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

[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.