przed | Entries tagged with snowflake challenge

Backtracking on the challenge again!

Day 11

In your own space, talk about your creative process(es) — anything from the initial inspiration to how you feel after something’s done. Do you struggle with motivation or is it a smooth process? Do you have any tricks up your sleeve to pull out when a fanwork isn’t cooperating? What is your level of planning to pantsing/winging it?

My creative processs is...highly variable.

I used to make detailed outlines before I started on the actual writing, and would jump around and write whichever scene I felt like that day. Now, I'm a total pantser. I've usually got a firm idea for kicking off the story, a less firm idea of how it's all going to end, and I discover the rest as I go along.

I'm coming off a year of the high of writing in a new fandom, where the words flow smoothly and I'm finishing stories easily, and am now back to the place where it's all fits and starts and it seems to take forever to finish anything.

One thing that's consistent, though, is what I do when a story isn't cooperating: write dialogue. If I can't get a scene moving and the characters seem recalcitrant, I just let them talk to each other and see what shakes out. (I LOVE writing dialogue. I HATE writing description.)

Crossposts: https://przed.livejournal.com/371736.html

I've been too swamped with RL stuff to do the challenge for a couple of days, so I'm going to skip forward a bit.

Day 13

In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private.

I'm going to set one fannish goal, and one personal.

The fannish goal is to make a good start on the Gweilo Gongfu sequel. I've been both desperate to start this story and dreading it in equal measure. I want to take Steve and (Chinese American) Bucky into the war and through the basic plot of The First Avenger, but land them in the Pacific theatre. There is a lot of opportunity for this to be really cool (like Erskine becoming a defecting Japanese scientist) but it's also going to take a heck of a lot of research (on Chinese Americans during the war and the details of the Pacific theatre). But I'm finally ready to take it on.

The personal goal is to declutter my home, and in particular our third floor to get a cosy place to both write and read. We've just finished a renovation to do built-in shelves and a desk for me, and we're in the stage of putting everything back. I'm vowing that nothing I don't need goes back, and everything that goes back gets a proper space.

Crossposts: https://przed.livejournal.com/371706.html

Another catch up post...

Day 10

Create a fanwork.

I'm a bit of a way from finishing it, but I'm working on a new installment of my Captain America Has a Fella series. Here's the first scene...

( Audrey only met Peggy Carter, Agent Carter, the one time. )

I'm hoping to have the rest of it finished in a week or so, RL allowing.

Crossposts: https://przed.livejournal.com/371134.html

I got derailed from the challenge on Wednesday by work and having a hockey game right after, so this is me getting back in the groove.

Day 9

Commit an Act of Kindness.

My two acts of kindness were in keeping with the hockey theme.

The first was Freecycling a pair of hockey pants my daughter grew out of this year, and arranging to meet with a woman who wanted them for her son. The hockey pants have a new home, and a little boy has gear. Yay!

The second one was contributing to a Go Fund Me to build a hockey pad for the Rez Girls, a hockey team from the Eabametoong First Nation in Northern Ontario:

https://ca.gofundme.com/rez-girls-on-new-ice

(I found this while reading on the APTN website about yet more colonial nonsense my country is perpetrating in B.C., so was happy to make my own small bit of reparations.)

Crossposts: https://przed.livejournal.com/370732.html

Day 8

In your own space, post self-recs for at least three fanworks that you created.

I'm going to go for one work each from three of my biggest fandoms...

1. The Professionals, Love's Not a Competition (vid)

"Love's Not a Competition - Pros vid" (Watch on YouTube)

What with the kid situation and being busy and having a vidding computer that's on its last legs, I haven't finished a vid in four years, but I used to create a lot of them. And this is one of my faves in Pros. (A downloadable version can be found on my vid site

2. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (TV), Los Vivos y los muertos (fic, Napoleon/Illya)

MFU was my second fandom (after Blake's 7) but the first one I wrote a serious amount of fic in, and my first official slash fandom. This story is part of a loose series I wrote where every installment occurs during a different holiday. In this story, the holiday is the Mexican Day of the Dead, and both Illya and Napoleon run into literal ghosts from their past. It is possibly my favourite of my MFU stories.

3. Captain America (MCU), Let in the Sun (fic, Steve/Bucky)

Captain America, and Stucky in particular is my current fannish love. Let in the Sun is two golden afternoons in the long friendship of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. It says it's gen on the tin (because it was written for a recipient who asked for gen) but I prefer to think of it as slash without the sex.

Crossposts: https://przed.livejournal.com/370578.html

Am back to work, so starting to fall behind on the challenges...

Day 7

Stretch yourself a little and try something new. Go play in a new fandom or with a new pairing. Try working in a new medium. Or check out some fanworks that are new to you.

At first I thought, I don't have time to try something new. But then I thought, let's try a new pairing. So, I gave

originalceenote's WinterHawk a try. It is fluffy Barnes/Barton fun!

The Water Cooler is a Neutral Zone (8178 words) by OriginalCeenote
Fandom: Captain America - All Media Types
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Clint Barton/James "Bucky" Barnes
Characters: Clint Barton, Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes, James Rhodes, Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, Bruce Banner, Peter Quill, Peter Parker
Additional Tags: Office AU, Workplace Rivalry, Shenanigans, the author is a horrible person, crackfic, No Sex, Enemies to friends with Benefits, winterhawk - Freeform, no powers, silliness, Bad coffee pot etiquette, Clint Barnes is a Human Disaster, Bucky Barnes is Picky About Coffee Creamer, Cubicle Farms, otpprompts, Tumblr Prompt, Wait a minute there’s sex in Chapter Two, Oops
Summary:
“I’m gonna get him good this time,” Clint muttered as he shook glittering confetti over Barnes’ keyboard.

Rogers looked bored from his perch on the edge of Bucky’s desk. “What’d he do this time?”

“He stole all the marshmallows out of my Lucky Charms!”

“Seriously, Barton?”

“Rogers. You don’t mess with a guy’s Lucky Charms. They’re sacred, for fuck’s sake. You should know this.”

And then

halotolerant was posting pretty pictures from a slashy Chinese web show, Guardian, that looks fab.

Here are the two actors from the show (who are also Mandopop singers) singing, in Halo's words, a ship manifesto to their characters. (Turn on the subtitles! They're adorable.)

"Bai Yu.Zhu Yilong.Happy Camp.2.Original Song.Dixing Hits Haixing" (Watch on YouTube)

And here's the first episode:

"Guardian 01（Bai Yu,Zhu Yilong）" (Watch on YouTube)

(I've been warned that there's an unhappy ending, but lots of pretty on the way, and the author of the source material wrote a fix-it.)

Crossposts: https://przed.livejournal.com/370385.html

Day 6

In your own space, 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.

I've been mulling this over all day, and it's a hard one. Because frequently I don't know what I want until I see it. But here are a few things.

1. Recs for Marvel Steampunk AU stories. Stucky is my main pairing, but as long as Bucky and/or Steve is involved, I'm probably going to love it.

1a. Or if anyone has a Steampunk prompt they'd like to lay on me, I'd love to give one a shot.

1b. Or, ya know, if anyone wanted to write me a Marvel Steampunk AU, that would totally be above and beyond the call.

2. Research resources for the Pacific theatre of World War II. I'm determined to write the sequel to Gweilo Gongfu where I send Steve and Bucky to the Pacific theatre, and I'm in the research accumulation phase. I know far more about the European theatre, so if you've got anything on the Pacific, I'd love to hear about it. I also need information about Chinese Americans serving in the U.S. military during the war.

Crossposts: https://przed.livejournal.com/370097.html

Day 5

In your own space, promote three communities, challenges, blogs, pages, Twitters, Tumblrs or platforms and explain why you love them.

How about three each on Tumblr and Twitter...

Tumblr
How to Brooklyn by hansbekhart
An absolutely invaluable series of Tumblr posts for anyone wanting to write historically accurate fic of Steve Rogers in his native borough.

The Stucky Library
A Tumblr feed of Stucky fic recs with a wonderful tagging structure. When I was first dipping my toe into the fandom, this was hugely helpful for finding the really good stuff.

AO3 Feed - Stucky
A Tumblr feed of all newly posted Stucky fic on AO3. So much new fic gets produced in the fandom that this can be a firehose, but I've found some great fic by new-to-me writers here.

Twitter
stuckyfanart
When a lot of artists got forcibly kicked off Tumblr, they migrated to Twitter. This Twitter feed provides a roundup of their art.

incorrectbucko
This feed just cracks me up. Stupid texts between Steve and Bucky.

Sebastian Stan Updates
Wanna know what Seb is up to? This Twitter feed has you covered.

Crossposts: https://przed.livejournal.com/369713.html

Day 3

In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.

Wow, another tough one. After 26 years in fandom (!) and a whole lifetime of being fannish about movies and TV shows and books, I don't think I can pick just one piece of canon. So, I'm going to cheat and pick three key ones.

( Let's hear it for Captain America! )

( I gotta put her in the water )

( You just like blondes )

Crossposts: https://przed.livejournal.com/369461.html

Day 2

Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create.

Again, this is tough because there is so much good fic out there, but here are three of my longer current faves, plus a bonus one.

Roll On (89113 words) by jaxington
Summary: In 1938, there's a bar in Brooklyn called Sully’s where people are safe to be themselves. Behind the bar, a girl pours drinks. She's always got a big smile for Steve and she says queer like it's a good thing. On a regular basis, she takes his shoulders in her hands and tries to shake sense into him, saying, "When will you do something about that best friend of yours?"
In 2012, Bucky’s gone, but Steve’s not, and the girl’s hands are too old to shake him. She does her best to make him see sense anyway.

Steve had people who loved him before the war, and it turns out a few of them are still around when he finally comes home.

This story, and its subsequent sequels, are quite possibly my favourite fic in all of Marvel fandom. Both the past and the present are beautifully drawn, and jaxington makes me care deeply about not just Steve and Bucky, but Bucky's family, and Steve's best friend, Rachel Rosenbaum. The final story in the series, Thin Blue Flame, is a WIP, but each chapter is a satisfying read on its own.

A Pretty Boy with a Bird Tattoo (100646 words) by Kryptaria
Summary: Bucky Barnes is the wholesome, handsome boy next door, complete with the engineering major and the beloved younger sister (or three). Steve Rogers is the punk artist loner with an unkindness on his arm and a never-ending fight against the world. His best friend, Natasha, is best left unmentioned, though there are rumors that if you kiss the Black Widow's spider, she'll give you a tattoo for free. But she never said where or what. They shouldn't work together, until they do.

A really fantastic OT3 story that is both incredibly sweet and smoking hot. The way Bucky's quirky family adopt Steve and Nat is a good party of what I love about this story.

Do Every Stupid Thing (108286 words) by thepartyresponsible
Summary: Jason doesn’t mean for the Winter Soldier to be a present for Tony Stark. The youngest Stark isn’t supposed to be involved at all. The plan is simple: intervene before the Winter Soldier can murder Howard and Maria, tranq the Winter Soldier until he’s sufficiently incapacitated, and then drag him off for further study and let the Starks carry on with their fraught, bourgeoisie bullshit.

A DC/Marvel crossover, and another OT3, this time with Bucky Barnes, Tony Stark, and former Robin, Jason Todd. Bucky is often written as a blunt, sarcastic asshole (and I mean that in the fondest way possible) but thepartyresponsible's Jason Todd takes that to a whole new level and I love him for that. Of course, Jason's extreme snark is hiding a lot of emotional baggage, and seeing Jason, Bucky and Tony work through the various horrors they've lived through is what makes this fic so awesome. I found this recently, read to the end of the series, then went back and read it all again.

undersell, overcommit (10222 words) by silentwalrus
Summary: Steve goes so hard for Bucky that he becomes a licensed, practicing massage therapist.

A bonus rec. A short(er) story than the previous three, and one that totally plays to my competency kink. If Steve Rogers is going to become a licensed RMT just to help Bucky, of course he's going to become the best RMT out there. I love how Steve accumulates a community of people around him, all of whom, of course, adopt/are adopted by Bucky as well.

Crossposts: https://przed.livejournal.com/369323.html

Day 1

In your own space, talk about your Happy Place—the things that give you joy, calms you or keeps you sane.

It's hard to narrow down just one happy place, so here are a few.

Getting lost in research. Writing can be painful, but trying to track down just the right piece of information for a story can be a blast. Excruciating, but a blast.

After a several decades long hiatus, comics! Bucky Barnes has a lot to answer for.

Theatre, whether it's at home in Toronto, our own Stratford Festival, the West End or Broadway. Also, movies, big budget Hollywood ones to small foreign art films.

The National Gallery in London, especially the Sainsbury wing. I could sit in front of Paolo Uccello's Battle of San Romano for ages.

Concerts. Especially Take That concerts, with the most committed fans out there.

And last, conventions. Getting to meet up in person with fellow fans at BistoCon and MediaWest and all the fan and SF conventions I've gone to over the years is the best.