#berena secret santa 2022

[berena-winter-event]

Berena Winter Event 2022

Hi everyone,

’Tis the season to curl up on the couch with a hot beverage and some good fandom content. Sounds like the perfect reason to make some new stuff!

This year we’re doing something a little different than our usual Secret Santa. (While we love the event dearly, finding the time to organize it is a bit of a challenge.)

In its stead, we present:

So how does this work?

Easy! When you sign up, you’ll be asked to list up to three of your favourite seasonal songs. Keep in mind these don’t need to be songs associated with a specific holiday, just something that fits the Winter season. Sign ups will close on Saturday, November 19th.

On Monday, November 21st you'll be assigned a random song from the list of nominations. Then it’s up to you to use the song for inspiration to write a fic to or make some art.

Over the next month, we’ll be offering various opportunities for writing sprints and uploading banners you can use to share your in progress works, so keep an eye on this space!

Posting day will be the 26th of December. To accompany all the lovely creations, we’ll also post a playlist of songs from the event, along with the names of their nominators.

Interested in joining us? Sign ups are open now at the link below!

Event Sign Up

If you have any questions, the ask box is open. Alternatively you can reach out to mods @ktlsyrtis and @batnbreakfast

Also many thanks to @lapalfruity for giving us the initial idea for this! 😊

[seahorsepencils]

Serena sighed as she entered the living room. It was her final day filming her scenes on Taskmaster, and she was exhausted from having to run around an empty field in Chiswick wearing a jacket made of wet teabags for one of yesterday’s tasks.

"Hi, Serena."

"Hi, Alex."

Feeling dread in the pit of her stomach, she sat down and opened the envelope, reading the text aloud.

"Make the Taskmaster a holiday card based on a holiday song of your choosing. You will have 5 minutes to write a list of supplies for your card, and 30 minutes later in the day to construct your card. Your 5 minutes starts now."

[berena-winter-event]

The Official a (not so) Silent Night Playlist

As this is a song-inspired event, we felt some accompanying music was in order! Enjoy this collection of songs nominated by your fellow Berena fans

Tracklist:

Auld Lang Syne Ingrid Michaelson // @daystarsearcher

Baby It’s Cold Outside Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Jordan // @choreomanic

Back to December Taylor Swift // @lilolilyr

Both Sides Now Joni Mitchell // @sapphicdbc

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) Darlene Love // @doctorjameswatson

Christmas Lights Yellowcard // @lilolilyr

Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep) Diana Krall // @batnbreakfast

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy Tchaikovsky // @bonnissance

December 1963 Franki Valli & The Four Seasons // @slightlyintimidating

December Will Be Magic Again Kate Bush // @veganpepsibaby

Happy XMas (War is Over) John Lennon & Yoko Ono // @slbrigzi19

Hazy Shade of Winter Simon & Garfunkel // @tebarambles

He's Stuck in the Chimney Again Ana Gasteyer // @seahorsepencils

I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday Wizzard // @sapphicdbc

I'll Be Home For Christmas The Carpenters // @shippingsincebeforeyouwereborn

I’m Gonna Be Warm This Winter Connie Francis // @doctorjameswatson

Imperfect Christmas Malinda // @imagebender

In the Bleak Midwinter Julie Andrews // @lapalfruity

Just for Now Imogen Heap // @ktlsyrtis

Last Christmas Wham! // @choreomanic

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Dean Martin // @ktlsyrtis

Let the Bells Ring Kate Rusby // @doctorjameswatson

Men of Snow Ingrid Michaelson // @seahorsepencils

Once Upon a December David Newman // @starfleetwitch

One Toy Soldier Enya // @starfleetwitch

River Robert Downey Jr // @batnbreakfast

Santa Baby Eartha Kitt // @lapalfruity

Sleigh Ride The Ronettes // @ariverandasong

Snowfall Ingrid Michaelson // @tebarambles

Someday At Christmas Stevie Wonder // @danceswithcows01

Song for a Winter's Night Gordon Lightfoot // @pers-books

Stay Another Day East 17 // @akaanonymouth

Step Into Christmas Elton John // @veganpepsibaby

The Christmas Song The Raveonettes // @slightlyintimidating

The Heartache Can Wait Brandi Carlile // @seahorsepencils

The Longest Night of the Year Mary Chapin Carpenter // @shippingsincebeforeyouwereborn

The Power Of Love Frankie Goes To Hollywood // @slightlyintimidating

Underneath the Tree Kelly Clarkson // @ktlsyrtis

Valley Winter Song Fountains of Wayne // @akaanonymouth

What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? Ella Fitzgerald // @batnbreakfast

Where Are You Christmas Faith Hill // @danceswithcows01

White Christmas Bing Crosby // @coldblizzardqueen

White Winter Hymnal Fleet Foxes // @akaanonymouth

Winter Song Ingrid Michaelson & Sara Bareilles // @tebarambles

[berena-winter-event]

A (not so) Silent Night

Hello everyone,

thanks again to everyone who has signed up - we love how many of you want to take part!

We just finished sending out a message with not just one, but two inspiration songs to everyone who signed up for the Berena songfic event!

It’s up to you to write one fic for one or both songs - or even two fics for one song each. 

If you signed up and didn’t get a message from either @ktlsyrtis​ or @batnbreakfast​ , please let us know!

Same goes if you like to take part in this, but didn’t sign up on time. Everyone was very generous in their song recommendations and we still got songs left.

Now we all “just” have to do the writing part of this. 😅

[berena-winter-event]

AAU Writing Sprints

Hello everyone!

December is upon us (how??), so to encourage us all to get writing, let’s do a sprint!

For everyone wondering how this works:

Everyone who wants to participate starts to write at 2pm CST (or whatever time it is in your part of the world)

We all write for 25 minutes

We don’t edit. We don’t overthink. Just write whatever comes to mind. Feel like nothing good might come out of this? You’ll probably be mistaken! Also - that’s what editing is for 😉

After 25 minutes, we stop

We come back to the post and share our word count in the comments to  gather all the shared writer’s energy! There will be a writer’s zoom - link will be posted a few minutes before - but participation is optional

See you all soon!

[berena-winter-event]

Hello everyone,

time is running and it’s only one week till posting day!

Due to the amount of people signing up we decided that posting will take place on the 26th and 27th of December!

Given that posting schedules worked out fine for everyone the last times, we’ll post a link to a google doc and more infos on posting soon.

How does a posting schedule work?

To avoid all our works being posted at the same time and to give each and everyone time and space to have their works recognised, we will work with one hour time slots to post works.

This means that we’ll share a google doc with one time slot for everyone taking part in the event.

First come, first chose: Pick the time slot you find convenient and put your name on the list.

If a time slot has already been chosen, please don’t take the same one.

Should there only be very inconvenient time slots left due to your time zone, let us know and we’ll find a solution.

As always: If you’ve got any questions about this, feel free to message us! 😊

[berena-winter-event]

Event Banners

For anyone who would like to put some tidbits out there for either 'WIP Wednesday' or 'Six Sentence Sunday' over the next few weeks, we created some event-themed banners that anyone is free to use

[berena-winter-event]

The most wonderful time of year is upon us!

Grab a cozy blanket and something warm to drink - it’s time to shake off the stress of the holiday season with the gifts of fic and fan art

We’ll be reposting all event works here on the blog (make sure to use the 'a (not) so silent night' tag to help us find your posts). You can also find everything in our collection on AO3.

Ready to post your work? You can find complete posting instructions here

Didn’t have a chance to sign-up for a posting time? No worries! Check the google doc and grab an open time slot that works for you

Enjoy, and thanks to everyone for participating!

[berena-winter-event]

Writing Sprint - 10.12.2022

Hi everyone,

I’ll be hosting a Zoom writing sprint tomorrow:

Germany - 9pm

UK - 8pm

Wisconsin - 2pm

How does this work?

I’ll post a link to a Zoom meeting as a reblog of this post shortly before we start. We’ll sprint for 25 minutes - just writing, no editing, no overthinking. Then we’ll have a chat about what we’ve written.

Everyone is welcome to join in! Let me ( Bat ) know if you got any questions about the sprints. 😊

[berena-winter-event]

How to post & tag your work(s)

Hello everyone,

it’s only one more night until posting day!

If you haven’t grabbed a time slot to post your work yet, please do so here.

Posting your work on ao3:

Post to the Berena_Winter_Event collection: Enter Berena_Winter_Event into the “post to collection” field of your work. Collection names will be auto-completed for you if you have JavaScript enabled. If you don't have JavaScript enabled, you have to make sure you don’t have a typo in it.

Include the additional tag #a (not so) silent night to show that your work is part of the event.

Posting your ao3 link on tumblr:

Include the tag #a (not so) silent night to show that your work is part of the event and to make it easier for others to find your post.

Tag @berena-winter-event in your post so we can find it more easily to reblog your post.

If you’ve got any questions about posting, tagging, linking an ao3 work to Tumblr - please send us a message ( @batnbreakfast​ or @ktlsyrtis​ ) and we’ll help you out.

Happy posting!