Hello everyone!
The twelfth anniversary of Elysian Fields is fast approaching, and you know what that means...? Challenge month! Welcome to your intro post on the 12 Years 12 Seasons Challenge. This year, we're providing you with a variety of written prompts. When you sign up for the challenge, you (the author) choose a specific prompt that you intend to respond to. The full prompt must be included in your fic. The location of the passage can be used as you see fit. You can use it as a fic opener or somewhere else within the text; where is entirely up to you.
Of course, we want all of our talented banner artists to be included in this challenge - and you will be. Artists, we are asking you to do the same as the authors: pick a prompt that speaks to you and create a banner. Once banners have been made, they will be added to a master list with the prompts. Authors participating in the challenge will be able to request a banner as soon as they have written the beginning/first chapter of their fic.
What if you're not an author or an artist, I hear you ask? Don't worry, readers, we haven't forgotten about you. So long as you write 15 reviews that contain 12 words or more (for the 12 seasons of Buffy including the comics), you'll meet the requirements for the reviewer challenge!
I will act as a conduit for banner sign ups via email - similar to the other challenges we've hosted. When you're ready, authors, send me an email requesting a banner. The banner claims will be first come, first served. So, while there MAY be more than one author responding to a challenge, there will ONLY be one banner claimed for that response.
Artists:
We’re asking you to create a banner with the following specifics:
Dimensions: Width 900px x Height 250px (maximum)
Text: In a small (approx 8 – 10 pt) clear font along one of the edges:
Designed for the Elysian Fields ‘ 12 Years 12 Seasons' Challenge.
Title: left up to the author. When your art has been claimed author and artist will be put in contact for banner personalisation.
Design: Completely up to you! The banner can be theme or episode specific, whichever works best for you , the artist.
Sign up email: send all banners created to angelic.amy.fic@gmail.com with the following information:
-Artist Penname (EF account):
-Prompt number the banner is a response to:
Authors:
We’re asking you to write a fic with the following specifics:
Length: Minimum length 1,500 words, maximum completely up to you!
Characters: Buffy, Spike, any other characters from the show (or original creations).
Content Specifications: Must include the passage you have signed up with somewhere in the fic. The banner must accompany the fic when it is posted on the archive. Modification of the banner with fic title and author name should be discussed with the artist once the first part is ready for publishing.
Sign up email: send all fic sign ups to angelic.amy.fic@gmail.com with the following information:
-Author Penname:
-Prompt number you will be writing for:
RULES AND REGS:
1) All fic entires MUST include BOTH Buffy and Spike. This is a Spuffy community so both vampire and slayer are a necessity! This does not restrict fic to the canon world, feel free to write Alternate Reality or All Human if that's what your muse prefers.
2) All banner entries MUST comply with the size restrictions.
3) All fic entries MUST meet the minimum word count.
4) All fic sign ups by authors MUST be emailed to the address provided.
5) All banners made by authors MUST be emailed to the address provided.
6) There is no limit to the amount of banners an artist can make, nor fics an author can write!
EVENT DATES:
Banner creation: 9th September to 1st October 2018
Fic sign ups: 9th September to 25th October 2018
Banner claims: 16th September to 25th October 2018 (or until all banners claimed)
Banner confirmation emails: from the 18th of September 2018 onward
Fic writing time: from the 9th of September 2018 onward
Fic posting time: from the 1st of October (site time) to the 31st of October 2018
NOTE: fics DO NOT need to be completed by the end of October, but the first part/chapter must be started prior to the end of the month to be included in the Challenge.
The prompts master list for the 12 Years 12 Seasons Challenge can be found HERE.
That's about it. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Yours in Spuffy,
The Mods.
--Amy on September 08, 2018 02:50pm 15 Comments
So how do we see these prompts? Will there be a link? Also, this sounds fun.
EllieRose101 - to answer your question, multiple banners by different artists can be made for the SAME prompt. So if four banners are made for the one prompt, you request from those four banners. And once your banner is confirmed, no other author can claim that banner, but the prompt can still be written by other authors, and they are free to choose from the other three banners.
Does that make sense?
Sigyn - the link to the prompts is at the bottom of the post. 
Got it. Thank you.
Question: How married are we to banners created for the prompt? If only one artist makes a banner for the prompt you're writing for, but it doesn't remotely match your story, are you required to claim it? Similarly, if a banner for a different prompt DOES match your story, can you make a bid for that one, instead?
Sigyn, that's a great question.
Unlike the Artistic Anniversary Challenge, where the artists came up with the fic requirements and made the banner to go with them, the prompts and banners for this challenge were (are being) made independent of each other.
So no, you do not have to claim one of the banners that are made for your prompt if you don't wish to.
However, banners specifically made for other prompts by artists are only up for grabs for authors responding to that prompt.
Asking to clarify - when we have the first chapter of our fic, and it is Sept 16 or later, do we email to request to claim banner? What do you need us to do? (My chosen prompt already has a super-sexy banner submitted too, yay!!!)
Hey bewildered - as soon as the site clock clicks over to the 16th of September, email your banner request in. I'll be putting another news post up prior to banner claims, but FYI the email should contain the prompt number and banner number for that prompt that you are requesting.
It will be first come, first served, so if there are multiple authors signed up to the challenge it'll be whoever sends that email first that gets the banner. The idea is that we'll have multiple banners per prompt as well, so that you'll be able to send a 1, 2, 3 banner request.
We delayed the banner claims a week to allow time for artists to get submissions in, and hopefully we'll see lots of new pretties gracing the site soon!
Are these the only prompts or will there be more?
These are the 12 prompts we are using for the challenge.
One of the prompts merges with an idea I've been playing around with, but the prompt is in narration and I'd want to use it like dialogue. Would it be against the requirements of putting the full prompt in your fic if I changed the characters name to "I" and added 'Character said' after?
Hi handwithquill, I've sent you a PM. 
Maybe you'll answer this later, but when it comes time to post, is there a certain 'category' we should include these in to identify them as the 12 Year Challenge or do we just say that in the story notes and say which prompt we are writing for there?
Maybe you'll answer this later, but when it comes time to post, is there a certain 'category' we should include these in to identify them as the 12 Year Challenge or do we just say that in the story notes and say which prompt we are writing for there?
If there "MAY be more than one author responding to a challenge, there will ONLY be one banner claimed for that response," does that mean that all of the authors responding to the challenge in question get a variation on the same banner (customised with their own title), or that only the first author to post gets a banner and everyone else going off the same prompt goes without?