Reversebang litmus test

[pentapus]

Hey, I wanted to gauge the interest in future rounds of treehouse reversebang?

(For anyone unfamiliar, that's where I make you a picture, and you write a story to that picture).

If anyone has suggestions for alterations to the format or for a different sort of exchange/activity/meme they'd like to see, I'd love to hear it. :) E.g. I've felt a few times that I've given a person a picture they find they cannot write to. I've been wondering whether I should 1) show the picture as a really rough sketch/several sketched options before finishing, 2) finish five pictures and let the five participants choose which one they want, and/or 3) make it clear that the picture could be ANYTHING and part of the fun should be getting something whacky and doing whatever the hell you want with it. Like: prepare yourself (or sign up only if that sounds fun?).

Comments

[james]

I am all for future rounds! I really enjoyed this one. I like option 3, because I am wacky like that. But I also like the idea of a form of option 1+2, perhaps, offering a few sketches or descriptions and having the author point out ones they don't want or ones they would kill small kittens in order to get to write for.

The way it ran last time worked just fine for me, so I wouldn't really need any changes made. But I like being challenged by the unknown and being forced to write things I might not have considered before. (Er, as long as the characters are ones I will write, that is. But that isn't a problem, I think.)

[pentapus]

Glad to hear it. One thing I found is that I had a lot of great, out there ideas for hockey - and then I would restrict myself because I was so worried I'd be overstepping bounds or expectations. Probably because I hadn't built a relationship with that fandom or those fans. (vs. SGA) So I will probably ask to hear from people that YES they want or are ready for a picture that might be completely unexpected or appear very difficult. They probably won't get one, but are they okay with the chance.

And probably I'll also cop to my predictabilties - grand AUs, path-not-taken AUs, ladies, costumes, animals. :) Because I'm not really THAT unpredictable, you know?

[james]

Speaking as someone who has written hockey rps fic where players turn into turtles, are unicorns, centaurs, bonded to wolves, de-aged into five year olds -- I'm not really worried about "out there" art. The only thing I don't really have an interest in is genderswap, but otherwise I like the idea of being challenged to write something really odd.

Like if Nealer had been the moose. Or a moose in space! Or a deep undercover royal moose on the run from spies and hiding in Nova Scotia and Sidney is secretly his bodyguard and Geno is about to find out why Sidney won't marry him, because of this duty he has to keep the space prince moose safe from evil. I could have written that. ;-)

[pentapus]

All of the scenarios you mention are really one kind of 'out there', i.e. crack. There's other kinds of 'out there' that a writer might not be prepared for - e.g. a huge ensemble cast when they just write Sid and Geno, Sid or Geno kissing someone else, a picture of Sidney or Geno who has lost a limb or otherwise cannot play hockey (at least not in the NHL), a full costume AU or genderswap, or a scenario that requires research...

For example, the prompt I really wanted to draw was Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin winning the gold for Russia, i.e. a nationality-swap AU, but that implied a decent amount of Russia research +, you know, Alex Ovechkin. I ended up tentatively asking a few people how they felt about writing Russia and the answer was universally, apologetically "I wouldn't feel comfortable writing that with my level of knowledge." So I didn't draw it for anyone.

That's not a tragic outcome, but I feel like I was limiting myself because I wanted to have a guaranteed writable picture every time. Hence ideas like - letting folks choose from all the finished pictures or doing a few extra sketches to show around. Or letting people know they signing up for ANYTHING, and they get one caveat (besides fandom and character list). Because I REALLY like coming up with prompts. That's the main fun here for me. :)