(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

Hokay, friendslist, so I can't sleep and this is the thing, when I can't sleep my brain does terrible things. Tonight, what it started to do was complain to me about the serious lack of Young Wizards fanfic out there on the net (okay, so everyone who knows me knows this is something my brain does a lot. Shut up.) At various points in time pretty much everyone I've approached about this has told me, with differing degrees of niceness*, that if I want fanfic- especially outside ffn.net aka The Pit of Doom, which I do- I need to do it myself.

This is true, and people may be afraid to know that I have henceforth sloooowly started writing a piece of fanfiction (masses flee, run away, etc.) Never mind. But what I also want to do, in my fevered, slightly nauseous state**, is run a YW-fic challenge, probably based around livejournal. I would initially recruit participants (read: victims) through youngwizards but would most likely create an offshoot community where I would base it- possibly on the premise of a general ficcing community which also ran challenges. There would be banners and stuff (it's all an excuse to play with Photoshop.)

So what I want to know is: how many of you are in emergent fandoms, or have been? How did ficcing momentum start? How can I do it? If I do do a challenge, and manage to drum up enough people (say, ten?) to get started on it, what kind of challenge would be a good challenge? I could do the get-everyone-to-list-an-idea then stick the list up and let everyone have at them for a bit; alternatively I could do one challenge and have everyone meet it, in which case, what would be a good idea for that challenge? (I'm looking for general format reccomendations here, because most of you have not read these books. But I think I can say that a lot of fics would be either gen or G, if that gives you any idea.)

And, the big question: how many of you would sign up for a challenge? Strictly low-pressure, long deadlines, easy extension, not too complicated, first-time writers welcome (hey, I'll write in it, that's how much I beolieve in accepting everyone)... I know there are people on my flist who have read YW and not thought of ficcing for it, ever; I know there are people on my flist who have ficced it (Yay, persephone_kore! Who's not around this week. Never mind.) And most importantly, and this, trust me, is the group I will totally be ganging up on: I know there are people out there who have read Young Wizards, and have ficced in other fandoms. I'M LOOKING AT YOU, sixth_light. You people, I'm begging you, MY FANDOM NEEDS YOU. I don't care if you join and write one challenge fic and then skip out on the fandom, but please just write one tiny fic for me, I don't care how long (although, like, preferably not drabbles. But I'll take drabbles, that's how desperate I am.)

People, I am hungering after input, here. I love this fandom and I want it to grow. I'm probably totally nuts and it'll never work but I absolutely have to try, and that means, you know, doing something about it. SO. Please just consider it?

And just so you know, if you're on my f-list and I know you've read the books, don't think you can escape by not commenting on this post because I will track you down. spiderfish, gooseberry107 (and where are you, anyway, Ella?) , sennical, rysade: I am coming after you and I am going to ask you to write in a challenge. You can, of course, refuse- there's basically no point if I make everyone sign up and then no-one wants to write- but the idea of a challenge is to encourage fic from people who wouldn't necessarily have done it by themselves. And if I can encourage that by chatting up my friends, I can and I will do it. You're warned.

I'll also be lj-stalking anyone I've seen on fanfiction.net. Just so you know you won't be alone. :P

Oh! and! Forgot to say! Will probably also take fanart, anything.

*but mostly very nice. This is a generally lovely fandom.
**Nothing to do with fandom, although maybe why I can't sleep

Comments

[sennical.livejournal.com]

Man, I haven't finished written fic in about three years. But I'll give it a go.

[deutscheami.livejournal.com]

Sure, I'm game.

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

First it was slash. Now it's Young Wizards. What next?

I'll think about it. It basically depends on what the challenge is.

[chattycheese.livejournal.com]

And aside from the fact that I'm not very good at writing FF (although I've read enough...although most of it's slash and other such thinguses)I can take a stab at it if you want me to.

We can recruit forum members!!!

...and I know a few random places to tell people about it... (wow I'm getting way to excited, but you're right, there is simply not enough YW FF. totally.)

if you need any help, give a yell.

vv

Here!

[gooseberry107.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I haven't posted on my journal in awhile. Which I will be doing. Soon. Yes.

Anyway, definitely up for it! Fun...I have done a little bit of YW fanfiction...(which makes me feel guilty because there's one out there that I never finished because I got stuck and became busy...but...yeah) and challenges are fun!

[kitsunerei88]

I used to be on Fanfiction.net.

Then they kicked me off for some weird reason.

I hadn't posted anything in two years anyway.

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

I am sort of around after all (thanks for the Yay-ing ;)), and I've been summoned to comment on this. I'm not sure what input I'm supposed to provide, though. *g*

Fic challenges make me Very Nervous, even though I have done them. *pause* Actually, the only real one was just about a year ago, because this is an annual meeting, and I was frantically writing to deadline in the middle of last year's. *grin* I'm not sure weekly Very Vague Drabble Challenges count.

I'd probably try for a YW challenge, though, if it looked like something I could do.

I don't think I've ever been in an emergent fandom. I just sort of wander into established ones, mostly. (I'm teetering on the brink of writing Star Wars fic. Meep.)

I think if you let everybody offer ideas, you might want to put some sort of limit on the type -- even if only how specific they can get. *g* Randomly assigned challenges could be really intimidating, depending. Um... similarly, a single challenge would have to be specific enough to be inspiring but open-ended enough that you wouldn't get the same thing over and over again.

Hmm. Maybe a multiple-choice sort of thing. Allow each person to submit three challenges (and be assigned three, to pick one of them), and each can specify up to four of the following: character (each character specified counts as a slot), mood, focal theme, problem, setting, fill-in-the-blank plot element.

...I'm not sure that makes sense at all, actually. The hazards of in-comment brainstorming.

Perhaps you should issue a call for challenge ideas, and pick some, and then farm out or offer as options the ones that seem to work well.

[chattycheese.livejournal.com]

gee are we enthusiastic, we can hardly wait ;D

vv

No Promises

[eavanmoore.livejournal.com]

The deal with YW ff is, I have declared that I will write some this summer. Punkt. But it may take the entire summer to develop a plot that isn't fluff. So fic challenges will inevitably result in unsatisfying little things.
After summer, school will start again. Even the most efficient worker and active HP fan I know at college, flourish, stopped most of her involvement when real life got busy. So I have no hope.

BUT it sounds like a good idea to create a ficcing community. And I would join as soon as I had something to share.