Ravenbell Fic Challenges

It’s almost midnight for me, so - happy posting day to everyone participating in the exchange, or looking forward to reading All The Fic! 

Just a reminder, the collection can be found [here]. You have time to post your first 2 works for as long as it’s still Monday 28th December somewhere in the world. If you want to make more than 2 things, you can post the additional ones whenever you like. If you didn’t sign up to the exchange, but still created fanworks as treats for those who did, you can also post your stuff whenever you like.

Hello! We are starting to post our exchange works on Monday, so here is the collection you can do it in: [click!]

This doesn’t mean your time ran out and you have to drop everything to post now, of course. But when the time comes, the collection is all ready for you. Please let me know if you have any questions - here to answer. Otherwise, happy holidays, happy New Year, and I hope you’re staying safe from the plague.

Also: if you haven’t signed up, but you want to join the party, you are free to do it from Tuesday:

[Prompts are here]

[Rules are here]

These are for all of us to use, so please feel free to peruse, reblog, explore, comment, and be generally delightful. Everyone will be receiving their assigned prompts later today, but remember that we are writing two stories each: one from the assigned prompts, and one from this list. You are free to pick anything apart from stuff you yourself prompted. There haven’t been any Dear Author letters I’ve spotted so far, so I’ve included some additional crossover prompts from people here, just for ease of reference. You absolutely don’t have to pick them - there’s just there in case you want them!

If you didn’t sign up for this challenge, but want to use any of the prompts below to write a fic – go for it! As long as you make sure to credit where you got the prompt from, you are very welcome to play with us.

Now, without further ado:

Welcome to our Ravenbell New Year Fanfiction Exchange!

You asked, we deliver – let’s have a New Year Bellamy/Raven Exchange! The rules are shamelessly lifted from No White Saviors Allowed Exchange that took over this blog many years ago.

Now, just to be sure we’re all on the same page: an exchange is a challenge in which you list a few prompts for fanworks you’d like someone to write or make for you, and also agree to fulfill at least one prompt from someone else. The mods will choose for whom you’re writing, based on the prompts and all the additional information we ask for in your sign-up sheet. This is how exchanges usually work, but in this one, there is a catch. Each of you will have two assignments: one will be sent by the mods, the other you’ll pick yourself. In order to complete the challenge, you need to submit them both! Minimum length requirement is 500 words for each piece, so you’ll be writing at least 1000 words in total.

1. Schedule

Sign-ups start: November 2nd

Sign-ups end: November 16th

Assignments sent: November 23rd

Posting: December 28th

2. Sign-ups

In order to sign up, you have to submit [this form] In the form you have to give us: your email address*, 3-5 prompts you’d like filled for you, a list of things you really don’t want to find in the fanfic you receive, and a list of things you’re not willing to do in the fanfic you write.

All stories you prompt need to be focused on Bellamy and Raven – together or separately. We are keeping things simple. You can have stories about just Bellamy, just Raven, Bellamy and Raven as a couple, or Bellamy and Raven in a polyamorous relationship with other people involved as well. You can’t have stories in which Bellamy and Raven are involved with other people but not each other.

Please try keeping your prompts as varied as possible to give the mods some wriggle room – as much as possible when we’re all writing the same ship…

*Your email address will not be published anywhere; we just want to have a way to contact everyone in case someone inevitably changes their url in the middle of the challenge.

3. Assignments

3.1. The one from the mods

On November 23rd (or maybe a little earlier), you’ll get an email with the details of the fanfic you will be writing. In the email, you’ll find the name of your prompter, a list of 3-5 prompts (choose at least one!), and a list of things your prompter doesn’t want you to include in the story (please respect them all). We’ll ask you to confirm that you’ve received the email. From that moment, you’ll have a month to work on your prompts.

3.2. The one from the list

On the same day assignments are sent, we’ll post a full list of prompts submitted to the challenge. As your second assignment, you can choose anything from the list, apart from your own prompts. You have free reign, no matter what you said in the sign-up. Your second assignment can be a fanfic, but it doesn’t have to. Feel free to go into graphic, gifset, meta, podfic, fanart, fanmix – anything you like. All we ask is that you provide captions if you produce any fanwork that includes images.

THIS IS A SECRET EXCHANGE, SO WE ASK YOU NOT TO TELL ANYONE WHAT YOU’RE MAKING. We want everyone to have a surprise. Well, apart from the beta reader. You can tell your beta reader. Which brings us to:

4. Beta readers

You can have a beta reader to help you work on your fic. In fact, we encourage you to find one. It can be anyone you want. If you have trouble finding a beta reader, please feel free to advertise by making a text post titled “beta reader wanted” and tagging it “ravenbell exchange”. If this doesn’t work, please send us a message. We’ll help.

5. Posting

You post your work in our dedicated collection on AO3 (there will be a separate post about this in December). We then encourage you to post a link to it on tumblr and tag “ravenbell exchange”, but if you can’t (because, for example, you don’t use tumblr), that’s fine as well. What’s most important is that everything is in the AO3 collection. If you don’t have an AO3 account, we can help you register for one. All stories have to be rated and contain warnings (if applicable).

If, for your second assignment, you chose something that doesn’t fit comfortably on AO3 (for example a gifset), it is, of course, okay to only post it on tumblr.

All works have to be posted on December 28th – not a day sooner or later. To make everyone’s life easier, we’re accepting a very simple rule: if it’s December 28th anywhere in the world, you are free to post.

6. Treats

Treats are additional fanworks you can create once you’re done with your two assignments. You can post them any time you wish, starting from December 29th, following all the posting rules from point 5. You can use the same list of prompts you’ll be using to pick your second assignment.

7. “Dear Author” letter

Aka something you don’t have to do, but you totally can. A “Dear Author” letter is a tumblr text post titled “Dear Ravenbell Exchange Author” and tagged “ravenbell exchange”, in which you can say all the things you want your assigned writer to know about you or your prompts (think: general likes and dislikes, favorite things in fanworks, a few sentences about each prompt etc). It can also include a list of additional crossover prompts (for details about this, see point 8) You can post a “Dear Author” letter at any moment between now and November 9th. If you’re not sure how to write a “Dear Author” letter, please try looking at how they’re done in popular multifandom exchanges (for example Yuletide, Rare Pair etc), or in previous challenges hosted on this blog.

8. Crossovers

As a rule, we don’t allow crossovers, because matching crossover prompts for an exchange is hell on wheels. However, there is a way to get one. In your “Dear Author letter (see above), you can include a section titled “Crossover Options”, and make a list of as many crossover prompts as you please. If your assigned writer decides that they like your crossover prompts better than your regular prompts they found in their assignment, they can opt to write you a crossover instead. However, that’s absolutely up to them, and you’re taking a chance here. Your crossover prompts will also be up for grabs for people writing their second assignment.

9. Questions

Folks, we’re doing it. Judging by interest expressed in this post, we have enough people to do a small exchange. I’ll be launching sign-ups on Monday 26th October, so feel free to start thinking about your prompts! Just working on rules and on sign-up form right now. With some tiny adjustments, the event will be very similar to the exchange we had here two years ago.

This blog has been inactive for a long time, and our fandom is a pretty quiet space now, but the show has ended, so I was wondering if anyone was interested in a low-pressure New Year fanworks exchange. You know, like the old times.

Welcome to Week 4 of Ravenbell Mixed Media Month:          Fix It & Everything Else!

Below are the prompts submitted for this theme. Any media submissions are welcome, and these can include, but are not limited to: fic, podfic, fanart, fanvids, fanmixes, graphics, gif sets, manips, meta or headcanons.

You will always go into that tent. You will see her scar and wonder where she got it. You will always be amazed at how one woman can have so much black hair. You will always fall in love, and it will always be like having your throat cut, just that far. You will always run away with her. You will always lose her. You will always be a fool. You will always be dead, in a city of ice, snow falling into your ear. You have already done all of this and will do it again.

Seduce me with ridiculous history facts.

“I’m like 75% sure this won’t explode on us.”

Bellamy finally meets Raven’s kid

Bellamy Blake + not the perfect soldier

S5 fix it where Bellamy and Raven are actually, you know, co leaders of Spacekru like they were touted as before it aired.

The five moments it took for you to ship them

Braven moodboard: soft touches and leather jackets

Graphics prompt: a study in warm yellow

Stories told around the camp fires.

Further Information

Welcome to Week 3 of Ravenbell Mixed Media Month:         Alternate Universe!

Below are the prompts submitted for this theme. Any media submissions are welcome, and these can include, but are not limited to: fic, podfic, fanart, fanvids, fanmixes, graphics, gif sets, manips, meta or headcanons.

Mythology AU: Artemis & Orion.

Lecture/Tutorial room bingo for annoying things your professor/TA says (bonus for Bellamy as TA and Raven as the student who organises the bingo).

muse a is assigned to be muse b’s partner in an undercover assignment.

“Buddy, we are in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, I specialize in botany in unfavorable terrain and I just saw you make a sword out of PVC pipe and string; we’re definitely teaming up” au

Ancient Rome AU of any kind. Give me commoners trying to forge a life and avoid the attention of the Empire, or high power aristocrats forging an alliance to take over the republic. How about a widowed Empress making a big for the throne with one of the generals? Possibilities are endless!

A modern AU where they play Dungeons and Dragons with a group of friends.

A modern AU where they talk about sex: discuss boundaries, safe sex, toys, past experiences. I’m not looking for dirty talk or characters trying to turn each other on. Just conversations surrounding their sex life.

Steampunk aesthetic, can be a drawing or a story.

Braven + going shopping for furniture

Time Travellers Wife AU?

Co workers AU

Raven + Bellamy + 1950s AU

College AU: Bellamy chooses a “sensible” major, but then adds a minor in history because he wants something for the soul.

Obligatory Braven coffee shop AU.

Further Information

Welcome to Week 2 of Ravenbell Mixed Media Month:          Words, Sayings & Quotes Prompts!

Below are the prompts submitted for this theme. Any media submissions are welcome, and these can include, but are not limited to: fic, podfic, fanart, fanvids, fanmixes, graphics, gif sets, manips, meta or headcanons.

“I can’t believe I’m sitting in space jail with you of all people.”

“There’s a bottle of whiskey in the trunk of the Chevy and a dead man at our feet staring up at us like we’re something interesting.”

“We won’t ever be holy, or galaxies or whatever else I’ve ever fucking written about. We are built upon too many ruins, but my god, some ruins are known as wonders of the world. And you’re mine.”

“zero fucks given. next please.”

“you actually thought I loved you?” For the Bellamy and Raven prompt! Sad prompts are getting far and rare so I’m just gonna put this out there

Kenopsia: The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet.

Ellipsism: A sadness that you’ll never be able to know how history will turn out

Énouement: The bitter sweetness of having arrived in the future, seeing how things turn out, but not being able to tell your past self.

Bellamy Blake + “You collect scars because you want proof that you are paying for whatever sins you have committed.”

Raven Reyes + “Moon dust in your lungs, stars in your eyes, you are a child of the cosmos and ruler of the skies.”

“I’ve got a hundred thrown out speeches I almost said to you.”

“Everyone needs a place. It shouldn’t be inside of someone else.” (R. Siken)

Further Information

Welcome to Week 1 of Ravenbell Mixed Media Month:           Canon & Canon Divergence Prompts!

Below are the prompts submitted for this theme. Any media submissions are welcome, and these can include, but are not limited to: fic, podfic, fanart, fanvids, fanmixes, graphics, gif sets, manips, meta or headcanons. 

Raven actually dies in Mount Weather and Bellamy is absolutely heartbroken. I really want to see him be mad honestly, he always forgives other people in fanfics so to see Bellamy have a little anger towards any situation regarding raven is good and fresh

raven tells bell about her family sort of like she’s letting everything off her chest

Bellamy Blake + you save everyone, but who saves you?

Jordan wakes up Bellamy and Raven instead.

Post S4 on the Ark: Bellamy teaches Raven about mythology, Raven attempts to teach Bellamy about mechanics.

Post S4 on the Ark: things they miss about earth.

S1 and the liberal use of “cute” by Bellamy to describe Raven.

Bellamy reflecting to Raven’s “you want to lead them? Show them you give a damn” moment.

Grounders AU. Bellamy and Raven were born in the same city, and the nuclear catastrophe happens when they’re still kids. Fifteen years later, they find themselves in separate settlements that grew on the remnants of their city, and they are the first ones to reach out and form an alliance.

Further Information