Fandom Snowflake Challenge (Day 4-15)
Jan. 15th, 2016 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
talkingtotheskyCatching up on all the days I missed, minus Day 5 and Day 8, because I couldn't quite do those.
Day 4
In your own space, create a fanwork. Make a drabble, a ficlet, a podfic, or an icon, art or meta or a rec list. Arts and crafts. Draft a critical essay about a particular media. Put together a picspam or a fanmix. Write a review of a Broadway show, a movie, a concert, a poetry reading, a museum trip, a you-should-be-listening-to-this-band essay. Compose some limericks, haikus, free-form poetry, 5-word stories. Document a particular bit of real person canon. Take some pictures. Draw a stick-figure comic. Create something.
Ficlet inspired by my playing my PoI family on Sims 3: Late Night, in which there are snotty rich celebrities and vicious vampires and vampire celebrities - everybody is scared of the third category, even Nathan. Harold, being totally unflappable, steps in to help Nathan out, since he needs Ms Elvira Slayer's backing to push through a major business transaction:
John and Sameen are watching from a distance, the lights reflecting off the surface of the pool. Harold's approach is a confident one. He gives Elvira time to react to him, doesn't crowd her. She starts out as imperious as ever - her last five conversation partners are floating face down in the pool - and then amazingly she softens, pulls Harold close.
John's instantly on his feet, ready to charge over there, but Shaw puts a restraining hand on his arm. "Give it a second, I think Finch has won."
Harold doesn't look at all surprised. He kisses Elvira like he kisses John when they're alone: firm and full of promise.
"She's going to bite him," John hisses, when her lips stray perilously close to Harold's neck.
Harold pats her arm. She lifts her head, and he gestures across the pool in John's direction, and then they're shaking hands. There's nothing deferential in the way he kisses the backs of her fingers before he graciously departs.
"It's done," Harold says, when he returns to their table. He's delicately dabbing the smeared lipstick from his mouth with a handkerchief. John's chest feels alarmingly tight.
Sameen whoops and rests her knuckles on his shoulder. "Did she wanna turn you?"
"She would have liked to, yes." He takes out his phone and dials. "Nathan, you can come out of hiding now, everything's fine. Yes, the kiss was sufficient to seal the deal."
"Why didn't she turn you?" John croaks, when Harold ends the call.
Harold meets his eyes steadily. "I explained I already had someone with whom I'd like to spend eternity."
---
Day 6
In your own space, create your own challenge. What’s something you want to see more people doing in fandom? Is there something you’ve tried that you think other people would enjoy if they gave it a go? Dare your friends to try it out, and have fun with it.
I'm terrible at doing this myself, but more femslash in every fandom would be grand. And podfic. I dare everyone to try podficcing. Don't even have to record it if you don't have the means/don't like how you sound on tape. Just read your favourite fic out loud to yourself and see how fun it is. How kind of...daring it feels? If the creation of fanfic itself is a transgressive act, taking someone else's characters and reshaping them, then voicing that transformation out loud feels even more...revolutionary, I suppose.
---
Day 7
In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.
The first episode of Life on Mars wasn't even the first one I watched. I saw a glimpse of 1x08 first, a dash of red through green trees and some buckled shoes like a pirate's. But 1x01 is still the best. I already loved crime procedurals, have for as long as I can remember, and when I came across Life on Mars I had been in Doctor Who fandom for a year (The Parting of the Ways, The Christmas Invasion, The Girl in the Fireplace were my firsts there), so the concept of time travel was very new and exciting to me. When Sam said 'it's the same killer in both times!' that illustrated to me just how well the show combined two genres I love. This episode though. The way it introduces Sam, and Chris, and Gene, and Annie, and Nelson. I also like how much Sam loves Maya in this first episode, how he keeps talking about her and thinking of her all the time he's stuck in this nightmare place. The scene in the street with Annie ("what'll you find? Mist, a big cliff, a white door?") when the music kicks in. The final shot of the rooftop edge. It's been ten years, and I still love it with everything I have.
---
Day 9
In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private.
Learn to drive
Finish writing a fic longer than 10k words
---
Day 10
In your own space, post a rec for fannish and/or creative resources and spaces. Tell us where you go to dig up canon facts for your fandom, or where you get all the juicy details about your favorite ship. Where do you like to hang out and squee like a squeeing thing?
Life on Mars Episode Transcripts
Person of Interest Episode Transcripts
rinch tag on Tumblr
Person of Interest Screencaps
Life on Mars screencaps
---
Day 11
In your own space, make a list of at least 3 things that you like about yourself.
This is really important for me to do right now, precisely because I cannot do it at all. I've been staring at the screen for ages trying to think of something. All of these have major caveats that I've forced myself to leave off.
1) I can concentrate for long periods of time without getting bored.
2) I like that I have long hair.
3) I am really great at beta reading.
---
Day 12
What makes you fannish? And by that we mean, what is it about a tv show/movie/book/band/podcast/etc that takes you from, "Yeah, I like that," to "I need MOAR!!!" Is it a character? A plotline? The pretty? Subtext that’s just screaming to be acknowledged?
In your own space, tell us what it is that gets you to cross that line into fandom.
Yep, pretty much the slashy subtext. As soon as a pairing is canon I kind of lose interest in exploring it further. I waste all my time on the might-have-beens, the never-woulds. I'm a shipper, first and foremost. I'm all about romance. I wish I craved more plotty things from shows with great plots and concepts, and yes I love those things when I watch, but I don't need more of them outside the canon, because the canon is already doing that perfectly.
---
Day 13
In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you did not create.
Hands down, I'm too proud for love by violentdaylight (Lost/Person of Interest, Ben Linus/Root, Explicit, Rough Sex)
Starman by lacidiana (Life on Mars/Doctor Who, Sam/Gene, Doctor/Master, Mature, Graphic Depictions of Violence)
All Our Reasoning Ends (In Surrender to Feeling) by Dien (Person of Interest, Harold/Nathan, Explicit, BDSM, Spanking, Infidelity)
---
Day 14
In your own space, share your love for something fannish: a trope, cliché, kink, motif, theme, format, or fandom.
I like established relationships in fanfiction. As cathartic as first time stories are, there's something even more fulfilling in fics that show how that relationship evolves and changes, or doesn't evolve and so disintegrates, or how boundaries are negotiated, or how cutesy petnames spill over into everyday conversations (looking at you, Root and Shaw in Season 4 omg). How people stay together for years and never fall out of love, or are tested by other circumstances but find their way back together after all. Established relationships ask 'what does happily ever after actually mean?'
---
Day 15
In your own space, talk about what you're taking away from this challenge. Did you learn something? Did you interact with new people? Or did you try out different fandoms or formats or relationships? What's changed between Day 1 and Day 15 of this challenge?
I'd like to say there's been an upward curve, but there hasn't. I got lazy and didn't fulfill my promise to myself or others. I'm filling out most of the challenges now, but the point is to stick at something every day and do it properly, and I haven't. I'm probably not going to go through all the other comments and read other people's responses, I'm probably not going to talk to anybody new that I haven't already commented on (I interacted with a few, in the first three days.) I did learn that if you offer to do icon requests you better be prepared for a lot of them. And to - despite your best intentions - become a little scared by that. I still intend to complete them all, I just...
Day 4
In your own space, create a fanwork. Make a drabble, a ficlet, a podfic, or an icon, art or meta or a rec list. Arts and crafts. Draft a critical essay about a particular media. Put together a picspam or a fanmix. Write a review of a Broadway show, a movie, a concert, a poetry reading, a museum trip, a you-should-be-listening-to-this-band essay. Compose some limericks, haikus, free-form poetry, 5-word stories. Document a particular bit of real person canon. Take some pictures. Draw a stick-figure comic. Create something.
Ficlet inspired by my playing my PoI family on Sims 3: Late Night, in which there are snotty rich celebrities and vicious vampires and vampire celebrities - everybody is scared of the third category, even Nathan. Harold, being totally unflappable, steps in to help Nathan out, since he needs Ms Elvira Slayer's backing to push through a major business transaction:
John and Sameen are watching from a distance, the lights reflecting off the surface of the pool. Harold's approach is a confident one. He gives Elvira time to react to him, doesn't crowd her. She starts out as imperious as ever - her last five conversation partners are floating face down in the pool - and then amazingly she softens, pulls Harold close.
John's instantly on his feet, ready to charge over there, but Shaw puts a restraining hand on his arm. "Give it a second, I think Finch has won."
Harold doesn't look at all surprised. He kisses Elvira like he kisses John when they're alone: firm and full of promise.
"She's going to bite him," John hisses, when her lips stray perilously close to Harold's neck.
Harold pats her arm. She lifts her head, and he gestures across the pool in John's direction, and then they're shaking hands. There's nothing deferential in the way he kisses the backs of her fingers before he graciously departs.
"It's done," Harold says, when he returns to their table. He's delicately dabbing the smeared lipstick from his mouth with a handkerchief. John's chest feels alarmingly tight.
Sameen whoops and rests her knuckles on his shoulder. "Did she wanna turn you?"
"She would have liked to, yes." He takes out his phone and dials. "Nathan, you can come out of hiding now, everything's fine. Yes, the kiss was sufficient to seal the deal."
"Why didn't she turn you?" John croaks, when Harold ends the call.
Harold meets his eyes steadily. "I explained I already had someone with whom I'd like to spend eternity."
---
Day 6
In your own space, create your own challenge. What’s something you want to see more people doing in fandom? Is there something you’ve tried that you think other people would enjoy if they gave it a go? Dare your friends to try it out, and have fun with it.
I'm terrible at doing this myself, but more femslash in every fandom would be grand. And podfic. I dare everyone to try podficcing. Don't even have to record it if you don't have the means/don't like how you sound on tape. Just read your favourite fic out loud to yourself and see how fun it is. How kind of...daring it feels? If the creation of fanfic itself is a transgressive act, taking someone else's characters and reshaping them, then voicing that transformation out loud feels even more...revolutionary, I suppose.
---
Day 7
In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.
The first episode of Life on Mars wasn't even the first one I watched. I saw a glimpse of 1x08 first, a dash of red through green trees and some buckled shoes like a pirate's. But 1x01 is still the best. I already loved crime procedurals, have for as long as I can remember, and when I came across Life on Mars I had been in Doctor Who fandom for a year (The Parting of the Ways, The Christmas Invasion, The Girl in the Fireplace were my firsts there), so the concept of time travel was very new and exciting to me. When Sam said 'it's the same killer in both times!' that illustrated to me just how well the show combined two genres I love. This episode though. The way it introduces Sam, and Chris, and Gene, and Annie, and Nelson. I also like how much Sam loves Maya in this first episode, how he keeps talking about her and thinking of her all the time he's stuck in this nightmare place. The scene in the street with Annie ("what'll you find? Mist, a big cliff, a white door?") when the music kicks in. The final shot of the rooftop edge. It's been ten years, and I still love it with everything I have.
---
Day 9
In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private.
Learn to drive
Finish writing a fic longer than 10k words
---
Day 10
In your own space, post a rec for fannish and/or creative resources and spaces. Tell us where you go to dig up canon facts for your fandom, or where you get all the juicy details about your favorite ship. Where do you like to hang out and squee like a squeeing thing?
Life on Mars Episode Transcripts
Person of Interest Episode Transcripts
rinch tag on Tumblr
Person of Interest Screencaps
Life on Mars screencaps
---
Day 11
In your own space, make a list of at least 3 things that you like about yourself.
This is really important for me to do right now, precisely because I cannot do it at all. I've been staring at the screen for ages trying to think of something. All of these have major caveats that I've forced myself to leave off.
1) I can concentrate for long periods of time without getting bored.
2) I like that I have long hair.
3) I am really great at beta reading.
---
Day 12
What makes you fannish? And by that we mean, what is it about a tv show/movie/book/band/podcast/etc that takes you from, "Yeah, I like that," to "I need MOAR!!!" Is it a character? A plotline? The pretty? Subtext that’s just screaming to be acknowledged?
In your own space, tell us what it is that gets you to cross that line into fandom.
Yep, pretty much the slashy subtext. As soon as a pairing is canon I kind of lose interest in exploring it further. I waste all my time on the might-have-beens, the never-woulds. I'm a shipper, first and foremost. I'm all about romance. I wish I craved more plotty things from shows with great plots and concepts, and yes I love those things when I watch, but I don't need more of them outside the canon, because the canon is already doing that perfectly.
---
Day 13
In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you did not create.
Hands down, I'm too proud for love by violentdaylight (Lost/Person of Interest, Ben Linus/Root, Explicit, Rough Sex)
Starman by lacidiana (Life on Mars/Doctor Who, Sam/Gene, Doctor/Master, Mature, Graphic Depictions of Violence)
All Our Reasoning Ends (In Surrender to Feeling) by Dien (Person of Interest, Harold/Nathan, Explicit, BDSM, Spanking, Infidelity)
---
Day 14
In your own space, share your love for something fannish: a trope, cliché, kink, motif, theme, format, or fandom.
I like established relationships in fanfiction. As cathartic as first time stories are, there's something even more fulfilling in fics that show how that relationship evolves and changes, or doesn't evolve and so disintegrates, or how boundaries are negotiated, or how cutesy petnames spill over into everyday conversations (looking at you, Root and Shaw in Season 4 omg). How people stay together for years and never fall out of love, or are tested by other circumstances but find their way back together after all. Established relationships ask 'what does happily ever after actually mean?'
---
Day 15
In your own space, talk about what you're taking away from this challenge. Did you learn something? Did you interact with new people? Or did you try out different fandoms or formats or relationships? What's changed between Day 1 and Day 15 of this challenge?
I'd like to say there's been an upward curve, but there hasn't. I got lazy and didn't fulfill my promise to myself or others. I'm filling out most of the challenges now, but the point is to stick at something every day and do it properly, and I haven't. I'm probably not going to go through all the other comments and read other people's responses, I'm probably not going to talk to anybody new that I haven't already commented on (I interacted with a few, in the first three days.) I did learn that if you offer to do icon requests you better be prepared for a lot of them. And to - despite your best intentions - become a little scared by that. I still intend to complete them all, I just...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2016-01-15 08:43 pm (UTC)It sounds like I should be extremely grateful to you for making my icons so quickly. They're wonderful and I've been using them a lot.
no subject
Date: 2016-01-17 12:04 am (UTC)You're amazing. *HUGS*