Traveler, you have permission to land.

So I'm going to try out the snowflake challenge again!

Day 1

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I have a few stories I really like, and that I enjoyed writing a lot!

The Animal Within - my first really, full-length story. I really tried to weave the movie almost perfectly into my story, and I think I succeeded. Pairings: Carlos "Cougar" Alvarez/Jake Jensen, Jolene/Linwood "Pooch" Porteous, Aisha al-Fadhil/Franklin Clay. Word count: ~174,000. Chapter count: 42. Summary: Chosen to receive an experimental injection, Jake Jensen manages to screw up the whole program. Rejected by the rest of his fellow experiments, he finds his way to Col. Clay's unit and lives his life as something... other.

A Broken World (Can Be Rebuilt) - this was a really fun story to write, and I have a bunch more ideas in this universe... if I ever get around to writing it. Pairings: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Clint Barton/Phil Coulson/Natasha Romanoff. Word count: ~42,000. Chapter count: 1. Summary: In the final battle, the portal to the Chitauri homeworld was destroyed, Gabrael fell, and all the upper members of the Host - and no few lesser members as well - retreated to the High Plane, leaving two thousand lesser members of the Host to try and rebuild the ravaged, post-apocalyptic Earth, as well as hunt down the remaining Chitauri. When Michael loses his sword and ends up running into Sabrael and Sabrael's initiate, Coulson, it sets forth a chain reaction that will either tear the earth apart or lay the firm foundation for Earth's healing. Or, the AU where the Avengers are members of the Host, SHIELD are all actually Initiates who handle the Host through metnal connections, and the Chitauri are an evil sweeping through the dimensions that the Host are sworn to protect.

You Were Always Ohana, You Stupid Bastard - I really like space stories. I really do. Gen. Word count: ~1,700. Chapter count: 1. Summary: He crashed into her life over fifteen years ago, stayed for three months, and abandoned them. She's been searching, all this time, and finally, Lilo, captain of the pirate ship O, has finally found the last piece of her ohana. On a ship that's transporting prisoners from one maximum security prison to another.

Starships (were meant to fly) - again, I really love space stories. Pairings: Carlos "Cougar" Alvarez/Jake Jensen. Word count: ~4,300. Chapter count: 1. Summary: Kugar was part of the Imperial Navy, but it wasn't until he got assigned to Roque and Clay at the same time Zox did that he really felt like his decision was worth it. And then, well, and then they got Jensen, and then MXCorp blew up a planetary system, and it's just... It's been a while, he's saying, but the waiting - the waiting is what kills him sometimes. That, and sometimes it gets so grokking hard to breathe.

So... it's not really new, per se, but I've never written in this fandom before so I gave it a shot. In all honesty, I almost did something based off of Agent Carter because I loved that pilot episode so much, but I figured I already had an idea for this pairing, why not get it out.

So I wrote a small (small) fic in the Merry Gentry series, found here.

Inspiration:
So first thing I guess I should say is that my (tiny) party trick is that I can take a character, a setting, and an adjective or mood and come up with a fairly good plot (to my way of thinking, but I'm biased, so). Inspiration has never been the problem - songs, other movies, other fics, gifsets, kinkmeme prompts: all of it and none of it can create plot ideas.

Motivation:
This is where the problem comes in. I'm an inherently selfish person, I'm learning, and I like praise even if I don't think I deserve it, so a lot of my motivation gets hindered by the fact that my fics are actually not as great as I think they are. I know not much will come of them, so it makes it hard to push through. Add to that I'm supposed to be in grad school (hah) writing a respectable prospectus, I'm teaching fourth grade and coming up with lesson plans, and I'm just plain lazy, and a lot of motivation is gone. I have over forty, I think, unfinished original and fandom fiction sitting on my desktop.

Writer's Block:
Hah. I don't really push through? When I have to - for challenges that I signed up for, for example - I can do it, but in general if it's a personal project, there's not much that happens. Generally speaking I try to write at least one sentence a day if I want to finish a story, and I don't close the document until it's complete or at the point where I'm not going to continue it ever or at all.

Types of creation:
I'm a very limited individual. I don't have any interesting skills, really, beyond being able to type fast. I only write fiction, so my process more or less remains the same regardless. The only variance is between challenge fiction and personal stories and plots, because fiction challenges I more or less finish, while personal stories almost never get finished.

My Writing Process:
In short, the process on the whole looks like this: I find a plot idea I'm actually willing to open a new word document for, and begin typing. Depending on how late or how much time I have, I normally get at least a page before I minimize the document and move away. I'll come back over the next couple of weeks, depending on how much that plot has weighed on my mind versus my teaching responsibilities (because let's face it I'm ignoring my graduate student responsibilities so hard). Eventually I'll either have that idea pushed out of the front of my mind by a different idea, and it will languish in my unfinished fic folder, or I'll complete the story.

So basically I saw this and thought why not? Maybe I'll actually finish this challenge... even though yes, I'm a day behind. I figure I can try, right?

A Broken World (Can Be Rebuilt) - I just... really liked the idea I had here. Sorry. I was very physically and emotionally disappointed at the effort I put in vs. what people actually thought of it.

The Animal Within - This one, I'm actually really proud of. It's the first fic I actually finished, and it made me confident. Maybe too confident, but there you go.

Lion's Shadow - I liked this one. I like shapeshifters, and it was fun to write, even if it felt like a lot of effort on something not well-liked.