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365 Challenge ~ Week 1

This entry is part 1 of 52 in the series 365 Challenge

So, 2013 opened on a Tuesday, which means I'll be updating each Tuesday on where I'm at in this ambitious challenge. This first week, I finished 4 out of 7 pieces and am hip-deep in number 5, a ficlet that became a monstrosity, my longest short story to date. "Dowse and Bleed" promises to weigh in around 8000 words when all's said and done, and I'd previously maxed out on 6500, which was big for me at the time.

Letting go of strictly flash fiction is a relief in a way. I can relax and take my time, let the characters be random, then sharply bring it all into focus for me and have me scrambling for my computer to hack away at it while I still know what they're telling me.

I decided to do something different with this challenge also. I'm pushing through to the end of each piece. No skipping and coming back to it. I want to force myself to finish before moving on, and I'm highly motivated to move on. There's an average to be struck, and I've never liked being behind.

That said, this week, I wrote in 3 original worlds, 1 fandom. Prompts were from Jocelyn Aitkin, Gwynne Jackson, and Percy O'Leary. All but the last (unless she's been holding out on me) are published and write amazing stuff, so check out their work.

Prompts in progress are from Jocelyn Aitkin and Rabia Gale, another published author with amazing stuff.

And here's the roundup.

 
4/365 entries. 1.1% done.

Tenderness

Canon: Vardin
Characters: Renaiven Gravois de Calai
Pairings:
Prompt: tenderness
Rating: K+
Notes:

Technically, these prompts are freely available from in_the_blue, but since she’s my beta and one of my dearest online writer friends, the community counts for my 365 Challenge. A double-drabble of 200 words.


Renaiven was known as a harsh man, but almost no one knew why.

   

A Letter to Fellow Historical Intern, Whom I Named Huerél

Canon: Vardin
Characters: Shilehs Calaié and Sarah Lanning
Pairings:
Prompt: sending my regards and winter
Rating: K
Notes:

Another for the 365 Challenge. I chose prompts from the 100 Word Stories community because it always pleases in_the_blue to have activity on the community, but the letter simply could not be 100 words. I let it grow. Eventually it will join a story called The Academy Letters. Until then, I hope you like it.


Vardin is not the same without you here to taste the rain.

A letter from one Academy Library intern to another, asking for a return to Vardin and an opinion on a proposed law by the new Queen.

   

Remembering Lena

Canon: Seven Days
Characters: Lena Johnson and Wesley Bryn
Pairings: Lena/Wesley
Prompt: I remember that time that you told me / You said, "Love is touching souls"...
Rating: K
Notes:

Wesley thought he knew why he borrowed the books. He wanted a reason to come back.

Every week for the last three months, Wesley Bryn has showed up at Pretty Things to return a book to the proprietor and borrow another. The reason is as much a mystery to him as to her.

   

Girls That Go Bump in the Mind

Canon: Sweet Home
Characters: Emma Frost and Jean Grey
Pairings:
Prompt: Team dynamics. Points for playing with the usual suspects, but Scott, Jean, Emma migh
Rating: K
Notes:

Sorry for this taking so long, but I hope you like it after all!


What you don't know can hurt you.

No one realized just how deep the animosity between telepaths went until sweet, self-sacrificing, foolish Scott Summers offered to help Emma Frost with her homework—and she brought her study partner, Jean Grey, along for the ride.

   
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365 Challenge Update, Week 2 with Changes

This entry is part 2 of 52 in the series 365 Challenge

So it's been a busy week, and from the beginning of the year, I've been writing about 2000 words a day because of the challenge. To me, that is a straight up success no matter where I end up falling on the completed pieces goal.

But on that, I've discovered that some pieces will grow beyond the length I intend for them. Yes, I'm looking at you, "Dowse and Bleed." Don't bother shrugging innocently. So we're adopting a new counting system.

  • 1500 words or less: flash fiction = 1 piece
  • 1500–7500 words: short story = 2 pieces
  • 7500–17.5K words: novelette = 4 pieces
  • 17500–40K words: novella = 7 pieces
  • 40K+ words: novel = 10 pieces

Here's the new count. Only a week behind. Ah, well.

 
8/365 pieces. 2.2% done.

The Perfect Woman

Canon:
Characters:
Pairings:
Prompt: Silence and Storytelling
Rating:
Notes:

This will not do! For what I am / Is woman, not a female man.

   

Winter Rose

Canon: Seven Days
Characters: Lena Johnson and Wesley Bryn
Pairings: Lena/Wesley
Prompt: fade
Rating: K
Notes:

Another double-drabble for the 365 Challenge. 200 words.


She wants a bloom that lives beyond a week.

Every week, Wesley comes to borrow and return a book. Lena wants the rose to live until he comes.

   

Edge of Salvation, Edge of Fear

Canon: Faeology
Characters: Shellayne and Markus
Pairings:
Prompt: books
Rating: K+
Notes:

This is a continuity born out of a bunch of other stories and prompts and ideas, with a huge push from my beta, but alas! This 365 challenge ficlet is finished first.


What if every thought could write reality?

Markus was afraid to open the books, even if by doing so he could save them.

   

Beneath the Icewood Trees

Canon: Faeology
Characters: Surrey, Eried Black, and Fae Alend
Pairings:
Prompt: Icicles filled the long window / With barbaric glass....
Rating:
Notes:

What is fae and what is magic?

Eried Black is a son of a privileged house, one granted magic to guard and use and sell. When he sees it used amiss, it angers him, but has he finally gotten in over his head?

   

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Meming It Out for a Ficlet O'Clock

This entry is part 3 of 52 in the series 365 Challenge

Yesterday, we got quite a bit of work done, including overhauling the framework of my website. Still more to get done, but I like how the Bibliography and 365 Challenge pages turned out.

And now, it's that time again. I've got prompts in the percolator and stories mulling, but need a few more ready prompting, por favor. So calling:

  1. Number of sentences
  2. Character(s) and/or continuity/fandom
  3. Any question you want answered

ETA:

22/365: The Ones Who Choose

Who is family?

Natasha Romanova surprised herself by moving in to the Stark Tower and making her suite her own. Tony Stark surprises her by commenting on it.

Avengers Movieverse Fanfic
393 words

19/365: Battery Acid

Battery acid is caustic, but indispensable.

Justus had found the Database’s company to be tolerable, but sometimes she was a little too sharp when he was already feeling raw.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
501 words

14–15/365: Welcome

Cate shouldn't have asked, but she did.

Rachelle would rather be anywhere else than the newly formed Special Unit, doing the work she used to be enslaved to. But she will. For Cate.

Science Fiction Short Story
1042 words

16/365: Hunt the Mists

He wanted to change the way things were.

Bryn wants to guard their own lands and the outsiders who stumble upon them, but he is no hunter and only the hunters wander out into the mists.

Science Fiction Fantasy Flash Fiction Short Story
353 words

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365 Challenge: Queen of Heaven

This entry is part 4 of 52 in the series 365 Challenge

Queen of Heaven

Canon: Mirror
Characters: Matthias and Sylfen
Pairings:
Prompt: Chasing after wind
Rating: T
Notes:

The Queen of Heaven should not care / When lost were all the reeling stars / The Queen of Heaven tossed her hair / Retorted, "Don't you know what's ours"

   
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365 Challenge: Welcome

This entry is part 5 of 52 in the series 365 Challenge

Welcome

Canon: Kingdoms and Thorn
Characters: Jarod Walters, Ilsa Killinger, Rachelle "The Database" Winslow, and Catherine "Thought" Elena April (Cate)
Pairings:
Prompt: How Rachelle started working for/with Ilsa
Rating:
Notes:

So I went ahead and wrote this in the hopes it would help me out with “Dowse and Bleed.” It did a bit. :grins:


Cate shouldn't have asked, but she did.

Rachelle would rather be anywhere else than the newly formed Special Unit, doing the work she used to be enslaved to. But she will. For Cate.

   
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365 Challenge: Hunt the Mists

This entry is part 6 of 52 in the series 365 Challenge

Hunt the Mists

Canon: Vardin
Characters: Serel Calaié and Bryn out of Calai
Pairings:
Prompt: what happened 100 years before Portrait of a Butterfly
Rating:
Notes:

So I’d never actually peeked in on this time period before because I didn’t think anything particularly interesting had happened. But it did. The way hunting was handled began to shift and not too long away comes another great war. Ah, well. Stories surprise us. Hope you like.


He wanted to change the way things were.

Bryn wants to guard their own lands and the outsiders who stumble upon them, but he is no hunter and only the hunters wander out into the mists.

   
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365 Challenge: "The Un-Study" and "How We Write Poetry"

This entry is part 7 of 52 in the series 365 Challenge

Something odd happened. Both of these were published to instant More Please! clicks. I'm wondering if my Reaction Buttons plugin is broken. Ah, well. Hope you like these poems.

 

The Un-Study

Canon:
Characters:
Pairings:
Prompt: The song Kryptonite, by 3 Doors Down
Rating:
Notes:

Not what I was expecting, but you never know how one thing gets to another.


Knowledge solid, fluid (is) / Unlearning ev'rything.

   

How We Write Poetry

Canon: Vardin
Characters: Jhemet out of Calai
Pairings:
Prompt: I am a songbird / Singing out your window...
Rating:
Notes:

Answer, turn and answer / Then turn the stone again

   
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365 Challenge: Battery Acid

This entry is part 8 of 52 in the series 365 Challenge

Battery Acid

Canon: Kingdoms and Thorn
Characters: Justus "Defender" Ellison and Rachelle "The Database" Winslow
Pairings: Justus/Rachelle
Prompt: How Rachelle met her battery acid
Rating: T
Notes:

So this doesn’t tell the story of when she got her name, but it covers how.

I wasn’t intending to finish this today, but here goes another post for the 365 Challenge.


Battery acid is caustic, but indispensable.

Justus had found the Database’s company to be tolerable, but sometimes she was a little too sharp when he was already feeling raw.

   
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365 Challenge: watch me dream

This entry is part 9 of 52 in the series 365 Challenge

So it's official. My plugin's broken. Not every single new page should be showing up with a More Please! Unless someone's clicking before I can even hit view post!

 

watch me dream

Canon: Mirror
Characters:
Pairings:
Prompt: I remember that time that you told me / You said, "Love is touching souls"...
Rating:
Notes:

and time shall be hereafter / writ in heart our souls' provisions / wound, unwound by dreamers sifting

   
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365 Challenge: The Unmaking

This entry is part 10 of 52 in the series 365 Challenge

The Unmaking

Canon: Mirror
Characters: Sylfen
Pairings:
Prompt: I had a way then losing it all on my own / I had a heart then but the queen has been
Rating:
Notes:

Drat it, this world’s getting messy. When I first saw the Queen of Heaven, I never imagined she’d end up a poem or that the world would end up being the Mirror, made and remade. Well, I’m sketching my way through this continuity in poetry first, but I expect that prose will follow soon.


Whirled 'round, making and unmaking / Raze, raze heaven 'til it gleams

   
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