elliebird | Entries tagged with challenge: snowflake 2022

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Challenge #11

In your own space, Interact with someone.

I've done this a bit, stepped out of my comfort zone and reached out to people. I have never been good at commenting (or replying to comments) but I'm trying more these days, and I suppose that's a step in the right direction.

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Challenge #10

In your own space, rec a fanwork (fic, art, vid, playlist, anything!) you did not create.

I haven't ready much fic recently, if I read any during 2021.

Here are a couple of vids I've loved recently.

Watch on YouTube

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Challenge #9

In your own space, list your Fandom Wrap categories.

What are your top five fandoms for 2021 based on the amount of time you interacted with them?
1. Julie and the Phantoms
2. Roswell, New Mexico
3. 9-1-1 Lonestar
4. 5 Seconds of Summer
5. Love, Victor

I'm being obsessive and playing catch up with Snowflake. I didn't have a very fannish 2021 in terms of interacting or being part of a community and I really didn't write much.

I hope that being more intentional about how I spend my time is helping to change that.

Challenge #8

In your own space, celebrate a personal win from the past year: it can be a list of fanworks you're especially proud of, a gift of your time to the community, a quality or skill you cultivated in yourself, something you generally feel went well.

In a fannish sense, I wasn't all that active. I didn't write as much as I would have liked and I didn't engage much in any particular fandom.

Personally, though, it was a really good year.

* I took two classes in my master's program, both writing related. I gained so much confidence just by doing the thing that terrifies me - sharing my writing (original fiction and narrative non fiction) with people and opening myself up to criticism.

* I never joined anything in undergrad and last year I joined the board of the graduate literary journal. I taught myself Adobe In Design in order to create the spring edition of the journal and I did it all by myself.

* I made a few new friends and put the time and energy into building those relationships, something I don't usually do since I prefer my own company.

Challenge #7

In your own space, tell us about 3 fandom resources, spaces, or communities you use or enjoy.

GWYO Tumblr I generally find a lot of helpful articles and writing tips on Tumblr but I don't have the patience to go looking for it. GYWO finds and reblogs it all so I don't have to and they have an excellent tagging system.

Bri on Tumblr has an impeccably curated wealth of 5 Seconds of Summer history. When I need a detail for a story or even just some inspiration, her blog is invaluable.

Social Security Names I use this constantly. It's so helpful for coming up with names for original characters.

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Challenge #6

In your own space, create something.

It's currently 2 degrees Fahrenheit so here's 100-ish words I just wrote about boys being cold. And soft.

Charlie/Owen, Julie and the Phantoms RPF

“I can’t feel my face,” Owen says.

The sky is a crisp blue, the sun out in all its glory but it’s currently below freezing and Owen is wearing twelve layers. He can barely move and his lips and nose went numb the second Charlie tugged him out into the snow.

“I changed my mind,” Owen says, shoving his gloved hands into Charlie’s pockets, hauling him close. “I don’t want to go.”

Charlie’s eyes sre sparkling, the way they do when he’s either ridiculously happy or plotting some stupid prank. “Half an hour,” he says, leaning in to press a kiss to Owen’s chin, the corner of his mouth, the tip of his frozen nose. “Then, we’ll come back and warm each other up.”

Challenge #5

In your own space, talk about an idea you wish you had the time / talent / energy to do.

I have a few, fandom-related and general.

I would love the confidence to write the ideas I have for epic, 50k AUs. I'm paralyzed by self-doubt. I constantly overthink what I'm writing and reach a point of just giving up because it's so stressful. I'd love to be the kind of writer who has an idea and just gets to writing it, instead of the barrage of thoughts that I shouldn't even try.

More generally, I'd love to start a crafty Youtube channel. But honestly, I don't have the patience for it or the time.

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner featuring feet in snuggly socks, a mug of hot chocolate, a notebook with 'dreams' written on the cover, and a guitar. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

Challenge #4

In your own space, make a list of things that you wish existed in fandom or elsewhere, and/or that you'd like someone to create or do for you.

Honestly, being over here is such a breath of fresh air. Everyone is so friendly and looking for the same sense of community. It's hard to think of something I wish existed because this is exactly what I was looking for. There aren't a ton of people around but everyone posts such heartfelt, thoughtful words that I feel like I walked into a new class for the first time and it's full of people there for the same reason.

I love receiving comments on my posts. I'd just ask for patience as I'm terrible at replying and commenting on others' posts. This is something I'm working on.

I'm looking for a writing buddy, an accountability partner. I don't know if there is an organic way of making that happen, but it's definitely on my "wish list."

I can't think of anything else. I'm just super stoked by the positive vibes and the creativity around here.

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Challenge #3

Put some favorite characters into an AU, fuse some favorite canons together, talk about your favorite AU/fusion tropes, or tell us why AU/fusions aren’t your cup of tea.

I love a good high school or college AU. One of my favorite fics ever is from Generation Kill, a show I know NOTHING about. It's s 90s hs AU that felt like it was written for me, with the most epic sexual tension, silly high school drama/misunderstandings and a brilliantly satisfying payoff. I still remember reading it for the 1st time. 50k of besties being stupidly codependent and falling for each other (my actual kryptonite) with the angst that comes with being a teenager and realizing you're not as straight as you thought.

I have written only a handful of stories breaking 20k and that was at least 6-7 years ago. Three of them were college AUs. I would love to find the inspiration/motivation to write long like that again.

I have 2 that I especially want to write.

I want to write 50k (hah I'm dreaming) of Luke and Alex (Julie and the Phantoms) in the 90s. I just want to go to town on all of the tropes, write thousands of words of them just being soft for one another while navigating high school in '95 (same time I was in high school omg) and falling hard for each other.

And I want to write a non-famous 5SOS AU of the guys all living in LA after college, Calum and Ashton being besties and then all the porn happening.

What can I say, I'm a simple girl with simple tastes. I just like to write about besties being stupid for each other.

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner with image of gingerbread Christmas trees, a silver ball, a tea light candle and a white confectionery snowflake on a beige falling-snowflakes background. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

Day 2

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

Oh boy! I love setting goals. I'm really great at it. And I especially excel at never, ever meeting them.

Personal goals

Walk 365 miles - this is ridiculous. I know. But I'm (hopefully) going to Oxford in July for a summer writing class and I want to spend a week in London beforehand, sightseeing. I want to walk for miles without pain and right now, the excess weight and lack of regular exercise are not helping me reach that goal. So I'm walking a mile a day and hopefully I'll be able to walk 2 or 3 miles a day and can skip some days as I start to feel healthier.
Read 50 books. It's kind of boring, but I'm interested to see if I can do it. I don't read as much as I'd like to.
Send my Granny a card every month. She's 91. She's healthier than most 60 year olds and will likely live another 10-15 years but I don't want to have any regrets and I know how much it means to her.
Find a couple of pen pals to exchange happy mail. (If this appeals to you, send me a message. I'm super into papercrafting and happy mail videos on Youtube. Let's be pen pals!)
Crochet my first sweater. For meeeeee.

Fannish/writing goals

FINALLY reach my getyourwordsout goal. Which means writing 150k.
Try and post a story a month - however short - on AO3
Write in 5 new-to-me fandoms. I got super inspired to rewatch some old faves when I was reading through the fandoms for chocolateboxcomm It made me realize how narrow my imagination is. You're telling me I can write Kimberly/Tommy from the Power Rangers? Iceman/Maverick? Holy shit, mind blown.

I have good vibes about this year, tbh. We're going to crush it.

In your own space, update your fandom information!

In an effort to a)figure out how to use this platform (omg fifteen years is a long ass time to forget everything) and b)meet some people, let's do the snowflake challenge.

I'm Ellie. Cis female, lesbian, xennial, feminist, grown up fangirl.

I turned forty in September and it was as wonderfully freeing as turning thirty. I genuinely love getting older.

I'm single-and-LOVE-it and I live a delightfully cosy life in Vermont, which is something teenaged me would be gobsmacked to hear.

I work as the student supervisor for an Ivy League library, where I hire, train and supervise the students who work the information and circulation desks. I love my job. I deserve to be paid more and I despise both library and college administration, but I love being a queer, feminist mentor to the baby queer students who have more confidence and self-acceptance than I can ever hope to achieve.

I am a third of the way through getting my Masters in Liberal Studies through the college. I'm taking the Creative Writing track and loving every second. I waited a long time to go back to school and it was the right moment, the perfect timing, and I love how it's changing me for the better.

I have been in fandom since I was eighteen. I started reading Backstreet Boys f/m fiction and around the time I started college, I was introduced to LiveJournal. I cannot imagine what my life would look like if I hadn't.

I was very quickly introduced to popslash - specifically Nsync - and it was my whole life for a while. I started writing and it was an exhilarating time. Maybe I've been chasing that feeling ever since.

I've been an RPF/RPS girl since then. There have been occasional stopovers in media fandoms. I wrote some wincest during the first two seasons of Supernatual. I was OBSESSED with Malex during the first season of Roswell, New Mexico. I love 911 Lonestar's Tarlos but DESPISE the way they (like the other non Rob Lowe characters) are treated. 2020 brought the joy (and eventual heartache) that is Julie and the Phantoms. But I will always be an RPF-er at heart. If I latch onto a movie or show, it's guaranteed RPF is not far behind.

My RPF fandoms include the Bandom heyday (what a rush that was), Jonas Brothers for a few weird months in 2009, One Direction (I was there for ALLLLL OF IT) until the hiatus in 2015, Call Me By Your Name RPF (wow, I still don't know what to say about that) and in 2018 I fell hard for 5 Seconds of Summer.

You can find my fic, beginning in 2018, on AO3. In a fit of stupidity, I orphaned everything before then at the end of 2017. One of my goals for this month is to go back and find all those old stories and link them here, because sometimes I get nostalgic and want to re-read my old shit.

I hardly wrote anything in 2021 and the last thing I posted was in July. I miss being engaged with fic writers - even if we don't have fandoms in common - and I have been trying (and failing) to create a daily writing habit since year one of getyourwordsout.

Since my hope is to use this journal for all aspects of my life, here are some other things:

Psych is my favorite television show. I can't watch tv - I get too anxious that something bad is going to happen and I'm too easily triggered. But every single night I fall sleep to Psych. I quote it randomly and still laugh at the same dumb jokes. It is my comfort show. Also, if Psych isn't on, then it's Phineas & Ferb.

I was diagnosed with ADHD in September and it was life changing. I spent most of my life really and truly believing that I just wasn't good at being a person. The diagnosis, the treatment, the therapy and some excellent social media have improved my life beyond words.

I learned to crochet through Youtube a few years ago and since my diagnosis opened up a world beyond lying listlessly in bed, I have been spending almost all of my free time crocheting. Things I made this fall that I'm most proud of include a rainbow pillow, shawls for my aunt and grandmother, a sweater for my sister's pug and a pair of Christmas stockings for my sister and her husband.

I used to love to read as a teenager. Then, aside from inhaling all regency romance novels I could find, I stopped. I get super caught up in what I "should read" and it ends up being something I hate. I'm trying to read more this year while also only reading things I want to.

If you read even a sentence of this, thanks a billion. You're a gem.