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Icebreaker Week: Day 5

Today's questions should help springboard you into the creation period, allowing you to start proposing ideas and thinking about how you want to shape your project.

What are some ideas you have for how this collaboration could be specifically created for voice?

What are some ideas you have for how to practice antiracism* while making this collaboration? (if you're stuck on this question, you can check out some of the resources linked at our content moderation policy post for a starting place, or ask the Discord community for ideas.)

How do you feel about the idea of bringing additional people on board to create your project? If it’s something you’re interested in, would you want to bring them in at this early creation stage, or just bring them on during the podficcing process to add additional voices? (Please feel free to contact the mods for assistance if you do decide you’d like to add more creators to your project—or feel free to reach out to friends on your own!)

*According to author/professor/activist/historian Ibram X Kendi, all actions are either racist or antiracist, and cannot be neutral. We're drawing from that framework with the question. In this case, practicing antiracism would mean (in the words of participant bluedreaming) "creation with an active consideration and recognition of conscious and subconscious racism in writing and other portrayals, with a concerted effort to learn and do better, and an openness to critique and suggestion."

This is our last icebreaker, we hope that groups have found them informative and helpful! Quick reminder, the first check in is on July 6th but, as always, you're welcome to contact the mods at any time for whatever reason.

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Icebreaker Week: Day 4

Suggest ways that the podficcer(s) might be involved in the writing process that would work well for you.

Suggest ways that the writer(s) might be involved in the podficcing process that would work well for you.

If one or more group members become unhappy or uncomfortable with how the collaboration is going, what are your preferences for how it would be handled? (For example, a preference that your partner(s) tell you right away if something bothers them, a preference that they give you some time after telling you something heavy for you to process and respond, etc. Please note that for any conflict that cannot be resolved within a single conversation, we STRONGLY ENCOURAGE coming to the mods for support and not allowing things to escalate! Participants should also all feel welcome and encouraged to come straight to the mods without having talked to their partner first if that feels safer/better!)

What is the maximum project length that works for you? Is there a period of time where your partner will not be able to contact you for many days? Is there anything else along these lines that you want to let your partner know about in advance?

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Icebreaker Week: Day 3

We're at the halfway point of icebreaker week!

If you're finding that you're not able to answer the whole set of questions within a day but think they'd be valuable to go through, please feel free to spread the five days of icebreaker questions out across more than 5 days to fit your schedule.

This next set of questions is geared towards helping partners get more familiar with each other's work and creative process.

Why do you create fanworks? What does it mean to you?

Share a piece of a fanwork you're particularly proud of (a page or so of a written work, a few minutes of an audio work) and explain why you're proud of it.

Read/listen to your partner's shared fanwork, and give feedback about what works for you about it.

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Icebreaker Week: Day 2

Day 2's icebreaker questions are related to group work!

What strengths will you bring to the group?

What things do you struggle with when it comes to group work? (And, if you want, how can your partner help you with these things?)

What are you hoping for from this collaboration experience? What would your dream version of pod_together collaboration look like?

What's one thing your partner(s) could say or do that would feel really good to you? (For example, compliment your fanwork, offer to help with organization/beta/cheerleading, reach out to you to say hi every few days, etc.)

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Icebreaker Week: Day 1

Hello lovely participants,

The start of a partnership is always so exciting as you and your partner(s) figure out how you'd like to work together! Icebreaker week is designed to support that process, with a combination of fun and helpful getting-to-know-you questions. They've started some incredibly useful and productive conversations in the past, and we hope they'll do the same for you now!

These exercises are optional, but we hope they'll help both those groups that were assigned and the ones that formed on their own. We encourage group members to stay in contact with each other this week, answering as many questions as they are comfortable with.

Today's questions are geared towards helping group members learn a bit more about each other, personally and fannishly.

Name as many books, movies, TV shows, animes, comics, celebrities, etc. that you can think of that you have felt or feel fannish about.

List three to five things you enjoy in stories (e.g. a kind of trope, story line, etc.). List three to five things that you do not enjoy in stories.

What communication methods and interaction level did you put in your sign-up, and why did you choose them? (If you did group sign-ups, you may want to look at those questions on our matchmaker sign-up form and then answer them for your partner). It could also help to describe the communication level you don't want——what sort of communication patterns would feel uncomfortably high/uncomfortably low for you, and why?

What are three facts about yourself (fannish or otherwise) that you haven’t already mentioned?