You make a very good point. We'd either need people to be flexible with requests or with nominations - if you have someone who is only willing to write characters from, say, Surface Detail, then we'd have a problem if the requests are all for characters from Consider Phlebas. We'd either need a wild card (everyone must have an Original Character request so matches are possible) or a compulsory spread across core characters. Either way, I think we need to consider carefully as the maths strikes me as pretty fragile on this, given the breadth of canon available.
An alternative is matching on prompts, rather than characters, e.g. three word prompts, first sentence prompts, image prompts (possibly as a wild card?) - the downside to this is that people are less likely to be enthused about an exchange where they don't have a high chance of receiving a specifically tailored gift.
I think it would be helpful to understand prior to locking down nominations whether the proposed spread of characters would work - maybe getting an indication of how many people would be willing to write each character nominated, for instance - and I'm sure there's an algorithm that would confirm whether the proposed set-up is mathematically possible.
An alternative to matching is prompt-claiming. Disc Fest might be a useful comparator fest - a cast of thousands, and the initial fest had less than 20 participants. Anyone could leave prompts, and there was a claiming round during which prompts were staked out, and then a writing schedule and posting schedule. It does mean that there isn't an official 'recipient' per se, but it might eliminate the risk of lack of matches.
I second the motion for a month's writing time! I'm a slow writer when I have canon to review, and I feel like this would be one canon I'd definitely need to review before attempting any writing.
no subject
An alternative is matching on prompts, rather than characters, e.g. three word prompts, first sentence prompts, image prompts (possibly as a wild card?) - the downside to this is that people are less likely to be enthused about an exchange where they don't have a high chance of receiving a specifically tailored gift.
I think it would be helpful to understand prior to locking down nominations whether the proposed spread of characters would work - maybe getting an indication of how many people would be willing to write each character nominated, for instance - and I'm sure there's an algorithm that would confirm whether the proposed set-up is mathematically possible.
An alternative to matching is prompt-claiming. Disc Fest might be a useful comparator fest - a cast of thousands, and the initial fest had less than 20 participants. Anyone could leave prompts, and there was a claiming round during which prompts were staked out, and then a writing schedule and posting schedule. It does mean that there isn't an official 'recipient' per se, but it might eliminate the risk of lack of matches.
I second the motion for a month's writing time! I'm a slow writer when I have canon to review, and I feel like this would be one canon I'd definitely need to review before attempting any writing.