THE NIGHTSCRAWLERS FV&TTT SUMMER WRITING CHALLENGE!!!

Post by **Rowena** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 11:33 pm

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to the Summer Edition of the FV&TTT Writing Challenge!!!

Summer is a time for excitement and action, a time to go out and make your own adventures. For this challenge, you’ll be asked to do exactly that: to write your own action/adventure story. If you watched the three X-Men movies and were convinced you could do better, now is the chance to prove it! Here are the challenge guidelines:

You are a rookie on your first official mission as an X-Man. You’ve been assigned to a new team co-headed by Nightcrawler and Wolverine. Your mission: well, that you get to pick!

Create a story between 3-20 pages in length centered around one of the following three prompts:

Mission 1: The Sentinels! According to recent statistics, more and more mutant children are being born. Convinced this trend is a signpost, warning of a future where mutant-kind is dominant and normal humans will have been reduced to slaves, noted anthropologist Dr. Bolivar Trask has developed a horde of super-intelligent super robots—giant defenders of humanity programmed to wipe out all mutants, everywhere. Following an initial attack by the Sentinels, you and your team will have to locate Trask and stop his maniacal robots, hopefully before they completely obliterate your/your character’s home town and everyone you care about.

Mission 2: Mister Sinister! It’s winter, 1859. Charles Darwin’s book on evolution, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life has only just been published and the controversy it sparked is raging all over Europe and America. British scientist Nathaniel Essex, a grieving young widower obsessed with Darwin’s work, has come to New York City hoping to find a vaccine against what he calls “the mutant plague.” Just one year before, his wife died in childbirth and his son, a horribly disfigured mutant, was stillborn. Spurred on by their painful memory, Essex reinvents himself in his new country as Mr. Sinister and comes up with two formulas—one that creates super-powerful mutants and one, known as the Legacy Virus, that could destroy all mutant and human life. It’s up to you and the X-Men to stop Essex and destroy his dangerous formulas, no matter the cost. You can use time travel to bring the X-Men to Sinister from the present day, you can make the X-Men Essex’s contemporaries from 1859, or you could devise a way to bring Essex and his deadly concoctions to the future and have the X-Men fight him there. Will he use the formulas? Any way you choose to go, with a villain like Sinister the possibilities are staggering!

Mission 3: Open! Choose your own nemesis and create an original maniacal agenda for your character to thwart. You can pick anyone from Magneto to Shagreen the Sorcerer to space-faring swashbuckling pirates to an evil version of Storm from a parallel universe. If you want, you could even join with your nemesis against the X-Men (or make it only seem that way…)! It’s totally up to you!

Conditions: You/your character must be the main character of your story. When it comes to fighting the baddies, your character can either go it alone or work with the team to carry the mission to its conclusion. But it must come to a conclusion. This conclusion can be triumphant, frightening, depressing, satisfying, unsatisfying, violent, ambiguous, twisty, anything as long as it brings this particular slice of your featured character’s life story to a fitting end. If you truly feel you cannot complete your story by the deadline stated, please U2U me and we can work out a fair extension.

If you want to flesh out your team with more characters, that’s fine too. You can pick any other X-Men to join you! Remy, Rogue, Piotr, Kitty, any of your favorites! If you entered the previous challenge, you can reuse the character you created as your main character for this challenge if you like. Your character can be a recent graduate of Xavier’s school or a new recruit fresh off the streets, any age, any background, any powers. You decide the details.

The DEADLINE for this challenge is 11:59 PM in whatever time-zone you happen to be sitting in on SATURDAY, AUGUST 30. As in previous challenges, once all the entries are in, a poll will be held and the winner will receive a special banner linking to his or her story.

Please post all entries in the main FV&TTT forum as you would any other story, just be sure to indicate in the story’s TITLE that your entry is part of the SUMMER WRITING CHALLENGE. Also, when you post your story, please indicate which of the three Mission prompts you've chosen to pursue at the top of the first page.

If you have any questions about this challenge, please let me know!

I hope you have fun with this new challenge! Good luck, everyone!!!

Scumfish · Post by **Scumfish** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 11:39 pm

Dude. Count me in. SO counting me in.

Post by **steyn** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 11:50 pm

this is such an interesting challenge. I'll see what I can do to enter

Post by **Starfish** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 11:56 pm

This sounds very interesting with so many possibilities. I'll definitely try to come up with something to enter the challenge. It looks like a lot of fun, for sure.

Ult_Sm86 · Post by **Ult_Sm86** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:32 am

WHOO HOO!!

As soon as I get back from hulk I'm gonna start writing!

Go Rowena!!

Angelique · Post by **Angelique** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:36 am

I think I'd like to do this.

The Drastic Spastic · Wed Jun 18, 2008 10:05 am

Two Mary Sue challenges in a row??

Elfdame · Post by **Elfdame** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:31 pm

I look forward to reading all the entries ... guess I'll take the summer off from Challenges since I can't plot action to save my @$$. But it'll keep me busy following everyone's exploits!

I hope 'Crawler and Wolverine get in a few arguments about leadership style, heh heh.

Post by **Rowena** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 1:05 pm

I don't see this or the last one as a "Mary Sue" challenge. Not all original characters in fanfiction have to be Mary Sues, not if they're done well and done right. That's part of the challenge of creating an original character, I think, and that's why the Spring contest prompt was to investigate the difficulties of suddenly finding yourself stuck as a mutant in a familiar world. Now that those issues have been covered, I intended this as a kind of a follow-up challenge to take that character, or a brand new character, to the next level and have some fun with it.

Mary Sues are perfect versions of yourself, all powerful, smarter than any comic hero, and thoroughly irritating. Mary Sues are a trap all fanwriters face. Part of the challenge here is to avoid the Mary Sue Pitfall and show your original character to be, not just a mutant with interesting powers, but a flawed, frightened, fun human being that readers want to care about. All great characters have at least one great flaw. Oedipus suffered from a tragic case of hubris. Sherlock Holmes took cocaine. The Incredible Hulk gets...well, incredibly angry. Mary Sues don't have any flaws or issues, they're just flat, perfect know-it-alls who swoop in like a slab of cardboard to save the day. The trick to avoiding the Mary Sue Pitfall is to find your/your character's flaws and learn how to work with them in your writing. Flaws like arrogance or a terrible temper can help drive the plot because they influence a character's actions and decisions. They give your character dimension and keep people reading on--and hopefully reviewing!

As for Wolverine and Nightcrawler--I made them co-leaders so that if you did want to explore their inter-personal tensions you could certainly do that. Rivalries over leadership styles, fights, sword fights, verbal battles, posession, poisonings, injuries, you could throw anything you like at them. Just because your original character has to be the main character doesn't mean the others don't get to do anything fun. You've got 20 pages to work with. If you plan carefully, that's enough to build a whole world! But if you don't feel like having the two of them fight this time around, don't worry. I'm planning a Fall Challenge that will focus on both Nightcrawler and Wolverine.

I'm really excited that so many people find this challenge interesting! Good luck, and have fun writing!

Scumfish · Post by **Scumfish** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:14 pm

*raises hand* Ooh, question.

I have a hell of a habit of writing more then I really should. Is it okay if I go over 20 pages? Because I may have problems trying to keep it under that and still fit in the details ><

Modern_Druid57 · Post by **Modern_Druid57** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:20 pm

So can we make up powers we have or use the characters we RP?

Ult_Sm86 · Post by **Ult_Sm86** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 9:03 pm

i'm toked.

Post by **Rowena** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 9:25 pm

Awesome!

Yeah, OK, as long as your story's done by the deadline, you can go over the 20 page limit. And yes, you can make up your character's powers. As for the characters you RP, if you play an original character you made up yourself then yes, you can use it as your main character. Otherwise, like if you play an official Marvel character, you'll have to use it as a supporting character and invent an original main character.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions! I'm really excited to see what you guys come up with!!!

the_lone_bamf · Post by **the_lone_bamf** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 2:42 am

I think I can depart from real life long enough to give this the old college try.

Count me in.

Love das flockige · Post by **Love das flockige** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 3:24 am

I think I can dust off my notebooks and pick up my pen again...count me in

shail66 · Post by **shail66** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 7:11 pm

That sounds great! I'll give it a try! ^^

Angelique · Post by **Angelique** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 3:48 am

Hmm. Do I have to write this from the main character's POV?

Post by **Rowena** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 12:55 pm

Hooray!!! Thanks so much everyone for throwing your hats in the ring!!

This challenge is going to be so awesome!!!

Hmm. Do I have to write this from the main character's POV?

While it would certainly help readers identify with your main character if you wrote your story from his/her POV, using either first person (I) or third person, subjective (He/She), you could use an omniscient narrator if you want to. In fact, you could even switch POVs, for example using the omniscient POV to set the scene then switching to your main character's POV. If you want to bracket your main character's story between another character's narration [for example, a mother telling a bedtime story to a kid], you can do that too. POV is a personal choice, so use whatever you think would best fit your story.

Hope this helps. Best of luck!!!

Elfdame · Post by **Elfdame** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 1:04 pm

Hurry up, people! I am getting *excited* about reading your entries. Not to mention cadging plot devices and characters for my own (non-posted) fics! {Erm ... pretend you didn't read that.}

neling4 · Post by **neling4** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 6:24 pm

I think I'll wait for the Fall challenge. I love writing about Kurt and Logan.

There is no problem with submitting a story I previously posted on another forum, is there?

[Edited on 7/7/08 by neling4]

Post by **Rowena** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 11:40 pm

No, there's no problem at all. As long as your story has Nightcrawler in it, you can post it here. If it doesn't, you can post it in the Not-Crawler: Writing section of this forum.

Wow, thanks so much to everyone who's entered so far! These stories are really fantastic! I'm very much looking forward to reading more when I get back from my writing workshop. (I'm going to be away in New York until about July 20). I'll leave you guys some reviews when I get back too.

Thanks again, and keep up the great writing!!!

[Edited on 8/7/2008 by Rowena]

DÃƒÂ¤mon · Post by **DÃƒÂ¤mon** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:17 pm

I'm back! And just in time, by the looks of it! Yes, I will most definetally post something...
But it won't be like the April/May challenge where I said I would and I didn't...
Been toying around with an OC and I've been DYING to try them out! :dead:

Angelique · Post by **Angelique** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 4:49 am

Just wanted to let you all know due to some very pleasant yet highly unexpected circumstances, my challenge entry will likely be my final posted fanfic... ever.

Due to my entry being almost finished anyway, I'll most likely finish it, but other projects have to take priority now.

(Okay, I can no longer restrain my giddiness. I took a writing job!!!)

Elfdame · Post by **Elfdame** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 3:20 pm

Congrats!!!

Good for you, sad for me. I'll miss your wonderful fics.

Blessings in your new job!

Post by **Rowena** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 2:22 pm

Congratulations on your new writing job, Angelique! You'll be fantastic!

Quick reminder note to all entrants: Don't forget the DEADLINE for this challenge is 11:59 PM in whatever time-zone you happen to be sitting in on SATURDAY, AUGUST 30. If you need more time, please let me know!