The FV&TTT Valentine's/St. Patrick's Day/April Fools Writing

Post by **Rowena** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 12:45 am

Hi Everyone, and welcome to a shiny new edition of the Nightscrawlers FV&TTT Valentine’s/St. Patrick’s Day/April Fools Writing Challenge!

Love is a blinding force, but also a revealing one. Through the eyes of love, differences in religion and race can open a couple’s minds to new cultures and new ways of looking at the world. Unfortunately, the rest of the world, lacking the focusing influence of love’s blinders, is rarely so tolerant.

For this challenge, you get to play matchmaker in the complicated and, often, violent world of the X-Men. Drawing from the dating pool of the canon X-Men and/or their myriad enemies, arrange a date between two opposites. Then, in a short story of 10 pages or less, drop your unlikely couple into a situation where their differences will be challenged or tested. Will your story be a triumph of love and the human spirit, or will your couple’s love story end in a cruel outbreak of violence and tragedy? Their fate of their hearts is in your hands.

Although at least one member of your arranged couple must be a canon X-Men character, the other can be an original creation. You can have human/mutant pairings, mutant/alien pairings, pairings that match an Earth 616 character with someone from an alternate universe or an alternate universe character (like Kurt Darkholme, for example) matched with, say, a pacifist Revolutionary War-era Quaker from our own reality—literally anything goes!

The theme and main conflict of your story are entirely up to you, but if you want to build your tale around Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, or April Fools Day that’d be great.

The new, extended Deadline for this Valentine’s/St. Patrick’s Day/April Fools Challenge will be Sunday, April 26, 2009. That will be the last day entries will be accepted. All entries must be in at or before midnight that night. After that, the poll will open and you’ll get the chance to vote for your favorite story!

I hope you like this new challenge! Best of luck, everyone!

[Edited on 27/3/2009 by Rowena]

Ult_Sm86 · Post by **Ult_Sm86** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 4:27 am

& :sabertooth ?

This one sounds fun!

Bamfing_Bob · Post by **Bamfing_Bob** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 5:07 am

Jean Gray and Neil Patrick Harris. Oh yeah...

Elfdame · Post by **Elfdame** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 1:45 pm

Bob, I am worried about you. (jk)

Bamfing_Bob · Post by **Bamfing_Bob** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 7:36 pm

He wants to play Doctor... (Dr. Horrible or Doogie Houser MD, take your pick)

Actually I was thinking about one with Deadpool.

Elfdame · Post by **Elfdame** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 8:10 pm

Still worried about your fixations, darling. (still kidding, too)

the_lone_bamf · Post by **the_lone_bamf** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 11:46 pm

Lolz, I like the idea of actually using Doctor Horrible! XD

Crack pairings FTW!

Bamfing_Bob · Post by **Bamfing_Bob** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 3:22 am

yeah... he's my hero. In case you haven't heard of him: http://www.drhorrible.com

neling4 · Post by **neling4** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:09 pm

I think I will enter this.

Elfdame · Post by **Elfdame** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 12:57 am

Less than a month, peeps. Get to work crankin' 'em out.

Bamfing_Bob · Post by **Bamfing_Bob** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 1:10 am

I have a solid idea, but I'm not sure. I've never written a non-Nighty fanfic...

That's right. My fic won't be Nightcrawler and some chick. It will be the Deadpool story everyone wants to hear! But all I have is a skeleton right now. I need to put some meat on them bones.

Hopefully I'll write it.

neling4 · Post by **neling4** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 8:38 pm

Elfdame wrote:Less than a month, peeps. Get to work crankin' 'em out.

I been "crankin' "

Bamfing_Bob · Post by **Bamfing_Bob** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:56 am

Man, I wanna write it, but I haven't the time nor drive. I'll post a stupid rough draft though. I think...

Post by **Rowena** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:40 pm

I could extend the deadline another month to April 26 and include April Fools Day in the challenge. If you think that'd give you the time you need to finish up your story, let me know and I'll make the changes!

Bamfing_Bob · Post by **Bamfing_Bob** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 5:45 pm

Considering no one else has written one as well, I suppose that couldn't hurt...

neling4 · Post by **neling4** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 6:32 pm

That would be nice. I just haven't had the time.

DÃƒÂ¤mon · Post by **DÃƒÂ¤mon** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 1:35 am

True. I'm not good at writing romances, because it's true in a way that you can only write what you know. Hope everyone's having an awesome Spring Break!

Post by **Rowena** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 2:51 pm

...it's true in a way that you can only write what you know.

Or, what you imagine. I mean, who really knows about the complexities of Klingon-Romulan relations or the genetics behind fuzzy blue teleporters anyway?

Write what you want to write and what you feel is fun, no limits. I stink at romances too, but I've written them because I'm no good at them, and I learned a lot by writing them. Also, if you really don't like the romance genre in general, you can always turn it on its head with something really ridiculous and funny. Love stories and stories about testing and challenging differences don't have to be serious and angsty. They can be an opportunity to play!

The changes have been made and the Challenge Deadline has been extended to Sunday, April 26. Thanks very much for your interest in this challenge, everyone, and I can't wait to read what you come up with!

Elfdame · Post by **Elfdame** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 4:53 pm

I say to those of you with time and inclination: GO FOR IT! I've got tens of thousands of words written (no hyperbole, actual word-count-wise) in my fanfic romance, and it's been great fun. And I am TOTALLY not romantic. As far as I can tell, the parameters of the Challenge are "Drawing from the dating pool of the canon X-Men and/or their myriad enemies, arrange a date between two opposites. Then, in a short story of 10 pages or less, drop your unlikely couple into a situation where their differences will be challenged or tested," so they could be going on the date as a dare or a way to upset someone or as a cover story to get into the Hellfire Club, etc. And no romantic stuff a-tall.

I look forward to reading what you guys come up with. Rough drafts included.

Bamfing_Bob · Post by **Bamfing_Bob** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:07 pm

Great... now I have no excuse for not writing... lol

Post by **Rowena** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 11:09 am

Hi Everyone!

Just a reminder:

The new, extended Deadline for this Valentine’s/St. Patrick’s Day/April Fools Challenge will be Sunday, April 26, 2009.

So, if you were planning on submitting an entry, you've got 9 days left to polish it up and post it.

If you really wanted to enter and you've got a story nearly ready but you just haven't had time to work on it, let me know and I'll extend the deadline again. However, if this challenge no longer leaves you interested or inspired, let me know that too and I'll put up a new challenge after the deadline passes. Either way, you've got nine days to go.

Ult_Sm86 · Post by **Ult_Sm86** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 2:33 pm

*cracks knuckles*

Okay.... let's do this.

neling4 · Post by **neling4** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 3:13 pm

*cracks knuckles, too*

OUCH! That hurt. I think I broke my knuckles.

Bamfing_Bob · Post by **Bamfing_Bob** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 11:24 pm

I've started. Just been busy. I hope to finish tonight...

neling4 · Post by **neling4** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 4:21 am

Romance isn't really my forte, but I finally finished cracking my knuckles and crankin' out my story. It has kissing and love in it, so technically, it's a romance.

Nightscrawlers