Challenge Angstmongers Anonymous | Angst Challenge & Discussion Thread | Next up: Angsty Settings Roulette!

No apology necessary! This is all for fun, first and foremost, so don't feel pressured to write anything when your mental energy is already depleted. Most of us have been in the same boat at one time or another (I'm feeling much the same right now, haven't been able to summon any creative energy for the last month or so). Remember to go easy on yourself.

 

And this is my story for the challenge featuring Jocasta Nu. Precious

 

Hello everyone! DRL has been keeping me busy this summer, but this is just a reminder that today is the soft deadline for our latest challenge! All that really means is that after today, we'll be switching gears to our next challenge, but you are more than welcome to submit stories for this and any other prior prompt even after that deadline passes. So stay tuned for news about our next challenge sometime this week, and if you have a fic to share for the current one, don't be shy!

And @earlybird-obi-wan, I have you in the index! Thanks so much for participating!

 

Hey there, Angstmongers! Who’s ready to dive into a treasure trove of twisted goodness and get those creative fires burning? That's right, it's time for...

Angst Challenge #7​

ANGSTEMBER 2024!
(yep, we changed the name)​

It’s the season of angsty goodness in all corners of the fanfic community, and we’re joining in the fun by once again doing our very own Angstember event! If you were with us last year, you may remember that this event was previously the Angstober challenge, inspired by annual prompt-based writing challenges such as Angstober and Whumptober, which typically take place throughout the month of October. However, with the sheer number of prompts involved in our event last year, I’ve decided to expand the challenge period from September through November – hence, Angstember.

The format for our Angstember challenge will be pretty much the same as last year, featuring 31 sets of four prompts each. This year’s prompt sets consist of: a song lyric which also serves as the overall theme for that set, and three related prompts which may include objects, actions, tropes, lines of dialogue, and more. The goal is to write for all 31 sets, or to pick the prompts that speak to you most and write for as many as you can. You do not have to write for every prompt in order to participate, and you may use or skip any of the prompts you choose. There are also 15 alternative prompts that you may substitute for any individual prompts that you don't wish to use. (Or if you want to use them in addition to the other prompts, go for it!)

The challenge begins September 1st and runs through November 30th, but you are free to begin planning and writing responses to the prompts now. You are also more than welcome to continue writing and posting for the prompts after the end of November – it’s never too late to complete the challenge!

Anyone who writes for all 31 theme days (at least one prompt from each of the 31 sets of prompts) by the end of November will be named an Angstember Completionist! (And like last year, anyone who completes the entire challenge any time after November will be named an Honorary Angstember Completionist!)

Before we get started, there are a few rules:

• This is an angst challenge, so your entries must be angsty!
  
• There are no word limits or requirements for the entries.
• No posting until September 1st! After that, you may post as much or as little as you want, in any order that you want, on any day, and in response to any of the prompts. You may also continue posting after November 30th.
• When you post a response to an Angstember prompt, please make a note of which prompt(s) you are responding to, including the official number of the prompt(s). For example: Prompt No. 1 (Flare, Panic Attack)
• You may combine more than one set of prompts in a single story.
• You are welcome to combine your Angstember prompts with any other challenge; if you do so, please clearly mark in your notes which prompts you’re responding to, and let us know in this thread so we don't miss it!
• To be considered an official Angstember Completionist, you must post responses to all 31 prompt sets by Saturday, November 30th at 11:59pm PST

This event is about being inspired and having fun, but with 139 prompts in play, I’d like to avoid crowding out stories that aren't part of this challenge. To keep the number of threads from becoming unwieldy, please consider posting your Angstember entries in a single thread dedicated to the event. Of course, if you have ongoing threads that you want to post your responses in, you’re more than welcome to do so! Or if you have a response that has taken on a life of its own and you’d like it to have its own thread, please don’t hesitate! Just exercise your best judgment when it comes to creating multiple new threads.

If you have any questions about participating in this event, please ask! And feel free to post in this thread when you've completed a response to a set of prompts. We'd love to see your progress!

As always, the TOS apply. Happy writing, and may the angst be with you.

Many thanks to @Mira_Jade and @Gabri_Jade for their excellent contributions to this year’s list of prompts! The source of each song lyric is included under a spoiler tag at the end of this post.

---

Angstember 2024 Prompt List

No. 1: Kiss your perfect day goodbye because the world is on fire; Tuck your innocence goodnight; You sold your friends like guns for hire
Flare | Panic Attack | “This is all your fault.”

No. 2: You love the way I look at you while taking pleasure in the awful things you put me through
Losing Control | Delusion | “Get out of my way.”

No. 3: Dear fellow traveller under the moon; I think I’m growing weary and I’m hoping you’ll come soon
Shadows | Sleeping in Shifts | “You are a strange one.”

No. 4: Meet me on the battlefield; Even on the darkest night; I will be your sword, your shield, your camouflage, and you will be mine
Adjoining Cells | Muffled Screams | “I don't want to die.”

No. 5: And if we ever find paradise, I want to leave it all behind; The horror won’t satisfy me no more
Brittle | Duty Versus Love | “Someday you’ll understand.”

No. 6: I’m only honest when it rains; If I time it right, the thunder breaks when I open my mouth
Telling Lies | Yearning | “I can’t do this anymore.”

No. 7: The universe swallowed every single thing he loved; And the planets don’t know, oh, why he’s holding on
Constellation | Journey’s End | “This can’t be it.”

No. 8: For you I’d burn the length and breadth of sky
Restrained | Carried to Safety | “Who did this to you?”

No. 9: I’ll send out my soul to worlds more beautiful; They won’t, they won’t know my heart; It’s the darkest part
Regret | Soulmates | “You think this is what I wanted?”

No. 10: Don’t waste your time on me; You’re already the voice inside my head
Fever Dream | Guilt | “I’m standing right here.”

No. 11: Yonder stands your orphan with his gun; Crying like a fire in the sun
Ringing Ears | Final Stand | “No one’s coming.”

No. 12: Love craves self-destruction
Bluster | Glass Half Empty | “Don’t lie to me.”

No. 13: The life we had won’t be ours again
Innocence Lost | Self-Medicating | “I’m never going back.”

No. 14: Yeah, I’m the evil one who said, Gonna let everything just happen; And like my chest, my ears are proud; Collision is such an ugly sound
Stand Aside | Betrayal | “I warned you this would happen.”

No. 15: She was a stranger who everybody thought that they knew; The world that contained her, she always kept hidden from view
Keeping Secrets | Pouring Rain | “No one will ever know.”

No. 16: You trick your lovers that you’re wicked and divine; You may be a sinner, but your innocence is mine
Necklace | Temptation | “Look at me.”

No. 17: I carried you till I buried you; Now a memory’s all I have as our story fades to black
Disorientation | Secretly Injured | “What were you thinking?”

No. 18: But you can’t buy me back with a memory; With your brazen summer sun
Empty Castle | Kindling | “Are they gone?”

No. 19: And all the kids cried out, “Please stop, you're scaring me”; I can’t help this awful energy; Goddamn right, you should be scared of me
Kidnapped | Made to Watch | “Don’t move.”

No. 20: But never have I been a blue calm sea; I have always been a storm
Packed Bag | Bad Weather | “I don’t ever want to see you again.”

No. 21: Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide; No escape from reality
Bruises | Tossing and Turning | “Open your eyes.”

No. 22: Deep beneath the light a spark will now ignite; You will see me now; This is my world now
Night Sky | Burn It All Down | “Just get it over with.”

No. 23: You look so beautiful tonight; Reminds me how you laid us down and gently smiled before you destroyed my life
Twirl | Star-Crossed | “Don’t leave me.”

No. 24: I hunt for you with bloodied feet across the hallowed ground
Failed Escape | Wolf at the Door | “Choose.”

No. 25: And you could have it all; My empire of dirt; I will let you down; I will make you hurt
Cut | Blood on Your Hands | “I tried to tell you.”

No. 26: Where she walks, no flowers bloom; (He’s the one I see right through); She’s the absinthe on my lips; (The splinter in my fingertip)
Parched | Petty Argument | “We’re done talking about this.”

No. 27: I only smile in the dark; My only comfort is the night gone black
Pessimist | Sensory Deprivation | “That’ll never happen.”

No. 28: If you believed when I said I’d be better off without you, then you never really knew me at all
Grasp | Masquerade | “Don’t kid yourself.”

No. 29: Please don’t tell me everything is wonderful now
Promise | Bedside Vigil | “I’m scared.”

No. 30: All we are is dust in the wind
Wasteland | Left for Dead | “You’re finally awake.”

No. 31: So why then has all my life made no sound?
Exile | Touch Starved | “I’ll be right behind you.”

Alternative Prompts

1. Nightmare
2. Near-Death Experience
3. “I can’t.”
4. Anxiety
5. Caught in a Storm
6. Battleworn
   
7. “Stay.”
8. Rotten
9. What Have I Become
10. Out of Time
11. “You’re worth the wait.”
12. Crash
13. Back from the Dead
14. Sunset
15. Sick

---

Angstember 2024 Participants

**earlybird-obi-wan** | Angsty moments for Ker Zomorian

Kit' | Padawan Kenobi and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day(s) | Assorted drabble responses: Haunted by the ghost of you, Shadows on the water's edge, Search results: Archive incomplete., The measure of a Jedi, A Healer a day keeps the Shadows away, Broken Song, Lamp lighter

Thumper09 | The Doom Song

ViariSkywalker | Shadowmoth

amidalachick | Next of Kin

Pandora | But tonight, I still dream of you


**Angstember Completionists** (those writers who completed all 31 sets of prompts by the challenge deadline: November 30, 2024)
*Honorary Angstember Completionists* (those writers who completed all 31 sets of prompts after November 30, 2024)


Click below for the artist behind each set of lyrics and links to the songs themselves!

Spoiler: Song Lyric Sources

No. 1:
Kiss your perfect day goodbye
because the world is on fire
Tuck your innocence goodnight
You sold your friends like guns for hire
—Woodkid, “Guns for Hire”

No. 2:
You love the way I look at you
While taking pleasure in the awful things you put me through
—Linkin Park, “Points of Authority”

No. 3:
Dear fellow traveller under the moon
I think I’m growing weary and I’m hoping you’ll come soon
—Sea Wolf, “Dear Fellow Traveler”

No. 4:
Meet me on the battlefield
Even on the darkest night
I will be your sword, your shield, your camouflage
And you will be mine
—Svrcina, “Battlefield”

No. 5:
And if we ever find paradise
I want to leave it all behind
The horror won’t satisfy me no more
—Ursine Vulpine & Annaca, “The Horror”

No. 6:
I’m only honest when it rains
If I time it right, the thunder breaks
when I open my mouth
—Sleeping At Last, “Neptune”

No. 7:
The universe swallowed
Every single thing he loved
And the planets don’t know, oh
Why he’s holding on
—Cellar Darling, “Six Days”

No. 8:
For you I’d burn the length and breadth of sky
—Vienna Teng, “My Medea”

No. 9:
I’ll send out my soul
To worlds more beautiful
They won’t, they won’t know my heart
It’s the darkest part
—Starset, “Ricochet”

No. 10:
Don’t waste your time on me
You’re already the voice inside my head
—blink-182, “I Miss You”

No. 11:
Yonder stands your orphan with his gun
Crying like a fire in the sun
—Bob Dylan, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”

No. 12:
Love craves self-destruction
—Flogging Molly, “The Story So Far”

No. 13:
The life we had won’t be ours again
—Three Days Grace, “Never Too Late”

No. 14:
Yeah, I’m the evil one who said
Gonna let everything just happen
And like my chest, my ears are proud
Collision is such an ugly sound
—Jimmy Eat World, “Let It Happen”

No. 15:
She was a stranger
Who everybody thought that they knew
The world that contained her
She always kept hidden from view
—Emma Hewitt, “Raindrop”

No. 16:
You trick your lovers that you’re wicked and divine
You may be a sinner, but your innocence is mine
—Muse, “Undisclosed Desires”

No. 17:
I carried you till I buried you
Now a memory’s all I have
As our story fades to black
—Generdyn (feat. Krigarè), “Destiny”

No. 18:
But you can’t buy me back with a memory
With your brazen summer sun
—Auri, “I Hope Your World Is Kind”

No. 19:
And all the kids cried out, “Please stop, you're scaring me”
I can’t help this awful energy
Goddamn right, you should be scared of me
—Halsey, “Control”

No. 20:
But never have I been a blue calm sea
I have always been a storm
—Fleetwood Mac, “Storms”

No. 21:
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
—Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody”

No. 22:
Deep beneath the light
A spark will now ignite
You will see me now
This is my world now
—Les Friction, “Firewall”

No. 23:
You look so beautiful tonight
Reminds me how you laid us down
And gently smiled before you destroyed my life
—Saliva, “Rest in Pieces”

No. 24:
I hunt for you with bloodied feet across the hallowed ground
—Florence and the Machine, “Howl”

No. 25:
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
—Johnny Cash, “Hurt”

No. 26:
Where she walks, no flowers bloom
(He’s the one I see right through)
She’s the absinthe on my lips
(The splinter in my fingertip)
—The Civil Wars, “Birds of a Feather”

No. 27:
I only smile in the dark
My only comfort is the night gone black
—Garbage, “Only Happy When It Rains”

No. 28:
If you believed when I said
I’d be better off without you,
Then you never really knew me at all
—Skillet, “Believe”

No. 29:
Please don’t tell me everything is wonderful now
—Everclear, “Wonderful”

No. 30:
All we are is dust in the wind
—Kansas, “Dust in the Wind”

No. 31:
So why then has all my life made no sound?
—Chevelle, “Shameful Metaphors”

~~

 

Jocasta Nu beware, my spooks are ready

 

Quick question - can you do them in any order?

Please ignore. I re-read the actual instructions and found my answer (which I apparently skipped over the first time because now I've seen it, it's really obvious!)

 

Here, here!

That's the spirit!

No worries! And yes, absolutely any order is fine!




All right guys, Angstember 2024 is officially live!



A few reminders as we get started:

• There are no word limits for the entries.

• You may post as much or as little as you want, in any order that you want, on any day, and in response to any of the prompts.

• When you post a response to an Angstember prompt, please make a note of which prompt(s) you are responding to, including the official number of the prompt(s). For example: Prompt No. 1 (Flare, Panic Attack)

• You may combine more than one set of prompts in a single story.

• You are welcome to combine your Angstember prompts with any other challenge.

• It's recommended that you keep all of your responses in a dedicated Angstember thread, or make use of an ongoing story thread, but it is not required. Just use your best judgment when creating multiple new threads, so as not to crowd out other stories.

• To be considered an official Angstember Completionist, you must post responses to all 31 prompt sets by Saturday, November 30th at 11:59pm PST.

For the post with the full list of rules and prompts, click here.


Happy writing, and may the angst be with you!


~~

 

Re-reading this morning (again because man I gotta learn to slow down when I read) and I realised I can split the prompts - one lot for Obi-wan and one lot for Davin…

So excited.

Also I don’t think I should be quite as excited as I am at the idea of torturing two of my favourite characters


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I have posted the first story for the angstember challenge with Ker Zomorian in Not a perfect day Angsty moments for Ker Zomorian, angstember challenge

 

Excellent! I have you in the index.

Sounds completely normal to me...

 

I too have posted my first response and challenge thread with For sale: one padawan, slightly bruised which is a response to Prompt 8 - Restrained | Carried to Safety in my thread Padawan Kenobi and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day(s)

 

Yay, another angsty addition! You're in the index!



Anyone else have some narrative anguish they'd like to inflict on the masses?

 

I managed to complete challenge 9 with the first Drabble responses - lots of angst for Davin and Alessi...and I mean a lot.

 

I've been lurking in this thread since it started, but I don't know if I'd truly consider myself an angst writer. I've written stuff that was angsty, and there are a couple of characters that I mercilessly put through the emotional wringer, but the angst was more of a by-product of what happens instead of something I intentionally set out to do, if that makes sense.

So I have no idea how things will go if I try to do it intentionally, but my attempts will be in my Angstember thread The Doom Song. I know I won't get it completed, but I'd like to see if I can do some of the prompts.

Some of the past discussions here have touched on why a person is drawn to write and/or read angst, and I'll just toss out mine here 'cause I think this group will get it. With the understanding that, yes, I know these characters are fictional, I also see some of them as role models. I sort through some of my own struggles and difficulties by writing how a character deals with something similar (and hopefully getting some ideas for how to deal with it too, heh). When I really ramp things up for a character or read about a character going through something really bad, and they come out the other side, I take that to heart and tell myself that if they can get through something much worse, then I can follow that example to get through my problem. It doesn't always work, but it's helped me enough times for me to notice. So I dunno, maybe I trust the character more than myself, and by giving them something angsty to work through I can follow them through it.

 

Welcome! Regardless of where you fall on the angst writing spectrum, we're thrilled to have you here.

OMG YESSSS



(Okay, Doom Song flailing aside, I'm also excited to have another new participant for the challenge! You're in the index. )

This makes complete sense to me, and I'm sure it resonates with many others here. I've even thought the same thing sometimes; if the characters I'm writing can survive/endure the things I've put them through, surely I can overcome my much smaller and far less life-threatening trials. There something really affirming about watching characters persevere through the tough stuff, and that's definitely one of the reasons I enjoy writing angst.



I've also started my own Angstember thread! I decided to try my hand at a Jacen Solo-centered collection in Shadowmoth

 

Welcome, fellow situational angstmonger

Aw yeah Vi sent me a YouTube video of The Doom Song when we saw your thread because she knew the reference and I didn't, and now I cackle every time I look at the board and see your thread again, so thank you

I completely agree with this. I don't currently have receipts, but I know there have been studies done showing that reading fiction increases a person's empathy levels. I firmly believe that writing fiction does the same thing and that both reading and writing also increase our own self-knowledge. Writing characters go through these situations that are generally so much worse than anything I face can feel almost like a test run - like I'm living it myself but without the real life lasting effects, kind of like I'm running a program on the holodeck. And that means that the next time I'm dealing with something difficult, yes, I absolutely remember how the characters handled it and that can serve as an example for me, either something to imitate or something to avoid, depending on the story and the character But it's all useful, almost like emotional training wheels.

I think that in part it's because we put so much deliberate thought into writing, to make it a convincing and realistic character arc that also serves a coherent narrative - real life tends to be a lot messier, so it may be harder to analyze it the way we do for writing, but once we've done that in fiction, we've already created those neuron pathways in our brain so that when we come up against the real life trials, it's easier to see it as something that can be overcome, as well as giving us that slightly more detached viewpoint as a counter to our own instinctive and sometimes overwhelming emotional responses.

I tend to get a bit analytical; you may have noticed Anyway, glad to have you aboard!

Edit: Also, no, Vi and I did not plan this near-simultaneous response, we're just weird like that sometimes

 

Lol the three-hour time difference makes it even more weirdly impressive

 

I have posted the 4th piece in my thread with Ker Zomorian as the main character.

 

Completed Challenge 11 and managed to get all three of the prompts.

Challenge 11: Ringing Ears | Final Stand | "No one's coming." with Last Stand in the Ashes

 

I did No. 5: Brittle | Duty Versus Love with Obi-Wan and Satine - One Thing Above All Else

 

Thank you for moving my post! How embarrassing!

 

No. 8 was completed and now no. 6

 

LOL, @ViariSkywalker , I wasn't sure if anyone here would know where my title was from. That thing has popped into my head for years whenever I hear the word "doom." (I also currently have a couple "dooms" from it as my incoming e-mail notification at work. ) I was having trouble thinking of a title for a mishmash collection of TBD angst stories, and while kicking around ideas I started thinking that my approach to angst isn't some dark and brooding thing, it's more like the Doom Song, and... well...

I had a good chuckle at the near-simultaneous posts from you and @Gabri_Jade . Thanks for the replies, I agree with what you both said. One of Gabri's points reminded me that since I started writing, often when someone's telling me about something another person did, I find myself trying to analyze and decipher possible motivations because I'm used to trying to analyze my characters. It doesn't quite work for me in the messy real world, though.

Anywho, I've posted No. 29 with one alternate prompt getting substituted in.