A Woman's Sceptre Challenge | April 15 - May 10

[dawn_felagund]

“Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.”
~ Mary Wollstonecraft

This month, we consider the sceptres that women hold: sceptres of beauty in the forms of the pens and brushes that they use to represent their experiences as art, and literal sceptres of power, often wrested from the unwilling, that they use to establish justice for themselves and their sisters.

Each participant will receive a quote from a woman who has advanced the cause of women's rights or participation of women in the arts. Although we are offering this challenge alongside Legendarium Ladies April, your response does not have to be about a female character. (Also--please feel free to use your challenge quote in combination with this month's wonderful Legendarium Ladies April prompts, or write or include a poem as part of Poetry Month!) You may use all or part of your quote in any way that you choose in responding to the challenge. Challenge responses must be posted to the SWG archive by May 10 to be eligible for a stamp.

If you wish to participate in this month's challenge, leave a comment on here or on our Dreamwidth, drop us an ask on our tumblr, or email us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org.>

Comments

[kayleelupin.livejournal.com]

Oh me please! And I didn't see about Legendarium Ladies April, is it too late to get a prompt for it?

[ladybrooke]

Hey! So Legendarium Ladies April is run over on Tumblr (to be clear, I am not involved in running it, but I am enthusiastic about it.) Legendarium Ladies April is the tumblr blog, there's prompts posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, and there's also a Ao3 collection for each year.

So if you want to join, please do! Because it is awesome.

[dawn_felagund]

Thanks, Brooke! ^_^

[ladybrooke]

Let's try this again, since for some reason it glitched and decided I was anonymous in spite of being logged in - You're welcome, Dawn! :D

[dawn_felagund]

Here is your prompt:

“Those men and women are fortunate who are born at a time when a great struggle for human freedom is in progress.”
~ Emmeline Pankhurst

We are not affiliated with LLA; however, we are trying to offer incentives whenever possible for participants in our challenges to also give other fandom challenges a look by offering stamps for participants who combine our prompt(s) with other challenges. Brooke's reply covers how LLA works.

[ladybrooke]

I'd like a quote, please. :D

[dawn_felagund]

Here is your prompt:

“A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places.”
~ Isabelle Eberhardt

[ladybrooke]

Thanks Dawn! I love that quote. :D This will be fun to write.

[silverstarspray.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like this challenge. I'd love a quote, please!

[dawn_felagund]

Here you go! :)

“I'm not going to die, I'm going home like a shooting star.”
~Sojourner Truth

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

I won't get penalized if I don't like my prompt and cannot write anything for it will I? I'd really like to write something for this one. It sounds awesome, but I am terrible at specific prompts.

By the way, I love the banner and I adore the Mary Wollstonecraft quote.

[dawn_felagund]

Nope, there is no penalty. How is this one? If something is completely uninspiring, I'm always glad to swap it out for another. Also, you can use parts of the quote or just the general idea of the quote; we really want this to be very flexible! :)

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
~ Maya Angelou

Thanks about the banner--I made the banner but oloriel found the quote. (She offered it as a prompt quote! I stole it for the banner because I was completely uninspired on what to call the challenge this month and what to do for a banner for it.)

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. Imagine if everyone asked for a swap for their quotation? Just no! That's not right. I'll either make this one work or throw in the towel. But I am determined to be more flexible and not such a whiney diva.

[dawn_felagund]

Lyra came up with like 50 prompts this month! We'd be just fine. :)

I do get why asking for a swap kind of ruins the point of a challenge. If I know the person, I really do try to choose something I think they'd want and be able to write. But if I throw a completely wild pitch, I never mind if someone says, "This one isn't working for me right now ..." and trying another.

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

The last time I got a prompt I really liked, I turned a Slashy Santa swap fic into a WIP novel, which I am still working (and am banned from the Slashy swaps until I finish--that's a whole long sad story for me--sent me into a full two-year writing block). I want to finish that story this year. I do love it still.

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Oh yes. One day Pink Flamingo will be finished and I will also be able to do a Slashy Swap again. Just keeps needing a chapter more than I expected last chapter....

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

Your novel has shown steadier work progress than mine. But I am still working on my Summer's End. This last chapter has been epic! Not in length but in detail--let's just say it has been challenging.

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

I'm very dubious about me and this but please give me a prompt and i'll try? (I love the idea of these challenges, and I need to stop waiting around till I see one that plays to my strengths).

[dawn_felagund]

Taking a prompt in no way obligates you to post something, though I hope the muse strikes. :)

Let's try this one ... if it's a complete blank, I'm happy to try again!

“One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.”
~ Golda Meir

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

Ha! We have a few politicians over here who could benefit from that piece of wisdom.

[dawn_felagund]

So do we!

[silver-trails.livejournal.com]

Me, please! =)

[dawn_felagund]

Yay! Here you go:

“It is far better to be often deceived than never to trust; to be disappointed in love, than never to love.”
~ Mary Wollstonecraft

[silver-trails.livejournal.com]

Thank you! =)

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

I want hers! Just kidding! Just kidding! But that is a good one.

[dawn_felagund]

The grass is always greener!

[hhimring]

Could I have a quotation, please?

[dawn_felagund]

Here you go!

"Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it."
~J.K. Rowling

[hhimring]

Thank you, Dawn! I really like that one. I hope I can do something with it.

[dawn_felagund]

Oh good! I try to pick something I think a particular author could do something with (assuming I know something of their work, of course!) but it's still a bit of a crapshoot. I hope it works for you too! :)

[mangacrack.livejournal.com]

Ooh I'd like a quote please

[dawn_felagund]

Here you go!

“Life is full of surprises, I try to capture these precious moments with wide eyes.”
~ Sofonisba Anguissola

[hrymfaxe.livejournal.com]

I would like a prompt too!

[dawn_felagund]

Yay! Let's try ...

“I’m not a man and I never have been and my principle has always been not to try to act like a man.”
~ Vigdís Finnbogadóttir

[greatandgrey]

I would love a quote! :)

[dawn_felagund]

Awesome! Here you go--happy writing! :)

“Legend remains victorious in spite of history.”
~ Sarah Bernhardt

[engarian.livejournal.com]

I'm coming into this a few days late. I'd love to participate in May's challenge, though.

- Erulisse (one L)

[dawn_felagund]

You're not late at all! The challenge just started.

Here is your quote:

“An artist’s duty, as far as I am concerned, is to reflect the times.”
~ Nina Simone

[engarian.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's totally fabulous! Yes!

Thank you!

- Erulisse (one L)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Since I can't decide where to start for LLA, can I have a quote please? Maybe that'll help me make up my mind.

[dawn_felagund]

Sure! I went out and found one so that you wouldn't have to be assigned a quote you found. Here you go; I hope it helps!

"A strange thing is memory, and hope; one looks backward, and the other forward; one is of today, the other of tomorrow. Memory is history recorded in our brain, memory is a painter, it paints pictures of the past and of the day."
~ Grandma Moses

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

YES! Thank you, that actually did help.

(And thank you for the extra effort of finding me a surprise quote! *hugs*)

[dawn_felagund]

YAY! I'm glad! I'll admit there was a little pressure there, like if I don't pick a good quote, I'm going to make Lyra's writer's block even worse! :D

*hugs back* You're welcome. It's kind of a buzzkill on the order of eating the birthday dinner you had to cook for yourself to spend all that time finding so many wonderful prompts and then having zero element of surprise. ;) But also, if you ever want to claim one of your prompts (or one of mine, when I rarely manage to come up with some! :) you can sign yourself up on the document.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

The pressure came across worse than it really was. It wasn't proper writer's block, I just didn't know what to do for LLA (like a grown-up in a candy-store! I clearly know I won't be able to digest it all, so I need to make the perfect choice!). In the worst case, I'd have skipped it (and the challenge) and returned to working on TEA. Would have been a bit of a pity but nothing dramatic!

Oh, but that would feel a bit like cheating! The challenge in the challenge is that I can't just pick and choose the prompt I like best. Of course, in this case, being already spoiled for choice, it wouldn't have worked anyway, because I needed someone else to narrow it down. So, thank you again!

[fernstrike]

I'd love a prompt, please! :-)

[dawn_felagund]

Yay! Here you go:

“What I wanted to express very clearly and intensely was that the reason these people had to invent or imagine heroes and gods is pure fear. Fear of life and fear of death.”
~Frida Kahlo