Okay, I know I haven't posted to this community in...years...and I know that there haven't been any posts in this comm for...many months...And...I'm also aware that the deadline for Challenge #28 was back in JANUARY OF 2007 but...BUTBUTBUT...It's such a GREAT prompt that I just COULD NOT pass it up. Also, I think this community needs to be brought back to life. *nodnod* Also, no one declared the challenge closed, heh!

This little ditty is set in my original world of Aerdus and uses original characters. (Which shouldn't be a big deal but IS, considering what an obsessive fanfiction writer I am. @_@) For more Aerdus ditties or to know more about what the heck this Aerdus place is, visit my account here on LJ, or my deviantART account, linked on my profile. *noddles* :3

Title: Monstrosity
Author: Ashari
Challenge #: 28
Rating: PG-13. For blood.
Disclaimers/Warnings: Begins in medias res. Watch your step. >3

( The teenager heaved himself to his feet, battle adrenaline powering his movements despite the bruises, not to mention the lacerations of varying seriousness. )

Hello, fellow Muse Sisters.

I miss you guys. Seriously. Well, I miss a lot of things I used to do in high school - like sleeping seven hours a night and reading fantasy novels under my desk in Statistics - but this community is definitely one of those things that I miss. Just so you don't think I've gone off on vacation and gotten tired of all of you. =) I miss responding to challenges, and I actually do have ideas for a few of them...just not the time to write them out. (You know how I am...if I could only limit myself to five pages...sigh.) So I suppose I will just have to pine away until summertime, when I have a life again outside of academics.

Anyway, I do have a little more of my ongoing Balandian princesses story finished - though I use that last word very loosely. In fact, the reason why I'm posting this is because I feel like what I have is very unfinished, and I'm trying to figure out what's missing. This is just a transitional section anyway, but it still feels sparse or somehow incomplete. Your thoughts would be very appreciated. (And I only have about three pages, so it won't take you forever like almost everything else I write, heh...)

( The Eternal Light )

Title: Bloody Roomates
Author: triskellion
Challenge #: 28
Rating: PG for language and threats
Disclaimers: None. This one is all mine for once.

Thank you gelsey for the edits.

“It’s a monster!” shrieked a shrill female voice.

-Link leads to my journal.

Here's the new Stewpot. As always, suggestions for the next challenge or new challenges are more than welcome.

Stewpot:

Here's listed in no particular order:

- There is also the stereotype challenge. Choose a stereotype, such as the annoying blonde princess or the unnamed and somehow scary monster and make the writer have to reinvent the stereotype in an unexpected way. (suggested by kuroilotus)

- Point of View. Or worse, have a group try to tell the story. Lots of POV shifting and contradicting of 'facts'. (suggested by kuroilotus)

- suggest a place challenge. Come up with the name of a place and it has to be somehow central to the story. (suggested by kuroilotus) (feel free to suggest places you would like, people)--(suggestion 2-Staircase, by penchaft) (Suggestion 3-the story takes place during a meal, or maybe the preparation of it, by penchaft) (suggestion 4-Somehow involving an element chosen by the moderator: earth, air, fire, or water nomially,by penchaft)

- The old world meets new (suggested by penchaft)

- Protagonist wakes up without the use of one of their senses. How are they going to get along now? (suggested by kuroilotus)

- Situational challenge: The main character's life is saved by the toothpick in a Swiss Army Knife. (suggested by smeddley)

- This is similar to the stereotype challenge, but what about retelling an old fairy tale in a way that actually makes sense? I was looking over some stuff by the Brothers Grimm, and seriously, the plot contrivances are just painful. Extra points for picking one of the more obscure fairy tales, like Rumpelstiltskin (which has the flimsiest character motives ever) or The Princess and the Pea (good luck making that one make sense). (suggested by kailita)

- Genre/Character/Plot Point random challenge .. (cooked up by both penchaft and smeddley)

- Narrative starter: And it appeared that the digital princess had just managed to delete him from her life, but was she truly ready to empty the recycle bin to ensure that he was gone forever? (suggested by kuroilotus)

- "Dearest Darling Doodle Dumpling, despairing days drip desolately down. Passing penguins pinch pearls from my poorly protected, pondering, precipitous soul. Dearest Darling Doodle Dumpling, do hurry home hastily for I pine painfully for your presence." [A letter from home.] (suggested by kuroilotus)

- Narrative Starter: The world has finally seen the end of evil. Grand heroes would be needed no longer. No more would darkness throw its shadow upon the land. Now what on earth would those who aspire to greatness do? (Suggested by kuroilotus)

- Write what you hate. Clarification - what really pisses you off as a reader? Write that! Bait'n'switch pisses me off, so I might use that in the response. Maybe it's a Designated Love Interest or an alarming number of co-incidences or the innocent unschooled farm boy who never gets people wrong or first person POV or overuse of meta-writing or A Magical Princess Who Runs Away and okay role playing has made me far too bitter let's stop there. (Suggested by penchaft)

- Change of culture! Culture shock, a tourist, an imported slave, whatever. (Suggested by penchaft)

- Quote Challenges: “As weird as it sounds, I like the flavor of wood."
"Why am I not in my car yet?"
"Please join me in the singing of death."
"I hate/love you. Figuratively speaking."
"Ouch!! A raindrop fell on my head and it hurt."
(Suggested by gelsey)

-A ridiculous superpower (suggested by triskellion)

- Quote: "You may be the only person in the world to be attacked by a chipmunk, a dolphin, and a vegetarian lizard." (Suggested by smeddley from Failure to Launch)

- Quote: “Zip ties are pretty.” (Suggested by gelsey)

- Putting all of the (active) members' names in a hat, then we ask for one in a screened post and the mod pulls one out and we see what we get. (Suggested by kailita)

Well, no one wrote anything for Challenge 27. Quasi-officially I'll close it then, but if you have a response, PLEASE, post it. Also, please, if you have some independent piece of fiction, feel free to post it here as well.

Welcome to all new members. If you can't tell, I'm a chronically late moderater who often needs to be poked with a pointy stick. Thank you, smeddley, for kindly trying to start things up again.

*looks at members* Though I see no responses.

So I am issuing Challenge 28, which is the following:

"I'm/You're/He's/She's/It's a monster!" (Suggested by penchaft)

Deadline: January 29th good for everyone?

HELLO muses_stewpot!

Yup, I'm completely butting my non-moderator head in here, and I really apologize if it's not okay (though I do know the mods and they are nice, so maybe they won't kick me too hard). Really, I'm just trying to find things to do so I don't have to go and do housework, which I should be doing. Shortly, I will have posted to every LJ community I belong to, and maybe even joined a few to make some more posts...

But I digress. (yes, I know, that's not much of a surprise to those of you who know me...)

I am issuing Challenge 27! It is a quote challenge:

~ "I really mean it, I thought you were dead." (suggested by kuroilotus)

Deadline to get into the voting is... January 13th, lets say?

Also, congrats to the winner of challenge 26, chainkill! *cue applause*

Hey there, I haven't written much original at all, but hopefully this comm. will help me with that :-)

Name: lilian_cho
Age: Early 20s
Gender: Female
An interesting fact or two about yourself:
1. I don't even belong to a RP comm., yet I have 27 LJs at last count.
2. One of these LJs is mukashi2, which I mod at starts and spurts *cough* Lately I've been inspired though :-)

---

Plugged with gelsey's permission:

The Decalphabet Challenge is open for both original and fan works.

WHEN:
1. Claiming is open until December 15, 2006.
2. Submissions should be posted to mukashi2 between 1 to 31 January 2007.
3. Winner(s) will be chosen through voting in February and will receive banners.

WHAT:
Writer's challenge: write ten interconnected drabbles series OR one story revolving around ten words
Artist's challenge: draw ten interconnected "drawbles" series OR one picture revolving around ten words

( HOW to participate )

View Table of Participants

Oh, and I'd like to invite everyone here to post their fairy tale/fable/folklore/legend/myth-inspired stories at mukashi2. Thanks :-)

Name: Lisa
Age: 24
Gender: Female
An interesting fact or two about yourself: I graduated from the University of Arizona in 2005 with a degree in English and Creative Writing. I currently work as a writing tutor at the same university.

I broke my leg a couple weeks ago, and I have been driving myself up a wall looking for something to do. Today, the stewpot occurred to me as something I said I would do when I had free time, so here I am. Now let's see if I can remember the format.


Title: And There They Shall Remain
Author: chainkill
Challenge #: Challenge 26
Rating: PG (some violent and/or subversive content)


( And There They Shall Remain )

Constructive criticism is welcomed and encouraged.

Dudes and dudettes, I just realized something!

muses_stewpot is about to have it's one year anniversary, on October 2nd! A whole year, wow!

So yeah, on top of wondering if we should do something special for Halloween, should I do something special to celebrate this anniversary? A challenge, a poll for best fic/challenge/whatever of the year, what? Any ideas?

I was (sort of) cleaning my desk and I found this scribbled on a piece of paper. It was intended to be part of a response to a challenge at write_away, but it didn't make it into the final piece. It could be an ending to it, sort of, so if you want to read the submission it is here (the challenge was to use specific previously created characters and made-up words).

But all you really need to know is that 'he' is a god who has appeared in 'her' apartment. I"m mostly concerned with the way I handled a lot of dialogue mixed with movements - I'm not sure if I managed that at all. That would be my main hope for crit. Thanks!

( Adult situations, but nothing graphic )

Challenge 26 is:

Take an well known storyline and twist it so that the villain wins. (suggested by kuroilotus)

Deadline: how is October 14?

Challenge 25 is:

Something from the perspective of someone common relating to a big event in history (suggested by triskellion)

Deadline: How is ...October 7th?

Okies, peoples ... I have been a horrible little moderator and someone should kick me in my you-know-where for not posting challenges. Thanks to triskellion for nagging me. Things have been hectic, and I apologize to everyone.

Announcements first:
The winner of Challenge 23 is newcomer tanglewood!!! Yaaaay!
The winner of Challenge 24 is smeddley with her I to G on the way to Herrota! Go smeddley!

Question:
Do we want a special challenge to celebrate Halloween?

Challenges will be posted in a few minutes.

Stewpot:

Here's listed in no particular order:

- There is also the stereotype challenge. Choose a stereotype, such as the annoying blonde princess or the unnamed and somehow scary monster and make the writer have to reinvent the stereotype in an unexpected way. (suggested by kuroilotus)

- Point of View. Or worse, have a group try to tell the story. Lots of POV shifting and contradicting of 'facts'. (suggested by kuroilotus)

- suggest a place challenge. Come up with the name of a place and it has to be somehow central to the story. (suggested by kuroilotus) (feel free to suggest places you would like, people)--(suggestion 2-Staircase, by penchaft) (Suggestion 3-the story takes place during a meal, or maybe the preparation of it, by penchaft) (suggestion 4-Somehow involving an element chosen by the moderator: earth, air, fire, or water nomially,by penchaft)

- The old world meets new (suggested by penchaft)

- Protagonist wakes up without the use of one of their senses. How are they going to get along now? (suggested by kuroilotus)

- "I really mean it, I thought you were dead." (suggested by kuroilotus)

- Situational challenge: The main character's life is saved by the toothpick in a Swiss Army Knife. (suggested by smeddley)

- This is similar to the stereotype challenge, but what about retelling an old fairy tale in a way that actually makes sense? I was looking over some stuff by the Brothers Grimm, and seriously, the plot contrivances are just painful. Extra points for picking one of the more obscure fairy tales, like Rumpelstiltskin (which has the flimsiest character motives ever) or The Princess and the Pea (good luck making that one make sense). (suggested by kailita)

- Genre/Character/Plot Point random challenge .. (cooked up by both penchaft and smeddley)

- Narrative starter: And it appeared that the digital princess had just managed to delete him from her life, but was she truly ready to empty the recycle bin to ensure that he was gone forever? (suggested by kuroilotus)

- "Dearest Darling Doodle Dumpling, despairing days drip desolately down. Passing penguins pinch pearls from my poorly protected, pondering, precipitous soul. Dearest Darling Doodle Dumpling, do hurry home hastily for I pine painfully for your presence." [A letter from home.] (suggested by kuroilotus)

- Narrative Starter: The world has finally seen the end of evil. Grand heroes would be needed no longer. No more would darkness throw its shadow upon the land. Now what on earth would those who aspire to greatness do? (Suggested by kuroilotus)

- Write what you hate. Clarification - what really pisses you off as a reader? Write that! Bait'n'switch pisses me off, so I might use that in the response. Maybe it's a Designated Love Interest or an alarming number of co-incidences or the innocent unschooled farm boy who never gets people wrong or first person POV or overuse of meta-writing or A Magical Princess Who Runs Away and okay role playing has made me far too bitter let's stop there. (Suggested by penchaft)

- "I'm/You're/He's/She's/It's a monster!" (Suggested by penchaft)

- Change of culture! Culture shock, a tourist, an imported slave, whatever. (Suggested by penchaft)

- Quote Challenges: “As weird as it sounds, I like the flavor of wood."
"Why am I not in my car yet?"
"Please join me in the singing of death."
"I hate/love you. Figuratively speaking."
"Ouch!! A raindrop fell on my head and it hurt."
(Suggested by gelsey)

-A ridiculous superpower (suggested by triskellion)

- Quote: "You may be the only person in the world to be attacked by a chipmunk, a dolphin, and a vegetarian lizard." (Suggested by smeddley from Failure to Launch)

Feel free to make more suggestions, as always!!

Well, I'm closing this one up too. Hope everyone enjoyed it :)

The options:
W to V in a Xenobiology Lab by smeddley
I to G on the way to Herrota by smeddley
Xin by penchaft

And vote!!!

Poll #816715 Challenge 24
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

What was your favorite response to Challenge 24?

Well, rather late, I am closing up challenge 23. I had started on a response but alas, I just don't have the time for it at the moment. So, I give you the options:

For the Very First Time by triskellion
Keeping the Green by tangledwood
The Mountain Spirit Comes at Sunset by penchaft

Now vote!!

Poll #816713 Challenge 23
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

What was your favorite response to Challenge 23?

Well, it seems I owe an apology here as well. I'm sorry for randomly disappearing, things have been crazy. See my private lj (those of you that can, anyhow) for multiple reasons. I will eventually get caught up reading everything, and *gasp* i have finally started a reply to one of the challenges. It's going slow but it's going.

So yeah, that's about it. I'll try not to let it happen again, but no promises ... as screwy as I've felt lately and as busy as things have been, it might. But I guess that is life ...

Title: I to G on the way to Herrota
Author: smeddley
Challenge #: Challenge 24
Rating: G

( Why sleep is important, kids! This is what your brain does when you're tired... )