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silveradeptChallenge #8 asks us to talk about the things that we are doing, or plan on doing, or that we would love to do when we have time.
I really do appreciate the ways that this challenge's additional text tries to make it as clear as possible that things other than fic and 2D drawing art are welcome, and to some degree, encouraged to show off as part of this challenge. Getting to see cosplay, amirigumi, sculpture, stitching, and other art forms that usually get lumped into "crafts" (because some people believe art primarily done and associated with women is somehow "lesser") is amazing. That I don't have those skills is secondary. I can be a patron of some of those amazing things, much of which have made their way to my curio cabinet, bookshelves, or on my walls, or toy shelves, or lanyards that are now festooned with pins.
For myself, however, most of the fic in working on is under embargo for exchanges, and therefore not suitable for display. For many years, the big project I would have been working on was going through Pern, but the initial run if that finished a few years ago and I've only got the one to port over to AO3 as of now. I kept doing other books at The Slacktiverse, but while Pastwatch was full of whatfruit, and so was the Belgariad, the current book club is on Tortall, and Tamora Pierce does a much better job of writing characters and motivations, such that the aigh is from spots that don't make sense to me rather than because the world is based on fundamentally strange principles or has characters that are completely immoral or amoral.
I did finish a draft of the work I'm writing for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
poetry_fiction, which is a lovely community that gives prompts based on the chosen poet's works. I'll come back to it closer to the posting deadline for polish and then to post.
It's also the week for Awesome Games Done Quick, and I definitely think of speedrunning games as fannish projects, because it usually takes time and dedication to a game to find different ways of trying to break it apart, or to discover that the game designers have anticipated the ways that you're going to try and break it apart and either reward or punish you for having found a way to do something that is not the "intended" way of getting things done. The people that we hear on the stage at the end of their games often talk about the supportive communities for learning how to run the game, and they also often talk about how the competitive world record runs for getting to the fastest time however is possible are not the focus or is only one of the possible focuses that a person might engage with. (And many of the versions that make it to the main stage are not about the version that is fastest by any means necessary, but about a version that would be entertaining to watch someone do, or versions that have been made intentionally more difficult than they otherwise would be. (And then there are the rhythm game exhibitions, where my brain mostly goes "aaaah! Too much visual distraction to process information! How is this person interpreting any of this, much less doing it?")
I also like speedrunning as a fan project because even though much of it is high-level players making games look ridiculous, it also gives me a look at games and lets me see if I want to play them or put them on a wishlist, based on what kind of game the thing is, and how the people who are very good at doing both high-level gameplay and bonkers breaking of said game play it. And sometimes, knowing how games can be broken into pieces allows you to write some interesting fic about what characters are really possibly capable of in the right circumstances.
I'd really like to do more fannish stuff professionally, but it can be difficult to get kids to come after school, and it seems like teenagers is about the space where the administration starts acknowledging there might be interests that we can do more than provide books and such for. Maybe if my location had more regular visits from children in large groups that weren't already daycares, they'd let me do more.
So, not doing anything that I would think of as super different or super something that needs lots of attention.
It's time to shine a light on your own fannish projects, whatever forms those may take. Ideas count too, so don't be put off if you have nothing concrete to show.
Challenge #8
Talk about a current fannish project (fic, art, vid, crochet, funko pop village) (that you are creating or enjoying)
[…]
One thing fans like to do is talk about the things they enjoy and create, and for this challenge we want to explore that. This is the time to let your creative side shine bright, and I just don't mean via fic. Though if you're writing/posting a fic right now; tell us, we want to know about your 10000k epic about Hawkeye, Lucky and the people who love them. But by the same token, if you're writing AU drabbles about Janeway the barista, well tell us about them, too.
But for this challenge, anything goes. Do you throw pots shaped like BB-8? Have you created a Funko village full of random characters where Jon Snow has a place next to Groot? Do you knit Pokémon? Made Roy Kent out of paper mache? Have you created a model Enterprise out of pipe cleaners? Have you recorded yourself singing The Black Parade with a folk song slant? Do you have plans to create a webcomic or have a list of things you'd love to podfic? Painted a portrait in oils of Venom? We want to know it all.
If you're creating it or have created, tell us, let your love and talent shine. The product doesn't have to be finished or posted, heck, even an idea that you've been thinking of for years will count. It doesn't even matter if those ideas will never materialise, we just want to know what you'd love to create if you could.
We're waiting to bask in the incredible fannish projects that are out there, no matter what form those take.
I really do appreciate the ways that this challenge's additional text tries to make it as clear as possible that things other than fic and 2D drawing art are welcome, and to some degree, encouraged to show off as part of this challenge. Getting to see cosplay, amirigumi, sculpture, stitching, and other art forms that usually get lumped into "crafts" (because some people believe art primarily done and associated with women is somehow "lesser") is amazing. That I don't have those skills is secondary. I can be a patron of some of those amazing things, much of which have made their way to my curio cabinet, bookshelves, or on my walls, or toy shelves, or lanyards that are now festooned with pins.
For myself, however, most of the fic in working on is under embargo for exchanges, and therefore not suitable for display. For many years, the big project I would have been working on was going through Pern, but the initial run if that finished a few years ago and I've only got the one to port over to AO3 as of now. I kept doing other books at The Slacktiverse, but while Pastwatch was full of whatfruit, and so was the Belgariad, the current book club is on Tortall, and Tamora Pierce does a much better job of writing characters and motivations, such that the aigh is from spots that don't make sense to me rather than because the world is based on fundamentally strange principles or has characters that are completely immoral or amoral.
I did finish a draft of the work I'm writing for
poetry_fiction, which is a lovely community that gives prompts based on the chosen poet's works. I'll come back to it closer to the posting deadline for polish and then to post.It's also the week for Awesome Games Done Quick, and I definitely think of speedrunning games as fannish projects, because it usually takes time and dedication to a game to find different ways of trying to break it apart, or to discover that the game designers have anticipated the ways that you're going to try and break it apart and either reward or punish you for having found a way to do something that is not the "intended" way of getting things done. The people that we hear on the stage at the end of their games often talk about the supportive communities for learning how to run the game, and they also often talk about how the competitive world record runs for getting to the fastest time however is possible are not the focus or is only one of the possible focuses that a person might engage with. (And many of the versions that make it to the main stage are not about the version that is fastest by any means necessary, but about a version that would be entertaining to watch someone do, or versions that have been made intentionally more difficult than they otherwise would be. (And then there are the rhythm game exhibitions, where my brain mostly goes "aaaah! Too much visual distraction to process information! How is this person interpreting any of this, much less doing it?")
I also like speedrunning as a fan project because even though much of it is high-level players making games look ridiculous, it also gives me a look at games and lets me see if I want to play them or put them on a wishlist, based on what kind of game the thing is, and how the people who are very good at doing both high-level gameplay and bonkers breaking of said game play it. And sometimes, knowing how games can be broken into pieces allows you to write some interesting fic about what characters are really possibly capable of in the right circumstances.
I'd really like to do more fannish stuff professionally, but it can be difficult to get kids to come after school, and it seems like teenagers is about the space where the administration starts acknowledging there might be interests that we can do more than provide books and such for. Maybe if my location had more regular visits from children in large groups that weren't already daycares, they'd let me do more.
So, not doing anything that I would think of as super different or super something that needs lots of attention.
