You can take the toad out of the trailer park

Challenge #1: update your fandom information

I updated my profile and my Crazy-Long Fannish Interest Master Post. (And I updated the profile and created a stickied intro post for my second journal eye_of_toad. The goal is to actually post there this year.)

Challenge #2: set some goals for the coming year

Done. I made a filtered post that got crazy long. The key part of it is just follow-through so I've bookmarked the goal list with the intention of revisiting it in February.

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.

Crossover stories can really hit the right spot when they are really well done and when you are familiar with both worlds. Sadly, too often I only know one of them and I've learned the hard way that that's never enough. I just end up being confused. As for AUs, they come down to the writing. If the gimmick of the AU itself is supposed to the key point, it feels a little flat. But some authors have magical storytelling skills and even the most outrageous-sounding AUs have depth.

Not counting a Harry Potter/Star Wars drabble, I've written two crossovers that I can think of and they were both for the "into a bar" prompt. (Character X walks into a bar and meets Character Y from a different fandom.) Which means I've literally only written crossover fics that fit the description of my own pet peeve of "just doing it for the gimmick". Crowley from Good Omens walks into a bar and meets Lucifer from Supernatural. Death from Discworld walks into a Stupid Nick's Wing Dump and fails to meet Jason Mendoza from The Good Place. (They met eventually; it was just complicated.)
( fic links )

I wish I could think of some good fusion stories to recommend, because I've definitely read some, but I'm just sort of drawing a blank.

Challenge #4: 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.

I want more people to hand-hold me through their squee. Not to be all "back in the good old days" about it (because I *LOVE* the convenience of streaming and downloads and being able to watch things on my own schedule), but we used to be forced to watch shows at the same time so there was organically more discussion. Now someone might recommend something, but that's often the extent of it. You don't have the shared experience. Often people will mention a fandom they are excited about and I'm so unfamiliar with it that I don't even know if they are talking about a comic or a movie or a series or an anime or a book or a video game, stand-alone or series, pro or fanfic? I've had things recommended to me where I don't even know where to start or where to find the thing. (And since there are ton of other things where I can find season 1 on Netflix or whatever, I tend to go down the path of least resistance.)

I moved in with a new roommate this last year, so we actually *are* getting to have the experience where she goes, "What? You've never seen Steven Universe?! We must watch!" and so we've been marathoning that (current through season 4). I introduced her to She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. She showed me Ted Lasso. Etc.

I think I need to make the effort to make more "discuss in the comments!" posts about whatever I'm currently watching to try and encourage this, but I'm not just saying "talk to me about the thing I'm currently watching." I'm openly inviting people to sit me down and go, "Watch this! It's awesome!" There are many things that I now love that I never would have watched if someone I trusted hadn't gone, "YOU WILL LOVE THIS THING! SHARE MY SQUEE!!!"

Challenge #5: talk about an idea you wish you had the time / talent / energy to do.

I have plenty of time as I'm only working part time and work-from-home means I'm not wasting part of my day on a commute. So many of my goals are "improve my skills at..." so I while I won't pretend I have all the talent I want, that's not the obstacle, that's the goal. The big thing missing in my life is energy. Absolutely everything feels like too much effort so I'm always saying I'm going to do things "later" and then I spend hours vegetating on YouTube and the next thing I know it's 3AM and I haven't accomplished anything.

I have several original fic works-in-progress that have all wilted on the vine. Enough time has gone by that I can't just sit down and bang out ideas for more scenes. I have to go back and re-read everything and fix all the parts that bug me before I move forward.

I had this idea for an activity book that I mentioned to a friend and she was immediately excited by the idea and said she wanted to help... and neither of us have done anything. (The idea was to make the kind of thing we both enjoyed as kids with coloring pages and riddle pages and mazes and word searches and connect-the-dots, etc, etc.) So far I have a list of ideas for pages and one maze and one word search (and both of those are still in messy draft form).

I've got a lot more of this on my 2022 goals list (Duolingo, Khan Academy math stuff, Khan Academy JavaScript stuff) but it's all personal stuff.

I don't really have any fandom projects to put on the list because I've done a much better job this last year at dodging responsibilities. I finally posted the last fanfic and only have one upcoming (the firewhiskeyfic challenge on January 22nd) and I haven't even brainstormed an idea for that one. Usually at this point, I at least have an idea of which characters I want to write about. And I'm releasing myself from the obligation of posting an edited version to AO3. My last two rounds, I've cleaned up the Firewhiskey draft and turned it into a "proper" fic. But honestly... the best part of Firewhiskey is reading the terrible, typo-laden drunk drafts. Why should I burden myself with the obligation to edit it? (If, by chance, drunk-me comes up with a great idea, I might still edit and post it, but I don't have to.)

Challenge #6: create something

I'm gonna cheat and claim the story I wrote for firewhiskeyfic since it occurred during snowflake_challenge.

Challenge #7: tell us about fandom resources, spaces, or communities you use or enjoy

I'm mainly just thinking of the obvious things everyone knows about like AO3. I guess I'll give another shout-out to firewhiskeyfic as it's a fun community for writing drunken smut.

Challenge #8: celebrate a personal win from the past year

I moved to a new apartment which is always a stressful experience and have now fully settled into the new place so I'm still patting myself on the back for that. I filled up a couple more sketchbooks.

Challenge #9: list your Fandom Wrap categories

( list )

Challenge #10: rec a fanwork (fic, art, vid, playlist, anything!) you did not create

Let's see, there were a series of really intellectual video essays about She-Ra and the Princesses of Power that I loved. ( video )

There's a whole series of them (some much longer than this) going into character analysis in more detail. I'm usually not into the meta stuff. (Just let me watch my dumb shows without thinking about them too much.) But... this dumb kids cartoon actually had some serious character growth and was very consistent with weaving the threads together.

Challenge #11: Interact with someone
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Challenge #12: tell us who you would recast in a film, tv series or webseries, or maybe someone voicing a cartoon or videogame. Or who would you cast to play a character in a book, comic or maybe even your own fiction!

Ha! I think I accidentally did this one already when I was posting on my image journal (eye_of_toad) earlier this month about how Gwendoline Christie would make a great "Scorpia" from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. (For the record, I think a live-action She-Ra would be a terrible idea so I'm not pushing this, but in my fantasy head-canon Gwendoline Christie would rock that outfit for Princess Prom.)

Challenge #13: share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, wild times with fellow fans (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone.

So many. I won't be able to do them justice. This merits essays and essays. For a quick one (which I've probably talked about before)... I was able to attend a Discworld convention in Madison Wisconsin that Terry Pratchett attended. He let it be known that it would be his last visit to the U.S. because the hassle of traveling, getting through security and customs, was just too much. There were parts of the weekend that were obviously quite sad. (He talked in detail about his rare form of Alzheimer's, which google reminds me is called "posterior cortical atrophy" and how he was working around it by dictating stories. He also showed the documentary he made about assisted suicide.) He could no longer sign his name, but he still did an autograph line so somewhere around here I have a book with his fingerprint on it. He was just around the convention the whole time, just hanging out with fans, staying to watch the play of Wyrd Sisters, doing multiple Q&As on different topics. It was just a lovely experience and it was especially lovely that it was clear to him how much we all appreciated his work.

Challenge #14: post your pictures of your fandom scavenger hunt results

Look around your current space, whether digital or brick-n-mortar. Post a pic or description of:
( list )

Challenge #15: create your own challenge

I'm going to steal the album art idea from challenge #14 because I think that's cool. I always like to add the option to feel free to skip any songs you aren't that into. What are the first three songs that come up in shuffle that you like enough to listen to all the way through?

So in addition to the one I listed first with the scavenger hunt, I got...( mine )