Snowflake Challenge #7 - Rec Yourself!
Promote/Rec/Sing the Praises* of Yourself!
This kind of self-affirmation prompt is always an interesting challenge -- I've done versions of this in therapy before, particularly as a CBT exercise to re-frame my experience of ADHD from the negative to the positive. It's always a thoughtful one for me, because I have well-earned self-confidence about myself mixed with some of the ADHD characteristic personality quirks that translates to excessive pride or intentional intimidation on the part of neurotypical people I've worked and socialized with.
I love podficcing and have a blast doing it! I started being trained to read & speak before an audience in elementary school, and my first job was at the local AM radio station in my hometown; as podfic became more normalized in fandom as a fanwork, it was a total hook for me to combine something I enjoy -- reading aloud -- with something I love, fandom. Here's a couple faves:
Let me know what you think, or if you've read them before, your memory of the fanwork. ;)
This kind of self-affirmation prompt is always an interesting challenge -- I've done versions of this in therapy before, particularly as a CBT exercise to re-frame my experience of ADHD from the negative to the positive. It's always a thoughtful one for me, because I have well-earned self-confidence about myself mixed with some of the ADHD characteristic personality quirks that translates to excessive pride or intentional intimidation on the part of neurotypical people I've worked and socialized with.
- I'm a strong short-story writer. Most of my work stays under 5000 words, not from any intention to do so, but natural inclination towards concise prose. Usually I'm working to hit a very specific beat, and the story naturally concludes once I've gotten there. At the end of the day, I write for me, and I genuinely do go back and read my own works if one crosses my mind, or a story gets recced somewhere. Often I'll do a re-read when I'm reminded of a story from the daily AO3 kudos email! A couple favorite stories are:
- Only Inaction, Generation Kill, Brad/Nate -- this one packed a lot of my thoughts and feelings about Brad, and Brad and Nate, together with some of the favorite lines I've written to date. The days he'd thought of all the things he wanted to do to Nate Fick, to the LT, were the days he could concentrate on something other than the body count and the staid British voices rattling out the news on his radio. The nights he'd let himself have the thought of something he'd never allow otherwise meant his two hours of sleep came quicker. None of those strategies had included the scenario of Nate here, seemingly offering everything Brad wanted but thought he'd hidden effectively. It was fucking terrifying to think that Nate was able to read him. No one was able to read him.
- Come See About Me, Haven, Duke Crocker/Audrey Parker/Nathan Wuornos -- I loved this OT3 so very much, and I poured my feels about them into this story. "Where's my phone?" she asked, scanning the room. "I'll call and tell him to come over right now, we can do this whole thing like you both haven't been playing chicken for fifteen years." Duke looked alarmed and tightened his hand on her calf. "Uh, no?" he said. "No, no, and also, no. There will be no calling of Nathan Wuournos tonight, or any other night that involves your compromised judgement." She grinned at him. "You like my compromised judgement," she said, and was rewarded with his flush.
- Desperately Seeking Spielberg, Guardians of the Galaxy, gen -- honestly this still makes me laugh every time I read it. It was borne as much from my knowledge of Guardians comics canon as the films and their wonderful portrayals of some of my favorite MCU characters. I started giggling as I was writing, imagining Peter Quill attempting to recall the plots of all those rad '80s moves he would have loved but couldn't necessarily remember perfectly. The combination of aggression and innocence of the rest of the Guardians, demanding the stories, felt note-perfect.
- Only Inaction, Generation Kill, Brad/Nate -- this one packed a lot of my thoughts and feelings about Brad, and Brad and Nate, together with some of the favorite lines I've written to date. The days he'd thought of all the things he wanted to do to Nate Fick, to the LT, were the days he could concentrate on something other than the body count and the staid British voices rattling out the news on his radio. The nights he'd let himself have the thought of something he'd never allow otherwise meant his two hours of sleep came quicker. None of those strategies had included the scenario of Nate here, seemingly offering everything Brad wanted but thought he'd hidden effectively. It was fucking terrifying to think that Nate was able to read him. No one was able to read him.
- Graduate Vulcan for Fun and Profit [Podfic], Star Trek AOS, gen, story by
lazulisong -- one of the few of my own podfics I ever have the impulse to listen to! This was an incredible story, and as I read it for the first time I knew I was going to podfic it, because I could hear every line so clearly in my head. This was just as AOS fandom was beginning its upswing, and all the character voices -- both new and classic -- were fresh in my brain, lending pretty strong voices to the characters in the fic. Of course, I listen to it now, ten years later, and I can hear all the things I wish I could fix, the bad minor edits and some inconsistencies in voice acting, but it's still pretty excellent. It's definitely my most-loved podfic, and still gets the occasional comment or rec here and there. - [Podfic of] a distinct lack of tutus, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Rosa/Amy, story by Fahye -- this was a group effort, recorded with a cast of wonderfuls at the 2014
bitchinparty. I jumped at the chance to voice Rosa, and I think I nailed it! I listened to it again recently, and was very pleased with how it all turned out. - Rudy’s Guide to Auras and Fair Game Play, download link [here], Generation Kill, gen, original story by sparky77 -- this is a qualified rec, because I absolutely fucking love this story and the podfic I did of it, but it's a combination of holes at the moment: it's on my old personal archive but not uploaded to AO3, the podfic file was hosted on the Audiofic Archive but it looks like the file itself was lost in website crash several years back, the story was posted on the author's livejournal which is now locked and was never cross-posted to AO3. Whew. Fortunately I have a backup copy at Mediafire, and you can find a copy of the original story at the Wayback Machine, bless it and give it all your money. I don't have time to coordinate an upload to AO3 at the moment, but hopefully soon. This story is so funny and as such, despite my efforts, I couldn't completely quell my amusement as I recorded this; it still delights and amuses me so so much.
Let me know what you think, or if you've read them before, your memory of the fanwork. ;)