antuhsa: (Default)
Antuhsa ([personal profile] antuhsa) wrote2020-01-30 08:12 pm

Snowflake challenge: 14 & 15

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner with image of white ice crystals/snowflakes on a dark green background. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31

Day 14: Talk about a favourite trope
It's not really a trope, but I'm going to say it anyway: characterisation. I'm reading fanfic because I fell in love with the characters. I'm reading shipfic, because I enjoyed the way the characters I ship interacted in canon. The characters is what I'm all here for, so if I read a fanfic with them in it, I want them to be in character. Do I have favourite tropes or themes? Yes and no. I can't think of any tropes I enjoy at all times. It all depends so much on the characters I'm reading about. Certain characters just lend themselves to certain tropes better. For Snape/Harry, I gravitate to bittersweet war-time fics, because those have all the intensity that I associate with these two characters. For Harry/George, on the other hand, I prefer post-war hurt/comfort, because Harry's interactions with George are friendly. George brings out different aspects of Harry's character than Snape, so I want to read different fics for these two ships as a result. Simple as that.

Day 15: Create your own challenge
One of my themes throughout this Snowflake Challenge has been fear and facing it, so it would be apt if I made that into a challenge. We all have a project or task that we want to do, but haven't yet, because we're scared of it. Maybe it's fear of failure, maybe you're afraid of being seen as weird when you do it, or you might be nervous about something else entirely. Whatever it is, face it and start on that project anyway! Just take the very first step. Start with something small maybe. Open a google doc for your fic, pick a colour scheme for your drawing, tell someone about the project. Whatever your next step is, just do it! You'll find your momentum from there.

If you need someone to hold you accountable, feel free to comment below to tell me about your project, and when you want to have it/ the next step done, and I'll get back to you before that deadline to ask you how things are going!


I'll go first: I started on a bookbinding project back in October, but still haven't finished yet, even though it's a gift for a friend. I genuinely couldn't work on it in November and December, but I have no valid excuses for January. The problem is that I've messed this project up. I didn't know how best to bind this, so I came up with my own method, but that didn't work very well in this case. As a result, most of the work on this project has consisted of trying to fix that mistake as much as possible. It's very discouraging and that's it why I've been dreading to continue with these books for so long. However, it's still possible to turn them into nice, usable books, so that's what I should do. I honestly only need to make the covers, which is the very last step of the process. It will still be a lot of work, but I should be able to finish it in February, so that's the goal. I will write a post about making these three sheet music books as soon as I've finished them, as proof. If you don't see the post sometime at the end of February, please call me out on it!


These are two of the three books. I'm already a few steps beyond this, but I'm posting this so everyone knows what I'm talking about.

So that's my scary project for February. What's yours?
narya_flame: Young woman drinking aperol in Venice (Default)

[personal profile] narya_flame 2020-01-30 09:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Oooh, what a great challenge!

OK - my deadline that I need someone to hold me to is that, by the end of Feb, I need to have posted another chapter of my WIP Summer's Song.

(Context: I lost the notebook containing lots of my drafts, which upset me, and I lost the rhythm. I'm currently writing exchange fics but I need to get back to this afterwards, because if I leave it too long between updates I'm scared I'll never get my momentum back and I won't finish.)
narya_flame: Young woman drinking aperol in Venice (Default)

[personal profile] narya_flame 2020-01-30 09:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Maybe you could PM me about three weeks into Feb and see how I'm doing? That still gives me time to get my act together if I'm procrastinating XD
narya_flame: Young woman drinking aperol in Venice (Default)

[personal profile] narya_flame 2020-01-30 10:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes! And thank you <3
muccamukk: Nixon looking through binoculars. (BoB: Binos)

[personal profile] muccamukk 2020-01-30 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
I think in my case, it's mostly momentum, though writing three things at once is also not helping me. However, I'll try do a playlist for some of my current ones, that usually helps.
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)

[personal profile] spikedluv 2020-01-31 12:08 am (UTC)(link)
Great challenge! Best of luck with your project.
paulamcg: (Default)

[personal profile] paulamcg 2020-01-31 03:35 pm (UTC)(link)
I’m nodding when I read how you consider characterisation more important than tropes. I’ve never been much into tropes, and the ones I could think of for the challenge were very character- and ship-specific (even situation-specific). For me, too, it’s essential to recognise the canon characters (in AU fics, too). But perhaps because my favourite characters (to write, and to a great extent to read, too) are not as central and so much present in canon as (some of) yours, I’ve felt that there are rather different possibilities for developing the characterisations, particularly a decade or two before canon era (where a big part of Marauder stories are set). There are popular fanon characterisations, which could be compared to tropes, I guess, and those can be subverted without going out-of-character.

Your own challenge is great. I’ll be looking forward to seeing the music books completed. And I’ll remember your post when I notice that I’m postponing any task out of fear.
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)

[personal profile] silveradept 2020-01-31 06:34 pm (UTC)(link)
I agree with you about characterization. I'm pretty willing to go along with anything, so long as the characters are adapted to the setting they're in. Otherwise, I don't get nearly as much enjoyment out of the whole thing.

I did the thing I was having brainweasels about signing up for, because I tried it last year and nothing happened, and that made me feel like perhaps I wasn't good enough, but I'm trying it again this year and seeing if someone decides to bid.
james: (Default)

[personal profile] james 2020-02-02 09:11 pm (UTC)(link)
I agree with your comments about characterization! And good luck with the book binding. :-)
williamsnickers: (Default)

[personal profile] williamsnickers 2020-02-04 11:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Woot woot!
Well done on picking a project to finish by the end of this month! I really like that you decided to repurpose the books. I look forward to reading more about this when it's time.

I haven't picked a February project/goal yet, but I have several mini projects running simultaneously so there's always something to do. Maybe finishing my best of post? That one has been dragging on because I can't find enough fics to write about, I guess. One of them even got taken down in the meantime. Bummer :(