Challenged!

[gwyn]

Yuletide is up! Well, nominations are. I spent a lot of time thinking about it this past year. I almost signed up last year for a pinch hit, but I still had all these reservations about it -- all personal, none having to do with the challenge itself. But since I started to treat the depression and PTSD after my sister's death, I lost the ability to write. It's like I have only two choices -- be able to get out of bed and function in the world around people, or be able to write. I don't seem to have the ability to do both. (Shit, I don't even read much anymore. And I really feel like I need something to force me to do it. A challenge or an auction or SOMEthing -- and I keep missing the signups for Sweet Charity, so I figured Yuletide might be my chance.

Also, in my olden dayes when I was a young(ish) whippersnapper, I could churn out 1,000 words in my lunch hour. To me, that always felt so puny and I couldn't understand why people whined about the length. Then, ha ha, fate turned the tables on me and now I can't even eke out 100 in a given space of time; I'm hoping that enforced rules and regs will help.

Worse, I always feared it would be a lopsided affair, and me being so churlish, I'd get something crappy and short after I'd written my little heart out and come up with some kind of magnum opus for someone else, and yeah, I could so easily be that cranky-ass bitch you see after Yuletide sometimes, griping about the story she got shafted with. Except, of course, I would a) never ever be that bitchy, despite my bad reputation as a fic-bitch, and b) I would never ever make something like that public. My god, my mother would roll over in her grave if I ever exhibited such atrocious manners. (I can even hear her telling me, "I didn't raise you to be so selfish!" To which I'd have to answer, well, sorry Mom, I turned out that way anyhow.)

But I've mellowed, I think, I hope. I want to bring the fun for something, anything. I need some outside influences to goadspur me on, and I need to feel some of that good old fashioned thankiness for any present at all. Which is why I am going to do it, and maybe, if I'm super lucky, I can get enough momentum going to write this Jack/Ianto story that is all plotted out in my head but that I can't put to paper.

Anyways! I nominated:
Miracles
Band of Brothers
Deadwood
Buckaroo Banzai (which I almost typed in anew, because I kept looking under "The Adventures of...")
Charlie Jade
MDs

I figure, good luck on the MDs, but I wanted to add it anyway. The likelihood of anyone beyond the five people I know who've seen it signing up is so small even Spock couldn't calculate the odds. But wow, wouldn't that be cool, you give people, to get some Fichtner/Hannah slash? YUM-EEEEE. I will say my prayers every night.

Comments

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you're doing Yuletide this year!

I honestly do love it; it's one of my favorite parts of the whole year.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I'm excited, too! (Although, I notice my name isn't appearing in the big column of participants, and I hope that doesn't signify something bad.)

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

The list of participants is left over from previous years; it'll update when the challenge actually opens this year (e.g. when we sign up formally and choose what fandoms we want to receive and to write.) Right now we're in a pre-challenge period -- suggesting fandoms, but we haven't officially signed up yet. :-)

[klia.livejournal.com]

Good luck! I hope it turns out to be a wonderful experience.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Me too! I'm kind of both nervous and wary, and excited. I almost wrote exited. I wonder what that means.

[klia.livejournal.com]

Fight or flight instinct kicking in? *g*

[deejay.livejournal.com]

*yays you*

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

We Miracles people are a small, but hardy band.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

The interesting thing about having friends who think affectionately of you is that THEY WILL WRITE SHIT FOR YOU AT YULETIDE.

*glares at all the people in circle who have seen The 13th Warrior*

I'll put MDs on my list, no problem.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

You know, I thought long and hard about adding 13th Warrior. I figured it'd get nominated anyway, but... In some ways, I'd like to sign up just to give you a story, you poor empty-handed person. But I know that I couldn't do that universe justice at all -- I know next to nothing about the period, about the social conventions, about the mindsets and cultural mores... it would be such a disappointment. Not that that stops me from thinking about it...

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

I figured it'd get nominated anyway

It doesn't. My lesson from last year is not to assume. I even thought of that when I went through and made a list of what I would offer to write: if someone really wants this fandom, wouldn't it be nice of me to give it to them? I don't care to write Forever Knight fic, but I could, and it might make somebody's year if I did. I can't remember if Yuletide limits the number of fandoms to offer, and if that's the case then I'll pare it down, but I have a looooong list of what I'm planning to offer.

But I know that I couldn't do that universe justice at all -- I know next to nothing about the period, about the social conventions, about the mindsets and cultural mores... it would be such a disappointment.

You know what's a bigger disappointment? Nobody writing.

I didn't know anything about the fandom either, when I started writing. I just tried to imitate the dialogue of the movie, and looked to the movie and the book for guidance or inspiration in period stuff, or quickly googled something. I mean, you do realize that this is the exact same thing people said when they decided not to write Old West Mag 7 fic and veered to ATF instead, and I know how much that pissed you off. (It's especially galling since I *am* writing a modern-day AU for the damn fandom, so it's not like I'm demanding that people be period-accurate when they give me a present.)

I don't care if someone just writes a story of Ahmed and Herger sitting around a campfire drinking bark tea. I don't care if it's a 13th Warrior/Due South crossover, even. We're all in this to work hard at giving something nice to someone else to make them happy, and we all know that sometimes our abilities are limited, but we'll do the best we can so that we can hope for the same in return.

[keiko-kirin.livejournal.com]

Yay you! I had lots of reservations about Yuletide at first, but it really is a fun thing! Last year, I think the most fun I had was beta-reading stories my friends were writing -- for each other! :) I loved knowing they were going to be so happy on Yuletide Day.