Ficathon idea

[kerravonsen]

Just when I'm trying to wean myself off ficathons, I have been pounced on by a ficathon idea to run: the "Introducing the Small" crossover ficathon. (I'm tempted to call it "The Te of Piglet" crossover ficathon.) The idea is this:
* have a list of "large" fandoms, the popular ones that "everyone" knows
* participants have to be able to write in at least one of these fandoms
* participants also have to be able to write in at least one "small" fandom.
* the story written will be a crossover between a large fandom and a small fandom, written from the PoV of a character from the large fandom, with the expectation that the reader is not familiar with the small fandom. (But no info-dumps!)
* for the writing part, participants will need to state:
(a) what large fandoms they can write in
(b) what small fandoms they can write in
(c) things they will not write (possibly from a list, such as will not write adult, will not write het etc)
(d) things they like to write (generalizations, such as "snappy dialogue")
* for the reading part, participants will need to state:
(a) what large fandoms they prefer
(b) what small fandoms they prefer (this is optional)
(c) things they would hate to get in a fic (e.g. adult-rated etc)
(d) things they like to read (generalizations, such as "snappy dialogue")
* Matching will be done on large fandom, then on will-not-write, will-not-read, then on small fandom

In other words, the prompts will not be specific, and the recipients shouldn't expect the stories to match their requests exactly. The only guarantee is that there will be a crossover written in a matching "large" fandom.

The reasons why I like this idea are:
1) I love crossovers
2) Small fandoms are not appreciated enough
3) Many times, one gets introduced to a fandom via a crossover with a fandom one already knows.

So, what do you think? Am I crazy? (yes, I am) What fandoms are the "big" fandoms nowadays? Obviously Doctor Who, Harry Potter and Trek, but what else? Is Stargate still considered big? Is Supernatural?

Edited to add: I've gone and looked over at fanfiction.net, and with a bit of looking around, and some calculation, the following are the fandoms there which have more than 10,000 stories for them:

Num: Fandom
458152: Harry Potter
238281: Naruto
147927: Twilight
93729: Inuyasha
52879: Kingdom Hearts
51940: Yu-Gi-Oh
43379: Lord of the Rings
41409: Bleach
40414: Gundam Wing/AC
38824: Buffy: The Vampire Slayer
36949: Supernatural
33495: Digimon
32188: Dragon Ball Z
32136: Sailor Moon
32024: Pokemon
31781: Fullmetal Alchemist
31371: Final Fantasy VII
26207: Teen Titans
24708: CSI
24318: Star Wars
23711: Card Captor Sakura
23226: Avatar: Last Airbender
22821: Yu Yu Hakusho
22780: Death Note
22771: Stargate: SG-1
20464: Doctor Who
19237: Beyblade
19116: NCIS
18154: Sonic the Hedgehog
17957: Pirates of the Caribbean
17829: House M.D.
17720: High School Musical
17670: Prince of Tennis
15993: Rurouni Kenshin
15857: Legend of Zelda
15835: Stargate: Atlantis
15813: Fruits Basket
15265: Gilmore Girls
13818: X-Men: Evolution
13254: Bones
12749: Transformers/Beast Wars
12277: One Tree Hill
11922: Final Fantasy VIII
11856: Hetalia - Axis Powers
11640: Charmed
11429: Smallville
11285: Power Rangers
11085: Ouran High School Host Club
11061: Hannah Montana
10844: X-Men: The Movie
10653: Ranma
10269: Maximum Ride
10209: Danny Phantom

A number of these (mostly Anime) I've never even heard of.

Comments

[tptigger]

Supernatural is pretty big. As is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, still. Um...

Given I've done two ficathons ever and am still waffling over the Finishathon, which as these things go is super easy, I'm probably a wrong person to ask about whether or not this is a good idea or not.

[tptigger]

Power Rangers is trickier, as it has 14 different incarnations, most of which have different characters. While this did squeak Dino Thunder into Yuletide one year, it does make including it as a "fandom" in ficathons tricky. (Some writers only write a few seasons. I don't know anyone who writes ALL the seasons. I've written at least one fic for most, and even I have my non-favoirtes)

[kerravonsen]

A bit like Trek, or to a lesser extent, Doctor Who, then?

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

I think any of the mainstream ones, Babylon 5, Stargate, Galactica, Star Wars would be considered "big".
Fandoms that only have a minor following would be considered small.
Perhaps if you go on ffnet, or Archive of our own and see which fandoms have a large number of fics and which have only a small following?
Just to get an idea ?

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

The problem I have with the Multiverse ficathon was trying to pic prompts where I knew both verses!

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Huh. It's definitely an intriguing idea.

Oh, and if you decided to do it, a poll might be the best way to find out which fandoms are "big," at least among your prospective participants.

[kerravonsen]

Indeed; this would solve that. Also another drawback of Multiverse is the way it limits the fandoms to "space" fandoms.

[kerravonsen]

I don't think Babylon 5 is considered "big" nowadays.

[kerravonsen]

True, a poll would make sense, but I think I'd need to have a list of potential "big" fandoms to start with.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Might have to be a two-step process... Like, a call for nominations of fandoms that people are interested in writing, followed by a poll to get an idea of how many people are interested in each.

[dreamflower]

LotR is definitely still a large fandom.

The Hobbit and The Silmarillion are small, still, I think. (Though The Silm is larger than The Hobbit.)

Is LOST a large fandom? Now that it's ended, it's closed canon. I know there is some fic for it, but I don't know how much.

Narnia is still fairly small, in spite of the movies.

There are a *lot* of small literary fandoms. You could check out Yuletide's list for a good many small fandoms!

This is a cool idea!

Oh-- and of course, fandoms that are ineligible for Yuletide for being "too large" would certainly fall into the "large" category, LOL!

[jedibuttercup]

I'd be all for this.

(I know, I know, I haven't even signed up for multific yet. I'm going to, though! I'm waiting 'til I see if I can complete the BB due tomorrow first, or if it'll go on the list.)

[kerravonsen]

Yes, you are the crossover Queen... (grins)

You could sign up for the finish-a-thon today, and then update your info tomorrow... (that's one of the cool things about the setup; it's easy to update one's sign-up information)

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Oh man, this sounds awesome. And you could link it with groups like crack_van and strangefandom, where people are already wanting to pimp small fandoms.

I would totally be on board with this, I think. I've gotten introduced to several fandoms via a really good crossover.

[kerravonsen]

Hmmm, that's a good idea for pimping, though I'd have to ask folks who were members to do so...

If I do this, it wouldn't be until after the finish-a-thon, so there's a while yet to think about it.