Wednesday, August 3, 2016

August Writing Challenge

It has been almost alarmingly quiet around here, though I'm sure that is largely my own fault for not saying much lately. So, let's do something completely for fun. Like just totally silly fun. 

So, here is a completely inappropriate challenge: Drunk Han and Leia sex. Yes, that is correct. It is up to you whether you want to get into the explicit details or not. I will request that these be light-hearted drunken sex and not like, angry drunken sex because it's my blog and I can do what I want.

So, go forth and write and submit. You may also submit a photo you want to accompany your story, and if you don't I may attach a photo of my choice. Have fun.

63 comments:

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    1. Oh, good. We haven't had things be that quiet after a post in years, I was about ready to take it down!

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    2. Okay... we're nearly done. Only one tiny problem: neither of us has ever submitted a story here. How does that work? And is there a word limit? The story (currently entitled "Make Mine a Double") is coming in at just under 5000 words (We're nothing if not wordy)! Hope that's okay?

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    3. That's a little longer than our entries usually get, but I am willing to make an exception. You can email it to me at zrm17 "at" yahoo "dot" com. (I add all the fancy quotation marks because sometimes comments don't work if you write email addresses)

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  2. I'm no writer.....but I can't wait to read and appreciate!

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    1. No problem, as this is also important for any writing challenge. If everyone is just there to write and nobody is there to read and appreciate, well that's just no fun!

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  3. I will have lots of reading to do!

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  4. Game on. Let's do this. *whips out laptop*

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    1. *gulp*

      Can I just check... This is not a competition, right? :D :D :D

      Sincerely,

      Erin, the Intimidated

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  5. Oh PLEASE. You, my friend, are a rockstar. This isn't a competition but if it was, I should be feeling intimidated. *hugs Erin*

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  6. Aw, thanks! :D *hugs* Anyway, if it were a competition, I'd probably be disqualified for cheating because I've got a secret weapon (I'm collaborating with Justine Graham for this wee challenge).

    Having fun, though! And very much looking forward to reading your contribution.

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  7. Hahaha, that is a terrific plan! I'm a fan of that set up, indeed!

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  8. Haha, this is definitely not a competition. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who is excited to read something from both of you!

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  9. Ooh this sounds very interesting. Not sure I'll be contributing but wondering what everyone else is going to come up with :)

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  10. You're feeling intimidated? I get shaky just writing a comment...lol. It's all great fun, though!

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  11. I'm feeling intimidated by the prompt, never mind Erin and Rogue (who also intimidate me)! Wrapping my head around Leia having drunk sex is proving a challenge.

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    1. Wrapping my head around Han having drunk sex, not so much of a challenge...

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    2. Nobody has to be like, hammered. Even just tipsy is ok. I don't think we have major rules here.

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    3. I think I have something - if it works, I may submit it here and then include it as a part of a chapter in the long-form I have going over on ff.net if that's ok.

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    4. Great! And I have no problem if it is part of something bigger, you can just explain any context of the larger story if needed.

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    5. Okay. I think we are confusing 'intimidating' with 'fandom-old'. Or, if you prefer, 'fandom centenarian at 31 years old'. Intimidating would be a date with Chris Helmsworth. :D

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    6. 31? Oh lawsy. If that's old I'm ancient. -LFVoy

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    7. Nah, at 45 I'm (almost) old enough to be Chris Hemsworth's mother, so that wouldn't intimidate me. I'd just tell him to behave like a nice young gentleman and get me my walker when I ask for it. Remembering the days of tipsiness or drunkenness that would lead to a romantic encounter - that's so far in the past that it's another lifetime. :)

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    8. Oh, alright. I'll give that to you. ;) You get him to act like a gentleman and I will be less intimidated when I date him. Deal?

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    9. Well the fun of this challenge is it could happen at any time in their relationship. You can have 50-something Han and Leia, married for 20 years, having a little too much to drink one night.

      I'm still not clear on how Chris Hemsworth suddenly got into the conversation, but if 31 is old then yep, I'm way old.

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    10. Chris Helmsworth is my fault. I was trying to find a person who seems intimidating. ;)

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    11. Chris Hemsworth seems WAY less intimidating than Harrison Ford. I feel like if for some reason I was introduced to Chris I could maybe talk like a normal human (even though yes, like most women I think he is very hot.) But Harrison? I'm not so sure about that. And only partly due to extreme levels of sexiness. Like, Chris seems like he actually likes people and Harrison seems like he hates everyone so I'd be like, OMG he probably already hates me just for existing and possibly taking up even a moment of his time and I hope he forgets I exist immediately instead of thinking about that annoying woman!

      Another random thing I've wondered, do you think there is anyone on Earth Harrison would be intimidated by? That seems impossible to me.

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    12. I'm laughing because that paragraph above about meeting HF is like a transcript of the thoughts I have during ANY conversation with ANY person, much less a celebrity. :)

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    13. But seriously, can you imagine? That is why part of me is like, I hope one day I run into him. And a much larger part of me is like... holy crap no I don't because like, what if he SEES me?!?! It reminds me of someone I know who DID run into him once in a coffee shop, and the photo she took is so perfect because it is basically just what I would've done, as it is a photo of his back as he is standing at the counter ordering, and she remained very far away for fear of bothering him in any way.

      I can at least proudly say that I *mostly* do not have those thoughts with every person I've met, although I do still have them sometimes, and certainly used to have them a lot more often!

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    14. I wouldn't say intimidated but Harrison seemed genuinely in awe of Benedict Cumberbatch when they were both on Graham Norton's show a while back. Benedict of course was floored to be getting a compliment from Harrison.

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  12. You're feeling intimidated? I get shaky just writing a comment...lol. It's all great fun, though!

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  13. Whoa, this promises to provide us with some entertaining one-shots, after they've had two or three or....;)

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  14. OMG, I can't waaaaaiiiit to read the entries! Leia + Han + Sex = my happy place. I almost want to write one too, but I never write anything, so if I'd even manage to even submit something it will be an accomplishment. But yeah, bring it on!!!!

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  15. wow I've been away too long. maybe I need to dive into this challenge to get my writing chops back.

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  16. I'm keenly awaiting the rest of the contributions to this challenge from Jz, Kels, Rogue and maybe others? I hope I haven't missed them somehow...

    That's entirely possible, though. As savvy as I like to think I am on the Web (I was an early adopter and online by 1997) I feel like a real dumb bunny trying to deal with blogs, or really with any of the most popular sites these days. I can kinda-sorta see the point of Twitter, and my 16-year-old daughter has clued me in on the appeal of Vines, but Tumblr still confounds me. I'm definitely getting old!

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    1. No, you haven't missed mine. I wrote a little guy, got all happy with it ... and then realized I'd nearly submitted essentially a clone of "The First and the Last" by MandyQ. Like scarily similar. Same title and everything. And as awesome as that fic is, I figured inadvertent plagiarism is still plagiarism.

      So. Back to the drawing board for KR. Le sigh.

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  17. I am brand new to this, so I would appreciate a little direction. How do we submit? Just put it on up there? Won't be for a bit yet - I'm still playing. And it seems long!

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  18. Hi! Big fan of the site. :) I have a rather hefty 5700 word submission for this and am in the same boat as knitzkampf. I am totally new to the blog world and a slightly less new to the fanfic community. If it's worthy to post, I would also like to post it on my fanfic account in a couple of months.

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    1. Hi there. You can email it to me zrm17 "at" yahoo "dot" com and I'll get it posted for you. Welcome!

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  19. Jz, Kels, LFVoy? Y'all got 4 days left in August. Chop-chop! =D (Catherine, I don't think you indicated you were thinking of writing for this challenge, but I'm still hopeful...!)

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  20. Where did the post from CorellianAngel (Angela I) go? I can't find it now. If you're out there, Angela, just want you to know I can't wait to read your submission for this prompt! Eeeee! Excited!

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    1. It accidentally wound up in the spam folder. For some reason we get alerts on all comments even if they go into spam, which can be annoying because sometimes I'll forget to check in there and things will sit a while because in my email it just looks normal! But I have rescued it :)

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  21. I deeply apologise for my spam transformation, but it gave me an opportunity to ditch another 50 words or so. (Need a beta). Is there a preferred file format? It's a .docx Word document right now.

    P.S.
    Knighted Rogue has now made me completely paranoid about accidental plagiarism.

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    1. No need to apologize, sometimes the spam filter catches random things, even from people who have already posted regularly. Oddly it does not seem to catch the actual spam where people come here trying to tell us all how to save our bad marriages. I'm not sure if it is simply coincidence or targeted marketing, but that seems to be the specific brand of spam we get, though rarely. I'm not married, so it can't be my fault!

      Word is the perfect format, go with that.

      As for accidental plagiarism, I totally get that. Sometimes I wonder if certain similarities in our fanfic are a universal consciousness thing or if it is really plagiarism. With these relatively specific parameters though I think it would be easy to mistake similarities for plagiarism. But I don't know, just write and see what happens and hopefully you aren't actually stealing ideas!

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    2. There will certainly be tons of "plagarism" in a niche as specific as ours here. Sex in Han's bunk will more or less be the same for most authors, as will forest romps on endor. It can be difficult to avoid. There's a portion of a chapter in m.alexandra's Identity recently that is dangerously close to a snippet I had in my edit pile. As a result I'm reworking the next chapter of my multi chapter fic. AGAIN.

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    3. When I was 11 or 12 years old, I wrote a little story (with pen! on paper!) about Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie crash-landing the Falcon on a planet full of hostiles and having to abandon the ship to trek off into the wilderness together. Han and Leia snarked at each other the whole time (but secretly they just wanted to kiss); Chewie was a big furry fraidy-cat (and Han kept yelling at him and calling him names); and Luke, of course, saved the day.

      I'm sure it was a terrible story and I'm grateful it's now ashes, along with everything else I wrote back then, but that was c. 1981/1982 and I can only imagine how many fics are now online that feature some of those elements--although undoubtedly they'll be much better executed than mine.

      There's only so much we can do with a niche this tiny, with certain fixed points of the story preserved in the films, and with a shared obsession for putting Han and Leia close together in as many awkwardly intimate situations as possible. We're all cutting from the same cloth, over and over again.

      The journey from Hoth to Bespin comes to mind, of course. I find this topic interesting (and I guess it's why I'm rattling on about it now) because recently I saw a bit of online drama going on between two well-established writers from "back in the day", which seemed to centre on an accusation of one "stealing" the idea from the other that the journey took XX days, and H/L became lovers during that period. *rolls eyes*

      I don't have much patience with that sort of thing. For pity's sake...we're ALL "stealing" ideas just by being writers of fanfiction, instead of generating original content and characters and galaxies of our own. And I think some writers are just a bit too proprietary about (let's face it) very common tropes and clichés.

      Of course, there are certain recognizable elements in certain well-known stories published in the late 1990s/early 2000s that would -scream- plagiarism if they appeared in a story nowadays, but it amazes me that some people think an idea such as: "Leia 'hides' somewhere in the Falcon; has a little cry over her conflicted feelings for Han; is discovered by Han, and then they kiss" is a unique scenario! lol

      Justine Graham and I just published a story featuring a chat between Luke and Leia (post-RotJ) and it did occur to me that, although I've never seen any, there must be similar stories somewhere out there.

      Then again, I haven't even read as much as 0.01% of the SW fanfiction out there, so I'll probably never know... That is, unless someone whips out a flamethrower and torches the reviews page! lol

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    4. This is a really interesting conversation. I agree with a lot of what you just said and actually had thought of exactly the same incident when we first started talking about this, when someone was accused of plagiarizing based solely on choosing the same or a similar amount of days for the Bespin trip. Honestly, I'd be flattered if something I had written about a specific, often-covered time period for them had become so iconic that it was basically commonly accepted as canon. I mean, the trip has to take SOME amount of days, right? So what is different enough to not be considered plagiarized? I just didn't understand that argument. Though there was one story that essentially used the same title, and THAT I did think was maybe crossing a line, even if I wouldn't have called it plagiarism.

      I will say though that this discussion is part of why I have never myself attempted a Bespin story. I have my own ideas on what may or may not have happened on that trip, but there are dozens of them out there and I'm not sure anyone needs another one. Especially because I wouldn't be writing it for the sake of being different (in my head the trip is a lot shorter and there isn't any sex - which is not to say I have not always very much enjoyed reading the stories that are a lot longer with a whole lot of sex, just that in my own head canon, it didn't happen then) and I'm sure many of my ideas would overlap with something someone else somewhere has already written.

      It really can be tough to come up with something to write for a fandom that is nearly 40 years old. And as I stated up there, I have never been one to try and write something different for the sake of being different. I've written a few stories with subjects I'm sure I haven't seen written elsewhere and if I did find someone wrote something with the same idea then yes, I'd probably feel like it had been stolen from me. However I've also written stories that cover things that have been covered many times (like consummating their relationship just after the battle of Endor) and I wouldn't consider the idea mine at all, more like just a logical conclusion a lot of us have drawn and written about over the years.

      There are only so many ways to write the trip to Bespin, their first time, when they finally fall in love, get married, have a baby or 2, deal with really being a couple, etc. Even the trip to Ord Mantell has been covered many, many times out there in fanfic. I think it can be especially tough when writing things that would've occurred within the timeline of the movies, because unless you are going AU, we all need to fall within certain parameters for them to wind up again where we see them on screen.

      It's certainly a tricky subject and it is sometimes difficult to figure out where the line is.

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    5. I've discovered that as the years go by, my tolerance for AUs has gotten higher to the point that I actually prefer reading/writing AUs now. Anyone else in that boat?

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    6. Hadn't really thought about it. It's funny because I think that for myself, like a lot of people I remember talking about this with over the years, the knee-jerk reaction tends to be something like, "Ugh, I don't like AU stories." Except when I stop and think about it, over the years quite a few of the stories I've been most sucked into and enthralled by have been AU. It's just the getting me to START reading them that is difficult.

      As for writing AU, I have always had an issue with that. I am such a conformist, it is hard for me to write something that won't then fit nicely into a very specific box. I've had a story idea for years that I haven't really delved into beyond like 2 chapters and a few lines here and there because it involves 2 things I don't like doing with my writing: 1. it would probably be a really long story, and I fear writing long stories. 2. I think by necessity it would have to alter some details of the OT, making it somewhat AU-ish, which I also have a hard time with. I enjoy when other authors do these things, I just can't seem to do it myself!

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    7. I'm with you there, KR. I used to avoid them like the plague. I wanted the "real" OT3 in their "actual" situations...not some off-the-wall nonsense. Now, I'm far more inclined to read and enjoy AU fics, mainly because official canon is pure bollocks.

      I draw the line at "earthly" AU, though. I don't like reading about Luke as the captain of the football team, and Leia as the student body president, and Han as the "bad boy" who's new in town, etc. That's just not my cup of tea!

      However, I did just read a short and rather silly little early AU fic by organanation ("The Politician and the Truck Driver") that made me smile....

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    8. I get that, Zyra. I only really started reading AUs when I started WRITING AUs. And now I can't stop.

      And Erin, I can't do high school AUs. I really can't. I love the ones where one little part of the canon diverges and the author just totally unpacks it. "Identity" is doing that so well. I love it!

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  22. Haha. I'm a walking PSA for unintentional plagiarism. Can't wait to read your story! :D

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    1. Well I plagiarized yours completely (Loved it BTW)... Mine too has whiskey in it. ;)

      TBH I jut re-read mine and it is one of the dirtiest, cheesiest, tropiest (is that a word?) things I have recently read. I may die of embarrassment, online pseudos or no.

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    2. Yup. Too too filthy. I've been told to tone it down. Take heed those of you who haven't finished yet.

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    3. Angela, is your story posted somewhere I'm not seeing!?

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    4. Only on Zyra's PC and mine. :)

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    5. Yeah, sorry to others, that was my call. Think of the blog as more of a regular cable after 10pm kind of thing rather than a premium channel after hours thing. One is definitely less explicit than the other but it doesn't mean we can't still have fun ;) I have suggested though that at some point she share the unedited version elsewhere.

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  23. Erin, I'm totally with you. Unless you as a writer deviate SIGNIFICANTLY from canon, it's been written. And even then, AUs sometimes STILL have elements from past fics. It's the beautiful thing about a fandom that is small and forty years old: our fanon is ridiculously strong in some ways and we don't even think about it. :)

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  24. This is kinda a burning question for me. Anyone actually write theirs drunk? Or have some liquid inspiration at hand?

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    1. Erm....I am pretty sure there was at least a little bit of red wine involved on my end. There usually is, no matter what the subject matter. ;)

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    2. Cmon folks. Don't be shy! Look at the subject matter. Don't writing and alcohol have a long loooong association? there may have been a very good sweet German Riesling involved for me.
      For reading fics and writing. :)

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