Welcome to the January Writing Challenge!

What's a writing challenge, you ask? Writing challenges are when I give you prompts or specific guidelines you must adhere to in your writing or give you specific goals to reach and everyone who manages to do the task successfully is a winner. This isn't a contest, so no one will be voting or choosing winners. Everyone is a winner! Isn't that awesome?

Well, as long as you meet the goal anyways.

This month we're going to start simple! In this thread, you must post a piece of writing (at least 200 words) containing your own headcanon about Sailor Moon characters during the holidays/winter season. Here are some prompts to inspire you, but feel free to come up with your own things!

- Snowball fight! Who would win? Who would lose?
- What does New Year in the Tsukino household look like?
- How does the happy Outers family decorate their Christmas tree?
- Who can tolerate the cold weather the most? Who's really miserable, and how would they cope?
- Who really, really loves snow? Me
- What are the senshi's New Year resolutions?
- What's the holiday season in the Dark Kingdom like? (Feel free to go crazy with it!)

And more!

Remember, you can't just answer the questions as if you write an essay. You must write a story! And it can't just be a holiday story. It must introduce a headcanon of your own. (So instead of writing a story about how Mako bakes during the holidays, you can write a story about how Mako has a tradition of baking a specific cookie during the holidays - and explain why!) If you're unsure whether your idea would meet the challenge requirements or not, you can always PM me and ask before writing and posting your story!

Everyone who posts a piece that meets the outlined guidelines above will win the challenge! And when you have won enough challenges, you got these awesome bumpers!


So what are you waiting for? Get writing! You have until January 31st, 2015 to post your story.

So do we just post the story here on this thread? And is there a cutoff date for this challenge?

Yes, just post here! Since there won't be any voting or anything, no point sending it in private.

Oh and thank you for reminding me xD The challenge should last until the end of the month. Feel free to post more than one story, too, if you feel so inclined. This is more like a writing party. (But you'll only get one win per challenge xD)

oooh i want to try this out this week.

Bumping this! You have two weeks to post your stories!

I forgot about this. I definitely want to do it. Can it be an AU head canon.

Can you give an example of that?

say for example Usagi and Mamoru have a normal life for awhile and get to do couple things they dont normally do (all appropriate of course) because they are fighting bad guys.

Basically they aren't senshi?

yeppers

Well you can make it canon by putting it in the time before Crystal Tokyo perhaps? I may have AUs in future challenges, so I'd like to keep this one within canon perimeters if possible.

okie i can def make that work

i am going to work on this tonight
Here is my entry, Its the cheesiest thing ever and I am a little scared to put it on here, please be kind, I know there are probably a lot of errors and other things I need to improve on, but I hope you enjoy my story.

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I think this is really cute! I have been wondering if Usagi's "talent" on the ice would manifest itself again at some point because of her past life. I think some part of her still remembers it and it would continue to show up the more she practices.

Thanks for participating and grab a bumper!

Finally had time to write something for this! This started out as a cute idea and then it got kind of bittersweet at the end, sorry about that!

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Ami closed the door to her condominium, locking it behind her before heading down the hall to her room. She had gotten out of cram school around 6 PM, and she wanted to start on her homework before eating dinner. Her mother wasn’t back from the hospital yet, judging by the lack of shoes in the foyer. It wasn’t strange for Dr. Mizuno to get home late during the workweek, and the holidays were a busy time for her. Sometimes, she even had to sleep over for the night, but Ami didn’t mind it too much.

“Hm?” Ami walked back down to the kitchen, having spotted something sitting on the normally clean countertop. It was a freshly baked gingerbread house, fully assembled but otherwise undecorated. Next to the plate, a tube of frosting and bits of candy were set out. Ami smiled at the sight, wondering how in the world her mother had found the time to do it this time.

Ever since she could remember, Ami always made a gingerbread house with her parents during the holiday season. It had started out as a family activity, when her father was still in the house. They spent nearly half a day baking and gluing it together with icing, and then slowly covering it with designs. They’d take a picture of it when it finished (her father always liked to save at least an image of their “artwork”), and the it would slowly be eaten over the course of a week. When her father disappeared to paint in the woods, her mother still tried to keep up the tradition, even as her workload steadily increased. Eventually, they could no longer make the gingerbread house on a certain day, so they split up the job. Ami’s mother would bake the gingerbread, and Ami would decorate it later, and then leave it out until they both were home to admire it.

It became a game of sorts, with Ami wondering when her mother would bake the treat this year, as she never managed to actually catch her in the act between work shifts, and Dr. Mizuno gave no indication beforehand on the date. But it always showed up sometime in December without fail, on the counter with all the supplies out, and a slightly teasing note left on the refrigerator white board about Ami having to try harder next year. The same message was there now, and Ami erased it before writing her own, and then went to plan out her design for the house. Last year’s was based off the palace on the moon, the one she occasionally saw in her dreams, but what would she do this time?

“Hm…” As she thought, she finally saw that the gingerbread house had a slip of paper under it. Was that a...post card? Frowning slightly, she pulled it out and flipped it over, revealing a beautifully painted image of a log cabin in the snowy mountains. The sloppy signature in the bottom corner made her tear up. How did her father know when they planned to make the gingerbread house this year? He only really sent things on her birthday, so what made him do it this year? Hastily wiping her eyes even though she knew no one was watching, Ami used a magnet to stick the postcard on the fridge as well, next to the board.

“Thanks for the idea...” She started frosting the gingerbread, using the picture as her reference. For the first time in years, Ami felt like she was doing something with both her parents again, despite the kitchen being completely empty.

Awww thanks you made me cry. This was really sweet and beautiful though <3 Thank you for posting and grab a bumper!

When it comes to the snow and who loves it, thoughts automatically go to Ami. It makes a certain kind of sense, with her element being water and ice. Now, don't misunderstand her, Ami, loves the cold and the snow, she has no problem with it. It's just someone loves it more than than she does.

Looking at who controls which element, one would suppose that Rei, with her control of fire would absolutely hate the cold. This couldn't be further from the truth. Rei loved the cold. Cold meant winter, and the serene quiet and beauty that came with it. It also made meditating in front of the fire much more comfortable.
Usagi loved the snow. She loved making snow angels and starting snowball fights with all her friends. Making forts in the snow was alwas fun as well. The only problem with the snow was that it was so COLD and Usagi hated the cold. Now if she coud have the snow and not be cold....

The winter months brought a variety of winter sports. There was one in particular that had always caught her attention; figure skating. Unlike her friends, Makoto was supremely graceful on the ice. She loved how figure skating made her feel. With her height and strength, she was always feeling out of place, but when she put on a pair of skates, she felt so dainty and delicate, she felt feminine, which was such a rare feeling in her life and she relished the feeling.

Minako loved the snow! Snow meant cute sweaters, hot chocolate and an excuse to cuddle up to that special someone. What was not to love? There were so many more fun winter activities to do and a few awesome holidays to boot. Who doesn't like boys and hot chocolate, esecially cute boys and hot chocolate?

This was cute, Addy! Thank you for submitting and grab a bumper!

This challenge is over and I'll put up February's shortly!