Fandom Snowflake Challenge, Day 6

[aadler]

 
Continuing the meme/challenge begun and tracked here.

Fandom Snowflake Challenge, 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. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Coming up with something to challenge myself? I do that all the time. Figuring out a challenge I can pose to other people? Kind of a problem for me.

The best I can think of is: look around for something new to try. There are plenty of opportunities, and my own experiences have been positive almost without exception; even the things I never repeated — a finish-a-thon, a feedback-a-thon — were fun and rewarding. (However, as already noted, I bombed out on NaNoWriMo and never attempted it again. That one, it seems, is simply not my cup of tea.)

Write in a fandom you’ve never done before. Or a style, or genre, or trope, new to you. Find something people keep (in your opinion) doing wrong, and do it the way you think it should be done. More challenging, pick out something you simply hate, and do it yourself in a way that you don’t hate. (For instance, “Unbidden the Day” was the result of me seeing if I could write an entertaining non-parody Mary Sue.) Fulfill a trope, or subvert it, or find a new twist to work into it.

All the preceding is for writers, but the basic principles can be applied even if you don’t write or do fan-art or other direct creation: look around for something you can use to stretch yourself (interview your favorite fanfic author, join or start a meme, post recs and/or leave feedback). The online world is big, even the fanfic/fandom scene is vast, and there are lots of angles and byways that have yet to be explored.

Give yourself to something new, and see what happens.

Comments

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

Last year, I wrote a Joyce-centric story for the first time. Not sure what I shall do this year. Hmmmm...


Gabrielle

[aadler]

You also took part in a remix. ☺ Last year was lots of new ground for you.

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

Very true. It's a hard year with which to compete on that front.


Gabrielle

[snogged.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a fun challenge. :)

[aadler]

Some new things are just not for me, but getting outside my normal zone has usually been a fun experience for me. Why not share the love?

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

I tried a whole new fandom for a Yuletide treat. It was fun and rather out of my usual scope. :)

[aadler]

Yuletide itself was something I should have thought to mention. And maybe I’ll give that a try, myself, this year.

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

I've felt very intimidated by Yuletide for ages, but did it for the first time now. It was great fun and not as overwhelming as I feared. :)

[minim_calibre]

You should do it! Yuletide is some years the only thing that keeps me going!

[aadler]

What I’ve seen has made me wonder. Several people I admire, and whose postings I enjoy, have expressed considerable enthusiasm, I just don’t know if the thing — as described — is quite for me. I’ll probably try it ONE of these days … but probably not this year, unless I happen to reach my 12-stories-in-2016 ambition ahead of time.