Archive of Our Own

The Phanfiction Writing Challenge is a blog that seeks to encourage people to write more, and to push themselves beyond their comfort zones when it comes to writing Phanfic. We are here to challenge you with writing prompts that will make you think, and force you to come up with a way for the story to back the prompt in some way. This can be in the vaguest, or most obvious way possible. The only rule is that you meet the requirements set by each Challenge as the challenge is issued.

The most important thing to remember is this: this is not a competition. This is about challenging yourself. We welcome all levels of writing skill, ability, and perceived “talent.” This is about becoming a better, stronger writer. This is for you.

How does it work?
The Phanfiction Challenge Admins will set forth a challenge for the phanfiction community. This could be anything from “Write a fic based on this word,” to “Write 26 fics based on the 26 letters of the alphabet!”

Each challenge will come with it’s own requirements set forth to you right from the beginning, including a time limit (if we have one, which will be on special challenges only), word limit, and outlines on what qualifies.

You will write a phanfic following these guidelines, and post it wherever you’d like: Ff.net. Livejournal, AO3, Tumblr, Deviantart etc…

Then, you will submit your fic to us VIA the format given to you on the Challenge Prompt, with a link to your fic, and we will either reblog said fic, or post your submission to our blog via the appropriate tags!

As time goes on, and new challenges come up, you can always return to old challenges and complete those too (so long as the challenge does not say “closed”)!

What do we get out of participating?
A couple of things! The admins have prepared a few kinds of rewards, but most of all, it’s the Accomplishment you yourself will feel at having completed a challenge and pushing yourself past what you’re used to doing! In our bio, we liken ourselves to a Video Game. Let me explain what we meant here

Badges
With every challenge will come a Badge (an image/icon sort of thing) designed specifically by the admins. This badge will have the “PWC” logo on it, and reflect the theme of the challenge. Once the challenge is completed, the badge will be yours for the taking! This will be based on an honor system. Everyone will have access to the badge, but the only people who “unlock it” are the ones who actually completed the challenge. What you do with this badge is completely up to you! Add it to your fic somewhere, have it on your blog, have a page where you collect said badges, print them out - it’s all up to you! You can find these at our tumblr!

Achievements
As time goes on, and more challenges are introduced on the blog, we will be unleashing achievements possible to unlock as well. These will include things such as “Complete 5 challenges,” or “Write 25K words overall in challenge fic.” As you can see, these tasks will take time to unlock, but if you complete these achievements, you will be added to the “achievement” page, with your URL under the achievement you have unlocked. Once again, this will be based on an honor system. If you complete the achievement, shoot us an ask letting us know, and we’ll add your requested URL to the achievement list! We will also post a small post saying “URL has competed blank achievement!” You can also find these at our tumblr!

Satisfaction
This one’s the Big One, the Give In. Participating in the challenges will honestly do nothing more than bring you personal satisfaction for having completed it, for having attempted something you might not have attempted otherwise. On top of this, these writing challenges are really just a fun way to Prompt you into writing, and spark your thoughts to doing something fun!

The Hall of Fame
Currently a vague idea, and something that will not start right away, challenges that we consider to be especially hard will be equipped with a Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is a specific page created for that challenge where we will link to and congratulate all fics/authors who managed to complete that challenge, as a special reward for all of your hard work! These fics will also be reblogged to the blog the same as all other challenge fics! This will also be on our tumblr!

Do I have to participate in every challenge?
Absolutely not! If the challenge we set forth just doesn’t spark any ideas in you, or just feels like something too far out of your league, you do not have to participate! In fact, you don’t ever have to participate! There is nothing keeping you here or forcing you to continue working on the challenges. if one challenge sparks your interest, you can complete that challenge, and never complete another one again!

Do I have to sign up?
Nope! Signing up would imply that we’re expecting a commitment from you, when the fact is, we don’t! As stated above, if nothing every inspires you, you never have to get involved! If only one challenge inspires you, you can complete one and never do another! If only some of the challenges inspire you, that’s fine too! This is for fun, and whether thousands, or just one, person gets involved, that’s fine by us!

The challenges on Ao3 will be moderated, but so long as your story fits the guidelines for each challenge, it will be accepted!

1. What is the Phanfic Challenge?

We are a blog that seeks to encourage people to write more, and to push themselves beyond their comfort zones when it comes to writing Phanfic via writing challenges, equipped with small rewards and ways to celebrate your own achievements.

2. What do we get out of completing challenges?

First and foremost, you receive a sense of personal achievement. These challenges are for you, and you are in no way required to do them. They’re just a fun way to prompt you into writing ideas, and push past your own mental barriers when it comes to writing.

Second, if you submit your challenge fic to our tumblr blog, we will post that fic to our blog! Details on how to submit can be found here.

Third, we are creating badges for each and every challenge, there will be achievements to gain the more challenges you complete, and there will be a Hall of Fame for particularly difficult challenges where your fic and name will be showcased for all to see!

3. What are Badges?

Badges are images that are kind of like icons, which the admins will be creating to go with each challenge. The badges will be themed after the challenge, and will be listed on the challenge post for people to claim once they have completed the challenge. What you do with the badge is up to you; post it on your blog, use it as your icon, print it out and put it on your wall - it’s completely up to you!

4. What are Achievements?

Achievements are long term rewards that you can receive by being involved in challenges frequently. These will be things such as “Complete 5 writing challenges,” or “Complete 25 fics in Writing Challenges.” Each achievement will be announced on the blog when it is revealed, and explained there. These Achievements and who has completed them can be found on our tumblr as well.

If you have completed an achievement, send us a message on tumblr and we’ll add you to the page! Every week, we will also make a shout out post saying who has completed which achievement, just to celebrate you!

5. What is the Hall of Fame?

The Hall of Fame is a special page(s) for difficult challenges. It will be reveled and linked to when it is revealed. The admins will determine if any challenge is difficult enough to warrant a Hall of Fame (expressed on the challenge post), and anyone who completes that challenge will have their fic, and their name, listed in the Hall to commemorate their hard work! This will all occur on tumblr!

If you have completed a challenge with a Hall of Fame, send us a message and we’ll add you to the page!

7. Once we finish a challenge, how do we get the badge?

Each badge will be released with the challenge on the challenge post. It will be right there for you right away to download/save and use at any time!

8. How do we get added to Achievement and Hall of Fame pages?

Just send us an ask on tumblr! If you see an achievement that you’ve completed, or if you complete a challenge that says it comes with a Hall of Fame, let us know via an ask and we’ll go ahead and add you to the appropriate places asap!

9. How are you going to control the rewards then?

We’re going to leave it up to you guys, both as a community and as an individual. It will be an based on the honor system. We’re not going to monitor who takes the badge images, we’re not going to read and judge if a fic that was submitted to us actually completed the challenge “satisfactorily.” We’re not going to stalk you when you complete an achievement or ask to be put on a Hall of Fame, and make sure that you’ve qualified. We’re going to trust you, and our users, who will likely let us know if someone has lied.

10. What is the honor system?

The honor system is exactly what it sounds like. We are trusting you to be honest. Honestly, if you take and use a badge that you didn’t earn, that’s on your conscience, not ours. The same goes for asking to be added to the achievement pages, or the Hall of Fame pages. On top of that, if you do lie, you run the risk of us noticing, or another user calling you out for it, so really, it’s all up to you!

11. Is there a specific way we should post our fics?

Yes! Every challenge will be, or has been, posted with a guideline on how to post your fic. You can also find that here!

11. How do we submit our fics?

Submitting fics is incredibly simple! Just check out this page here and it will explain every step of the process for you!

12. What tags do you add to the fics? Which tags should I use?

When posting / reblogging fics onto this blog, we will always use the tag for the challenge the fic is a part of (for exampe : anti-trope challenge would be ATC). Furthermore, we usually tag phanfic, phanfiction, submission (if it is one), phanfichallenge, any trigger warnings and any additional tags provided by the author.

When tagging your own fics, you can use most of the tags mentioned above, with the addition of things like phan fluff, phan smut, or anything you might seem fit. Just remember to tag the trigger warnings. And remember there are far more options for tags on AO3!

It is common practice not to tag any of the main tags of Dan and Phil (e.g. danisnotonfire, amazingphil, danielhowell, phillester, dan and phil) as they are known to go through these tags sometimes. We know that they have both mentioned being OK with people writing fics about them, but it’s better not to “shove it in their face” so to say. Tagging things as phan is fine, as this is their shipping tag, but try and refrain from using their main tags.