A new challenge for 2016 - Pros Bingo!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Presenting a new kind of challenge to start the year at discoveredinalj! This is partly at the request of one of my favourite Pros writers, who's back on lj, and who I'd definitely like to see more Pros stories from (*g*), and partly just to try something a bit different. I havered last year about closing the comm after the 10th Winter/Christmas/Solstice/New Year etc.challenge, but eventually came down on the side of getting back to posting more challenges instead - and when I thought about it, phantomas' request for a challenge of some kind that lasted for a longer period of time, without specific deadlines and thus pressure, seemed like something that could both do that, and fit around other challenges that could be posted through the year. *g*

So, having started 2016 right with the Discovered in the Holly and Ivy posts, I present a challenge for the next 11 months - Pros Bingo! It will run from today until 30th November 2016, and creations can be posted to the community at any time between those dates,even when there's another challenge running.

The Pros Bingo Challenge will work similarly to other fandom bingo challenges - although perhaps with fewer rules/more flexibility, having looked at some of them! The idea is simply to get a Bingo! by completing an entire line of the bingo prompt card. You do this by writing/drawing/vidding/creating something for each prompt in that line. Lines must be straight, but they can go in any direction, including diagonally, and they don't have to go through the centre square.

If you're feeling creative (hurrah!) then you can also go for a Blackout!, which is filling in every square on the bingo card!

There are two ways to join in - and you can do both if you like!
- the Community Pros Bingo Card
There's alot going on in life, and if you're not sure you'd be able to fill in a whole bingo line (let alone a blackout!) on your own, then this is for you - we can do it as a community! The Community Pros Bingo Card is posted below, and anyone can join in at any time - let's see if between us we can get first a Bingo!, then another Bingo! and maybe even a Blackout!

Sign-up by commenting below to say that you'd like to help with the Community Pros Bingo Card, and then simply start creating and posting to the community! Let us know with each post you make which square your creation is for, and we'll stamp that one with your icon and post the card to show everyone where we're up to. (The only potential glitch with this one is that two people might go for the same square at once - if that happens, then I'll accept the first and add some random additional border-squares to the card where I'll add the other icons!)

- an individual Pros Bingo Card
If you want to challenge yourself to be more creative this year, then this might be for you - your very own Pros Bingo Card. The prompts will be a mixture of general and more specific, and you can go for your own Bingo! lines and Blackout - which would be truly amazing, and bring you extra kudos (and of course bring our flists extra joy *g*). Sign up by commenting below to say that you'd like to try an individual Pros Bingo Card, and you'll be assigned your very own card with prompts in the reply. (I'm also hoping I can work out how to provide the table code in one of those stretch-y menu things that people use - if anyone knows the code for that in lj, I'd appreciate it! - so that if you want/are confident with code you can post your own tables, filling them in as you go - but if not, then like the Community Pros Bingo Card, I'll post your icon-stamped table for you, with links to your creations.)

You might notice I've been using creations rather than fic/stories etc. - very specifically, because although we would definitely like to see lots and lots of Pros stories posted, the challenge is also open to artists, vidders and any other kind of creator - you can create anything Pros-y to fill in your prompts! Artists of all kinds - those who work with the written-word, drawings, banners, vids etc. - everyone is welcome to play!

A Very Few General Rules
1. As usual at the comm, please use trailer information (at the end of your work, not headers at the beginning) placed under a cut so that we offer the best of both worlds - information for anyone that wants it, and a lack of spoilers for those who'd prefer not to know.

2. Please post all creations to the community - not as a link to posts at A03 or elsewhere. Obviously you're free to post anywhere else as well, but this is a community and part of the point of it is that we're a place to interact - people have space to comment on creations, and maybe even chat about them in the comments if they want. discoveredinalj is an active group of people who adore our lads - let's play together, rather than just pointing at other computers and archives across the internet!

3. If you post a creation for another discoveredinalj challenge, you can also use it for either the Comm Pros Bingo Card or your own Pros Bingo Card, either for a square where it fits, or to substitute for a prompt you don't like. Just add the information in the Notes section of the trailer, so it can be credited. Creations for other comms etc. don't count though!

4. You can sign up at any time - straight away, halfway through the year, in November (if you're feeling brave... *g*).

5. Prompts are for inspiration only - you can use them in any way you wish to fill a square.

6. The Wildcard square is a free-prompt squares - you can post any Pros-based creation to fill this square!

6. And I think that's it! Otherwise the rules of the comm apply - treat each other well, and enjoy loving the lads and creating new moments for them! If I've forgotten anything major, please ask below, and I'll add anything else that comes up.

The Community Pros Bingo Card
Here's the community card - I've kept the prompts a bit more general than they'll be in the individual cards - let's see what we can do together! *g*

Case-based	Doyle pov	Hurt/Comfort	Women of CI5	Character background
Technology from 1977-1981	Relationship-based	Bodie pov	All agent call-out!	The cars!
Injury/illness	Alternative Universe	WILD CARD	Other character pov	Older lads
First Time	Curtain fic	Based on a specific episode	Post-canon	Gun malfunction
Something Fanon	Crossover (with another show/fandom)	A celebration!	Cowley pov	Food seen in an ep

Would anyone care to play? *g*

Comments

RE: Hello :0)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

gives you a clip around ear, sending you flying

When you asked if you could keep a copy of your table on your lj, how were you planning to do that? I was assuming you'd want the lj/html code, so that you could cross off the prompts as you do them or something. But you might have been planning just to save it as a picture, to remind you? Which is easier, so feel free to ignore me!

RE: Hello :0)

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Ahhh....

My problem is I started work in an office which still had the original thirties style plug in telephone switchboard and no fax. Admittedly, it was a little behind the curve, technologically speaking, but it means all my computer skills are self taught. Consequently, I can often do things without knowing what, what I am doing is called!

This has its upside, because I don't know what things are not supposed to be able to do. So I just go blithely ahead. (Actually, pretty much my whole approach to life.)

I hadn't really got as far as deciding how I was going to put it on my Lj. I was too distracted by Wombles. My 7-7-7 unfinished WIP would fit that perfectly - how serendipitous is that!

But yes, now I understand the question, I should be fine whatever way I decide to go - Mr Fawlty :0)

Probably won't post the fic to my Lj though - I've only got FanFic.net stuff up there - and that's only to get round the present downloading difficulties. It'll probably eventually end up on AO3. Might put the DIAL link on my Lj - see how I feel.

First let's see if I can fill the card!

Unfinished WIP - here I come...

RE: Hello :0)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Cool - sounds like you're sorted! *g*

RE: Hello :0)

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Even better, I've just Realised the Fic I was about to post to AO3 fits 'by the seaside' - I even mention it in the summary - so card (http://fiorenza-a.livejournal.com/29583.html) now almost has a complete line - only Edinburgh to go.

So I'll hang fire on posting Bodie 'Flu to AO3 until I have a line here.

I'm just proofing Bodie 'Flu for blatant illiteracy - should be ready post over Easter. Even I don't misspell that many words!

RE: Hello :0)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

No need to wait until you've got lots of fics/a line of the card to post - in fact I'd encourage you to post them separately, and as you go along, because I think it's probably easier and more enjoyable for most readers to read a wee fic at a time rather than catching up with a "batch" of them.

(Your link to where ever you've posted your card was access-denied, by the way - is it a locked post, somehow?)

RE: Hello :0)

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Oh, I intend to archive them separately - one of my pet hates is 'fic bomb' when someone fills a page of whatever archive with whatever they're dumping off their hard drive. I like a little variety in my reading - and it pushes other stories off the 'front page'. I just intended to delay starting to archive until I have a line. But I'll put them up here as I go.

I've been studying how other stories have been posted so I can keep to the conventions. I was thinking of including pictures between the text - is that a problem? No biggy if it is - I'll save them for when I archive.

My card might have been locked for a bit - but it isn't now - I was fiddling with it. And for some annoying reason the gridlines show up in the visual editor, but not in the post. But as it's not overly important on my own Lj - I'm ignoring it.

Now I just have to finish my Womble 7-7-7 WIP & think of something for Edinburgh. Only I keep getting drawn to 'Shampoo & Ducks'. Well, who wouldn't be?