a fool's musings

Fool, said my muse to me, look in thy heart and write...

Warning: Adult Content achromatic unfinished fic graveyard recs journal new stuff recent stuff my back pages January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 the five Ws, or, all about me profile e-mail victoria my livejournal the original P&R comments current mood: "pathological and unbalanced" Items of Interest People LiveJournal folks Baraita bishclone claritylit Jintian Kat Allison Kit Mason metablog mix-tapes Neil Gaiman Nestra Sarah T. Seema Shrift Sundry Mourning zendom Music Walk On - U2 Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen If I Can't Change Your Mind - Sugar Sick of Myself - Matthew Sweet Town Called Malice - The Jam One - U2 The Space Between - DMB Books Lord of the Rings Catch-22 The Neely Trilogy Absalom! Absalom! Possession: A Romance Foucault's Pendulum Dreamhouse LA Confidential I Capture the Castle Sandman Waking the Moon Shows Angel Buffy the Vampire Slayer (in reruns) Alias West Wing The Simpsons webrings < ? fanfiction ! > < ? writers ! > diaryreviews.diaryland.com NYC Bloggers Comments by Haloscan.com all links, if I haven't screwed up somehow, should open in a new browser window

01.09.04 - 3:11 p.m. Remix/Redux II: Electric Boogaloo What's this all about? * Ever read a fic and think, wow, what a fascinating story, but if I had written it, I would have... Well, now here's your chance to do just that. Rewrite someone else's story, tell somebody else's tale. Take the work of another person and wrap it up in your vision and style, just like a remixer does to songs. So just take another person's story and change everything? * Yes and no. You can do whatever you like to the story - change POV, dialogue, mood, characterization, make it longer or shorter, whatever - except for three things: pairing(s), setting(s) (except in certain circumstances, see below), and the basic plotline. Why can't I change ____? * Basic plotline is fairly obvious, I think. If you change the plot, then you're really not writing the same story, right? This doesn't mean you can't change little things, adding or deleting things as you see fit. For example, if you were rewriting The Little Mermaid, you might decide to give the mermaid a best friend who's a fish and a guardian who's a lobster, things that weren't in the original story. But you would keep the sea witch and the fact that the mermaid loses her voice because those are essential to the story. Of course, what are and aren't essential plot points is purely subjective, but I trust people will be able to decide what to do. * Pairing(s) must be kept as is. While this can certainly be argued, I think once you change who the story is about, you're pretty much writing a new story and contrary to popular belief, that's not what this challenge is about. It's about reinterpreting a story that's already been told. So, no, you cannot change the pairing(s) in the story. We also do not want any slash pairings het-ified or het pairings slash-ified. * And with the settings, I'll allow people to take non-AU stories and make them AUs only if: a) the plot remains almost exactly the same. All right. So then we can choose any story we want to rewrite? * Not just any story. Each participant will be assigned a writer (who will be a fellow participant and chosen at random, but matched by fandom) and must choose a story from that writer. You can choose any story written by the person you are assigned except for whichever fic they designate as their safe story (to be explained below) and stories that are nothing more than smut, nor the remix they wrote last year, (if they participated) or the story of theirs that was remixed last year (again, if they participated). Not that you can't choose a smutty story to rewrite, just not one that is one long sex scene. After all, where's the challenge in rewriting that? And just in case it's not common-sense, don't pick a series or story that's unfinished. It's not fair to the original author or the readers to have someone else come up with an ending. I'm still confused. We're just writing someone else's story? * Rewriting. Don't just change a line here and there. Be creative. Have fun. Make a mess if you want. Remember, it's a challenge. Don't make it too easy on yourself. And these are only Smallville stories? * Nope. This is a multifandom challenge, so everyone from XF to DS to HP and beyond should join in. (Please note that this version is for FPF only. No RPF will be accepted.) If you've written in more than one fandom, so much the better. If you've only written in one fandom, but are itching to tackle a new one, let me know in your sign-up email, and I will work with you to find a good match. So what the hell is a safe story? * It's the one story that you don't want anyone messing with, for whatever reason. You only get one. You don't have to have one, only if you want. Last year's remix, and the story of yours that someone else remixed are also ineligible to be remixed again. Do I have to have website? * Yes, because otherwise, how will we find your stories? You don't need your own website; hosted fics are fine as long as they're all on the same site. Stories posted to Livejournal are okay as long as there is some sort of index or listing for them, making them easily accessible. Stories posted only to message boards and/or mailing lists are ineligible because access to those are often limited. I've only written a few stories. Can I still play? * As long as you have a minimum of three stories, not including your safe stories, and they're not drabbles or PWPs, then you can. Works in Progress are not acceptable. If you have only one story in a fandom, please indicate that to me in your sign-up email (i.e., I have written one Firefly story, but would be willing to remix someone else's - this way you will not be assigned to someone who writes only Firefly, and who therefore has no choice but to remix the one story you've got). What if I've co-written with someone? * If you have someone you co-write with regularly and the two of you wish to sign up for the challenge together, you will be counted as one participant and only the stories you have written together are eligible. If you regularly co-write with someone but only one of you signs up, then your co-written stories are off-limits. The same goes if both of you sign up but separately. Are there any sort of deadlines? * Why yes, there are! People can sign up for the challenge until 11:59 PM EST January 29. Assignments will be handed out by February 1, probably sometime in the evening. And then the stories aren't due until 11:59 PM EST April 17. So you've got a lot of time. When will the stories be put up then? * I would like to have them up by May 1, all things being equal. Oh yeah? What if I miss the deadline? Then what're you gonna do? * Well, I'm not going to hound you for the story. I've got better things to do. But I'm not putting up any of the stories until I have all of them. And when people ask me, "Hey, why aren't the stories up?", I'll point them to the site, which will have the names and email addresses of everyone who's late, and say, "Because of those people." Plus, I have the scary poky stick. Fear me. That's kind of mean. * Why, yes, yes it is. How do I play? Please send me an email or leave a comment here if you'd like to participate. Please include: * your name * your preferred contact email address * the fandom(s) in which you've written * the top three fandoms (if you've got more than one) in which you are most eager to write (and please, be *specific*, e.g., if you only write Buffy and not Angel, say so) * your website URL * the name of your "safe story" if you've got one, the name of the story you wrote last year for the challenge, *and* the name of the story of yours that was already remixed. For example, my sign up would look like this: Safe Story: Language of Goodbye Remix(es) Written: Hair Shirt, I Drove All Night Story of mine that was remixed: Best Laid Plans I'll be in touch by February 1st with your assignment and more instructions. *g*. If you have any questions, please drop a comment here, or send an email to remix @ illuminatedtext.com Disclaimer: The management, meaning me, is not responsible for whatever is done to your story. If you can't handle the idea of someone else mucking around with your babies, don't sign up. Acknowledgements: Thanks to Hope for the banner, to Beth for giving me a mailbox since my own webhost is being difficult, and to the originators of the challenge, who let me run with their idea. ~victoria link [current mood: ] [current music: ] [random quote: ] ~*~ previous - next DiaryLand Disclaimer: Reading this diary is not required by law. If you do not like or agree with the contents herein, or find them to be offensive on more than one occasion, please go elsewhere and don't come back. Management is not responsible for any adverse reactions to content within. The painting is "Boreas" by John William Waterhouse. Again, not a muse, but I like her. She suits the color scheme. The quote is from Sir Philip Sidney. This site is best viewed with IE4+ | 1024x768 | true color | verdana | tables