Admin Post: November/December Challenge: 30-Day Character Study

[dawn_felagund]

During this challenge, you will choose one character whom you want to study deeply and complete prompts and activities designed around developing a deeper understanding of that character. Prompts aren't only writing, and one does not have to complete them all. You may complete one prompt or all thirty--all participants will receive a creator stamp, regardless of how many prompts they complete. (There will be special stamps for those who complete higher numbers of prompts.) You may complete the prompts in any order. Some prompts include additional questions to spur your thinking on a topic. You do not need to answer all--or any!--of these questions in order to satisfy the prompt.

Due Dates

Participants have two months, until 10 January 2018, to complete challenge prompts for a stamp. You will have an additional week, until January 17, to report your progress, if you want a stamp for this challenge. Once your progress is completed, comment here (or here), send us an ask, or email us with the number of prompts you completed. (Make sure you let us know your SWG username, if it is not obvious from your username or email address.)

How to Report Your Progress

When reporting your progress at the end of the challenge, please let us know

1) the number of prompts you completed by the due date and

2) which of the following formats you attempted: creative writing, nonfiction/meta, art (graphic or traditional), and multimedia (podfic, video, infographic, etc).

How to Post Your Responses (if you want to)

Because this is a study, you may not want to share all (or any!) of your responses. Given that, you do not have to post your prompt responses publicly, although you are welcome to do so if you want, and there is a 30-Day Character Study option on the archive challenge list. Please see below for instructions on how to post challenge material that is not meant to be regarded as a finished, stand-alone fanwork.

Stamps will be awarded on the honor system, since not all fanworks will be publicly available. As always, we trust participants' judgment to know if a response satisfies a prompt.

Finished fanworks meant to be read/viewed as stand-alone pieces are welcome to be posted as separate stories on the archive.

If you want to publicly share challenge pieces that are not finished fanworks, you should create a single story on the archive for flash writing, sketches, notes, research, links lists, and other material that you develop during the challenge. Do not post each of these items as a separate story. You may also share this content on our Dreamwidth or LiveJournal, or post a link there to the tag where you are collecting your challenge responses.

The Prompts

1. Drop Everything and Read, Part One. Take at least a half-hour to read what the texts say about your chosen character.


2. Down Memory Lane, Part One. Think about your character’s childhood (or the early days of their existence if they had no childhood). What was the environment and daily life of their formative years like? Did they have siblings? What was their relationship to their family like? Who were their friends? What made them feel sad/angry/frightened? What made them feel content/excited/happy? Who were their teachers?


3. Strong Points, Part One. Think about at least three strengths of your character - talents they were born with, skills they have learned, positive character traits… Write a scene in which your character really shines at something.


4. Home Sweet Home, Part One. Think about a geographical location where your character lived. Learn more about what life in that location might have been like: the climate, topography, seasonal changes, flora and fauna, or anything else related to that physical location.


5. What’s On The Menu? Your character’s food choices will be influenced not just by taste, but by their culture, environment and circumstances. Try to find out about what foodstuffs might typically be available to your character. What would be their everyday fare? What would be a special treat? Where does it come from? Who does the cooking?


6. Artistic Licenses. Take at least ten minutes to peruse fan art about your character. If you are working on a rare character about whom little has been drawn, you may substitute looking at fan art about a group of characters to whom your character belongs (e.g., Dwarves, female characters, commonfolk, craftspeople, etc.) Think about which fan artists best capture how you imagine your character and why. Think about how your character's appearance does (or does not) support other aspects of their traits and history.


7. Affiliations, Part One. Think about an important relationship your character has to another character in your verse. Spend at least a half-hour exploring that relationship in any way you choose. For example, you might read and research the other character, write or draw about their relationship, create meta or headcanons--your choice.


8. The Mirror Cliche. Authors are often discouraged from describing their characters by having them look at their reflection in a mirror (or a pool, or a puddle, or whatever). For this one exercise, we want you to embrace the mirror cliche! Write a scene where your character sees their reflection. What do they see? What do they feel as they see it?


9. Weak Points, Part One. Think about at least three shortcomings of your character - things they are bad at, mistakes they make, bad habits… Write a scene in which their failings play a pivotal role.


10. What's in a Name? Research the meaning of your character's name. Think about how that name fits the character but also what the name might more subtly imply about your character.


11. Drop Everything and Read, Part Two. Take at least a half-hour to read meta and scholarship written about your character. If you are working on a rare character about whom little has been written, you may substitute reading about a group of characters to whom your character belongs (e.g., Dwarves, female characters, commonfolk, craftspeople, etc.)


12. Down Memory Lane, Part Two. Think about the rites of passage your character went through. These can be mundane things like learning to walk, their first kiss, or taking an exam; formal ceremonies like a coming-of-age ritual, graduation or wedding; or life-changing events. Which steps did your character take on the way to who they are?


13. Home Sweet Home, Part Two. Where does your character live? What are their domestic arrangements like? What do their sleeping/dining/cooking/working areas look like? Where do they go to pee and poop? What about their tastes in interior decoration? Take the time to think about one habitation of your character in as much detail as you can come up with.


14. Big Ideas, Part One. Create a visual representation of the big ideas you've learned about your character. This can be a quick list in a notebook, a series of sticky notes, or a graphical representation … or whatever you want to make or imagine!


15. Big Ideas, Part Two. Using one of the big ideas from Prompt 14, revise an existing fanwork so that this idea is more strongly emphasized or create a new fanwork that brings this idea to the center of the piece.


16. Down Memory Lane, Part Three. Imagine your character keeping a box of little mementoes that are important to them. Write a list, make a sketch, or create a fanwork where these mementoes feature.


17. Affiliations, Part Two. Think about a group your character belongs to--perhaps a cultural group, a profession, a family or clan, or any other group of affiliated characters. Spend at least a half-hour exploring that affiliation in any way you choose, whether reading and researching the group, writing or drawing about the character's relationship to the group, collecting links and resources, writing meta or head canons, or anything else you can dream.


18. Fan Art/Fancast/Fanmix. Create fan art of your character. Don't have an artistic bone in your body? You can substitute finding three images of different people who would fit how you imagine your character to look, or three sets of clothing/costumes that the character might wear, or make a fanmix of songs that relate to your character.


19. Strong Points, Part Two. Revisit the list of strengths you’ve thought about for Prompt 4. This time, write a scene in which your character’s strong points cause them trouble.


20. Who Are You? Using what you've learned about your character, take a Myers-Briggs type personality test for your character. What do you learn about the person? What surprises you?


21. In Dreams. Your character is asleep and dreaming. What are their dreams typically like? Write or sketch a dream sequence that explores your character’s subconscious.


22. What Do They Think About You, Part One. How do characters close to the one you’ve chosen (family, friends, significant other…) see your character?


23. Drop Everything and Read, Part Three. Take at least a half-hour to familiarize yourself with fan fiction created about your character. If you are working on a rare character about whom little has been written, you may substitute reading about a group of characters to whom your character belongs (e.g., Dwarves, female characters, commonfolk, craftspeople, etc.)


24. Weak Points, Part Two. Revisit the list of shortcomings you’ve come up with for Prompt 9. This time, write a scene in which your character turns a weakness into a strength.


25. An Atlas of Everyday Life. Draw a map of a location familiar to your character. The location may be as small as a room or as vast as a realm. Include details important to your character's life or connection to this location.


26. Happy Holidays. What special days does your character observe? Research or invent the customs of a holiday your character loves to celebrate. (See Darth Fingon's Elven Holidays and Festivals or the Thain's Book for more information on canonical Middle-earth holidays.)


27. Beyond the Tales. Create a links list of at least eight sources of information that will help you understand an aspect of your character's life. For example, you may collect links that help you better understand the character's profession or a pursuit important to that character (e.g., hunting or harp playing). You may collect links on magic or mythology related to that character (e.g., telepathy or the trickster archetype). You may collect links related to the setting where the character lives, relevant real-world history, or anything related to that person at all. You do not need to read all eight sources; the idea is to have a starting point for future research and reference.


28. Down Memory Lane, Part Four. Imagine your character writing or dictating their autobiography. What parts of their story would they hush up or change to make themselves look better? What parts would they blow out of proportion? What parts would make them cry?


29. What Do They Think About You, Part Two. How do characters unfriendly towards your chosen character (rivals, enemies, ex-partners…) see them?


30. Show It All Off. Create a fanwork about your character: any format, any genre.

Comments

[heartofoshun]

This is cracking me up! I do a lot of these almost every month (character bios?? cough! cough!). OK. Not sure how to handle this. Sounds like a lot of fun though! I think I will at very least do some of the ones I don't do every month.

You left out a playlist of songs/music for the character!

Nice work!

[dawn_felagund]

Thank you! I wasn't sure how you'd react, given the character bios. Because, yes, a lot of them are pretty much basic research tasks!

I'm not sure what to do with it either. I want to do it--I want to do them every month--but Jeez Louise, I feel I barely hold my head above water these days. But assuming I can ... I have no idea which character to choose! Since I started a character study on Pengolodh years ago, he seems a logical choice, but there are also Finwions and other characters of interest that I know relatively little about ...

And check out #18! Lyra is to thank for that one (we just about split writing the prompts).

[heartofoshun]

I skimmed the prompts too quickly! I will definitely use that one (#18).

I love that you've included fanfic as some of the readings. I know your AMC influenced me in my early Silmarillion writings--both in particulars (that Formenos was an established community long before the exile of Feanor from Valinor and one which might form a center from which he might draw hardcore supporters separate from the courtiers and lords based in Tirion) and more generally in that I liked the ways in which you departed from cliched high fantasy medieval settings (not that there is anything wrong with writers of fanfic using those), mainly the concept that one could use one's imagination to frame one's own version of the world of the Noldor in the golden age of Valinor.

I am struck also and patting myself on the back a little that I do a number of the things listed above every time I start a new story and dip into ones I've developed in earlier work and expand them.

[dawn_felagund]

I think fanfic is a valid form of literary criticism! In a lot of ways, I think the third Drop Everything and Read (read fanfic) will be more useful for a character study than the second (read scholarship/meta) for many characters.

Thank you for such kind words about AMC. ^_^ I never fail to be delighted that that story hasn't been forgotten. (Even if it is a little cringe-worthy to read something written in my mid-20s!)

I do a number of the things listed above every time I start a new story

I totally framed a lot of the prompts around my own research process. My hope was that, for those of us doing research regularly already, they would be freebies. For someone trying to break into Silmfic writing, they might provide some inspiration on how to go about learning enough about a person mentioned in the text a handful of times to write convincingly about them.

[fernstrike]

Oh wow, this is such a great challenge idea! I'm definitely in :-) Not sure how many I'll be able to do (it's the most manic time of the year after all) but there are a few characters I'm thinking of that I'd love to study :-)

[dawn_felagund]

Hooray--I'm glad you like it! ^_^ Part of my thinking in making this challenge during these manic months is that one can participate (and get credit) for doing small tasks--even just reading or writing down notes. Producing a fanwork is not required. :) I feel like the last thing we need in December is another huge challenge (nor do I want to "steal" people from those long-running, venerable huge challenges).

[independence1776]

Wow! This is a really neat challenge. Some of these I do by default, but others I haven't really thought of. I mean, #25: I'm honestly surprised that I haven't done that before, given I love drawing maps and floorplans for my ofic.

Psst.… I think there's a typo in #15. Should "Using one of the big ideas from Prompt 12," instead say Prompt 14?

[dawn_felagund]

I've done a handful of maps over the years, mostly when I need to visualize where things are in relation to each other. That's part of what gave me the idea ... and a brainstorming technique I use with my students for writing personal narratives. (Draw a map and label it with memories ... the same technique could be used in fiction.)

I fixed the typo! Thanks for the catch. ^_^ For the five days leading up to posting this, I think I shuffled the order of the prompts around every day.

[grundyscribbling]

This is really cool. I'm definitely doing it, I just need to figure out who I'm doing it for...

I'm *really* glad you gave us all the way until January for this one! I think the next few weeks are going to be utter madness, only partly because of the holiday, so when I first say '30 day' I panicked!

[dawn_felagund]

Our thought when we wrote the challenge schedule (a year ago!! omg!) was that this time of the year is already busy and we didn't want/need to compete with the many venerable holiday-related challenges out there. So we hoped that spanning two months and offering a wide range of options for participation would help! :)

I am hoping to do this one too; I also haven't decided for which character. But I've also faceplanted on almost every SWG challenge this year, so I'm tempering my expectations of myself too.

(Also, I saw your reblog on Tumblr, and it's perfectly okay to choose a character whom you've already researched/thought about. :)

[grundyscribbling]

You wrote this a year ago?? Every time I think I can't be more impressed, you pull something else out of your hat. Or sleeve. Or wherever it is you hide all these amazing, planned way in advance things!

Thanks, but I think I'll pick someone I haven't already done most of the work for. (It would hardly be a challenge to choose Elrond when I've already been pondering pretty much aspect of his life, including the Fourth Age/beyond. Well, except maybe 'hm, can my rusty and basic at best drawing skills actually produce fanart?') I'll pick someone I haven't thought about as much. I've been branching out lately, between non-Maedhros & Maglor Fëanorions and Nolofinwions. It will be more interesting to try this with one of them.

Your icon made me think of this - Jenny Dolfen just did a new 'Fingon rescuing Maedhros' piece... It's on her Patreon, not sure if it's been posted anywhere public yet.

[dawn_felagund]

We came up with all the challenge ideas a year ago. The challenges themselves were in varying degrees of completeness. I put in three prompts for this one right away ... and then it collected dust for the rest of the year, till about a month ago when Lyra and I started finishing it! :)

If they weren't planned in advance, the challenge probably wouldn't happen some months, honestly. As evidenced by the fact that I'm still behind on stamp collections, time-consuming monthly obligations sometimes get shoved roughly aside to make room for other things. (There have been more than a few months where Lyra has ended up doing most/all of the prompts for that month's challenge because I couldn't get to it.)

We're planning the 2018 challenge calendar right now. ;)

[grundyscribbling]

Still impressed!

(And still offering to help with behind the scenes stuff if you need another pair of hands, whether it's trying to code that random prompt generator for something similar to the Matroshka challenge or anything else that will make life easier for you and the other mods. When I'm not traveling for work, I spend most of my day sitting in front of a computer...)

[dawn_felagund]

Thank you--I may take you up on that! ^_^

[grundyscribbling]

Feel free! I wouldn't offer if I didn't mean it.

[keiliss]

Some of them will be very quick, some of them will be a few lines, some of them will be long-winded and self indulgent... but I love stuff like this, I am definitely doing it. Also great that there's plenty of time and we don't have to post the whole thing and then crawl cringefully under a rock.

The Behind-the-Scenes thing will surface at some point next year. It turned on me. I have the outline and a few bits but no time to put it together now. I am very annoyed at myself. But this latest one? This is going to be my happy place! *prods Gil-galad*

[dawn_felagund]

I'm glad you like the idea! ^_^

we don't have to post the whole thing and then crawl cringefully under a rock.

OMG! That'd be awful! If I get the chance to do this, a lot of it will really be of value to no one but me. I can't imagine posting it, much less on the SWG archive.

It turned on me.

Yep. That happened to me too, except the outline etc exists only in my head thus far. I had a big dream of doing it for NaNoWriMo, but considering that my modest alternative NaNoWriMo project (make a script of the YA book Wonder so my students can perform it this spring) is barely started ... yeah. Totally feel the "no time to put it together" bit. :^/

We were hoping with this one that some of the prompts were small enough to let people be involved who wanted to be, even at an otherwise chaotic time of the year.

[keiliss]

I've done about 10 of these properly, mainly meta or just me writing down rambling thoughts about something - nothing I would want to post anywhere. There's a series of ficlets I've done a little outline for but I've had too much writing pressure, to be honest, to be able to get them done --- I don't want them to be something I crank out because this has become such a happy place for me to go spend half an hour when I get a chance. I do intend to keep on with it. In some way I can't define, looking for pictures and quotes and clarifying my thoughts has felt more fandomy than anything I've done in ages.

Thank you!

[dawn_felagund]

this has become such a happy place for me to go spend half an hour when I get a chance.

Awww! That makes me so happy to hear. ^_^

I've recorded your progress and will have stamps updated sometime in the next week or so. Since we're allowing something of a "grace month" for challenges in January, if you add any others before February 10, just let me know and I will add them.

[hhimring]

Ok, trying to report in on how I did on this challenge.
I guess perhaps I sort of did nos. 1, 6, 7, 10 and 11 (which would make 5 prompts in all)?
I was aiming at both non-fiction and fiction originally and ended up with little bits of drafts for a bio and even smaller fragments of two ficlets (so I've definitely not done no. 30).
If it makes a difference, nos. 6 and 10 are probably more closely related to the ficlets that didn't happen (yet) and the other three more to the work on the bio.
Handle on the SWG archive: Himring.

[dawn_felagund]

Thank you! I made note of this and will have stamps updated within the next week or so. If you add any more before February 10, during our January challenge "grace month," just let me know, and I'll update your collection. :)

[hhimring]

Thank you very much, Dawn!

Reporting Progress

[grundyscribbling]

I did numbers 1,2,4,5,6,7,10, 17, and 22, writing fic (ok, more like sketching ficlets) for about half of them. I do not have anything I'm happy to post publicly yet. (I think I'm going to take all my Thinking about Angrod and funnel it into writing a Thingol Finds Out About The Kinslaying fic.)

And if there's any doubt, I'm Grundy on the SWG archive. :)

Re: Reporting Progress

[dawn_felagund]

Oh good--I was thinking, "Who is this person?!" ;^D

I've noted down your responses and will have stamps updated, I hope, in the next week or so. Since we are running January's challenge as a sort of "grace month," if you add any more before Feb. 10, just let me know, and I'll make the updates!

Re: Reporting Progress

[grundyscribbling]

I'd like to get the map prompt and maybe something more arty done, seeing how excited I was to try to go beyond just writing, but whether or not I'll have time is another question...

I'm definitely using the January challenge to catch up on the one from last March that I missed. (Just as soon as I figure out what to do with the prompt.)

Re: Reporting Progress

[dawn_felagund]

I'm doing stamps now and just wanted to check in if I needed to add anything for you ... I have you down for a Creator stamp and a Creative Writing stamp for the 30-Day Character Study. If you added any others, could you let me know?

(I'm trying not to notice that I promised to do this a month ago ...)

Re: Reporting Progress

[grundyscribbling]

No, I didn't get a chance to add anything more. January was kind of crazy work-wise, so I'm happy I had time to get my Resolutions challenge done! (I'm still *thinking* about Angrod, just not necessarily in ways that fit the character study items.)

[ladybrooke]

I did all of them. Other than the reading, links, etc ones, I did fiction (mainly ficlets), except for the one about fanart and the map. I scribbled for those.

Elmo might not have a hands or a body under his clothes in that scribble, but give me enough time and I'll totally come up with an explanation for why he's a reverse headless horseman. :P (Aka, feel free to not give me an art stamp if you're making one.)

Elmo was an easy choice, so I kind of feel bad about choosing him without reading the first prompt. I didn't have to spend a lot of time past the 30 minute mark reviewing anything even slightly related to him, since there's almost nothing. My hat's off to anybody who picked a character Tolkien actually wrote about! I liked this challenge a lot, it was fun to sketch out more about a character.

ETA: Also LadyBrooke on SWG.

[dawn_felagund]

Thank you! ^_^ I'm totally giving you the art stamp. At no point did we say it had to be good art. ;) We just wanted this challenge to push limits a little bit or encourage people to try new things.

[oloriel]

Oof. I've done 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 18 (Fanart and Fanmix), 19 (sort of), 20, 23, 24, 25 (very badly), 26 and 28. Now to put all the disjointed pieces together or polish them so they work on their own! I suppose that'll be my New Year's Resolution...

[oloriel]

Managed to add 7, 17 and 27 this months, so now the total is at 24 pieces! Woo hoo. Alas, my plans for showing it all off still haven't taken off. But it's been fun to work on all the individual bits!

[dawn_felagund]

So here's what I have for you:

Creator Stamp
Creator: 20 prompts
Creator: creative writing
Creator: meta
Creator: multimedia
Creator: art

Does that look correct?

[oloriel]

Yes, plus New Year's Resolution for the last three bits, I suppose.
Thank you!