Why Challenge Communities Rock
Jun. 30th, 2009 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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.
And, if you’re very observant, you might have noticed that the majority of it has “written for the _____ prompt at
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
Those that don’t will almost certainly be “written for
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
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.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:07 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 07:32 pm (UTC)You people who can actually inspire yourselves! How exactly do you do that?
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 08:04 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 08:43 pm (UTC)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...
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 09:35 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 10:57 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 10:55 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 11:38 pm (UTC)