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[julilly]

Hi guys!

... I'll give you a moment to get over the shock that it's not Mare running this month's challenge before letting you know what it is.

It's technically still February so there's a few hours left to submit your entries for the Howie challenge. It's Leap Day though, which is practically March anyway so I figured I'd post the challenge for you now!

What's the Score?

- Write a song fic (for those who many not be familiar with the term, it's a short based off a song. The story should compliment or follow the theme of the song.)

- You can use an instrumental piece of music or one with lyrics. If you choose to use a song with lyrics, you can use one line from the song as either dialogue or description keeping with the song's theme - nowhere else should lyrics be found!

- Can be any genre

- No longer than 2500 words

- Youtube link to the song must be listed at the end of the story.

- MILLIONS OF BANNERS! ... seriously though, no banners. Otherwise Mare will never let me do this again.


Questions? I can't wait to see what you come up with!

[Rose]

LMFAO *spams the thread with banners*

[carterkid]

LOL Rose, Now the question...How do you link Youtube?

[julilly]

Just copy and paste the link from your browser

[Purpura Lipstick]

This is eerily funny in that I was on my way home from work yesterday listening to a song and thinking about writing a short story to follow the theme of the song, I was desperately trying to think of a Howie story for Feb... maybe I can make my song fic a Howie fic! give Howie some much deserved love.  :-D

[Alexsgirl_ritz]

I think I have to wait for an entry to be posted so I can fully understand what a song fic is...., LOL

[Carter-Orange]

I've never done a song fic either, think I'll wait for an entry to be posted too Ritz, lol

[Sakabelle]

Trying to find a song to use for this challenge has made me realize that my new iPod is full of songs about lost love or someone dying.

I need to go digging through my old iPod lol

[julilly]

I think I have to wait for an entry to be posted so I can fully understand what a song fic is...., LOL

Think of it like a soundtrack from a movie. While the movie plays out, a song can really compliment the scene. A lot of people think song fics are just typing out a bunch of lyrics and putting some writing in between them but I don't think that's the real intention. Write something that follows the storyline or theme of a song so that if you read that story while listening to the song they would compliment each other.

Ask yourself, what's the song about?

Is it literal? The Call would be an example of a literal story. The song is actually about a phone call gone wrong and the fallout from it.

Is it figurative? In I'm Taking Off Nick isn't actually singing about spaceships and getting in a rocket. The song is about a break-up and getting away from someone even when their "gravity" keeps pulling you in.

Find the story within the song you choose and write a fic to compliment it. You can either follow the story of the song literally or figuratively, so long as the song compliments the story and vice versa. You can even use a song that doesn't necessarily have lyrics, but just seems to suit the story. If the music is dramatic, so should the words on the page be. The music could be romantic, or funny, etc, etc.

Does that help?

[Carter-Orange]

That helps a lot!  Thanks

[Carter-Orange]

I've got an idea!

[Purpura Lipstick]

since you said something about instrumental or lyrical I'm assuming the song does not have to be a BSB song. ... I'm pretty sure but I want to double check before my mind gets set on a song.

[julilly]

In case anyone else is still perplexed, think of these great scenes from movies:

Wind Beneath My Wings in Beaches - not about Bette Midler actually being a bird, rather telling the story of a close friendship. It plays in the movie during the scenes in which Barbara Hershey is dying and Bette Midler is tending to her.

Hip To Be Square in American Psycho - seems totally out of place but when Christian Bale is hacking Jared Leto to bits with an axe the irony of the fact that a poppy top 40 hit by Huey Lewis and the News is playing in the background somehow works. That song playing makes Christian Bale come off as a thousand times as crazy because of how out of place it is.

I Believe I Can Fly in Space Jam. The song plays right off the top credits during a flashback scene to 1973 in which a young Michael Jordan is playing basketball outside his childhood home. The song builds an inspirational undertone to the scene while young Michael is listing off all the things he plans to do (college basketball, the NBA, then major league baseball) to which his father replies, "Then what? You going to fly?" tying the lyrics from the song into the scene.

Those are just some of the ways that songs and stories can work together! A better example of something literal would be a music video.

[julilly]

since you said something about instrumental or lyrical I'm assuming the song does not have to be a BSB song. ... I'm pretty sure but I want to double check before my mind gets set on a song.

Nope, not at all! I just used those as examples because I knew they'd be songs everyone knew

[FrickFrackGirl]

The very first fic I ever wrote was a song fic.  For those who aren't sure what one is, I'll post it to give you an idea..
http://absolutechaos.net/viewstory.php?sid=8972&warning=4

And it's really odd that this is this month's challenge. I've been toying with an idea for another song fic for a while now..and just thought about it yesterday and then I see this today..lol.  Guess this is my chance to write it!