A Fanfiction Revolution

Good morrow, ladies!
After some discussion with letitallgo, we decided on several things we could try to get the community going again, such as re-instating the monthly challenges, inviting more people to join (there are a few coming through the ranks at ff.net), getting members to rec. fics they have read now or in the past, and suggesting subjects for discussion, perhaps in combination with the monthly challenge? Let us know what you think, and if you have any other ideas to add into the mix. We hope to get things going after letitallgo comes back at the beginning of August.

In the meantime, onto this month's challenge!

Firstly, as so many of you lovely ladies are not left with much time to write these days, this is a short challenge modelled on glorianna's FlashSlash challenge (original can be found here), especially designed for those with not much time on their hands. So to summarise;

YOU ONLY HAVE TO WRITE FOR EIGHT MINUTES.

The reason? “To free your subconscious creator from your conscious editor”, and that way, everybody has the same amount of time to write and that means you should not be embarrassed about posting responses – this is just a bit of fun. :)

N.B. READ ALL THE SECTION BELOW BEFORE CLICKING ON THE CUT.
1. You are going to write a piece in eight minutes: whatever you want, whichever character(s) and in any genre (can be slash, if you feel you can achieve it in 8 minutes). You will get a prompt of four words, and you are to concentrate on using all four in the piece.
2. There are two sets of words pulled at random from the nearest dictionary. Before you click the cut below, decide if you're going to use the first set of four words, or the second.
3. Go! Start writing/typing. Don't stop; don't edit, don't pause, don't dither, don't scratch. Just write!
4. Stop after eight minutes. (I said eight minutes! Eight minutes exactly, d'ye hear me there?)
5. Now you can take a minute or so to edit what you've written. No major changes, mind: just enough to correct the odd typo, or stick in that last line you couldn't quite get down in the time limit.
6. If you want to post your piece, do it before you read anything else that's been submitted. Title your post "July Flash Fic" – and please, make sure you highlight the four words you selected in your piece so we know which set you picked.
7. There, you’re done! Have a read of the other pieces and see what everybody else came up with. Feedback is welcome, but please bear in mind that eight minutes is a very short time; nobody expects a masterpiece.

Well, there it is. Have fun! :)

( And your words are… )

Hello there!
I thought I would just drop by to say 'hi', and to thank sleepingapple for all she has done as founder and co-mod of this community; I only hope that I will be able to follow her example and do some good stuff here.

I have yet to speak to our other mod, letitallgo about where we stand, what things we could do, whether we will start the monthly challenges again, etc. Hopefully we will be able to think up some things that could regain some interest, invite some new members and get the community a little more active.

Just to add on to the 'more active' bit; taking up my new post here, having seeing all these multi-chapter fics updating regularly on ff.net and axmxz reducing the times between updating Between the Dog and the Wolf has guilted me into finally finishing an update to a fic I have not touched for nigh on two years; The Fallen Angel. Hopefully from now on it will not be so long between updates.

Chapter IV - A Séance and a Pocket Watch

Be in touch. :)

Updated today with Chapter 5 of The Monkshood Plant. A very short chapter which has been a long time coming, but there will be a longer one to follow;

Wolf Amongst the Chickens