you can work with and ignore what you can't (except the DNWs - please don't ignore those!).

• Participants who default after receiving their gift will be banned from future participation


• Participants who ghost (do not post on their scheduled day and do not get in touch with the mods) will be banned from future participation


• Participants who defaulted after receiving their gift last year or who ghosted last year are not invited to participate this year. Please contact the mods on merlinholidays at gmail dot com if you're in doubt.