Challenge First Draft Challenge

Thank you so much to our lovely mods for their support and approval of this challenge!

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"We all have time to write. We have time to write the minute we are willing to write badly, to chase a dead end, to scribble a few words, to write for the hell of it instead of for the perfect and polished result."
Julia Cameron​

Welcome to the First Draft Challenge! This challenge is not for prizes or glory. There are no prompts or word counts or requirements of any sort. It's open to both SW and NSWFF, and the only restriction is the TOS. It's all about sharing our work without judging ourselves, supporting our fellow creators, and celebrating the stories and fandoms and characters we love.

So how does it work? Well, it's easy:

1. Have an idea
   
   
2. Write it down
   
   
3. Post your first draft in its own thread, just like any other story
   
   
4. Post a link here and I'll add it to the index for everyone to enjoy!

In order to make this run as smoothly as possible and ensure a welcoming environment for all participants (although I know we are all awesome at this!), there are a few other things I need to mention:

1. A reminder that, as per the Fanfic guidelines, concrit is NOT allowed unless the author has given explicit permission and must only be sent in PM.
   
   
2. Your first draft should be for a fic you intend to complete and post a finished version of. You may post the final edited version in the same thread, or post a new thread and ask the mods to lock the first draft.
   
   
3. This challenge will run from February 1, 2021 - March 31, 2021. You will have until 11:59 pm board time March 31, 2021 to post your drafts. Final versions may of course be completed after this date!

"Did you mean for all those words to come out together or did they just fall out randomly?"
Hank Hill, 'King of the Hill'​

But how can we post a first draft of a story if it's *gasp* not polished and pretty? What if it's messy and repetitive and rambling? What if it's full of placeholders like "Stuff happens" or "they get there somehow" or a chunk of dialogue that you don't quite have a place for yet but is too clever to resist? What if it ends like this "????" because you have no idea how to close it out?

YES! Share it for all of us to read! Celebrate it, because you wrote a story that didn't exist before! Have fun writing for the sake of writing, because we all need more fun in our lives!

A final note. This is obviously all on the honor system, and I completely understand how nerve-wracking it can be to share something you don't feel is 'good enough'. I struggle with it every time I post. So if there's something in your fic that's making you anxious or truly bothering you, feel free to fix it. But in general, please keep any fics you post for this challenge as unedited as possible.

"Time to take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"
Ms. Frizzle, 'The Magic School Bus'​

Let's tell some stories and celebrate writing for the hell of it!

 

Index

Her Father's Daughter by devilinthedetails
The Ossus Excavation and Archaeology Project by Bel505
What Conscience Therein Lies by Cynda
Vi's Fancy Dress Story by ViariSkywalker
Snips and Snails by @Kit'
Cease, Banthas, Life is Short! by @Ewok Poet

 

I love this idea. Will participate!

 

@amidalachick - what an inventive and inspiring idea to get support for things that are begging to be written LOL And who knows posting the first draft and getting reviews and insights from other users might help the writing/plotting process. I eagerly await the stories that others write and who knows, a random song lyric or line of dialogue may spark something of mine.

 

I have a story idea that’s been brewing in my head for a long time, but its a long one; even if I did 2,000 words a day I would not have all the chapters in text, even if it is messy text. Is it okay if at least some of the chapters are in outline form?

 

I might do something for this. Or I might not. I guess we'll see.

 

Grrrr. I have two ideas for fics for this, but both take place after Interregnum's conclusion and I can't post them without spoiling things. What to do, what to do...

 

Oh yay! I'm so glad to see this is already firing up some muses, and hopefully it will help inspire some more!

@devilinthedetails, I added your story to the index. Thank you so much for sharing it, and congratulations on getting it written down. That's so exciting!

Absolutely! Outlines, notes, whatever works for you.

@Bel505 Oh no, that is a tricky one! But I look forward to reading if you do decide to post!

 

Well, what I may do is post this one story I've got when Interregnum reaches the point where it would not longer give away major plot points. (That would technically be after the window of this challenge I think, but that's okay.) I'm saving a first draft of it, so I can show people what it looks like at different stages of editing. I've got another one which I think I can post without really spoiling much (except two major characters survive the story which ... surprise!) if I edit out one sentence, so I might post that, but it's not as long and not as ... troubled ... so it wouldn't be quite as productive to watch it go through editing.

I've got another purely fun, not-necessarily-related fic that's been dancing around in my brain, and if it makes its way from in my brain to on the page, I'll post it instead.

 

Yay! I'm glad to hear your muse is inspired for this.

 

I've got a Godzilla story that I want to assemble using photos and snips of text. Get the names and characteristics of some Japanese diving women, the Ama, to sort out.

Not sure if I can make it work, but let's do the research out in public.

 

@GregMcP That sounds like a really cool idea!

Yes! You can post as many entries as you like.

 

Okay. I had an idea! I wrote it down. It definitely needs editing.

This was none of the things I was thinking of writing, but... The Ossus Excavation and Archaeology Project

 

I have started a thread for my story: What Conscience Therein Lies

I welcome any and all feedback. The writing is mostly in the stage of a stream of consciousness, with ideas and a very general story outline behind the writing. My goal is to get all the chapters and all the plot points down, although most chapters will be in outline form, since this story is novel-length, I want to get all the story beats down so people can see and critique, and I don't anticipate having the time to write down everything between now and the end of March.

 

Posted a short little first draft: Vi's Fancy Dress Story (and yes, that title will change... I couldn't commit to anything this early )

 

I'm so excited to see all these baby stories!

Index is updated! If I missed anyone, please let me know.

 

Let me say that so far these first drafts have been AWESOME! You'd never know they were rough at all.

 

The latest chapter of Snips and Snails is posted as is, without editing. A bit scary!

 

The first chapter of my new story, Cease, Banthas, Life is Short! is up. I usually have @Findswoman aboard to help me with minor errors and I usually have a couple of chapters ready before I start posting, but as the title of the story says...life is short.

 

Index is updated! If I missed your story, please let me know and I'll add it in.

 

Just wanted to give a big round of applause and a huge thank you to everyone who participated in this challenge! You're all awesome.