ilien

2015 Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 15

Thu, 15 Jan 2015 19:18:51 GMT

In your own space, create your own challenge. What’s something you want to see more people doing in fandom? Is there something fun 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. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

This is so way out of my comfort zone that last year I bailed at this point. I guess I should finish it this time unless I want to make bailing out of the challenge a personal tradition of mine.

So, here are three challenges, related to the one I'm doing.

1. I challenge everyone to go through snowflake_challenge and fandom_stocking and leave comments, kudos, and love. Take up the challenges people posted, check out their recs, fill someone's request, read the fics they wrote for the challenges, or just stop by someone's journal to say "hi". If you've already done that, do it again next week, because challenges with no real deadlines are never over, and people will still be posting something, and they need your love even more than those who finished everything exactly the day the challenges were posted.

2. I challenge everyone who hasn't completed some challenge in snowflake_challenge to go ahead and do it whenever you feel like doing it, even if it happens to be next spring. And then come here and tell me, so that I could check it out.

3. And finally, I challenge you to do round-ups. Fandom Snowflake roundup, with everything you've done for this challenge. 2014 fics roundup, for everything you've written. Five-year meta roundup, January art roundup, challenges roundup of your entire fandom existence - just make a list of everything you've completed for a given period. Collect it all in one handy post, so that everyone could see how amazing you are for doing all of that.

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2015 Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Days 13 and 14

Thu, 15 Jan 2015 18:54:29 GMT

Day 13

In your own space, talk about a creator. Show us why you think they are amazing. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Like last year, I'd like to rec three creators: one for art, one for fics, and one for podfics.

( Mostly Marvel, dueSouth, and Supernatural )

Day 14

In your own space, post recs for at least three fanworks that you did not create. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Here, I'm going to share three recs for works in rare fandoms and with rare pairings.

( Babylon5, Hikaru no Go, and Vorkosigan Saga fics )

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2015 Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 12

Thu, 15 Jan 2015 17:30:13 GMT

In your own space, talk about what you bring to fandom. It can be something tangible, or not. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Everyone keeps saying that Day 8 is supposed to be the hardest of this challenge, but to me it wasn't. Probably because it's not my first year participating, so I'd been prepared for that one and managed to get away with the shortest post in the history of forever.

This one, however. What do I bring to fandom?

A lot of people say that they comment on fics. I don't. I mean, I do, but that's, like, three comments a year. Sometimes five, when I'm feeling adventurous. Every year I promise myself to do better, and every year I actually do a bit better than the last, but I still don't feel like it's nearly good enough.

A lot of people are proud of the things they create. I'm not, not really. At some point, I orphaned a fic, because I thought it wasn't good enough - and it ended up getting over 200 kudos, which is twice as much as my best non-orphaned story. The fic I love most of all of the texts I've posted has four kudos overall. 4. And thirty hits, which is a decent hits/kudos ratio, I guess.

Some people participate in fests and challenges; I never do, it's too much of a commitment for me. Some run communities, or help moderate them - nope, that, too, it too much commitment. My English isn't good enough to beta anything in English. I'm a translator, so I could do some translations into my first language, I guess, but fandom in my first language isn't friendly enough for my fragile ego (seriously, you have no idea how nice and supporting English-speaking fandom is, even at its worst!)

Last year, I did a bit better than usually. It still feels fake to me, because it's not like I'm putting too much effort into fandom stuff, or feel like I make any difference. But anyway, here are the things I did last year.

- I wrote three (two, if you don't count the orphaned one) fics that did rather well in terms of kudos. I got several great comments, which means someone probably enjoyed my writing.

- I wrote five (it's my personal record so far) fics for Fandom Stocking, and they didn't turn out as bad as one could expect.

- I got a tumblr account, shared some recs through it and wrote some metas.

- I recced some fics to people who asked for recs, I hope they liked at least some of the stories I recommended.

- I always leave kudos to the fics I read and liked. Sometimes my kudos turn out anonymous because I forget to log in, but they're always there.

- I think I brought a couple of people into a couple of fandoms. This is something I'm personally quite proud of, because I believe they're a good match (the people and the fandoms).

Well, it's not much, but at least it's something, right?

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2015 Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 11

Thu, 15 Jan 2015 16:14:01 GMT

In your own space, post a rec for fannish and/or creative resources. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Lately, my most favourite place to fannishly waste my time is fail_fandomanon. I know it's _entirely_ anonymous, but for me it's anonymous enough to know that no one will hold stupid things I say or do against me, so when I post there (which I don't do very often), it's the only place where I don't feel anxious for days after saying something.

As for creative resources, I don't have a collection of my own. Instead, I've started a collection of collections. I had several items in it, but ~~the dog ate my homework~~ I seem to have lost some links while moving from my old PC to the new one. So, here are the ones I could find after the move:

A huge collection of writing resources

"70 most useful websites on the Internet" - some of them are, indeed, useful.

100 Amazing How-To Sites to Teach Yourself Anything has some useful recs for writing and creativity.

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2015 Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Days 6 and 10

Thu, 15 Jan 2015 15:39:00 GMT

Oh, actually it's a two-in-one.

In your own space, create a fanwork. A drabble, a ficlet, a podfic, or an icon, art or meta or a rec list. A picspam. Something. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Stretch yourself a little and try something new. Go play in a new fandom or with a new pairing. Try working in a new medium. Or check out some fanworks that are new to you. (The recs from Day 1 might be a good place to start!) Leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

I thought I'd try using GIMP. I don't remember when I last did any graphics at all - probably it was my userpic years ago. I've definitely never done any collages or banners.

I couldn't, of course, inflict my banner-making on anyone else, so I made a banner for my own story.

I hope juniperphoenix, whom I wrote that story for, will eventually forgive me for this :)

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2015 Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 9

Fri, 09 Jan 2015 21:39:37 GMT

In your own space, talk about what surprises you about fandom. It could be a pairing or fandom you never thought you'd like. A fanwork type you never knew existed. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Historically, the first thing that surprised me about fandom was the existence of slash, I suppose. The fact that a lot of people like to read and write about same-sex relationships. It doesn't surprise me anymore, I have a million explanation for that phenomena, but at the time that was a bit weird. Good weird, though, because I was super into it right away.

Then there was the porn. Romance, okay, I got it, nearly right away. But the fact that almost every text that read like a romance novel would end with a lot of buttsex - well, that was new to me. I liked it, though: after all, if you're not into it, you can skip the sexy parts and still enjoy the story. And if you're into it... here comes the next surprise: fandom turned to be very kinky. When I first got to a kinkmeme (and I think it was Supernatural kinkmeme), I was truly amazed by, on one hand, the amount of different kinks, and on the other hand - by the respect people have for each other's kinks. That was probably when I realized that the most amazing thing about fandom (for me, at least) is that it's made almost entirely by women for women. It wasn't much of a surprise, of course, but it was interesting to realize.

After that, nothing surprised me that much. Fandom is all about love and diversity, and love for diversity, so whenever something new comes up, it's still just proof of that diversity. There were, however, lots and lots of tiny surprises that make my life a little better. Some of those surprises are pleasant, some - not so much, but in the end, I love all of them, because they mean it's never boring.

In 2014, for example, I discovered Tumblr. There are lots of things on Tumblr I didn't expect to encounter (cosplay, social justice campaigns, female character wars, all those endless gifs, "headcanons" that have nothing to do with what I thought the word meant, omegele roleplaying logs, tumblr tags - do I have to continue?), and I'm still not entirely sure whether I like them or not (most of them I don't), but somehow I think it's good they exist, it's good they keep surprising me, it means the world changes and I can change with it. If I want.

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2015 Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 8

Thu, 08 Jan 2015 13:04:29 GMT

In your own space, create a love meme for yourself. Let people tell you how amazing and awesome and loveable you really are. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. Surf the comments and find people to give love to.

Am I awesome? I think, this year I'm at least a little bit more awesome than the last. It's not much, but it's something. What do you think?

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2015 Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 7

Thu, 08 Jan 2015 13:00:50 GMT

I'm skipping Day 6 for now, but I hope I'll be able to get back to it later.

In your own space, share your love for a trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme. (More than one is okay, too.) Tell us about it, tell us why you love it, give us some examples and recs. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I'm a crossover junkie. I love all kinds of crossovers: long, short, serious, cranky, shippy, gen - all of them. If it's a crossover, I'd read pairings I don't otherwise ship, kinks and tropes that might otherwise annoy me, characters I don't usually like - nothing else matters as long as it's a crossover.

I have a simple explanation for that.

Characters of different universes can live on the same street but they'd never meet, because yeah, different universes. Each of them amazing, unique and beautiful, but they only exist in themselves, which is exactly what makes them fictional; in real worlds two people, no matter how far they are from each other, still have a chance of meeting accidentally.

So, when characters from different universe suddenly start interacting, to me this makes both universes more real. They don't only exist for us now, they also exist for each other.

I love full-on crossovers that have two (or more) sets of characters from other worlds sharing a common adventure, but I'm also a huge fan of subtle crossovers, where a crossover character slips under radar, barely noticed by the cast, or where a small piece of news from another universe is mentioned among other things, or any other indication that this 'verse doesn't end on the world it's supposed to be in. The historian Becket and Castle consult on a case calls himself Mathew Pearson, Adam's nephew. Jack tells Daniel that weird story about a British detective who was accused of being a fraud, killed himself, but not really - see, some people come back from the dead without the help of alien races! When Henry Morgan decides to finally buy a phone, it's a Starkphone. Suddenly, we're reminded that Methos is still out there, even if not in the picture, Sherlock actually exists, and Tony Stark isn't going anywhere, either. We're not talking about them right now, there's a different story to tell, but they're real, too.

Full crossovers are, of course, much more frequent than those little nods.

I have some fresh out of the oven crossover recs for you, just revealed for this year's Fandom Stocking. I'll start with the ones I wrote and received, and maybe later I'll add anything else I can find. If you wrote or received a crossover for this year's Fandom Stocking, please rec it to me so that I could add it to the list?

Here are the gifts:

I Want to Believe - a dueSouth/SG1 (Fraser/RayK, Jack/Daniel) crossover by dogsled;

An untitled dueSouth/MCU (RayK/Fraser, Steve) crossover by slartibartfast;

Remembering Earth That Was - a Highlander/Firefly drabble by annariel.

The crossover I wrote is Brotherly Advice: You're Doing It Wrong, a SG1/MCU crossover for hyperfocused.

Besides, for Day 2 of this challenge nickygabriel recced a Highlander/SG1 crossover: Artifacts by Gryphonrhi.

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2015 Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 5

Mon, 05 Jan 2015 11:31:07 GMT

In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story. How did you come to fandom, why did you choose your fannish name, do you have more than one secret identity? Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Actually, my nickname is significantly older than my fandom involvement. Like, more than a decade older. I made it up in the early nineties, using a self-published Quenya-MyFirstLanguade dictionary I bought in some basement that called itself a Tolkien store. There were plenty of places like that here in the nineties, selling all kinds of stuff from books to bombs. The dictionaty said that "il" means "star", and "ien" is a female name ending meaning "she who came from". It made sense in my 12-year-old head.

( Read more... )

Oh and also, obviously, my identity isn't secret at all. Sure, I avoid mentioning my real name in fandom context, and recently don't mention my fandom name in real life (mostly for the fear of random trolls invading my real life stuff), but there are lots of people who knew me by this name all over my life since I was seventeen. It can come haunt me one day, obviously, which is why I try not to post anything too incriminating. I'm considering creating a couple of sock accounts for smut and such, but so far, there hasn't been any need.

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2015 Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 3

Sun, 04 Jan 2015 11:57:04 GMT

In your own space, talk about your creative process - from what inspires you to what motivates you to how you manage to break through blocks. Does your process change depending on the type of creating you're doing? Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Oh, that's an amazing assignment to do right now, very timely. The thing is, my creative process, when it comes to texts, changed last year drastically.

( A huge rant about writing )

TL;DR: I used to believe that writing a lot was a bad thing, and therefore would only write when I couldn't help it. This year, I realized there's nothing wrong with writing too much, even if I'm not good enough. Hence, I learned to write without inspiration, and by the end of the year I learned to write through a huge writer's block. I still don't have a "process", beyond staying late at night writing, but I'm getting there.

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2015 Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 2

Fri, 02 Jan 2015 19:00:31 GMT

In your own space, create a list of at least three fannish things you'd love to receive, something you've wanted but were afraid to ask for - a fannish wish-list of sorts. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your wish-list if you feel comfortable doing so. Maybe someone will grant a wish. Check out other people's posts. Maybe you will grant a wish. If any wishes are granted, we'd love it if you link them to this post.

1. I'd really love some art for my MCU Steve/Bucky fic, We'll Cross That Bridge. Especially with Steve stealing cough syrup.

2. Recs for happy polyamory stories and OT3s. Especially of "how they got there" kind. Especially in the fandoms I like (here's my latest list of fandoms).

3. That fandom_stocking wish-list is still good, too; I'll be happy to receive anything I listed there. Say, Highlander crossover recs?

Also posted on Tumblr

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2015 Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 1

Thu, 01 Jan 2015 12:05:00 GMT

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I wrote a lot last year. Well, a lot for me, which isn't all that much for most writers. I posted way less, because most of the texts I wrote were created in an attempt to overcome my writer's block, so they weren't any good.

Regardless, last year I posted two fics that did better in terms of kudos and kudos/hits than anything I'd created before that. I kind of like how they turned out, I guess all the writer's-block-fighting rubbbish I wrote was a good exercise.

Here are the two fics:

1. Something New Every Day - a Mystrade Sherlock(BBC) story;

2. We'll Cross That Bridge - a sort-of-Stucky Captain America(MCU) story. This one is now my favourite fic of mine.

3. I wrote several gifts for various fandom stockings this year. My favourite is Another Day, a Methos/Rebecca post-Horsemen Highlander fic. I can already see it's going to be deeply underappreciated, it being a giftfic for an obscure pairing in a twenty-year-old fandom. I still like it, and really hope someone else will, too.

~~As for the third rec, I'm keeping that one for later, because I'd like to rec a fic that was written for an exchange and hasn't been revealed yet.~~