cmk418 | Entries tagged with challenge responses

Welcome to my journal. I don't update often except in the early part of the year (by June you'll be lucky to see a post). Most of it isn't friends-locked so feel free to take a look around.

I'm here and can be found on LJ, Ao3, & Twitter by the same handle. I'm on LJ & DW about the same amount now, but some things are only updated in one place. Twitter rarely gets updated and it's usually just me responding to someone else's Tweets. There's a fic list accessible through the sidebar, but it's not entirely up to date, so just search through tags or come see me on Ao3.

Fandoms I'm currently writing for:
All for the Game (Nora Sakavic), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (occasionally some Angel might find it's way in), Desert Hearts, Firefly, Game of Thrones, Gotham, Hockey RPF, Indiana Jones series (specifically Raiders of the Lost Ark), Justified, L.A. Confidential, Life, OZ, Prodigal Son, Queer as Folk (UK), Resident Alien, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, The Big Bang Theory, The Departed, The Fast and the Furious series, The Godfather, and Top Gun: Maverick

I'm hoping to start writing for Star Trek: Enterprise at some point in 2025.

Transformative works statement is here.

I friend easily so if you like what you see here, feel free to add me to your circle.

Thanks for stopping by!

Courtesy of

allbingo

Consent is sexy	Chocolates	We're-gonna-die sex
Wallflower	Denial	Sending flowers
Spin the bottle	First kiss	Impulse Shopping

Challenge #13

TALK ABOUT A COMMUNITY SPACE YOU LIKE. It doesn’t need to be your favorite, or the one where you spend the most time (although it certainly can be). Maybe it’s even one that you’ve barely visited. But talk about that space and how it helps support fannish community.

I'm going to talk about two communities that are near and dear to my heart (so near & dear that I'm the current mod for both of them).

First is the first fandom space that I ever participated in-

hardtime100, a drabble writing community for HBO's OZ. When I started as a participant over on LJ, the challenges were weekly and the community was hopping. I made my first fandom friends there and it was a wonderfully supportive group of people that put up with a lot of my non-canon, non-main focused pairings. I looked forward to the new prompts every week and would happily dash off a drabble and then wait around for the next week's prompts. I'm currently tagged as having written 265 pieces for it and I still get a kick out of writing and reading what everybody else has written. The prompting calendar has slowed down a bit, but anyone coming in could write for any prompt at any time and we no longer limit things to just 100 words.

Second is the community for the fest that's coming up in just a few days -

halfamoon. For fourteen days, people post fics, art, vids, meta, etc. about female characters in fandom. I've been part of it for probably close to ten years now and mod for the last three. There are so many different fandoms involved- some people like medical dramas, some sci-fi, some kids shows, but no matter the fandom, they showcase an amazing bunch of women. The fest has grown from about 75 works to over 200. So, stop by, check out the prompt list (it's the top post) and think about joining us on February 1. You'll be glad you did.

Challenge #8

Talk about your creative process.

I'm generally a pantser. I rarely plan for many of the things I write because most of them are under 500 words and can be written as soon as I have a prompt and character or fandom matched up. During NaNo most of the planning I do involves writing down character and place names with short descriptions and keeping them in a separate folder that I can consult when I forget the name of the main character's niece. I might do a sketch outline for the first few scenes just to get the ball rolling when November 1 rolls around.

I don't do a lot of world-building because I come to writing from a screenwriting background which means being very bare-bones on the description of characters, settings, and actions. I do tend to write dialogue-heavy stories because dialogue is where I'm strongest. Action scenes or love scenes are things I'm trying to get better at but still haven't mastered. I usually have a visual of the character in my head when I write, but I rarely put that to paper.

I journal in the morning in a plain spiral bound notebook that I stock up on during the back-to-school sales in August. The other writing usually is done on my laptop in my bedroom. I can write while listening to music or a hockey game or in complete silence.

If I'm writing a novel as I've attempted every November since 2009, I write using the Comic Sans font. It's easier to read and for some reason, makes the writing go faster.

A little late to these challenges but I liked the Journaling aspect of this one.

Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.

( In No Particular Order )

a white curve at the top, red below with sequin effect snowflake shapes text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in red thin marker pen font on the white curve

Challenge #2

In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story.

Sometime in the early 2000s, I discovered the television "Oz". I didn't have HBO at the time and had to rely on Netflix to send me DVDs. It took a couple of episodes, but when it took hold, it really took hold. I binge watched before binge watching was cool. I read all of the recaps on the late great Television Without Pity and discovered that Oz had a forum where fans would chat. I lurked on the chat boards, rolled my eyes at people's devotion to the episode "Cuts Like a Knife" (which is a good episode, but not the best IMO), and through the forums discovered

oz_magi. It was an annual exchange that took place around Christmas and had dozens of fics, mostly centered on Beecher & Keller, but there were a few that were of non-canon pairings. I can remember being fascinated by fics that paired up Tim McManus & Sean Murphy, best friends on the show but not gay in any way. It was one of those things that made me wonder "can they do that?" and then say to myself "I don't know, but it works and I like it.)

So then I started imagining what other non-canon pairings would be interesting to read about. For some reason, I had a fixation on Ryan O'Reily & Jia Kenmin and I told myself that if I was given the opportunity that I would request that pairing through Oz Magi that year. I joined Livejournal in July 2006 and having several months before Magi decided to try my hand at writing and making some friends who also were as fanatical about Oz as I was. I wrote my first drabble for

hardtime100 (full disclosure, I'm now the mod, so you can see how that worked out) about Jia Kenmin and got a grand total of one comment. But that was enough and I was back for the challenge every week after that. I made a lot of friends in the community and that led to other fandoms and challenges.

It's been almost two decades, but it all started with a little forum on a now-defunct website.

Written for the Weekend Challenge prompt "when I fly toward you". Title a play on a line from "Both Sides Now". Entirely dialogue.

( Memes and Dreams and Circus Clowns )

Challenge #10

Five Things! The five things are totally up to you. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner featuring an image of a coffee cup and saucer on a sheet with a blanket and baby’s breath and a layer of snowflakes. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

( Oh, The Places You'll Go )

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Challenge #9

Rec Us Your Newest Thing. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Last February, I made a Women's Hockey Primer for

halfamoon (returning this February, join us!). In the section on "Leagues", I wrote There has been much discussion over the years regarding the need for one women's hockey league in North America. With the two sides (PHF & PWHPA) as they are, they are never going to agree on how to do things.

Little did I expect that a group of investors would buy out the PHF in June and begin the development of one unified women's hockey league in North America, the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). It came together very quickly- a CBA ratified by the players was the first thing. After that, it was announced that the league would consist of six teams - Boston, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa, and Toronto. Then came a free agency period which allowed each team to select three players- some of the biggest names in women's hockey were signed as free agents. After that was a fifteen round draft, and to round out their rosters, teams were allowed to invite players to the training camps which began in November.

The PWHL brought a couple of interesting rules with it:
-Standings, which in the NHL are 2 points for a win (any scenario), 1 point for an overtime or shootout loss, and 0 points for a loss, have been modified to 3 points for a regulation win, 2 points for an overtime or shootout win, 1 point for an overtime or shootout loss, and 0 points for a regulation loss.
-The "Jailbreak" goal - unlike the NHL or international hockey, when a shorthanded goal is scored in the PWHL (for a minor penalty only), the penalized player is sprung from the penalty box. It makes for a more interesting game than just having a team ice the puck to kill off the two minutes.
-There are differences in the shootout as well. The shootout is at least five rounds and teams can repeat shooters as much as they'd like. So, if you're PWHL Montreal, you could have Marie-Philip Poulin handle all five shootout attempts.

Physical play has been heightened from the rules in women's international hockey. Referees are more inclined to allow physicality in board battles, but they want to prevent dangerous open ice hits, so there are a lot more scrums than people are used to seeing in women's hockey.

Players to watch-
Boston - Hillary Knight, Alina Muller, Aerin Frankel
Minnesota - Taylor Heise (1st overall draft choice), Grace Zumwinkle, Lee Stecklein
Montreal - Marie-Philip Poulin, Erin Ambrose, Ann-Renee Desbiens
New York - Abby Roque, Ella Shelton, Emma Woods
Ottawa - Jincy Roese, Daryl Watts, Mikyla Grant-Mentis
Toronto - Sarah Nurse, Emma Maltais, Renata Fast

Official Website
PWHL YouTube Channel

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner with image of metallic snowflake and ornaments. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

Challenge #6

In your own space, share a favourite piece of original canon (a show, a specific TV episode, a storyline, a book or series, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. . Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

The following post contains spoilers for seasons two and three of the HBO prison drama OZ.

OZ is a series that ran on HBO for six seasons from 1997 to 2003. It focuses on the inmates and staff at the fictional Oswald State Penitentiary in upstate New York and never shied away from the harsh realities of prison life (please keep that in mind if you choose to jump in and watch it).

One of my favorite pieces of OZ canon comes at the end of the third episode of the third season ("Legs"). At the beginning of the third season, Tobias Beecher (the former lawyer jailed for a drunk driving accident whom viewers have been following since the beginning of the series) is in the infirmary recovering from having his arms and legs broken- an act of violence that involved a correctional officer, Karl Metzger, Beecher's former abusive cellmate, Vern Schillinger, and Beecher's current cellmate and love interest, Chris Keller.

As he gets out of the hospital, Beecher works to get revenge. He deals with Metzger first (in a very creative way that I won't spoil here), then stabs Keller in a storage room. All of this happens in the first two episodes.

In the third episode, Keller gets out of the infirmary and starts his plan to win Beecher back. He manipulates his way into being Beecher's cellmate again. The dialogue at the moment of their reunion is beautifully written and Lee Tergesen as Beecher does a terrific job going to the edge of confessing Beecher's guilt, then pulling back, then confessing again, and giving Christopher Meloni's Keller just enough pause to think that maybe the gentle, gullible pushover/prag Beecher had stabbed him. He then explains that he needs to find a way to get Schillinger.

The end of the episode presents a solution as Vern Schillinger's son, Andy, is incarcerated and brought to the cell block where Beecher resides. The little laugh that Tergesen gives at the end is part relief, part joy, and part crazy. After everything that Schillinger has put Beecher through in the previous three seasons, the viewer is just as giddy to see the revenge play out as Beecher is. It's a great moment in a series full of great moments.

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner with image of metallic snowflake. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

I've done challenge 1 (updating my fandoms list with All For The Game) and 2 (Jan 2 post with goals actually done the day before the challenge came out). Here's challenge 3

Challenge #3

Create a wish list of fandom things (podfic, graphics, playlists, canon recs translations, research help, vids, sky's the limit!) that you'd like to receive. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

1) More participation at

hardtime100. This writing community for HBO's OZ has been chugging along for a little over 20 years. There are over 300 drabble prompts and over 100 fanfic prompts that participants can tackle and the word counts are fairly relaxed. Gone are the days of strict 100 word drabbles so if you've ever dabbled in the OZ fandom, come on back and give it a whirl. And if you don't feel like writing, I'd be happy to have some new prompt ideas.

2) Icons of strong female characters

3) Book recommendations - standalone fiction. I like a lot of mainstream/lit fiction, books with a lot of humor throughout would be nice, but I can also handle heavier material. Would like to read more books by women and/or BIPOC and/or LGBTQ authors.

That's all I have at the moment.

( Interact with a Community )

( Tropes, themes, and kinks )

( Goals for the Year )

( Three Recs )

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Challenge #5

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

1) Hockey-Reference.com & CapFriendly.com - For a hockey fan, these two sites are invaluable. Hockey Reference has been delivering all kinds of stats in a much easier to access format than the NHL's stat pages for longer. From box scores dating from yesterday's back through the 1967 expansion era to a listing of every player taken in every round of the NHL entry draft to a listing of which players wore a specific uniform number, and a whole lot more, this is the site to go when you want to figure out how many times Jordan Eberle's and Taylor Hall's paths could have crossed after Hall was traded from Edmonton or how many goals Sidney Crosby has scored against Philadelphia. CapFriendly is great for speculating which teams will be making moves, which players are in danger of being traded, and also for finding the real answer when the NHL's says "terms were not disclosed".

2) TV wikis I use most frequently:
The Oz TV Wiki for HBO's Oz
Resident Alien
Game of Thrones

3) YouTube - Have you ever been caught in a YouTube vortex? Like you follow a link to a how-to video you want to see and then two hours later, you're only a quarter of the way through the Aaron Tveit song catalog? That happens to me quite frequently. It's also a place with a ton of videos to help stoke your creativity, awake your muse, or just feed your inner procrastinator. Just be prepared that if you jump in, it might take a little while for you to get back to what you were doing.

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Challenge #3

In your own space, Scream Into the Void. Get it all out. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

AARRRRGH!

So, the crux of this little exercise is to get out all those little things that aggravate you about fandom.

This first one may seem a bit strange to people, but complete your works! I get mad at myself when I read a synopsis and see that it's like an easy thousand word read and jump in only to find that it's... to be continued. Yes, I normally hit that little button in the Ao3 sidebar that says "Complete Works Only" and sometimes I forget and it's frustrating. Do I have things like that out there? Sure. And it makes me feel guilty that it's still not done every time I think about it. I just don't like to be left hanging or not knowing if I'm reading a 3-part work that's updated weekly or a 120-part work that gets updated on a whim.

Why are there so many fics with a/b/o dynamics in the men's hockey RPF fandom? Is there something going on in the locker rooms that I haven't heard about?

Terrible spelling/grammar in explicit fics - For the love of all that is holy, I am reading this for a purpose and that purpose gets derailed when the spelling and grammar is terrible. Your bad grammar doesn't turn me on, make it go away

The lack of community - There are some fandoms still clicking along out there, but for the most part, newer things don't seem to have a dedicated space. Yes, there are postings all over Ao3 and you can find what you're looking for, but to have a community to gush about a particular character or scene or moment when it happens would be very nice. Maybe I don't take enough advantage of the interest search bar to find these spaces or maybe fandom itself has become so diluted with the sheer volume of choices that are available to us at this point in time.

Very specific to the HBO OZ fandom - Somebody (including me) needs to post fic to

hardtime100 pretty soon. The mod is starting to get a little meta with the prompts. ;)

Deep breath. Okay. I'm done.

Written for the Weekend Challenge prompt "I really want to kiss you right now" at

1_million_words

Spoilers ahead.

( A Day for Miracles )

Title: You'd Be Surprised
Fandom: Game of Thrones
Characters/Pairing: Podrick Payne/Sansa Stark, Brienne of Tarth, Arya Stark
Rating: Explicit
Word Count: 1480
Summary: Sansa wants to gain some more experience. Brienne suggests Podrick as a solution.
A/N: For the Songfic Challenge at LJ's 1_million_words community

( You'd Be Surprised )

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In your own space, Interact with someone.

When I saw this challenge, the first thing I thought of was doing an AMA. So throw me a question in the comments and I'll do my best to answer.

1_million_words.

( You'd Be Surprised )

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

Going out on a limb to talk about HBO's OZ here.

1) As you begin your journey, you'll want to check out

trillingstar's Great Big OZ Resource List - though it's a bit incomplete, there are a ton of links here to get into the community.

2) Listed on that page, but one that I use frequently enough to give it it's own entry is The OZ TV Wiki - it's particularly good for the character categories and in some of the summaries for the earlier episodes. It doesn't have everything, but there's usually enough to help figure out a character name- or how to spell "Stanislofsky" (which I have to look up EVERY time)

3) A community that is near and dear my heart and in existence since 2003 is

hardtime100. The community has bi-monthly drabble challenges, longer fiction challenges quarterly, and the occasional special event. Full disclosure, I'm the current moderator and am always thrilled to see new folks come in and join us. It's very easy-going and low pressure and the community is very supportive and generous with their feedback.

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Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Where Any Pairing is Possible

Entries tagged with challenge responses

About this journal

My Valentine's Bingo Card

Fandom Snowflake Challenge 13

Fandom Snowflake Challenge 8

Sunshine Revival Challenge #4

Snowflake Challenge 2

Original Fic - Memes and Dreams and Circus Clowns

Snowflake Challenge 10

Snowflake Challenge 9

Fandom Snowflake Challenge 6

Snowflake Challenge 3

Catching Up on Some Snowflake Challenge Entries

Fandom Snowflake Challenge 5

Snowflake Challenge 3

Top Gun: Maverick Fic - A Day for Miracles - Jake "Hangman" Seresin/Robert "Bob" Floyd

You'd Be Surprised - Game of Thrones - Podrick Payne/Sansa Stark

Fandom Snowflake Challenge 11

Fandom Snowflake Challenge 11

Game of Thrones - Podrick Payne/Sansa Stark - You'd Be Surprised

Fandom Snowflake Challenge 7