Hornblower Alphabet Soup - Guidelines
Okay, the assembled Age of Sail folks have spoken! There will be a Hornblower Fandom Alphabet Soup, but our first subject is going to be a certain Archie Kennedy. Color me utterly unsurprised. Bush got the second most votes, though, so if this round goes well, I guess I know who's going to be next. Poor Horatio. :)
We're also a busy bunch so: prompts are going up now, feel free to claim a letter here and start writing as soon as you like. People wanted plenty of time to write, and I'm away the first weekend in November, so how about stories due Nov. 7, which is a Friday and allows everyone the weekend to read, comment, and enjoy.
For those of you who haven't done this before, I've got guidelines and keywords below the cuts. Thanks to everyone who voted and who's going to play! I'm looking forward to it.
1. Pick a letter, any letter. Seeing as there are 26, and 14 people so far have signed up to say they want to write, yes, you can ask for two letters right away. I will be crossing them out as they get picked, but if there's a little lag time, it's first comment, first pick. Dueling pistols are by the back door if you want to fight over letters.
1b. If there are unpicked letters by the end of September I'll put out an APB and people can pick up an extra. Either that or I'll have a lot of caulking to do. You do not have to use one of the words listed in the keyword/prompts list. They are suggestions only to get the creative juices flowing, and if you come up with some other central word that defines the character for you, in moment or theme or anything else, go for it!
2. Write your piece around your keyword, at least 100 words long. There's no maximum, but remember there will be 25 other fics and if you write a magnum opus people might skip it due to overload. I'm not going to complain about having too much to read, however, so write whatever floats your boat.
3. I'm not going to make any rules about gen vs. slash vs. het. or rating, though if you're going extra spicy or into extremely dark territory, please just post summary and a link to your entry on your own journal so people have the option to read or not based on personal preferences.
4. When it's time to post (Nov. 7!) there will be a post here, so you can put your entire piece, a snippet, or a link to your personal journal entry in the comments to that entry. When all the soup bits are posted, I'll put together a compilation post so it can get read all of a piece. If you'd like individual feedback, please ALSO post your Alphabet Soup piece(s) in your personal LJ and leave me the link so I can link to it for personal feedback. If the timing doesn't work for you and you need to turn in your piece early, you can mail it to me at lokeiwinter(atthesignofthe)yahoo(dot)com and I'll be sure it gets into the compilation post with the correct credit. (do include your LJ name with your email so I know who's who!)
5. Have fun! Feel free to message/ask here with any questions, and if you're looking for a prior example, I recommend Daniel Jackson Alphabet Soup, hosted by the lovely sg_fignewton.
Who cares about rules, I want the big danged list.
A admiral, admiralty, articles of war, actress
B Bonaparte, Buckland, battle, Bracegirdle, beating, bets, before the mast, bilge, bow, Bush, bridge
C cliff, Clayton, confession, cannon, command, coward, captain, crow's nest, colors, Clive, cutting out, court martial, chart
D doctor, death, danger, disguise, defeat, division, deck, duty, Drury Lane
E escape, examination, espionage, England, Edrington
F France, frogs, famine, flagship, flags, flogging
G Gibraltar, gold, galley, guillotine
H Hammond, hot shot, hammock, heat, Hunter, Hornblower
I imprisonment, injury, Indefatigable, illness
J Jamaica, jolly boat, Justinian
K kill, kindness, keg, King, Kitty Cobham, Keane
L lieutenant, loss, language, latitude and longitude, Lobsters
M mutiny, midshipman, messmates, Matthews, mercy
N news, navigation, nobility, nature, Navy
O Oldroyd, officer, orders, orlop, oubliette, oakum
P prison, parole, peace, Portsmouth, powder, prize money, privateer, panic, Papillon
Q queue, quarterdeck, Quiberon
R Renown, rum, rations, rigging, rowboats, rats
S sail, Sawyer, Spain, Styles, surrender, sword, shore leave, sea, study, scurvy, sir, Simpson, Shakespeare, seizures, Spithead, starvation
T topmast, trauma, terror, time
U Underwater, uniform, understanding
V valor, virtue, vice, visible, voice
W watch, weary, will, West Indies, wind, weather side, Wellard
X execute, example (okay so it's cheating a little, but there are not a lot of X's in Hornblower. Major points to anyone who picks this letter!)
Y yes, yellow, yesterday, Yankee, yardarm, youth
Z zephyr, zeal, zenith
And just to repeat: You don't need to tell me what you think your keyword will be right now, just pick a letter. In the past, I did three "L is for" fics for one character and picked my favorite to submit, so feel free to avoid limiting yourself at the present time!
Final note: If you are interested in submitting a graphic Alphabet Soup instead of a written one, that's fine by me. For ease, I'm going to go with the same guidelines that
aos_challenge used, so wander over there if you're not familiar with their suggestions for graphic/art submissions.
We're also a busy bunch so: prompts are going up now, feel free to claim a letter here and start writing as soon as you like. People wanted plenty of time to write, and I'm away the first weekend in November, so how about stories due Nov. 7, which is a Friday and allows everyone the weekend to read, comment, and enjoy.
For those of you who haven't done this before, I've got guidelines and keywords below the cuts. Thanks to everyone who voted and who's going to play! I'm looking forward to it.
1. Pick a letter, any letter. Seeing as there are 26, and 14 people so far have signed up to say they want to write, yes, you can ask for two letters right away. I will be crossing them out as they get picked, but if there's a little lag time, it's first comment, first pick. Dueling pistols are by the back door if you want to fight over letters.
1b. If there are unpicked letters by the end of September I'll put out an APB and people can pick up an extra. Either that or I'll have a lot of caulking to do. You do not have to use one of the words listed in the keyword/prompts list. They are suggestions only to get the creative juices flowing, and if you come up with some other central word that defines the character for you, in moment or theme or anything else, go for it!
2. Write your piece around your keyword, at least 100 words long. There's no maximum, but remember there will be 25 other fics and if you write a magnum opus people might skip it due to overload. I'm not going to complain about having too much to read, however, so write whatever floats your boat.
3. I'm not going to make any rules about gen vs. slash vs. het. or rating, though if you're going extra spicy or into extremely dark territory, please just post summary and a link to your entry on your own journal so people have the option to read or not based on personal preferences.
4. When it's time to post (Nov. 7!) there will be a post here, so you can put your entire piece, a snippet, or a link to your personal journal entry in the comments to that entry. When all the soup bits are posted, I'll put together a compilation post so it can get read all of a piece. If you'd like individual feedback, please ALSO post your Alphabet Soup piece(s) in your personal LJ and leave me the link so I can link to it for personal feedback. If the timing doesn't work for you and you need to turn in your piece early, you can mail it to me at lokeiwinter(atthesignofthe)yahoo(dot)com and I'll be sure it gets into the compilation post with the correct credit. (do include your LJ name with your email so I know who's who!)
5. Have fun! Feel free to message/ask here with any questions, and if you're looking for a prior example, I recommend Daniel Jackson Alphabet Soup, hosted by the lovely sg_fignewton.
Who cares about rules, I want the big danged list.
A admiral, admiralty, articles of war, actress
B Bonaparte, Buckland, battle, Bracegirdle, beating, bets, before the mast, bilge, bow, Bush, bridge
C cliff, Clayton, confession, cannon, command, coward, captain, crow's nest, colors, Clive, cutting out, court martial, chart
D doctor, death, danger, disguise, defeat, division, deck, duty, Drury Lane
E escape, examination, espionage, England, Edrington
F France, frogs, famine, flagship, flags, flogging
G Gibraltar, gold, galley, guillotine
H Hammond, hot shot, hammock, heat, Hunter, Hornblower
I imprisonment, injury, Indefatigable, illness
J Jamaica, jolly boat, Justinian
K kill, kindness, keg, King, Kitty Cobham, Keane
L lieutenant, loss, language, latitude and longitude, Lobsters
M mutiny, midshipman, messmates, Matthews, mercy
N news, navigation, nobility, nature, Navy
O Oldroyd, officer, orders, orlop, oubliette, oakum
P prison, parole, peace, Portsmouth, powder, prize money, privateer, panic, Papillon
Q queue, quarterdeck, Quiberon
R Renown, rum, rations, rigging, rowboats, rats
S sail, Sawyer, Spain, Styles, surrender, sword, shore leave, sea, study, scurvy, sir, Simpson, Shakespeare, seizures, Spithead, starvation
T topmast, trauma, terror, time
U Underwater, uniform, understanding
V valor, virtue, vice, visible, voice
W watch, weary, will, West Indies, wind, weather side, Wellard
X execute, example (okay so it's cheating a little, but there are not a lot of X's in Hornblower. Major points to anyone who picks this letter!)
Y yes, yellow, yesterday, Yankee, yardarm, youth
Z zephyr, zeal, zenith
And just to repeat: You don't need to tell me what you think your keyword will be right now, just pick a letter. In the past, I did three "L is for" fics for one character and picked my favorite to submit, so feel free to avoid limiting yourself at the present time!
Final note: If you are interested in submitting a graphic Alphabet Soup instead of a written one, that's fine by me. For ease, I'm going to go with the same guidelines that
aos_challenge used, so wander over there if you're not familiar with their suggestions for graphic/art submissions.