starfishstar

Day 15

"Write a love letter to Fandom in general, to a particular fandom, to a trope, a relationship, a character, or to your flist/circle/followers. Share you love and squee as loud as you want to."

Okay, catching up on the last day of the Snowflake Challenge...

I've been trying to think of something non-cliché-sounding to say to this, but I'm not really sure what that would be, and if I spend any more time thinking about it, I'll never get to actually doing it. (My usual method of approach!) So I'll just do the cliché stuff and you'll have to forgive me. :-)

Fandom's given me new friends all over the world. Fandom came out of nowhere (I literally didn't even know fanfiction existed until I discovered it a few years ago – can you imagine?) and introduced me to all these little (and not so little) pockets of kind, caring, supportive people who are passionate about things and about sharing those interests with each other. I know there are also parts of fandom that put each other down and have shipping wars and are needlessly hurtful to each other – I've been lucky not to stumble into those. The people I've met have been lovely.

Fandom has been such an amazing place to practice writing and grow as a writer. I never would have written hundreds of thousands of words over the last couple of years if I'd been just trying to pull together the motivation to work on original writing projects, in isolation, for some theoretical future audience. Fandom and fanfic means a built-in, already-existing community, and that means motivation to write – because someone will actually see it. And that means that I write, and writing is how I get better as a writer.

And fandom provides community. This was really driven home to me over the past couple of weeks, with the airing of BBC Sherlock series 4. I love the Sherlock characters, I love(d) the show they came from, but I do not love almost anything about how the showrunners have written their own show for the last few years. (I think it's a hot mess of out-of-control ego and incompetence, actually!) And yet I still watched the new series, partly because I do care about these characters, but in large part because I feel involved and invested in the fandom. I'm so done with the show, but I still love the brilliance, caring, cleverness and heart of the people who came together around the show.

And that is the power of fandom.

Gonna do a quick little run of these so I'm finally caught up, despite having started the challenge a week late!

( Day 11 )

( Day 12 )

( Day 13 )

( Day 14 )

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Day 10

"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."

I don't know if this exactly counts as a "trope," but here is a type of fic that I LOVE:

The premise sounds like total crackfic...it is total crackfic...and yet somehow, also, it totally works, it's emotionally real and in character within the world of this seemingly absurd premise, and that combination of humor/absurdism and emotional realism is just perfect.

Here are some beloved favorite recs to show you what I mean:

• A Study in Squawking by

castiron – Sometimes a fic comes along that so perfectly slots into that “thing I never knew I desperately needed” category – and this is one. This is series 1 reimagined where the only thing that’s changed is…that Sherlock is a hyperintelligent parrot. (A hyacinth macaw, to be exact.) And it is so good and so deft and so clever. Something that sounds like it should be total crack but reads as a gripping, real and engaging story…that’s one of my favorite things. I cannot fully express how great this story is. Mycroft’s backstory! Sherlock’s cunning use of his pigeon network!!

• The Adventure of the Seal in the Living Room by Bold_as_Brass – John comes to 221B to find…a harbour seal flopped on the living room couch. And Sherlock insisting that John and Lestrade help him drive the seal to a seal sanctuary. The best kind of story: One where the premise sounds like it should come out as total crack, but instead it’s sweet and funny and moving and a great portrait of a friendship.

( more recs )
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Day 8

"Make a list of at least 3 things that you like about yourself."

• I like that I care so much. About...everything, really. It's also my great downfall, because so much caring so hard and thinking so hard makes everything more complicated, but I still prefer it to the alternative of not caring.
• I like that I'm adventurous and say "yes" to things, even when they're hard for me.
• I like that I try to be kind to people. I currently work with teenagers, and even in the interactions that are as brief as half a sentence or even just eye contact or a nod, I try to make sure everyone feels welcome.

Day 9

"Send feedback to two fannish people — they can be anyone you want: a writer who’s made you happy, a moderator of your favorite exchange (not us!), a fanartist you avidly follow… There are so many possibilities. Just let someone know you appreciate their work."

I'm going to cover this by finally catching up on reading and commenting on the entries that are up so far at

rt_morelove! (Haven't had time to read anything, because I've been so intent on my writing my own bit-off-rather-more-than-I-can-chew-in-this-timeframe fic for the fest.) Haven't done this yet, but I'm leaving

rt_morelove open in another window to remind myself to return to it.

Day 6

"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."

• translation of anything I've written – especially into German or a Scandinavian language
     If you know me, you know translations are a sure way to this translator/language nerd's heart! I've been lucky and delighted to have quite a few of my fics translated, but so far it's been mostly into Chinese (which I don't speak at all), plus French and Russian (which I can puzzle out a bit, but don't really speak). Seeing something I wrote in German (which I speak fluently) or a Scandinavian language (which I can kind of halfway guesswork my way through, cobbling together my English and my German and the tiny bit I've studied of both Swedish and Icelandic) would be THE COOLEST.
• beta-reading friends, or just friends who enjoy bouncing writing ideas back and forth
     I know this is not exactly something one can just request off a list, but I do some of my best brainstorming for stories by talking (/writing) it out in conversation with friends, so I really enjoy those kinds of writing brainstorming conversations where you toss a lot of ideas into the mix and see what sticks. Basically: I like to chatter on about ideas, but only to someone who also enjoys that and definitely won't be bored or annoyed by it. :-)
• podfic of any of my fics!
    In fact, I have an open policy about all transformative works – if you translate/podfic/fanart/etc. anything I've written, I will love it! Just let me know about it, so I can see it and be fittingly excited!
• Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries recs
     I'm new to this fandom, but as usual I've discovered it later than almost everyone else... If anyone has recs of well-written, in character Miss Fisher fics, I want 'em! Especially Phryne/Jack, of course, but also anything featuring Mac being awesome. Or Jane. Or Dot. Or, well, all of them really.

Day 7

"Create a fanwork."

I'm currently madly at work on a multi-chapter fic for a too-soon deadline, so I'm going to count that!

Day 5

"Post recs for at least three fanworks that you did not create."

Recs for just a FEW fics? Distill all of what I've read and loved down to just a few?? But how...???

The description for day 5 talked about the joy of multifandom recs, so I decided to take that as my prompt and my challenge: I'm going to rec across all the fandoms in which read I've significantly, but for each fandom I'll pick just ONE fanwork to rec. Yes, just one – from me who usually sends, to friends who are foolhardy enough to ask for recs, 14-page docs with subdivisions and footnotes. (A caveat, of course: This doesn't mean this will be my one favorite fic in each fandom, because that would be impossible. But I'll pick something I love, by an author I love.)

One fic per fandom.

Here we go.

HARRY POTTER

My temptation, of course, will be to rec copperbadge all over the place, a favorite author I've followed through several fandoms. But I'm not going to do that – only one rec per author! Instead, for Harry Potter I'm reccing lyras, whose genfic has moved and inspired me many times over the years. Hard and almost arbitrary to choose which one out of many, but let's go with:

• A Reason to Fight by

lyras – "Aberforth thinks he's finished with fighting -- until Neville Longbottom falls through the portrait door and into his life."

SHERLOCK

• Bel Canto by

bendingsignpost – an all-time favorite story by a very favorite author (and a fusion, though you don't at all need to be familiar with the other source material – I wasn't!) John is the house doctor at an opera company and Sherlock is the younger brother of the aristocrat who owns the opera, but who is the mysterious composer living in the basement…? Such a well-written period piece. And such a brilliantly written...everything.

TORCHWOOD

I have two far and away favorite Torchwood authors; one is (again) copperbadge and one is nancybrown. nancybrown's fics are all fantastic, so again, kind of arbitrary to pick just one. But I'll go with:

• Got That Friday Feeling Again by

nancybrown – a seriously brilliant take on Groundhog Day... Because who better to suffer through learning to become a nicer person through endless iterations of the same day than...Owen? (Also known as: "That One Trip to Glasgow Where Jack and Ianto Had Sex Five Thousand Times in One Day.")

MERLIN

Again, here it's tempting to rec the epic AU Drastically Redefining Protocol by rageprufrock (and I suppose by saying that, I have recced it), but I kind of assume any Merlin fan's already read it! So instead I want to rec:

• The Curious Incident of the Harpies in Broad Daylight, or, the Abbreviated Adventures of Gwaine and Lancelot, Not-Quite-Knights For Hire (While We Wait For Arthur To Become King) by

kaydeefalls – a delightful romp featuring Lancelot and Gwaine, hanging around, getting up to things, until they can become knights. Also available as a wonderful podfic by lunchee.

WHITE COLLAR

Here's where copperbadge will get his rec, because this is a fandom I followed into only because I love everything Sam writes, and he sucked me into an entire new fandom just by how enthusiastically he talked about it... Yet another case where what I actually want to say is "just read everything by this author," but since I have to pick one:

• Four Meals by

copperbadge – because it's so full of love of so many kinds, and because PeterandElizabethandNeal, and because copperbadge creates OCs like nobody else, so fully realized even if they only appear for a few lines of the story.

THE MENTALIST

• This was an early fandom of mine, so I no longer remember well enough to pick one favorite story, but I definitely remember many terrific, in-character casefics, as well as great stories of young Patrick and Angela, from an author called: 221b Baker Street.

MISS FISHER'S MURDER MYSTERIES

And here it's the opposite, I'm too new to this fandom to have read widely yet, but this is definitely my favorite author I've found so far; again, so hard and arbitrary to pick just one story, but I'll go with:

• Varying States of Muscular Undress by gaslightgallows (hearts_blood) – because like all the best Miss Fisher fics, it's funny and sexy and full of great Phryne-and-Jack moments, plus some lovely interactions with the other characters.

Okay, I'm going to try to run through a few of these somewhat quickly, since I'm so far behind...

( Day 2 )

( Day 3 )

( Day 4 )

So, I've always thought the Snowflake Challenge looked like a really fun thing to do, but I've never managed to do it, through the usual combination of too little time and too much "I have to think and ponder over stuff so much before I dare to dive and do something, and by the time I'm halfway ready to do it so much time has gone by that the opportunity is past..."

Considering the above, the Snowflake Challenge now being on Day 8 and me being on Day 1, I'm not even that far behind!

Day 1

"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."

Since this is my first time doing this, I'm going to lean towards the "fanworks that define you" side of things:

The Be the Light in My Lantern | Raise Your Lantern High series (read on AO3 | read on LJ)
     This, this is the story that defines me. 200k words written with a lot of love and hard, hard work and intricate worldbuilding over the course of SIX YEARS. Once upon a time I thought: it would be interesting to see what the adults of the Order were doing all that time while the narrative of HP books was with Harry, wouldn't it? ...and thus the next six years of my life and my journey into fandom were shaped. I'm also really proud of the world and culture I created for the werewolf pack Remus lives with during HBP. I haven't seen many people do that.

Neville Longbottom and the Year That Was (read on AO3 | read on LJ)
     I've experimented with setting myself different limits and challenges and found that they do surprisingly good things for my writing. Especially word limits – when I set myself a word limit, they turn into really good words, because I have to craft and weigh every single one. So I've discovered kind of a thing for telling a whole story through a series of related drabbles – like this one, which essentially tells all of Harry Potter year seven in 14 x 100 words. And I think it works quite well! Also, it's gen, which has always been my first love as a writer.

On a Windswept Cliff (read on AO3 | read on LJ)
     My first Remus/Sirius, my first slash, my first true AU... All things I wasn't sure I dared to do, or could do justice to, so it was a big deal to break that barrier and see that I could. Plus, it's a gothic romance, so I got to be all dramatic and sexy and romantic, stuff that's way outside my usual wheelhouse. And I like it! I'm quietly proud of this little AU world I created, and the way Remus and Sirius (and Harry and the Weasleys!) slot into it.

In the Wrong House (read on AO3 | read on LJ)
     This was one of my earliest fics – my very first multi-chapter fic! – and to my surprise, I think it still holds up. It's a slightly alternate imagining of how the Marauders became friends almost despite themselves, and it's young, angst-filled 11-year-old Remus newly at Hogwarts and convinced that friends are not a luxury his life will allow him, no matter how desperately he might wish it, and, yeah. All my Remus love, condensed into wee!Remus form.

The above fics were all Harry Potter 'verse and very male-character-centric (because, well: Remus!), so I feel a need to mention:

1) I'm also all about the strong female characters – for example I have a bunch of stories about my other character fascination, Andromeda.

2) I also write Sherlock and Torchwood; for example the "Brothers, Bitter and Sweet" series about Sherlock and Mycroft's brotherly relationship over the years.

That's me! ...Other Snowflake Challenge days will be less wordy, I can almost definitely guarantee it. :-)