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Snowflake Challenge #3
Jan. 5th, 2020 12:18 pmI figured I'd pretty much included prompt #2 with my self-intro in entry #1, so I haven't reiterated. It has been interesting reading the fandom histories of a few people who are of my generation — I've been reminded of the penfriends phase, newsgroups, zines, going to conventions and having awesome conversations there, but never mind. If anyone wants to ask, go ahead!
*
Today's challenge is to Pimp Your Favorite Communities, Fests or Challenges!
Well. I can't exactly pimp my favourite communities, fests and challenges, because they don't exist any more.
However…
There was a popslash community on LJ called Fic Requests which gave me 40-50 story ideas, no kidding. Around four dozen stories which just wouldn't have existed without that community—and one of them spawned a series, an 'episodic' which I very much enjoyed writing.
The idea was very simple: anyone could request a ficlet—usually asking for pairing+situation/prompt. Trickyfish, with snark, coffee and underwear was one I did, Joey is carefully avoiding the festive mistletoe was one I asked for, Joey/Nick, always falling for the easy was another fertile inspiration, which got two ficlets. There were so many!
This comm was a lot easier to navigate than giant posts with a multitude of prompts in comments, and the mods would do a weekly round-up linking to new stories and to unfilled prompts. It worked very well for a long time, and I think would be a nice format for a different fandom to pick up. I miss the days when fandom happened on LJ, because it was all part of the joyous experience that was popslash, for me.
*
The best Secret Santa challenge ever was the popslash one. I am not prepared to dispute this, for it is so. It began with Don We Now Our Gay Apparel in 2001, and was huge for a while. Not Yuletide huge, obviously, but still. Too many to read them all before the author reveal. I didn't arrive in the fandom until 2005, but did get two years of DWNOGA before the original mods fell out of the fandom and the mantle was taken up by a new challenge, Make The Yuletide Gay.
DWNOGA last six years, MTYG managed *eleven* and ended in 2017. It was very well run, and I became privy to a number of hair-tearing incidents the poor mods had to endure (was a mod myself near the end). But, like its predecessor, MTYG always managed to bring out some really quality stories. I think that writing for a specific person, trying to get details and tropes in to please that particular individual, generally made stories more interesting than writing a story without a recipient in mind. And of course there is something about a REALLY hard deadline (stories went live on Christmas Eve) that concentrates the mind wonderfully. One year, I wrote a story *on* Christmas Eve.
Also, and I don't know whether this is common to all challenges, perhaps it is—some really great titles come up in the popslash SeSa. 'Pulp Friction', and 'the kisses ain't cheap but the hugs are free', and 'The Fellowship of Misery', and 'Nothing Says Love Like A Pincecone In Your Seat (Or A Frog In Your Pocket), and 'My Big Gay Disney Courtship', and 'And You'll Notice My Smile (Is Like Kool Aid)', and 'Slightly Used Angel For Sale', and 'The Earl of Rothinghamtonfordshire' (BEST STORY EVER), and 'The Neurological Disorder Elf'. I mean.
Eventually the code broke down and participants weren't able to complete and the mods became disillusioned (mostly with the antics of certain Backstreet Boys) and it was no more. But the stories are still there, and if any erstwhile popslashers ever feel like having a look at how the fandom developed after they left, it's an interesting journey. Certain pairings rose, others fell, Chris remained the LBD, threesomes became increasingly popular… really, while the SeSa challenges are online, it's possible to get a damn good flavour of the popslash experience.
*
Today's challenge is to Pimp Your Favorite Communities, Fests or Challenges!
Well. I can't exactly pimp my favourite communities, fests and challenges, because they don't exist any more.
However…
There was a popslash community on LJ called Fic Requests which gave me 40-50 story ideas, no kidding. Around four dozen stories which just wouldn't have existed without that community—and one of them spawned a series, an 'episodic' which I very much enjoyed writing.
The idea was very simple: anyone could request a ficlet—usually asking for pairing+situation/prompt. Trickyfish, with snark, coffee and underwear was one I did, Joey is carefully avoiding the festive mistletoe was one I asked for, Joey/Nick, always falling for the easy was another fertile inspiration, which got two ficlets. There were so many!
This comm was a lot easier to navigate than giant posts with a multitude of prompts in comments, and the mods would do a weekly round-up linking to new stories and to unfilled prompts. It worked very well for a long time, and I think would be a nice format for a different fandom to pick up. I miss the days when fandom happened on LJ, because it was all part of the joyous experience that was popslash, for me.
*
The best Secret Santa challenge ever was the popslash one. I am not prepared to dispute this, for it is so. It began with Don We Now Our Gay Apparel in 2001, and was huge for a while. Not Yuletide huge, obviously, but still. Too many to read them all before the author reveal. I didn't arrive in the fandom until 2005, but did get two years of DWNOGA before the original mods fell out of the fandom and the mantle was taken up by a new challenge, Make The Yuletide Gay.
DWNOGA last six years, MTYG managed *eleven* and ended in 2017. It was very well run, and I became privy to a number of hair-tearing incidents the poor mods had to endure (was a mod myself near the end). But, like its predecessor, MTYG always managed to bring out some really quality stories. I think that writing for a specific person, trying to get details and tropes in to please that particular individual, generally made stories more interesting than writing a story without a recipient in mind. And of course there is something about a REALLY hard deadline (stories went live on Christmas Eve) that concentrates the mind wonderfully. One year, I wrote a story *on* Christmas Eve.
Also, and I don't know whether this is common to all challenges, perhaps it is—some really great titles come up in the popslash SeSa. 'Pulp Friction', and 'the kisses ain't cheap but the hugs are free', and 'The Fellowship of Misery', and 'Nothing Says Love Like A Pincecone In Your Seat (Or A Frog In Your Pocket), and 'My Big Gay Disney Courtship', and 'And You'll Notice My Smile (Is Like Kool Aid)', and 'Slightly Used Angel For Sale', and 'The Earl of Rothinghamtonfordshire' (BEST STORY EVER), and 'The Neurological Disorder Elf'. I mean.
Eventually the code broke down and participants weren't able to complete and the mods became disillusioned (mostly with the antics of certain Backstreet Boys) and it was no more. But the stories are still there, and if any erstwhile popslashers ever feel like having a look at how the fandom developed after they left, it's an interesting journey. Certain pairings rose, others fell, Chris remained the LBD, threesomes became increasingly popular… really, while the SeSa challenges are online, it's possible to get a damn good flavour of the popslash experience.