Community Profile

What is Early Bird Gets The Word?

Early Bird Gets The Word is a fic and art exchange inspired by Night On Fic Mountain for small and inactive fandoms. Participants sign up to write a story of at least 1,000 words or create art in a fandom someone else has requested. In return, they will receive a story of at least 1,000 words or art in a fandom they have requested.

When does this take place?

The challenge takes place as spring transitions to summer. Please refer to the year’s schedule for details.

Why is this exchange called Early Bird Gets The Word?

We wanted something to do with awakening sleepy-headed fandoms, so we were thinking of phrases that had to do with the morning and waking up. “The early bird gets the worm” was suggested, albeit with a massive typo (because the mod was sleep deprived, ironically--or perhaps unironically), and the name stuck.

Nominations

Inactive fandoms (that are sleepy that you want to rouse!!!) qualify if they have fewer than 50 new stories on AO3 since 1st January 2025, excluding any stories posted to Yuletide collections.

You may nominate solo characters (Solo: Character name), platonic relationships (&), and romantic relationships (/). All nominations must be disambiguated. Refer to the comm for the most recent nomination guidelines.

Requests

You are allowed between three (3) and ten (10) fandom requests, with up to ten (10) characters/relationships in each. You will receive a gift featuring one (1) of the characters/relationships you requested. If you would like to receive a gift featuring any of the nominated characters/relationships in a fandom, click the "Any" box.

For both requests and offers, you are required to choose one (1) or two (2) of the following freeform tags: *Fanart, Fanfiction*. This is the medium in which you are requesting a gift and offering to create a gift.

If you request no (0) characters/relationships, your creator is allowed to write or draw about any of the nominated characters or relationships in the tagset for the fandom they matched with you on.

Offers

You are allowed between four (4) and ten (10) fandom offers, with between two (2) and fifteen (15) characters/relationships in each. If a fandom you want to offer has less than two (2) characters/relationships i.e. one (1) or none (0), click the "Any" box. If you would like to create a gift featuring any of the nominated characters/relationships in a fandom, click the "Any" box as well.

For both requests and offers, you are required to choose one (1) or two (2) of the following freeform tags: *Fanart, Fanfiction*. This is the medium in which you are requesting a gift and offering to create a gift.

Matching

Assignment matching will be done on AO3. Requests will be visible during the signup period, so please ensure that your offers are able to match with at least one other person who has signed up to the exchange. Unmatchable participants will be sent an email, after which they will have twenty-four hours (24) to add or edit their offers. If you are sent one of these emails and you do not respond or add/edit your offers within twenty-four hours, your signup will be deleted.

Assignments

Fic

Gifts must be at least 1000 words in one of the requester's fandoms, featuring one or more of the characters or relationships they requested.

Art

Gifts must be an original (traditional or digital) piece created entirely by the artist. It should be detailed lineart at a minimum. It should not be drawn on lined paper. Minimum size should be 500 000 pixels (for example 710 pixels x 710 pixels or 500 pixels x 1000 pixels). It should be in one of the requester's fandoms, featuring one or more of the characters or relationships they requested.

All gifts must adhere to the recipient’s DNWs. If a DNW is included, the creator of that gift may be banned from future participation, and the participant will qualify for an Emergency Pinch Hit.