Snowflake Challenge #3: Challenges and Fests

[corpsebrigadier]

Challenge #3: Pimp Your Favorite Communities, Fests or Challenges! Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

So yeah, Challenge #1 was me actually making a sticky, and Challenge #2 I didn't go for as I'm reticent about people knowing much about my fannish past (for "I am now doing a doctorate in it and need some distance" reasons; not for drama reasons). I'm doing this one though, as this was really the year that I started doing more exchanges/fests. Here's three of the ones I enjoyed in particular:

fortune_favors I love love love love love doing stuff with symbolic systems like tarot, even if I have long lost my aptitude for doing readings and am a pretty thorough skeptic despite believing in the power of spells and divination to serve as mundane catalysts for focus and self-reflection. This fest plays entirely to that general viewpoint on tarot, however. The premise is that one signs up and receives a three card spread that one then uses to create a fanwork. Interpretations of cards are up to the creator, and you can really take things in any direction you like. For me, this is a phenomenal means of working through ideas for fanworks, as it forces one to incorporate elements you wouldn't normally consider in the interests of matching the spread in some manner. I feel like it resulted in one of my strongest pieces of fanfic for 2019 ("Coins") which definitely wouldn't be the exceptionally weird tri-villain extravaganza it ended up being (and definitely wouldn't have had a generic RPG unit as the POV character) had I written it without the tarot spread. I'm definitely looking forward to the next round.

unconventionalfanworkex: I didn't actually sign up for this, because I was still acclimating to the idea of actually doing exchanges instead of just lurking, reading, treating, and occasionally pinch hitting, but this was really the big exchange I poured my heart into for the year. Many years ago, I used to be the documents, props, and downtime actions manager for a local community LARP, so one of the things I became very adept at was concocting a variety of weird letters, documents, reports, artifacts, etc... with a very short turn around. This exchange was absolutely a godsend to me. As so much of the focus is on the format freeforms, there's an "Any Fandom" option that I thoroughly abused to make self-indulgent FFT pieces, but I also just made... a lot of other stuff for people and goggled about in awe at all the similarly weird stuff other people created. The breadth of possibilities for this thing is amazing, and it's the perfect thing for anybody who likes in-character writing, epistolary pieces, combos of visuals and words, fidgeting with CSS, themed mixology, fanmixes, filk, weird reinterpretations of canons, world building, or any of the other gazillion fun things you can create outside of traditional fanfiction or fanart.

in_a_peartree: I'm really newish to doing anything outside of Yuletide, so I never actually engaged with fandom_stocking (which didn't run this year). I found this low stakes, low stress, chill holiday exchange instead, and I had and am having a really fun time with it. Doing little ficlets and art pieces and making icons is just a fun way to eat up that awkward gap between Christmas and New Year's and to channel some of the remnant creative energy a lot of people have leftover from the year's big holiday exchange

 

Comments

[fadedwings]

fortune_favors looks so intriguing!!!

[corpsebrigadier]

It was really fantastic! Even if I don't sign up for the next round, I'm seriously considering just doing more three card spreads to generate ideas in the future.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I love love love love love doing stuff with symbolic systems like tarot, <<

In that case, look around at different readings. A 3-card reading can be:
Past / Present / Future
Character A / Character B / Their Relationship
Home / Job / Church
... or pretty much any set of 3 things.

But if you move to a longer one, like Celtic Cross, it basically tells you a story. Which you could then write.

>> even if I have long lost my aptitude for doing readings and am a pretty thorough skeptic despite believing in the power of spells and divination to serve as mundane catalysts for focus and self-reflection. <<

Pretty much all divination systems can work for purposes of insight. Tarot is pretty good for that.

Re: Thoughts

[corpsebrigadier]

Thanks so much! I've got a lot on my plate now, and doing quick readings used to be one of my go to ways of thinking through things (often with the aid of the little leaflet in the back of the box after I'd totally forgotten most minor arcana cards). Having more thoughts as to how to arrange things definitely helps, and it might be a good way to get back in the habit. :)

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Some examples of "threes" in different traditions:
http://www.greatdreams.com/three/three.htm

You can have lots of fun with just that quick reading.