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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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?

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.

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

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

[rahirah]

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

[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.

[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

[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...:)

[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?

[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.