Why Challenge Communities Rock

[deird_lj]

As you might have noticed, I’ve written quite a lot of fanfic in the last year and a half.

And, if you’re very observant, you might have noticed that the majority of it has “written for the _____ prompt at still_grrr” at the top.
Those that don’t will almost certainly be “written for open_on_sunday”, or “written for good__evil”, or possibly “written for deird1”.

This is because challenge communities rock. Completely.


So far, I have written and posted 73 fics, and 59 drabbles.
Guess how many of those were not written for a specific prompt?

Go on, have a guess.

Give up?

Six. Just six.

Without being prompted and prodded, I would have written:
- Angel and Spike on the phone
- Dawn getting sucked into a Crystal of DOOM
- Willow having lots of pets
- Spike and Angel destroying half of America
- Willow wishing she could stop Xander’s wedding from becoming a disaster
- Illyria grieving

That’s all.


The rest? Entirely done because of prompts or ficathons.
(In fact, out of those 132 fics, ficlets, and drabbles, 78 of them were written mainly because I haven’t missed a single prompt at still_grrr in a year and a half, and I refuse to let myself be beaten!)

And the thing is, if it weren’t for those prompts, I’d only write stuff I feel like writing. Stuff that’s easy.

If it weren’t that I started getting excited about possibly getting participation banners, I never would have written Xander making up ridiculous bumper stickers, or the Fang Gang hunting down a group of Mary Sues, or a Watcher training Rapunzel.
If it weren’t for my fear that I’d let down my assigned ficathon person, I never would have managed to write Oz in alternate universes, or Fred dusting a furniture store’s worth of vampires.
If I hadn’t needed to find something to submit, then Nancy bluffing down a vampire, Joyce and Giles kissing in the kitchen, and Spike going insane would all still be half-finished, and languishing in a drawer somewhere.

But because I’ve got these prompts I never would have thought of, with time limits I have to stick to, I have to push myself.
I have to stretch myself.
I have to try stuff I never would have thought of.

Stuff like…
- Buffy falling in love with a coat rack
- a Dr Seuss style poem
- Wolfram & Hart sending friendly flyers
- a self-insert destroying the world
- Dawn continually sitting underneath tables
- Buffy punching Spike in the face
- Vi and Faith organising a food fight
- Dawn writing to Santa Claus

As a matter of fact, almost everything that people have ever squeed over, recced, or nommed for anything… almost all of those are things that were created after a couple of days of me yelling at my notebook, crossing out every sentence I got halfway through, writing down “I HAVE NO IDEAS. WHY AM I SO CRAP AT THIS?” in huge letters, and swearing I was going to give up and never try writing again.
…and then deciding, once again, that this prompt is not going to beat me, dammit, and desperately trying to think of something, anything, that I could write that might fit the stupid challenge.


If I didn’t participate in challenges?
I’d be comfortable. I’d write stuff that inspired me. I’d write stuff I found easy. I’d write stuff that got written without too much effort.

And I wouldn’t be half the writer I am.

Challenges stretch us. They make us look for stories we’d never thought of. And they make us keep on going, even when it gets horribly difficult.

Basically? They rock.

Comments

[cynicalshadows.livejournal.com]

I just started writing in a challenge community, but I do think you are correct. Even after only one challenge, I felt that my writing abilities had been stretched and I had written something that I would never have thought of otherwise.

[deird1]

Aren't they great like that?

*loves challenges*

[angearia.livejournal.com]

Challenges do rock! I fully agree. I'm kinda looking forward to when I'll be done with my long WIP and can just do challenge fics for a bit. But I've been making time each week to try to stretch my boundaries - hence the Spike/Andrew fic earlier which seriously had me stumped at first when I got the prompt.

And besides challenges, I like drawing inspiration from those around me. All my recent one-shots and my most recent completed fic were all inspired by someone else here on LJ. Willow's hats, Buffy seeing Spike and Dru in Crush. I like being able to see an idea and run with it.

I've been meaning to start participating at still_grrr. I think as soon as I've finished my remix fic and gotten a smidge closer to the end of TYSK, that you'll be seeing me over there with you guys.

[deird1]

Woo! Come to still_grrr! We have cookies!
(Okay, the cookie part might be a lie.)

Challenges really are great for stretching yourself.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I enjoy the drabble challenge community I belong too - but fail at all the other challenges.

I can never write to a deadline properly, and I also find it difficult to write on more than one thing at a time. My mind is too full of 'Brotherhood' to write any of the characters doing something else or, even, the Buffyverse characters who are currently (Brotherhood time) running around Sunnydale knee deep in new Slayers, doing anything other than that. I think my mind is too linear.

[rahirah]

See, that's the thing with me. If I write a story about a set of characters, my brain says, "OK, what happens next?" not "OK, what could have happened instead?"

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Yes - it's why I have such problems with challenges - I always find myself going 'So what happens next?'

[deird1]

Well, Brotherhood, at least, is an absolutely brilliant idea that rocks my socks...

(I'm finding it rather fascinating watching everyone reply with either "Woo! Challenge comms rock!" or "Meh. Can't do em." There doesn't seem to be any middle ground.)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Ooh - thank you! And the whole discussion is fascinating.

Oddly I write drabbles to challenges now every week - and never without a prompt - but can't really cope with anything longer!

[mabus101.livejournal.com]

I've written a lot for open_on_sunday, granted....and there is some truth to what you say.

On the other hand, the vast majority of my writing has been my own ideas. I don't know if all of it has been "easy"...some of it, maybe...it's hard to say. What's "easy" for me isn't necessarily what's easy for other writers. *thinks hard*

An awful lot of the time I look at prompts and get stucker than I was when I didn't have one. That's why I've posted so few open_on_sunday drabbles lately.

[deird1]

Yeah, open on sunday hasn't been inspiring me much, lately, either...

It would be rather interesting to compare what writers find easy with what their readers think they find easy. I'm betting I'd get yours completely wrong. *grins*

[mabus101.livejournal.com]

Feel free to take a few guesses. ;-)

[angearia.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested in hearing what you think, too, about what you perceive I find easy or not.

As for my perception of you, I think you're talented at doing unique story formatting. Stream-of-consciousness, letters/emails, and lists, for example. The non-traditional way to write a story.

[deird1]

Well, they're certainly the ones I'm known for doing...

Actually, I find it much easier to be creepy!



I'd say you would find angsty conversations easy. *raises eyebrow* Close? Or nowhere near?

[jl-in-the-lane.livejournal.com]

It always irritates me when people ask for a drama and say, 'Oh, just write about whatever you like.'

NONONO! My brain refuses to work under such lack of instruction. I wouldn't be able to start.

But tell me, 'We want a drama that involves everyone being royalty, 6 episodes, 5 minutes each, ongoing message all the way through plus one message per episode, cast of 5-6, very few props, entertain a whole bunch of kids, GO!'

...well, that's tackleable.

*feels smugly accomplished and hopes to heaven they actually liked it*

neeeeeeeeeeds feedback, please?

[deird1]

Absolutely.
I was asked to write something for Good Friday at my church ...and that's all they said. ("Dear Maryanne, please write something for Good Friday. Yours sincerely...")

I think everyone was a bit overwhelmed when I came back with a list of fifteen questions that had to be answered before I could write anything...



*can give feedback any time you like*

[jl-in-the-lane.livejournal.com]

*imagines being asked that ilttle*
Freak freak freak.

*pictures Maz with list*
Hehehe. YES.

Uh, no, actually that was me ranting on your livejournal about the fact that I haven't heard one word back about the drama I handed in on Sunday. :(
I suppose, *technically*, I ought to be doing such ranting on my livejournal...

...rantrantRANT!RANT!RANT!rantrant...

Admires all you fanfic-type people

[jl-in-the-lane.livejournal.com]

I just can't get the hang of how people try to write in the voice of a character.

I don't mind dreaming up stuff for my own characters to say, because they get better and better at expressing themselves.

But how in the world you lot write in the voices of other people's characters blows my mind.

We had to do it for a Yr12 Eng. Lit. assignment. Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles shudder. It drove me MAD. I did NOT do well.

[deird1]

That's actually one of the reasons I started fanficcing - because I wanted to learn how to write in a voice that was distinctly not mine.

It's tricky... but fun.

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

And yet one of those that wasn't written for a challenge or ficathon was 'Shell Game'.

[deird1]

*grins* True.

[rahirah]

I really admire writers who can do challenges. My brain just doesn't work that way, though.

[deird1]

Whereas I rather admire people who can manage without them...

[next_to_normal]

I'm with rahirah. Props to those of you who do them, but that's just not how my brain works. In fact, I actually have three prompts from people that I'm supposed to be writing, but haven't come up with any ideas yet (and one of them is from three months ago!!).

I've done a few fics (mainly drabbles) that were based on prompts or requests, but I certainly wouldn't count them among my best. (Er, unless you include "Closure" as a challenge fic, but since I was answering my own challenge, I don't think it counts.)

I always need to write things that inspire me, but I'd hardly call it easy. (I'm trying really hard not to get offended by that, because some of it has been torture to write, so it kinda burns to hear it dismissed as easy.) The fics that can be written without too much effort are the ones that get thrown out in the idea stage because there's nothing original or unique about them. Hell, I probably hold myself to a higher standard than any challenge community could ever do for me.

[deird1]

Oh, I envy you...

You people who can actually inspire yourselves! How exactly do you do that?

[next_to_normal]

Now is probably a bad time to ask me, as I haven't been inspired by anything in about a year. I tend to think it'd be a lot less stressful if I could just write on whatever topic someone threw at me, whether I cared about it or not. At least I'd be writing something, instead of staring at the blank screen wishing I were writing.

[mabus101.livejournal.com]

It helps in my case that I'm relatively new to the whole fanfic thing, and even to Buffy fandom. (Not as new as some, but there are episodes of Angel I still haven't seen completely.)

But...I don't know how to describe it...I see ideas, and they connect in odd ways, and I ask, Did Joss ever do this? And if the answer is no, I write it. Usually, in fact, the answer is no.

[quinara]

How exactly do you do that?

This is probably just me, but I find random snippets of conversation, images appear every now and then, and then slowly snowball over the course of days/weeks/months until you've got a fic. If you're (un?)lucky that'll be a fic you need to write...

[angearia.livejournal.com]

You people who can actually inspire yourselves! How exactly do you do that?

I think the inspiration comes from wanting something. From wondering 'what if?' I enjoy challenge fics because they help me grow and are, well, challenging. But I've never come up short with my own ideas either. Perhaps it's because my imagination is almost wired to have it's own challenges handed out.

As for inspiring myself, reading good meta about relationships in the 'verse I'm writing and also watching videos or listening to music - those always do the trick for me. Often times I'll be driving to work and I'll start imagining scenes in my head, Buffy says this to Willow, Spike does this, and so on. I just let my imagination run with the characters. A lot of the scenes in my longer work are from just imagining, most of the time when I'm in my car actually. I think somehow my car has become my thinktank, heh.

[cleo]

You people who can actually inspire yourselves! How exactly do you do that?

I think it's definitely different for everyone. I just get a pressing need to explore something, to write something that is just under the surface. A lot of my inspiration comes from music, from asking myself "what are those chord progressions, those passing tones, those key changes in words?". But it's definitely not a fluid process for me. Lots of agony.

[cleo]

I feel pretty much the same as you. It's always a toss up as to whether a challenge will spark an idea or just leave me sitting there blankly. I've been doing a bit more lately, but I've been lucky in getting some really great, really unique prompts. And I've spaced them out over almost a year's time, and I tend to be drawn to the communities that are a bit more vague on prompts and have a very wide deadline margin.

The fics that can be written without too much effort are the ones that get thrown out in the idea stage because there's nothing original or unique about them. Hell, I probably hold myself to a higher standard than any challenge community could ever do for me.

Yes, precisely this.

[next_to_normal]

Yeah, I've had some good prompts, but it's hit or miss. I joined open_on_sunday a while ago, hoping it would spark some inspiration, but I've yet to actually write something for them.

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree - challenges are my buddies. I mean, I spend a shitload of time whining to myself about them, and staring at a blank Word doc, hoping to even write an outline - but while I do come up with some things on my own, challenges get a lot of it out, too. Or because it's someone's birthday, or someone requested something - whatever. Most of my Dollhouse fic was for dollhousefics challenges, and I recently did a bunch of challenges, like plot_wout_porn.

But I do agree with other people - depending on what kind of brain you have, or what motivates you, some people can write things that stretch their limits and are difficult and challenging with just their own brains to inspire them.

And speaking of challenges, I actually wrote my joss_las already! Just need to revise it and then it's go. :O

[deird1]

The only problem is that all us challenge-loving people have a tendency to sign up for every challenge in sight (as witnessed by your list of a few weeks ago), and it can get a bit stressful!


But I do agree with other people - depending on what kind of brain you have, or what motivates you, some people can write things that stretch their limits and are difficult and challenging with just their own brains to inspire them.

Lucky them... *wishes I could do that*

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

The only problem is that all us challenge-loving people have a tendency to sign up for every challenge in sight (as witnessed by your list of a few weeks ago), and it can get a bit stressful!

Oh, goodness gracious, yes. I only have two that I'm working on right now - joss_las and the Remix - and I'm still kinda like blaaaagghhh. :D

Lucky them... *wishes I could do that*

Hee! But, hey, whatever works.

[meridian_rose]

I agree. I've written several drabbles for merlin_100 and I'm signed up for 100 tales. It gives you something to write when you're stuck on what to write about, it challenges you, it inspires you. My prompts mean I've doubled or tripled (at least) my "completed works" this year and even though most are drabbles they are at least completed, stand-alone fics. A good challenge? It makes you a better writer by the very act of making you write...:)

[deird1]

It makes you a better writer by the very act of making you write.

Exactly my thoughts. *grins*

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

If it weren't for challenges I literally would have written no fanfic. If it weren't for fantas_magoria starting at the beginning and feeling like somewhere I might dip my toes in, I also wouldn't have written anything.

I need deadlines. Ideally, I need to feel like I'd let someone down if I didn't write something (hence ficathons are best of all). Yes, sometimes it means churning something out, but it's rare that just having a prompt doesn't start something if you leave it long enough in the backbrain. Like you, I envy those who have their own inspiration and motivation. I need something external!

Though my own evil prompt at grazie_prego "Fuschia, whirlpool, spellbound" (oddly, no one took me up on it) still haunts me. What in hell would I Spangel about it? Could it be other than crack?

[deird1]

Deadlines really are useful. Without them, I think I'd probably give up as soon as it got hard, and tell myself I'd just get back to it later...


Ooh. Awesome prompt (in an evil kind of way).
Actually, that's the sort of thing I would have loved and tried to do - if I wrote Spangel, which I don't. No idea what I'd do with it, though.

[quinara]

"Fuschia, whirlpool, spellbound"

Clearly that's some sort of technicolour AU after Why We Fight involving a tropical island... Lots of contrast between the grimy forties and lush flora. In my non-Spangel-writing head at least...

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

In my head fuschia = the colour, specifically the fabric of some immensely glamorous ball gown. Which makes this prompt the campest thing in the world. And definitely 1940s - I don't know why, it just is!

[quinara]

?? I've never seen it, but I wonder if I'm not feeling some sort of subconscious connection.

[quinara]

I quite like challenges, but I tend to deal better with vague ones (like a theme at seasonal_spuffy); I've found deadlines equally useful and kind of not in the past. I love artathons, but they're kind of hard to come by. Having said that, at the moment I'm in kind of a longfic phase, so challenges/deadlines aren't really helpful because I'm trying to go with it and see if I can produce something longer than 20,000 words (my ceiling for the past 4/5 years).

[thefrogg.livejournal.com]

I totally have to agree with you.

Challenge comms DO rock. They've kept me from stagnating (70+ short stories in the same universe kind of...well...locks you in). It keeps writing fresh and new and stretchy.

Rounds_of_kink is my big one (and I have pretty shiny banners to show for it!), I've finished a 50episodes table (I think I'm still the only one who has - finished, that is), and I've written a bunch of stuff that made me squicky and uncomfortable (dub-con on the part of an outsider is my favorite to date).

[sdissynthium.livejournal.com]

And not only that, but the added anonymity of kink memes (which are challenge comms as well, just of a different sort) is really helpful to people just starting out writing fanfic/writing at all/getting a specific idea out, who might be too self-conscious too post it under their regular name. They're, IMO, the best place for new writers to start.

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

I'm in the middle on this. I love the challenge communities, and I am often inspired by the challenges. But, if I mull over the challenges and do not get some spark after a day or two, nothing on earth can make it come. Of course, the deadlines help heaps, as does just sitting at the keyboard with a blank page. Sometimes. Not always. Whatever works, baybeh.