OK, so these are maybe a little silly and are totally dominated by what I want to read. But I feel comfortable abusing my modly powers.

July's challenge is going to be Scenage.

So much happens in scenes. So many scenes get referred to in passing - on LJ, in buzz, at games. Well, now is the time to write about what happens in them. If you're not a downtime scene kind of person, write up something that happened at a game. I don't mind, but I don't want background scenes. I want you to be writing about events which have happened whilst your character is in play and which features at least one other PC.

August's challenge is going to be Summer Loving?.

This is a silly challenge, and was sparked by a recent conversation about Rex/Moorcroft slashfic (which I am totally willing to read, by the way). I want you to come up with the most improbable, implausible, traffic wreck-ish and hideous romantic combinations known to mankind.

I know this is silly, but feel free to be sensible with it if you want. Write about your PC's most awful and destructive IC relationship ever. Write about the way your PC's heart fell apart when their true love left them. I guess that comes under the ending of 'IC romantic train wreck'.

Or, alternatively, be silly! Write gushing purple prose. Write slashfic. Make the pairings totally AU. Write me nonsense. Make them cross venue. Write about the tragic love which can never be between Mark Dourif and Father Gabriel. Or maybe not that one. It's sort of freaking me out. But that's what I want to see.

I know these are a little silly, and I'll find something slightly more clever, I think, for September. You can write either challenge at any point during this period.

Again, I've let it get terribly late in the month before putting up the March challenge, so therefore I'm once again putting up the March and April challenges at the same time, and giving you guys until the end of April to do both (or either).

The March challenge is going to be 'Spring'.

This can be 'Spring' in the changeling sense, which means that stories about desire would totaly count. This can be 'Spring' in the sense of 'new beginnings' or 'rebirth'. It could just be 'Spring' in terms of the time of year, and I'm happy for people to write stories about what your character is doing, as he or she walks through the daffodils.

The April challenge is going to be 'Music'.

You can write stories inspired by a song. You can all write a dozen little musicals based on your favourite game. You can write up the title sequence or music video, for your favourite venue or character. You can just write about which songs your character likes the most, but I want there to be a musical theme.

I look forward to reading them all!

Oh my! It's January 15th! This means that I'm hideously behind with giving you guys a monthly writing challenge, for which I am terribly sorry.

Now, I have a vague idea for a challenge for February, and a vague idea for one for January, but I don't know if people feel there is enough of January left, or if they would rather have the Feb challenge early and extra time to write about that in.

Opinions?

So, boys and girls.

First of all, thank you very very much for all your Elseworlds. They were wonderful and lovely and I loved them all.

And now, for the next challenge. Again, a tiny bit early, but I figured I'd give you some time to consider it.

In November, I want you all to write about the real world. This could be 'tell me a story about your character and their allies and contacts'. It could be 'write me a 'day in the life' type story, about your PCs daily routine' (although if your PC lives their life in the Hedge, avoiding humanity, then it might not work so well). It could be 'tell me about your background, about the human you were before you became a supernatural'. It could be 'write me Mortals prose', because I am a generous beastie.

Basically, I don't mind. I just want stories which remind us that our characters do live in the real world, have lives between games, and need to get by day to day, just like everyone else.

Or, y'know, maybe not like everyone else if you're a rock star/gangster/drugs dealer/call girl/millionaire playboy. But I want to hear about those too.

OK, so this is a little bit early, but mistress_fran sold me on an idea yesterday and I couldn't wait to share it with everyone.

I've decided that the theme for the October writing_shadows writing challenge will be 'elseworlds'. Elseworlds is is the name for a line of DC Comics that take place outside the company's canon. According to its tagline: "In Elseworlds, heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places — some that have existed, and others that can't, couldn't or shouldn't exist. The result is stories that make characters who are as familiar as yesterday seem as fresh as tomorrow."

I want to take that idea and apply it to the Isle of Darkness. This can mean almost anything. You could write about an Elseworld in which Rosalba is Giselle in Enchanted. You could write about and Elseworld in which Stitches is Hannibal Lector. To take another track, you could write about an Elseworld in which a bunch of PCs were not taken by the Fae, and Rosie, Rosalba, Aidan and Jack in the Smoke all met in the 1950s, as normal humans (to cite the four characters who I know were all born in the 1930s and 1940s). Equally, you could write about an Elseworld in which one small change happened - Aria chose Cormac instead of Carin, or Wednesday's Child ran off with Sallow. Finally, you could just write about your character pondering the road's not taken. I'm sure there are also lots of interpretations of 'Elseworlds' that I've not thought of yet, and I'm open to interpretation, but that's the theme for October.

Elseworld.

What could be happening out there, somewhere in an alternate reality.

So, I've been considering trying to do a little bit more with this comm. Something I've been thinking about is making doing a weekly writing challenge. It would just be for fun, but I thought some people might enjoy stretching themselves slightly, and maybe doing something a little different.

Some of the ideas I had for a weekly writing challenge were:

1) Write a story about a venue without many stories - ie - Promethean.

2) Write a story which features a character which is not yours, although your character can also be in the story.

3) Do a write up of a recent scene you've been involved in.

4) Write a story based on a theme - ie - snow, loss, sunshine etc.

Would anyone be interested in that kind of thing? And if so, does anyone have any other ideas for challenges?

Hey

This is a quick post to welcome our new members - miss_electra and renfield286. In addition, I wanted to state that although this community is primarily for members of the Camarilla UK, I'm quite happy for any interested Americans to join and post.

This is also a quick post to encourage those of you who haven't yet posted anything to put something up. It would be lovely to see at least one short story from everyone who is a member of this community up here.

I've also noticed that at the moment the majority of stories are from the Changeling: Lost venue. This is fab, as it's my favourite venue, but I'd love to see some Mage, or some Requiem, or some Forsaken prose or even some Promethean prose as well.

*looks hopefully at her membership*

I'll offer a prize to anyone who writes me a story from a venue that hasn't been represented on writing_shadows before.