Punctual

You already know that I read a lot of fanfiction. You also know that I watch a lot of TV. There's a connection there. The thing is, I think there's a lot to learn from both of them. There's also a school of thought that I could learn what there is to learn by watching/reading a whole let less. Yeah, well, I don't do drugs so I have some space to fill in the Vices column.

Here's what I learned from fanfiction recently:

Prompts.

(Go ahead, skip down to the next paragraph if you don't want to hear the explanation, I'm told I occasionally overexplain myself.) There are enormous communities of fanfiction writers. They're usually organized by show, sometimes by specific romantic pairing within a show. People submit links to where they've posted their stories or they post directly to sort of team blogs. LiveJournal seems to be the server of choice for such things. What's neat about the communities is that they function as support groups for writers. People give stories to friends for birthdays and anniversaries or to cheer them up. There are also specific communities that function completely on challenges. The moderator posts the rules or prompts, like my construct thingee, and then people respond by a specific deadline.

One woman made this beautifully elaborate chart of 100 prompts for stories about Logan and Veronica on Veronica Mars. She posted it on its own blog and links to stories that fulfill the prompt. I haven't read her intro in a while but I think her plan is to fulfill 1/3 to 1/2 of them and have other people contribute stories that fulfill the others. I think that's all sort of brilliant. So brilliant in fact that I wanted to do it, too. But I don't have the faintest clue how to make a chart with links in it and stuff. So I just made a list. Some of my list items are borrowed from the chart and some are inspired by it. If you feel like writing something that fills the prompts (doesn't have to be fanfiction, or I guess even a story, just something creative) let me know. I'll figure out some way to keep track of how many prompts are fulfilled.

The UnChart
1. Right
2. Wrong
3. Halloween
4. Thanksgiving
5. Christmas
6. Valentine's Day
7. Memorial Day
8. Birthday
9. Summer
10. Fourth of July
11. Hot
12. Cold
13. Love
14. Hate
15. Friends
16. Enemies
17. Patriot
18. Road trip
19. Presents
20. Planes
21. Likes
22. Dislikes
23. Curses
24. Legends
25. Superheroes
26. Kids
27. Bedroom
28. Bathroom
29. Kitchen
30. Teacher
31. Student
32. Have
33. Lose
34. Wealthy
35. Poor
36. High School
37. College
38. Jobs
39. VIP
40. Nicknames
41. Agreement
42. Disagreement
43. Female
44. Male
45. Camera
46. Book
47. Train
48. Dogs
49. Cats
50. Obvious
51. Oblivious
52. Diamonds
53. Rubies
54. Emeralds
55. Ocean
56. Desert
57. Jungle
58. Prairie
59. Mountain
60. Makeout
61. Stakeout
62. Takeout
63. Magic
64. Fate
65. Belief
66. Guilty
67. Innocent
68. Cheap
69. Expensive
70. City
71. Country
72. Suburbs
73. Foreign
74. Domestic
75. Death
76. Life
77. Birth
78. Marriage
79. Dark
80. Light
81. Blonde
82. Brunette
83. Redhead
84. Breakfast
85. Lunch
86. Dinner
87. Brunch
88. Dessert
89. Boyfriend
90. Girlfriend
91. Parents
92. Exquisite
93. Monster
94. Frightened
95. Delighted
96. Livid
97. Sleepy
98. Intoxicated
99. Win
100. Draw

I have not a blessed clue how long it'll take to do them all.