Crowdfunding Creative Jam

[ysabetwordsmith]

Welcome to the fiftieth Crowdfunding Creative Jam! This session will run Saturday, April 16-Sunday, April 17. The theme is "Ideas." Visit the Creative Jam over on LiveJournal.


Crowdfunding Creative Jam

Everyone is eligible to post prompts, which may be words or phrases, titles, images, etc. Prompters may request a specific creator, but everyone else may still use that prompt if they wish. Prompts may specify a particular character/world/etc. but creators may use the prompt for something else anyway and post the results. Prompters are still encouraged to post mostly prompts that anyone could use anywhere, as this maximizes the chance of having creators make something based on your prompt. Please title your comment "Prompt" or "Prompts" when providing inspiration so these are easy to find.

Prompt responses may also be treated as prompts and used for further inspiration. For example, a prompt may lead to a sketch which leads to a story, and so on. This kind of cascading inspiration is one of the most fun things about a collective jam session.

Everyone is eligible to use prompts, and everyone who wants to use a given prompt may do so, for maximum flexibility of creator choice in inspiration. You do not have to post a "Claim" reply when you decide to use a prompt, but this does help indicate what is going on so that other prompters can spread out their choice of prompts if they wish.

Creators are encouraged, but not required, to post at least one item free. Likewise, sharing a private copy of material with the prompter is encouraged but not required. Creative material resulting from prompts should be indicated in a reply to the prompt, with a link to the full content elsewhere on the creator's site (if desired); a brief excerpt and/or description of the material may be included in the reply (if desired). It helps to title your comment "Prompt Filled" or something like that so these are easy to identify. There is no time limit on responding to prompts. However, creators are encouraged to post replies sooner rather than later, as the attention of prompters will be highest during and shortly after the session.

Some items created from prompts may become available for sponsorship. Some creators may offer perks for donations, linkbacks, or other activity relating to this project. Check creator comments and links for their respective offerings.

Prompters, creators, and bystanders are expected to behave in a responsible and civil manner. If the moderators have to drag someone out of the sandbox for improper behavior, we will not be amused. Please respect other people's territory and intellectual property rights, and only play with someone else's characters/setting/etc. if you have permission. (Fanfic/fanart freebies are okay.) If you want to invite folks to play with something of yours, title the comment something like "Open Playground" so it's easy to spot. This can be a good way to attract new people to a shared world or open-source project, or just have some good non-canon fun.

Boost the signal! The more people who participate, the more fun this will be. Hopefully we'll see activity from a lot of folks who regularly mention their projects in this community, but new people are always welcome. You can link to this session post or to individual items created from prompts, whatever you think is awesome enough to recommend to your friends.

Comments

Open Playground: Schrodinger's Heroes

[ysabetwordsmith]

Everyone is welcome to play with Schrodinger's Heroes. (If you're new to this project, you can start here.) This is an imaginary fandom for an apocryphal television show. A team of heroes practice quantum physics and other hijinks to protect Earth against invaders from other dimensions. The team is racially, sexually, and culturally diverse. Because the subject naturally deals with alternate realities, it lends itself well to crossovers and alternate-universe interpretations; you can use my version or make up your own.

Open Playground: Torn World

[ysabetwordsmith]

Torn World is a science fantasy shared world available for writing and creating in. Sea monsters! Giant furred unicorns! Crystals that control time! People of changing gender, or no gender!

For more information about the setting, prompters should start here and contributors should start here. For specific information about submitting your work to our world continuity, rights and allowances, please see our contributor's rules. We have a space for sharing non-canon work on our site, so don't be shy about jumping in, even if you aren't familiar with the setting yet!

Prompts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Image Prompts:
Junior gizmologist in thinking cap
Alien observing a starship
Potion of Inspiration

Title Prompts:
"Colorless Green Ideas"
"Inspiring Minds"
"Fire in the Head"

Text Prompts:
* What would be the equivalent of a lightbulb over the head for a species not primarily focused on sight?
* Some people generate ideas like they generate body heat: constantly, effortlessly, thoughtlessly.
* "Master, are you not sad to die with so much of your work undone?" "Oh no, dear child! Imagine how much worse it would be to come to the end of ideas before coming to the end of life."

Re: Prompts

[alatefeline]

Prompt Fill: What would be the equivalent of a lightbulb over the head for a species not primarily focused on sight?

I am convinced that I am doing this wrong because (a) this is a first draft (b) I don't write regularly or professionally (c) I think this is a poem and it is more about me speaking to the experiences I know I haven't had and other people have than a science fiction story which is where the prompt felt like it was going (d) I just do.

But here goes anyway.

No particular world or fandom, completely open to people doing whatever with this.

Lightbulb

[alatefeline]

I can’t /
see that happening. /
//
No /
is an answer that shuts /
down conversations. /
No /
is a complete /
sentence. /
//
My vision /
is not complete. /
//
I have no right /
to ask you /
to tell me /
how you don’t see. /
//
I can feel /
how shaky /
is this bridge /
across /
open air. /
//
Proprioception /
centers me /
in where I am. /
//
Sometimes /
I lose /
the edges of me. /
//
If I gave up /
my light /
I would not /
have your sonar. /
//
If I paint /
in texture /
if I ask this child /
how it feels /
if I listen /
to this neighbor /
talk about the bus route /
he navigates by voice /
if I breathe /
the purple /
(sorry) /
scent of lilacs /
will you let me /
ask /
how you sense things? /
(It’s okay /
to say no.) /
//
No lightbulbs here /
sorry. /
I installed /
a grow light /
and /
a low-power bulb /
last week. /
I know you have the right /
to use them too /
and I have no right /
to question. /
//
Far away from me, /
You are in your place. /
You do what you do. /
You don’t not see. /
//
I don’t grenfelz /
I can’t grok /
I would’t have any idea how to begin /
to x, y, or z.
//
Cousin, if you gave me /
a lightbulb /
I would put it in a lamp. /
If you gave me /
a gift /
I would hold it /
carefully, carefully /
in my two hands /
cradle it warmly /
breathe in. /
//
And if you /
told me /
how to use your idea /
I would listen. /
///

Re: Lightbulb

[ysabetwordsmith]

*happydance*

That is awesome.

I really like the counterpoint between communication and privacy, understanding and not, all the different forms of perception.

It's one of those poems like what I think of when I say that in order to rivet jello to the bulkhead, first you have to put it in a bowl.

Re: Lightbulb

[alexseanchai]

*applause*

Re: Lightbulb

[dialecticdreamer]

This is LOVELY. Keep writing poetry; you have a distinct spirit for it!

Re: Lightbulb

[alatefeline]

I am pleased and honored that you like my work. Please feel absolutely free to offer constructive criticism or not. I will keep writing.

Re: Lightbulb

[chanter1944]

Ooooh, that's lovely! :)

Thank you, especially, for the synaesthetic hints (the purple sorry scent of lilacs lines read like synaesthesia to me) and the reference to having every right to use personally inapplicable words i.e. saying 'see what's around' when you yourself physically can't. Been there, done that, had people flip their metaphorical lids over it.

Re: Lightbulb

[alatefeline]

I am deeply honored that you like this. I have sight myself and am trying not to be disrespectful of an experience of the world that doesn't include sight or includes it in a very different way than I have. I am usually not synaesthetic. However, there are things that I know SHOULD be multi-sensory experiences despite coming in through a single sense, IF my intuitive/experiential/spiritual side was all the way turned on, which it almost never is; I do not have a word for that. I am strong on visual, verbal, sequential-logical, and inTRApersonal modes of learning, not so much on kinesthetic, scent or taste, inTERpersonal, or spatial-geometric modes. I want to balance speaking for my own experience with NOT speaking OVER other people's experiences. It is a work in progress. As soon as I read this prompt, I was thinking "this is cool, I have to do this," and also "wait I have no idea what this experience/species/culture would be like." Then I thought something like, "if I try to imagine myself into this experience, would I speaking over top of what someone with more understanding would say, so maybe I should walk away, but imagining things that aren't already things for me is important too, oh wait, that's the whole point of where my brain is going with this."

Re: Lightbulb

[ysabetwordsmith]

Part of writing is to explore things from other people's experience. You learn how to do it better. You also learn how to research it and pick out usable details.

If you build a good audience, by the way, they will help you. I've had people give me amazingly intimate details about disabilities and oppressions that I had never encountered, and really make a difference. Talk to people. Let them know you're interested in learning new stuff. It usually works.

Re: Lightbulb

[redsixwing]

Oh lovely. <3

Re: Prompts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I am convinced that I am doing this wrong<<

No, you're doing fine!

>> because (a) this is a first draft <<

Plenty of people do that in a Creative Jam. The idea is inspiration. People even post fragments and that is fine too. Some folks later revise and repost their work, others don't. It's all fine.

>> (b) I don't write regularly or professionally <<

Not required for this project. We have novices and experts, hobbyists and professionals, all hanging out and making stuff. Just jam. It's a great place to practice.

>> (c) I think this is a poem and it is more about me speaking to the experiences I know I haven't had and other people have than a science fiction story which is where the prompt felt like it was going <<

That's fine. Sometimes a prompt matches the resulting work very closely, others times not because the author's mind went on a long tangent. All that matters is making some cool stuff.

>> (d) I just do. <<

You feel what you feel. You are entitled to your feelings. But sometimes, the sneaky little fuckers lie to you.

>> But here goes anyway.

No particular world or fandom, completely open to people doing whatever with this. <<

Yaaaaaay! Sharing makes the Web go 'round.

Re: Prompts

[alatefeline]

Thank you. It is very encouraging to be told that it is okay to not be an expert when you are just trying to get started. I have hit that wall many times in my life and am working on not inflicting it on others. I like what I wrote and I think I will edit and repost it eventually. Now that I am reading it, the / markers that I use in my rough draft writing to "hear" pauses bother me as a reader. So that and other things will change eventually. Thanks for the positive feedback. If anyone feels like it, I also will respond to constructive criticism and/or being told that I have made a mistake or that I have done something inadvertently offensive; I interpret that as positive because it implies I care enough to fix something. I will be happy to jam with you folks.

Re: Prompts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Thank you. It is very encouraging to be told that it is okay to not be an expert when you are just trying to get started. <<

;) Nobody is an expert when they're just getting started! What would be the fun of that? Trying new things is all about exploring the possibilities and making interesting new mistakes.

>> I have hit that wall many times in my life and am working on not inflicting it on others. <<

It's good that you learned from it.

>> I like what I wrote and I think I will edit and repost it eventually. <<

Yay!

>> Now that I am reading it, the / markers that I use in my rough draft writing to "hear" pauses bother me as a reader. So that and other things will change eventually. <<

Yeah, that was distracting. But not much worse than reading poetry with the foot markers left in, and I've done that too.

>> Thanks for the positive feedback. If anyone feels like it, I also will respond to constructive criticism and/or being told that I have made a mistake or that I have done something inadvertently offensive; I interpret that as positive because it implies I care enough to fix something. I will be happy to jam with you folks. <<

Cool! \o/

Poem

[ysabetwordsmith]

Last night I started working before any prompts came in, using my bingo cards. A "shapeshifter" prompt inspired the free-verse poem "Dark Ideas." Hilla and Randie listen to women in the chronic pain support group.

225 lines, Buy It Now = $112.50

Prompts

[dialecticdreamer]

A quote from "Kampus," by James E. Gunn, paraphrased from memory since I no longer have a copy of the book: "Ideas are not tools to be used by any hand. First men shape ideas, then ideas shape men."

Re: Prompts

[ysabetwordsmith]

From this I got the poem "The Fluidity of Inspiration," which is written in unrhymed couplets. It's about liquids and solids, ideas and people.

10 lines, Buy It Now = $5

Re: Prompts

[dialecticdreamer]

SQUEEE! DIBSY, dibsy, DIBSIES! I'll be sponsoring this next week, so hang onto that for me? Pleeease?

Re: Prompts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Done! :D

Prompt fodder!

[chanter1944]

Prompt the first and only, for now: Ideas that become formative elements in a person's life, for better or worse (preferably better).

Re: Prompt fodder!

[ysabetwordsmith]

This contributed to the free-verse poem "Maa Yea." When a woman takes up the cause of protecting children, she ceases to be mortal.

128 lines, Buy It Now = $64

Re: Prompt fodder!

[ysabetwordsmith]

This inspired the free-verse poem "A Confession of Pain." Alicia and Judd visit the Easy City police station to share their past experiences regarding the Spectrum.

372 lines, Buy It Now = $186