hope is the thing with feathers

(I am still working on #3)

for snowflake_challenge

Challenge #4: Rec Your Last Page

Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!

This is what I've been looking at today:

Massachusetts "Name a Snowplow" Contest Winners!
School children came up with these wonderful (and punny!) snowplow names, which will be used this winter (2025/2026)
My favorites: Master Snowda and Thaw Patrol

How to Create a Powerful Character Arc by Jerry Jenkins.
I was looking at this as a quick reference for a post I was writing of my own about plotting while pantsing. Hopefully a future post for getyourwordsout. It's a pretty clear guide for getting started with writing character arcs, as it says on the tin.

(by the way, pledging for 2026 ends January 15, so you don't have much more time if you want to join in a wonderful writing community with GYWO!)

Also, right now I have a tab open with my 5soulmates prompt table! I haven't started writing yet, but I've got some ideas percolating.

Another tab I have open is the deterweek themes list. I'm going to be writing one story with whimsicalmeerkat and one solo. At least that's the plan!

Challenge #1

The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.

Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Hi, I'm greenie (or Green, if you want to be formal-polite), and I'm a 47-year-old weirdo who is back once again to play with the Snowflake Challenge!! Wooooo!!

Maybe we can get to know each other a little this month as we skip along the challenges together. (Hopefully, I'm skipping along and not outright skipping any like usual. Forgive me if that happens lol)

I love Snowflake because it gives me things to do and be excited about here on Dreamwidth, which is a place I love but don't spend enough time with.

Also, Snowflake frequently reminds me what's so great about fandom and fannishness to begin with!

snowflake challenge 6: Share your favourite piece of original canon.

North is an episode about friendship and forgiveness and father/sonhood. About feeling alone until you've got your buddy. God, it's so good. It's like this little encapsulation of what the show means to me.
If you never watch any other episode of Due South, watch North.
(edited to add) Ray and Fraser are in a plane crash and then stranded in the wilderness.
Fraser is temporary blind so he has to rely on Ray (Vecchio). The ghost of Ray's father tells him to 'cut [Fraser] loose'. But Ray is a better man than his father was.
There's a whole plot about catching a fugitive, too, but that's not as important as...
There's SINGING. There's singing while RAY CARRIES FRASER over his back. It's just wonderful.
It's a wonderful episode.


You can watch it for free on youtube.

Since this is the start of a new year, this challenge will be to set your own goals!

* My biggest (and possibly easiest if I keep up with the others) writing goal for the year is to write 150k words, and I'm keeping track of that and getting help with it through getyourwordsout

* Finish WIPs: Woo Me Harder, Tiny Alpha and A Cup of Living Gold for sure. I have a few others but those are most important.

* Write more flashfic! It feels like I've forgotten how to write short things. But I can do it! I've done it before and I'll do it again. Helpful with this are fan_flashworks and Year of the OTP on Tumblr

* Move more. I don't have specifics on this one, which will make it harder to fulfill, but even if it's just going outside and walking around the yard, I should definitely move more. Maybe I can talk my mother into letting us get another dog.

* Reach out to loved ones (family and friends, too) more often. I've been trying to text my son first instead of waiting until he texts or calls me. I'm usually worried he's too busy (he's in trade school and holding down a job, too) but a text won't throw him off.

And the hardest one:

* Look over the editing notes I got back on my book. I did write a book like two years ago, and sent it to a writer who knows her shit, but once I got the notes back I did not even look at them. To be honest, I'm kinda scared to.
If my book is good and salvageable, that means a lot of damn work, after editing, to get it published and marketing it. (It's M/M and is supposed to be self-published eventually) The marketing part is what I'm most scared about. I'm getting anxious right now just thinking about it. I get amazingly horrible panic and anxiety, on top of a lot of other things.
If my book is NOT good, if I look at the notes and see so much work I'd be better off starting from scratch, then... that'd be kinda okay. SO I guess more than anything I have a fear of success and what it might take to succeed. lolsob

Day 12

In your own space, create your own challenge. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

This morning I updated my Fanlore entry. Now I've thought of something I could add to it, but I wasn't thinking of it at the time. I need to add that I have a transformative works statement! I think that's notable.

Anyway, my challenge to you is to

1. Create your own Fanlore entry
or, if you have one
2. Update your entry, or add a notable work.

OR if your entry is up to date

3. If your favorite fanwork doesn't have an entry, create a page for it!

4. and if you've already done all that in the past, create a new entry for a fave fanwork.

Editing a wiki is a little daunting if you've never done it before, but Fanlore has little tutorials and templates to make it easier for you. Look on the left side of the screen for "shortcuts for editors".

If you do it, leave me a note and a link to what you did (if you want).

Day 5

In your own space, promote three communities, challenges, blogs, pages, Twitters, Tumblrs or platforms and explain why you love them. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

1. iconthat - one of the icon communities I follow here on DW. It's a fun, low stakes competition.

2. fan_flashworks - another fun challenge, this time for all kinds of works. Any fandom, any kind of works, with fun badges you can win.

3. The Steter Network! On Tumblr, Discord, Pillowfort, and DW. This is my main hangout of fandom these days. thesteternetwork on DW is new but I hope it picks up. I spend most of my free time in the Discord. The Steter Network is a group of Teen Wolf writers who enjoy the Stiles/Peter pairing. We hang out on discord and encourage/enable each other. I wouldn't write half as much as I do without them. (for access to the discord, send an ask to steternetwork)

Snowflaking it up again in 2019, and I hope to do more days than I've done in the past! Click the banner to go to the community to check it out.

For anyone new to DW, this is a great way to participate and have fun (and make some new friends)!

Snowflake Day 7: In your own space, create a love meme for yourself. Let people tell you how amazing and awesome and loveable you really are.

Welp. Go for it? And if you have done this and I haven't responded to it, send me a link to yours and I'll try to comment.

I'm so anxious over some RL stuff today and all the love and hugs I can get would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, bbs.

In your own space, post recs for at least three fanworks that you did not create.

It's so hard to choose what to rec, but I'm going from what's on my first page of bookmarks.

No One Chooses This Life by lapsus_calami (series)
A Teen Wolf/Supernatural crossover. WIP. Eventual Dean/Stiles
Summary: Stiles wasn't running from his problems. Except he kind of was, but at least he was being productive while doing it. He gave himself one year. One year away from Beacon Hills, away from the pack, away from his dad. One year to get himself pulled together, to stop spiraling into panic attacks, to stop falling into pits of despair, to stop screaming himself awake every night. One year to learn everything he could about his spark, about hunting, about the supernatural. One year so that when he went back maybe, just maybe, he could do more good than harm.

Notes: This is long, unfinished, and the slowest of slow burns, but it's SO GOOD.

---

Body and Soul by Ragga
Teen Wolf. Peter/Stiles. Complete.
Summary: Do you want the bite?

Yes.

That night changed Stiles' whole life. Now alone, with only his father at his side, Stiles was trying his best not to drown due to his inability to function as an alpha werewolf. On top of that, there was something in the preserve that called for him, someone who would be the answer to his everything. And Stiles?

He would defy even death in order to find his emissary.

Notes: I love the intensity of the Steter relationship in this. It hits allll my buttons.

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Silver and Fire by Triangulum
Teen Wolf. Peter/Stiles. Complete.
Summary: Every single day, Stiles is reminded of who he is. "You're an Argent. You're made of silver and fire." He's been trained, honed to be deadly and vicious without remorse. He's been taught to kill monsters indiscriminately because they're volatile and dangerous and need to be put down. He's been taught hate and violence and rage.

The thing is, Stiles also remembers. He pretends he doesn't, because to remember is dangerous, but he remembers the local wolf pack run by his mother's friend, Talia Hale.

Or

Stiles' mother ran away from her family and the Argent legacy. When she and the sheriff die, Gerard is given custody over Stiles and raises him as a hunter.

Notes: I love AUs where Stiles is brought up as a hunter, and this is one of the best I've read.