Entry tags:

gusmas 2011

The 37 Days of Gusmas 2011
The 37 Days of Gusmas 2011
A Queer as Folk Fundraising Drabble-athon to Benefit The Ali Forney Center,
The Nation's Largest Organization Dedicated to Homeless LGBT Youth.

Nearly 4,000 kids who identify as LGBT sleep on the streets of New York City every night. The Ali Forney Center was founded to try to help those kids stay safe and alive, but in the face of massive budget cuts, the battle's getting harder, not easier. (Please read this story for more information -- bring kleenex.)

With thousands of children all over the country still being kicked out of the parents' home for being queer -- just like Justin -- and living by prostitution and drug addiction while on the streets -- just like Hunter -- the InsaneJournal qaf_drabbles community and LJ's drabylon have joined together to support this great cause -- which is also the cause we raised money for in the first Gusmas challenge.

In the spirit of the Gusmas Season, let's try to exceed last year's donation of just under $1,300 and help the Ali Forney Center continue its work of keeping our kids alive long enough to grow up.

Here's how it works:

1. We're posting a prompt for every day from the day after Thanksgiving Day to New Year's Eve ... 37 prompts in all. Some of the prompts are words -- song lyrics, quotations, single words -- and others are images.

2. For each qualifying drabble posted, xie_xie_xie  will donate $1 to The Ali Forney Center. Last year, dozens of you offered your own challenges for donations; we'll add those as you post them in the comments section of this post. Or, if you want your pledge to be anonymous, please email Xie at xie.kay@gmail.com.

3. All the prompts are included at the end of this post -- there is no wait before you can start start writing or posting. :)

4. You can choose to be inspired by a prompt in any way, and you don't need to include the word in the drabble -- but there does need to be a connection between the prompt and your work.

5. You can post a drabble for a prompt anytime -- you're not tied to the date of the prompt. And yes, that means you can post a New Year's Eve drabble on the day after Thanksgiving and vice versa, or post drabbles for all 37 prompts in one day. Ask anyone -- we're easy!

6. You can post any number of drabbles for any number of prompts (including one!), and you can also post multi-drabble stories of any length. You can let a single prompt inspire the whole story, or use multiple prompts for one story.

7. Post qualifying drabbles any time from Nov. 25 up until 12:01 AM Eastern (New York) time on January 1, 2011. (NOTE: Because there are 39 days between Thanksgiving and New Year's this year, but only 37 Days of Gusmas, we trimmed this down to the day after Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve. But it's still 37 days and 37 prompts.)

8. For the purposes of this challenge, a drabble is exactly 100 words; if there's a question raised as to length, the Microsoft Word "word count" will be used to judge.

9. Drabbles must be about the characters from Queer as Folk. All canonical pairings, friendship, gang, and ensemble fics are fine. AUs are fine. Humor, satire and crack are fine. Crossovers are fine. No MPREG, no Michael/Brian, no RPS/RPF. Must warn for major character death and put behind a cut.

10. If you have more than one drabble, please use a cut.

11. For each drabble, include the following:
Title:
Author:
Prompt(s):
Notes (optional, but if you include multiple drabbles, please say how many you did):

12. Tag each post with the "Gusmas 2011" tag. Any untagged post may not be counted for purposes of awarding prizes, although we'll do our best to tag any that get missed. But please, if you don't know how to tag, ask, and if you forget, please go back and add the tag.

AND THERE'S MORE!

In addition to the $1 which will be donated to The Ali Forney Center for each qualifying drabble:

1. There will be a bonus donation of $25 for anyone who posts a drabble for each prompt. (You can post more than one per prompt, but each prompt needs to have at least one.)

2. For each person who posts a coherent 37-drabble story using every prompt, in order, one drabble per prompt and no more, there will be an additional $50 donation.

3. UPDATE! not_yet_defined will donate $5 to the Ali Forney Center for every person who writes a drabble for ALL 7 of the picture prompts, with an additional $5 if those 7 drabbles are tied together in a 7-drabble series. (Please be sure to note that you're writing for the 7-drabble image prompt in the notes on your drabbles, so we can assign the donation!)

4. UPDATE! noteverything will donate $1 for the first 17 drabbles written!

5. UPDATE! masnds2 is going for a multi-level challenge:

- $5 for each participating author so the more writers we have, the better!
- $1 for each drabble written for the following prompts:

1. Dec. 4 - I dare you
2. Dec. 6 - picture prompt
3. Dec. 12 - Bite me
4. Dec. 27 - Talk to me

6. UPDATE! mander3_swish will donate $1 for the first 10 drabbles written for Dec. 22: Sunshine!

7. UPDATE! brianswalk, whose LJ drabylon community is participating in the Gusmas challenge, is pledging one dollar ($1) for every drabble written by a drabylon author, up to $100; please mention drabylon in your notes when you post, so we can keep track! She's added another pledge: She'll also donate $5 for every former QaF fanfic writer who is now a published author (from either community), up to $50.YAY!!!!

8. UPDATE! moonbrightnites has pledged to donate $1 for each of the first 25 Brian/Justin kisses that appear in drabbles. Please mention in your author's notes if you are writing for this challenge, so we can count it! If you already did before this update was made, please go back and edit your post. :)

9. UPDATE! pam81 will donate $1 for every drabble she writes, plus an additional $10 if at least 10 different drabylon writers participate in Gusmas, and $1 for every drabble written by a drabylon author with the following prompts :

- Dec. 14: Like father, like son
- Dec. 25: Christmas Day
- Dec. 28: Once upon a time...

10. UPDATE! fansee will donate $5 in honor of everyone who writes drabbles for Dec. 20, 21, 24, 25, and 26.

11. UPDATE! xie_xie_xie will donate $1 for every drabble that has more than six comments, even if the comments are by the drabbler responding to other comments, or are a conversation between two commenters.

12. UPDATE! wren_kt7oz is also donating $1 for each qualifying drabble written!

MORE??? Let us know!

That's it! Ask your questions below, and have fun!

Here are the prompts:

Nov. 25: Thankful

Nov. 26: Rapid deceleration

Nov. 27:



Nov. 28: Restless

Nov. 29: The last time

Nov. 30: The truth hurts

Dec. 1: You are like a hurricane

Dec. 2: Ice

Dec. 3:



Dec. 4: I dare you

Dec. 5: Outside

Dec. 6:



Dec. 7: Wine

Dec. 8:



Dec. 9: Books

Dec. 10: Lost in the city

Dec. 11: Out from under

Dec. 12: Bite me

Dec. 13: Don't sell me short

Dec. 14: Like father, like son

Dec. 15:


Dec. 16: Table

Dec. 17: Forgotten

Dec. 18:



Dec. 19: Unexpected surprise

Dec. 20: Hanukkah

Dec. 21: Solstice

Dec. 22: Sunshine

Dec. 23: Whatever you want

Dec. 24: Christmas Eve

Dec. 25: Christmas Day

Dec. 26: Kwanzaa

Dec. 27: Talk to me

Dec. 28: Once upon a time...

Dec. 29: Let's get soaking wet

Dec. 30: It shouldn't matter

Dec. 31:



Thanks to nerilka24  happier_bunny  for help in coming up with the prompts!