Snowflake Challenge: Day 1

I'm cautiously - so, so cautiously and carefully - trying to tease out the fannish enthusiasm I used to have. There's probably a long meta post in my head somewhere about this, but as I'm currently full of cold, it's going to take me a while to get to that.

But skimming back through old fic, working out what I like, don't like and remembering 'huh, I used to be able to write', I've found that what really gets me motivated is a challenge. The more restrictive the guidelines, the more I enjoyed myself. Boundaries are there to be explored, stretched and poked at, and I've never found them restrictive. I know I want to get back to writing, and I know I want to write Merlin, but that part of my brain is all skittish and nervous, and wants prompts, which I'm too nervous to ask for, because I don't know if I can fill them or not. It's all very annoying, and suggests I need to ease myself back in rather than taking any kind of plunge.

So I'm coming back to my fannish self with a very, very gentle challenge - snowflake_challenge. The idea is that over 15 challenges, you celebrate fandom, and your own place in it. I kind of like that. It's hosted on DW, but OpenID comments are welcome.

Even better, there's no time restriction, so those of us who like to procrastinate can chip in when we're ready. Day 1 was, not surprisingly, supposed to be posted on 1st January, and although I wrote this then, I've only just been able to stop blowing my nose for long enough to get it posted.

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.

Although most of my LJ is now locked down, I've unlocked these stories for folk who prefer to read there, and included DW and AO3 links too. It's felt a bit like sorting through an attic and rediscovering an old life, which may possibly be good for me.

( I went with 5 stories, trying for a spread of fandoms )

Snowflake Challenge - Day 2

Yes, I know, two in one day. What can I say? It must be the cold medication talking.

Day 2: In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you did not create. Drop a link to your post in the comments. See if you can rec fanworks that are less likely to be praised: tiny fandoms, rare pairings, fanworks other than stories, lesser known kinks or tropes. Find fanworks that have few to no comments, or creators new to a particular fandom and maybe aren't well known or appreciated. Appreciate them.

One of the things I did over Christmas was clear out some of the things that were still hanging around in my mother's cupboards. Mugs and books that never got used, and a general collection of STUFF that I'd honestly forgotten I had. This challenge has been a bit like that, in that it's hard me digging back through my journal for everything tagged 'rec'. Or 'recs'. Apparently for a librarian, I'm rubbish at a controlled vocabulary, which is possibly why I was a rubbish cataloguer.

Anyway, I found quite a collection of recs, some of which I remembered, others of which I didn't. Some stories remain awesome, and all of them were good. Choosing just a few was ridiculously hard, so I went for what the challenge suggested. All are Gen, which by definition tend to be 'lesser known' stories, although all of them are in big fandoms. One of them was written just for me, but in all honesty, they all might have been, so closely do they resonate with me. I've listed them outside the cut, because I got a big carried away with my recs.

Stuck in Traffic on the Magic Roundabout by XWingAce. Torchwood.
See No Evil by Greyias. SGA
Even Bonny and Clyde had off days by Sholio. SGA
Perspective Shifts (or, It's All In How You Look At It) by Travels_in_Time. Torchwood/Discworld.
The Best Laid Plans by Blackdisa. Merlin.

( Full recs under here )