justanorthernlight | Entries tagged with bingos/prompts/fests/challenges/etc

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. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

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Vidding!

In 2021 I finally started posting vids! I had tried vidding before but had run into so many technical problems it didn't really go anywhere. I made 4 vids in 2021, 2 for Babylon 5 and 2 for Lord of the Rings.

with no god attached was my first, Babylon 5 set to "Poor Atlas" by Dessa, about the mess the Vorlons left behind when they left.
She's Not There (Babylon 5, Susan/Talia) was the idea that made me want to get into vidding like 10 years ago and I'm so proud I finally finished it.
a better place (since you came along) (LOTR, ensemble fluff) This one is kind of hard to quantify, I made it shortly after my dad died. Making it was extremely cathartic, and it's one of my first creative endeavors where I don't really care what other people think about it or even whether the finished product is technically good, making it was its own reward/end. I view it as the vid equivalent of extremely self-indulgent hurt/comfort.
Odds Are (also LOTR, a variety of ships and non-ship related material) is probably my most technically polished vid.

In non-vidding things I'm proud of, I (mostly) finished writing a sleep tracking app for people with Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Disorder (of which I am one), that calculates the user's average sleep delay and then calculates likely sleep/wake times in the future. The only step left on it is compiling it into the executable that runs on a phone, which I had some technical difficulties with and need to give another go.

I'm also going back to college. I applied and was accepted to an online bachelor's degree program through my state university system and it's flexible enough to accommodate my sleep disorder. I'm registered for classes and start in February!

Challenge #7
In your own space, tell us about 3 fandom resources, spaces, or communities you use or enjoy. (One or two is fine, especially if you're in a smaller fandom!) Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

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swbookclub is reading Star Wars novels of various types, one book a month split into four section with a weekly discussion post. I was really enjoying it last year until my life turned just a bit too chaotic to keep up. They're currently reading Heir to the Jedi by Kevin Hearne, February's book is going to be Chaos Rising by Timothy Zahn.
I feel like linking Wookiepedia is a bit of a gimmie, but it truly is a fantastic resource for little details when writing Star Wars fic.

I'm a bit embarrassed I don't have a 3rd thing for such a big fandom as Star Wars, but I'm a bit of a fandom hermit. Maybe I'll have more to answer this question next year.

(Although, Babylon 5 Love Month will be back on this February, so that is a third thing!)

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. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

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I had a hard time with this prompt because a lot of the things I want do exist in fandom, they just tend to get lost in a sea of content I don't care about, so I miss them and don't have the time/energy to go find them, so my fandom experience tends to turn into me sitting my own corner making spaceship noises to myself.

I would like:

Rec lists of long plotfic. Gen is preferred, stories with a romantic subplot are okay so long as it doesn't take over the narrative. Star Wars is more or less my main fandom, but I still have a toe in Babylon 5, Lord of the Rings, Black Sails, and some smaller book fandoms.
Song recs for me to create a Max/Anne Bonny vid.
Fanart of Black Sails characters in the Star Wars setting, or vice versa. That Black Sails/Star Wars fusion is taking over my brain again.

Challenge #5

In your own space, talk about an idea you wish you had the time / talent / energy to do. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

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Oh boy.

I love reading super plotty epic length fic, and I've always wanted to write one. I've tried, and I've tried writing shorter plotty fic to try and build up to it, but I really struggle with advancing plot. Here is an incomplete list of ideas I've started:

The Babylon 5 ranger!Ivanova & still-brainwashed!Garibaldi spy-vs-spy season 4/5 AU: ( Read more... )

Star Wars Sequel Trilogy Mirrorverse AUs:( Read more... )

Other big Star Wars fic I started and never finished were the Jyn Erso/Princess Leia Coruscant rescue/spy romance, the TFA Han dies and time travels to meet pregnant Shmi fic, and the Luke falls to the Dark Side between ESB and ROTJ but still hates the Empire and is on the Rebellion's side fic trilogy (I did post the prologue to this fic, but IDK if I'll ever finish it).

I wrote about the Black Sails/Star Wars fusion I started for challenge #3, I also started a Silver/Flint role reversal AU and a Flint & Billy post-series resolution fic that also flashbacked to Billy's early time on the Walrus crew.

I have ideas for shorter, more doable ideas but I'm just really bad at finishing things. That Babylon 5 fic has been a brainweasel of mine for years, though.

Challenge #3

In your own space, 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. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

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"Two there should be, no more, no less. One to embody the power, and the other to crave it." / "A crew requires two men to function, one to tell them what to do and another to tell them why they should want to do it."

A couple of years ago I defaulted on a Black Sails big bang where I was writing a Black Sails/Star Wars fusion where Flint was a Sith Lord trying to destabilize the Republic, with Silver as a force-sensitive thief/con artist who is very good at mind tricks, and Billy as an ex Jedi padawan (or possibly youngling?) who got kidnapped by pirates and felt he'd strayed too close to the Dark Side to go back to the Jedi once he got free.

I had a lot of fun with the characters (Thomas as a Jedi, Miranda as politician/senator type, Flint met them while working as a Judicial), but the plot kind of fell apart when it came to defining the galaxy-toppling Force-macguffin they were trying to locate. Also I think I was clinging too tightly to the structure of Black Sail's canonical storyline, which made it less interesting.

In general, I really love time travel AUs and canon-divergent turn-left AUs, especially when they make the plot more difficult/complicated rather than fix-it type stories. I like a good fix fic, but I just want the characters to suffer before the storyline gets fixed.

I'm not the biggest fan of mundane/coffee-shop/Highschool AUs, occasionally I'll enjoy a college AU but it takes some great writing and characterization (or a rarepair I like) to get me hooked.

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This is more or less going to be a repeat of last year's goals, as I only achieved 1 out of 5. (I got semi-close to some others, but I also had 5 different family members die between June and December, plus 3 more spent some serious time in the hospital, I get a mulligan this year.)

Create and post 4 fanvids. It's what I achieved last year and I should be able to do this year, barring unforeseen catastrophes.
Finish and post a fanfic. It's been years since I did this, whenever I look at my own writing I think it's kind of cringe, but I want to write and finish stuff again.
Read 50 books, 7 nonfiction, maybe finish up some of the series where I only have 1 book left to read but I lost interest.
Finish reading the 2015 main Star Wars comic run, I only have 3 volumes left so this is pretty achievable.
Socialize more in fannish spaces.

I have some non-fannish goals as well, might as well put them here.

Cook more & try a new recipe at least every month.
Get an eye exam.
Go back to college and don't fail out.
Compile the app I spent the past year working on.

( My card )

New card! I'm super excited, I love almost all of the prompts I got. My laptop died last week so I won't be able to vid for a while but I'm going to give writing another try.

( My hc_bingo card )

Current Mood: excited

Because I definitely need another bingo card. For

vid_bingo.

( Read more... )

Challenge 12: In your own space, resurrect an old meme.

A lot of the memes suggested are quizzes, and I love being told what kind of person I am, but before I get to those I want to mention my actual favorite vintage meme: Gondor has no pants. Gondor needs no pants. I have been laughing at it since I was in middleschool and it's still funny to me.

Now, on to the quiz:

Which Sci Fi/Fantasy Character Are You?

An accomplished diplomat who can virtually do no wrong, you sometimes know it is best to rely on the council of others while holding the reins.

There are some words which I have known since I was a schoolboy. "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." These words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie -- as a wisdom, and warning. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged.

Jean-Luc is a character in the Star Trek universe. Memory Alpha has an outline of his career.

I'm not sure it actually fits me, but at the same time I'm not mad. I love Picard.

(I also did the "Which Historical Lunatic Were You? quiz and got Nicola Tesla, but the full block of text with the results is just too long to put here.)

Challenge #6

In your own space, rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I feel like showing a little bit of love to some classic (ish) pre-AO3 Star Wars fic, mostly from the late 90s/early 00s (some of them are written pre-ROTS, and all are pre-TCW, so i guess be aware of the level of canonicity). (I'm doing classics because I have been very bad at keeping up with current fic.)

1.) Shadows of the Future by Stormqueen873 is a classic Star Wars Prequels time-travel fix-it AU.

2.) Everything You Wanted by obaona. Obi-Wan is held captive by Emperor!Vader, and tries to bring him back to the Light. Very poignant.

3.) By the Grace of Lady Vader/The Ascension of the Queen by Aeryn, ami-padme, and FernWithy. A Padme-lives AU, where she and Vader are reunited post ANH and decide to usurp Palpatine and reclaim their children.

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I'm late to the party (as always), and I've laid out some of these goals elsewhere, but I might as well lay out some of my fannish and creative goals in more detail.

In 2021 I intend to post at least 2 fanvids, one of which I started last year than kind of gave up on. It is a Babylon 5 vid set to Dessa's song "Poor Atlas". The other will probably be a Black Sails vid set to Veggie Tales's "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything". I might do more, but I've been trying to keep my goals manageably small.
I want to actually post fic again, even if it's just short introspective missing scene type things.
I hope to read at least 50 books this year, at least 7 nonfiction, and not buy more books that I read off of my towering TBR pile.
Also read all the book on my TBR pile that are the very last installment in a series that I haven't gotten around to finishing yet.
Catch up on Star Wars content. Mainly catch up on the books/comcis expanded universe, but also finally get around to watching Rebels and The Mandalorian.

I have other goals related to school/work and programming projects that kind of take priority over these. We will see how it goes. I'm much more productive when I'm not dooming over the news, so we'll see how this year goes.