Flash Fiction Comment-a-Thon
Hi, I'm eve11 and here is my idea for an activity in the 50th anniversary community. It's a Flash Fiction Comment-a-Thon. Thanks jjpor for giving it a nice home over here at who_at_50.
The Goal: Each round, we are looking to get flash fiction stories on a related theme across the spectrum of Doctor Who, from a multitude of authors.
How it Works: Each round consists of a post with a general fiction prompt. Underneath the prompt is a list of from 1-12 with 1-11 representing the 11 main Eras of Doctor Who, and 12 being a slot for "Other/Wildcard" (for multi-era, spinoffs, alternate versions, original or future doctors, etc).
When inspiration hits for a prompt, claim the era you want to write by posting a comment to the prompt entry. I'll then put your name next to that era on the list. We want every era represented, so it's one author per era, first come, first served!
When you finish your story, post it in another comment to the prompt entry, and I'll put a link to the completed story next to your name on the list.
What Counts as an 'Era'? Your story does not have to have the specific Doctor from the era in it, but it should have at least one character that is primarily associated with that era, or it should take place within a recognizable time frame from that era. Most will be pretty self-evident (main companions like Tegan, Rose, or Ace; episode tags; the Doctors themselves). It may be a bit more situationally dependent for characters like the Brigadier and Sarah Jane, who show up in multiple eras and spin-offs. There is always the wildcard slot, if you aren't sure exactly where your brilliant flash of inspiration fits.
Flash Fiction? We are looking for flash fiction short stories. A hard limit is to keep them within the space of a single Livejournal comment: 4300 characters, including spaces and punctuation. That gives a writer, on average, ~700 words to work with, so aim for a story you can write in 100 to 500 words, with some wiggle room to go a bit shorter or a bit longer if needed. It can be a fun writing exercise to write to a hard word limit, to keep a story short but still a fully formed story that says everything you want it to say.
In keeping this to flash fiction stories, we are encouraging a bit of exploration of newer or different corners of the Who universe. Don't always claim the same era every round. If someone got to an era before you could grab it, try branching out to write a character or era you'd always been curious to get to know a bit better. And if you do miss out on a claim but still have a brilliant idea, the thread will go into a "free-for-all" once the round closes, for any length of story or also for art, icons, etc, and I'll keep putting up links to new comment-fics and other creations when they're posted. (thanks tenthrose and cantarina1 for the idea!)
Well, that's quite enough structure I think. The basic idea is to whet your fic-writing whistle, like a warm-up to the main event of fiftieth anniversary fictions. And most importantly to have fun!
Rounds will each get their own post and will be linked to this post and vice versa. Post any questions or clarifications in the comments.
Links
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Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4
The Goal: Each round, we are looking to get flash fiction stories on a related theme across the spectrum of Doctor Who, from a multitude of authors.
How it Works: Each round consists of a post with a general fiction prompt. Underneath the prompt is a list of from 1-12 with 1-11 representing the 11 main Eras of Doctor Who, and 12 being a slot for "Other/Wildcard" (for multi-era, spinoffs, alternate versions, original or future doctors, etc).
When inspiration hits for a prompt, claim the era you want to write by posting a comment to the prompt entry. I'll then put your name next to that era on the list. We want every era represented, so it's one author per era, first come, first served!
When you finish your story, post it in another comment to the prompt entry, and I'll put a link to the completed story next to your name on the list.
What Counts as an 'Era'? Your story does not have to have the specific Doctor from the era in it, but it should have at least one character that is primarily associated with that era, or it should take place within a recognizable time frame from that era. Most will be pretty self-evident (main companions like Tegan, Rose, or Ace; episode tags; the Doctors themselves). It may be a bit more situationally dependent for characters like the Brigadier and Sarah Jane, who show up in multiple eras and spin-offs. There is always the wildcard slot, if you aren't sure exactly where your brilliant flash of inspiration fits.
Flash Fiction? We are looking for flash fiction short stories. A hard limit is to keep them within the space of a single Livejournal comment: 4300 characters, including spaces and punctuation. That gives a writer, on average, ~700 words to work with, so aim for a story you can write in 100 to 500 words, with some wiggle room to go a bit shorter or a bit longer if needed. It can be a fun writing exercise to write to a hard word limit, to keep a story short but still a fully formed story that says everything you want it to say.
In keeping this to flash fiction stories, we are encouraging a bit of exploration of newer or different corners of the Who universe. Don't always claim the same era every round. If someone got to an era before you could grab it, try branching out to write a character or era you'd always been curious to get to know a bit better. And if you do miss out on a claim but still have a brilliant idea, the thread will go into a "free-for-all" once the round closes, for any length of story or also for art, icons, etc, and I'll keep putting up links to new comment-fics and other creations when they're posted. (thanks tenthrose and cantarina1 for the idea!)
Well, that's quite enough structure I think. The basic idea is to whet your fic-writing whistle, like a warm-up to the main event of fiftieth anniversary fictions. And most importantly to have fun!
Rounds will each get their own post and will be linked to this post and vice versa. Post any questions or clarifications in the comments.
Links
-----
Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4