femgenficathon | Sign-Up Post for Femgenficathon III

So here's the sign-up post for the

femgenficathon.

This year, like last year, the ficathon is multifandom. It is also an open ficathon. You can write in any fandom you like, about any canonical woman you like. I hope this will make it easy on the participants.

(Also, I have a feeling that a lot of stories never get written because no one ever asks for them in fic exchanges. This is your chance to to write the story you've thought of writing--maybe DREAMED of writing--but that no one ever requests.)

There will be prompts. More about that after the rules.

What's acceptable and what's not are both spelled out in the rules.

The due dates--first and last--are both mentioned in the rules.

Here are the rules. Read them carefully before you sign up.

RULES

Liberally stolen from the

peterficathon, from

celticmoonstar, and from Jetamors' Page o' Gen Recs:

1. Good spelling, grammar, capitalisation and punctuation are compulsory. This is not negotiable. Therefore, use a beta/Britpicker to catch all the errors that you can't see by the time that you've finished the story.

2. Fics must be posted in the following format:

In the subject line: [title, main character, rating]

Title:
Author: [your LJ name, and your pen name if the two are different]
Fandom: [this for the sake of archiving, as your mod does not know every fandom that might be chosen, alas]
Rating: [currently we still use MPAA ratings - G, PG, PG13, R]
Warnings: [if applicable. warn for violence, swearing, etc. You shouldn't have to warn about kinks or squicks because this is genfic.]
Prompt: The number of the prompt, the prompt itself, and the author's name. Please do this even if you end up not using the prompt to create the story.
Summary: [including author's notes and credits, a short description of the fic]

3. Use a beta.

4. The fic you write should be at least 1000 words in length.

5. Use a bloody beta.

6. This would seem to be obvious, but in case it is not...

This is a femgenficathon. It follows, therefore, that what you will be writing will be genfic, with women as the main characters.

For the purposes of this ficathon, "women" will be defined as "biological women and girls who remain biologically women and girls all the time in canon."

This means no pre-operative transsexuals. No drag queens. No male transvestites. Not as the lead or POV characters. Yes, such characters can be in the story. But they can't be the leads, or the POV characters.

Because, when you come right down to it, this is a ficathon about women. Not characters who are male in canon but who identify as women, either in canon or in your story. Not canonically male characters who think of themselves as women, either in canon or in your story. Not canonical male characters who are magically transformed into females. No alternate universes in which canonically male characters are female. WOMEN. CANONICAL FEMALE CHARACTERS.

Second, the stories have to be gen.

If you're not sure what genfic is, here are the kinds of genfic allowable:

Pure gen: Stories with no romance whatsoever. The most you'll see here is a person who happens to be married.

Mostly gen: Stories contain mentions of crushing and/or romances, with perhaps a kiss or two. Not the focus of the piece or anything, but it is there.

Borderline gen: Stories that include many different elements, including romance. However, the focus is not on getting one or two specific couples together romantically or in bed.

What is not allowable:

NO PAIRINGS as the focus of the story.

No love stories as the focus. No sex stories as the focus. (This includes masturbation stories, "first-time" stories, pregnancy stories, stories about giving birth, rapefic, and so on.) No het as the focus. No femslash as the focus. No kinks, squicks or smut at all.

This also means that you cannot mention the woman and then go on to characters you find more congenial. For instance, you cannot briefly mention Mrs. Black and then go on to write a fic about either or both of her two sons.

No crossovers. I have a feeling that this is going to be difficult enough to do well without having the writers trying to reconcile two universes, two incompatible magic systems, etc. (Someday I may end up running a crossover ficathon, but not here and not now.)

No genderswitched characters.

Since you are going to be writing about women and girls, I urge you to make them believable. Do not turn them into Mary Sues.

For the purposes of this ficathon, I am defining "Mary Sue" as "authorial stand-in who possesses many, if not all, characteristics that the writer wants to possess--good looks, intelligence, "attitude," "coolness," wealth, noble or royal blood, special toys that no one else has, the love of all canon characters, the love and desire of the author's lust object(s), special powers that may or may not be canonically possible, a Destiny--and a remarkable talent to send all canon characters OOC and to kill the plot."

A Mary Sue can be either an original character or a canon character. Believe me, I have seen Hermione and Ginny Sued many, many, many, many times.

DO NOT WRITE MARY SUES OR YOU WILL HAVE VERY CROSS MODS.

7. Please. Use a beta.

8. What can you write about?

You can write about any female character in any canon. And you can write about pretty much anything, as long as the story isn't about romantic love, sex or pairings. Here's what I'm looking for:

I want women going on personal quests. I'd want women and girls having adventures. You could have a woman in mad pursuit of a magical artifact, or a spy. You could have a woman rescuing another person from danger, or a woman escaping from a physical, emotional or spiritual prison. A woman could become enmeshed in a byzantine plot for revenge. A woman could have to solve a puzzle or a mystery; she could be entangled in fierce professional or familial rivalry. You could have a woman struggling to overcome her status as an underdog; you could examine her motives, needs and impulses in a temptation plot. She could be coping with involuntary physical metamorphosis or have to undergo psychological and emotional transformation for the sake of survival. Maturation could be a goal. She could have to sacrifice something--perhaps not her life, but other things can be sacrificed, such as friendship and ideals. She could discover something or explore somewhere. You could tell a tale of wretched excess, detailing her psychological decline. You could explore her rise or fall, showing how a crisis made her either a stronger, better person or a weaker, more corrupt one.

9. Posting. I myself am a fanfic writer so, I too am subject to this (and all the rules as well). Please, do not choose a challenge because you have a fic already done (or in the works) that would fit a certain challenge. The whole point of the femgenficathon is to get new genfic out there. Therefore previously written stories are NOT eligible.

Also, your fic should not be archived anywhere other than the femgenficathon livejournal or site until after August 15th. Similarly, nothing should be posted to the community until July 15th - until then, either comment or keep it to emails.

10. For the love of all things holy (can you tell this is my favourite rule?) use a bloody beta.

11. Get your story in on time. You're being given two and a half months to write your fic and as such are expected to finish. That said, extensions will be granted for those in desperate situations - make sure to email as soon as you feel you won't be able to finish in time, for the sake of the moderator's sanity.

12. I implore you on bended knee--USE A BETA.

13. Have fun. And don't cause the mods undue stress if you can help it. Please. Don't break the mods.

DATES:

4 April: Sign-ups begin.
~~25 April: Sign-ups end.~~ 10 April: Sign-ups closed.
15 July: Assignments able to be posted.
15 August: Final date for submission.

***

Now. About the prompts.

If you want to sign up, comment to this post with a) your LJ name, b) an e-mail at which I can contact you, if I have to, and c)any number from 1 to ~~100~~ ~~125~~ 150. I'll respond with a quotation by a woman or about women. That's your prompt.

Once a number has been chosen, it cannot be chosen again. I'll list the numbers that are taken in this post. Please check the comments before requesting a number.

One of the people who signed up last year asked me what was supposed to be done with the prompts. The answer is, anything you like. You can put the prompt at the head of your story, include it in the narrative or the dialogue, use the images or ideas in the prompt to help you create a story, or, if it doesn't help you, toss it aside and use an idea or plot or character you really want to use. The prompt is there to help give you ideas, nothing more.

1) In morals, what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness; in religion, what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil. -- Anna Jameson. claimed by ~~dbassassin~~ gehayi

2) Every day, every day I hear
enough to fill
a year of nights with wondering. -- Denise Levertov. -- claimed by snegurochka_lee

3) I've never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It's probably because they have forgotten their own. -- Margaret Atwood. claimed by skylar_inari

4) We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains. -- Ursula LeGuin. claimed by ligia_elena

5) The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely. -- Lorraine Hansberry. claimed by rebel_spy

6) Here I stand, hobbled in a sack of doom, determined to tear out of it, knowing that I will. -- Kate Simon. claimed by cata_clysmiic

7) How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone. -- Coco Chanel. claimed by bantha_fodder

8) I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me that trouble of liking them. -- Jane Austen. claimed by vermin_disciple

9) The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil. -- Hannah Arendt. claimed by ~~severity_softly~~ trascendenza

10) Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose. -- Billie Holiday. claimed by delgaserasca

11) I want to be a free rover on the breezy common of the universe. -- Harriet Martineau. claimed by ~~mnemosyne_1~~ rose_whispers

12) There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic. -- Anais Nin. claimed by das_kabinett

13) Everyone thought I was bold and fearless and even arrogant, but inside I was always quaking. -- Katharine Hepburn. claimed by rainsquall

14) No one worth possessing can be quite possessed. -- Sara Teasdale. claimed by shakinros

15) You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. -- Jeannette Rankin. claimed by envinyatar15

16) We too often bind ourselves by authorities rather than by the truth. -- Lucretia Mott. claimed by apricot_bath

17) That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment. -- Dorothy Parker. claimed by opheliet

18) And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see -- or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read. -- Alice Walker. claimed by dora_the_nymph

19) A whisper can be stronger, as an atom is stronger, than a whole mountain. -- Louise Nevelson. claimed by aberforths_rug

20) It is not easy to be a pioneer -- but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world. -- Elizabeth Blackwell. claimed by lorelei_lynn

21) If you weigh well the strengths of our armies you will see that in this battle we must conquer or die. This is a woman's resolve. As for the men, they may live or be slaves. -- Boadaceia. claimed by lysa1

22) There are glances of hatred that stab, and raise no cry of murder. -- George Eliot. claimed by fairest1

23) Besides learning to see, there is another art to be learned -- not to see what is not. -- Maria Mitchell. claimed by ~~starboard_home~~

ressie_noldo

24) I don't have a warm personal enemy left. They've all died off. I miss them terribly because they helped define me. -- Clare Boothe Luce. claimed by twincy

25) Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish. -- Anne Bradstreet. claimed by amathela/ amidalashari

26) Great dreams...never even get out of the box. It takes an uncommon amount of guts to put your dreams on the line, to hold them up and say, "How good or how bad am I?" That's where courage comes in. -- Erma Bombeck. claimed by kethlenda

27) The mind I love must still have wild places, a tangled orchard where dark damsons drop in the heavy grass, an overgrown little wood, the chance of a snake or two (real snakes), a pool that nobody's fathomed the depth of -- and paths threaded with those little flowers planted by the mind. -- Katherine Mansfield. claimed by golden_d

28) Most people, after one success, are so cringingly afraid of doing less well that they rub all the edge off their subsequent work. -- Beatrix Potter. claimed by thelastgoodname

29) One's prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. -- Muriel Spark. claimed by justholdstill

30) It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between. -- Diane Ackerman. claimed by bluflamingo

31) You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims. -- Harriet Woods. claimed by tarie

32) It’s no accident many accuse me of conducting public affairs with my heart instead of my head. Well, what if I do? … Those who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either. -- Golda Meir. claimed by jackiejlh

33) There is nothing in the whole world so painful as feeling that one is not liked. It always seems to me that people who hate me must be suffering from some kind of lunacy. -- Sei Shonagon. claimed by julibeth

34) Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us. -- Pema Chodron. claimed by da_angel729

35) Too much has already been said and written about women's sphere. Leave women, then, to find their sphere. -- Lucy Stone. claimed by bewarethesmirk

36) I have an almost complete disregard of precedent and a faith in the possibility of something better. It irritates me to be told how things always have been done....I defy the tyranny of precedent. I cannot afford the luxury of a closed mind. I go for anything new that might improve the past. -- Clara Barton. claimed by settiai

37) They love to say, "We've always done it this way." I try to fight that. That's why I have a clock on my wall that runs counter-clockwise. -- Grace Hopper. claimed by luckystar37

38) Our biggest problem as human beings is not knowing that we don't know. -- Virginia Satir. claimed by lfae

39) More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones. -- St. Teresa of Avila. claimed by sscrewdriver

40) Life is easier than you'd think; all that is necessary is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, and bear the intolerable. -- Kathleen Norris. claimed by redvelvetcanopy

41) One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say. --Ariel Durant. claimed by sparkfrost

42) All women hustle. Women watch faces, voices, gestures, moods. The person who has to survives through cunning. -- Marge Piercy. claimed by persephone_kore

43) Sometimes I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me. -- Zora Neale Huston. claimed by willowaus

44) The only interesting answers are those that destroy the questions. -- Susan Sontag. claimed by zoe_chan

45) I just lump everything in a great heap which I have labeled "the past," and, having thus emptied this deep reservoir that was once myself, I am ready to continue. -- Zelda Fitzgerald. claimed by dragonclaws

46) People change and forget to tell each other. -- Lillian Hellman. claimed by trinity1986

47) Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life's relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes, which vanish with the warmth. -- Jean Kerr. claimed by odd_persephone

48) You seek for knowledge and wisdom as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been. -- Mary Shelley. claimed by ctorres

49) Most wrong-doing works, on the whole, less mischief than its useless confession. -- Edith Wharton. claimed by quietliban

50) I said to myself, I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me -- shapes and ideas so near to me -- so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn't occurred to me to put them down. -- Georgia O'Keeffe. claimed by gunderpants

51) The elements were "seeking" each other in rage and confusion, and in the fury of the conflict boastful man was utterly humiliated, sucked down, drowned. -- Elizabeth Goudge. claimed by hotelmontana

52) Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it. You can plug into it and light up a lamp, keep a heart pump going, light a cathedral, or you can electrocute a person with it. -- Maya Angelou. claimed by cranberry_crash

53) There is nothing so dangerous for anyone who has something to hide as conversation!...A human being, Hastings, cannot resist the opportunity to reveal himself and express his personality which conversation gives him. Every time he will give himself away. -- Agatha Christie. claimed by semioticwarrior

54) No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks. -- Mary Wollstonecraft. claimed by youngest_one

55) Plants of great vigor will almost always struggle into blossom, despite impediments. But there should be encouragement and a free genial atmosphere for those of more timid sort, fair play for each in its own kind. -- Margaret Fuller. claimed by lady_sarai

56) The important thing is not what they think of me, but what I think of them. -- Queen Victoria. claimed by inlovewithnight

57) Lying is done with words and also with silence. -- Adrienne Rich. claimed by outofivanhoe

58) But if these people of the future are better than we are, they will, perhaps, look back at us with feelings of pity and tenderness for struggling souls who once divined a little of what the future would bring. -- George Sand. claimed by fell_beast2

59) That's what being young is all about. You have the courage and the daring to think that you can make a difference. You're not prone to measure your energies in time. You're not likely to live by equations. -- Ruby Dee. claimed by modestyrabnott

60) I would like to do what I want to do. I don't want to do what do you tell me to do. -- Olga Korbut. claimed by penster

61) Of course I realized there was a measure of danger. Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when first I considered going. Once faced and settled there really wasn't any good reason to refer to it. -- Amelia Earhart. claimed by snorkackcatcher

62) Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning. -- Gloria Steinem. claimed by runcible_spoom

63) Her childhood, then her adolescence, had taught her patience, hope, silence and the easy manipulation of the weapons and virtues of all prisoners. -- Colette. claimed by jedi_penguin

64) Old age is not a disease--it is strength and survivorship, triumph over all kinds of vicissitudes and disappointments, trials and illnesses. -- Maggie Kuhn. claimed by shaggydogstail

65) Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences. -- Susan B. Anthony. claimed by little_murmurs

66) What the woman who labors wants is the right to live, not simply exist--the right to life as the rich woman has the right to life, and the sun and music and art. You have nothing that the humblest worker has not a right to have also. The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too. -- Rose Schneiderman. claimed by virginia_bell

67) To assess the damage is a dangerous act. -- Cherrié Moraga. claimed by carpenyx

68) Winning may not be everything, but losing has little to recommend it. -- Dianne Feinstein. claimed by wanderlight

69) The whole force of the respectable circles to which I belonged, that respectable circle which knew as I did not the value of security won, the slender chance of replacing it if lost or abandoned, was against me.... -- Ida M. Tarbell. claimed by twisting_path

70) Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. -- Eleanor Roosevelt. claimed by liseuse

71) The difference between mad people and sane people...is that sane people have variety when they talk-story. Mad people have only one story that they talk over and over. -- Maxine Hong Kingston. claimed by musamea

72) We tend to think things are new because we've just discovered them. -- Madeleine L'Engle. claimed by slinkiestumble

73) There are questions of real power and then there are questions of phony authority. You have to break through the phony authority to begin to fight the real questions of power. -- Karen Nussbaum. claimed by resolute

74) No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit. -- Helen Keller. claimed by cygna_hime

75) I am inhabited by a cry. Nightly it flaps out Looking, with its hooks, for something to love. I am terrified by this dark thing That sleeps in me; All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity. -- Sylvia Plath. claimed by fleshdress

76) It requires philosophy and heroism to rise above the opinion of the wise men of all nations and races. -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton. claimed by a_t_rain

77) It is necessary to grow accustomed to freedom before one may walk in it sure-footedly. -- Suzanne La Follette. claimed by sionnain

78) There are moments in history when brooding tragedy and its dark shadows can be lightened by recalling great moments of the past. -- Indira Gandhi. claimed by pumpkinpasty

79) My address is like my shoes. It travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong. -- Mother Jones claimed by aradiachiba

80) I am, was, and always will be a catalyst for change. -- Shirley Chisholm. claimed by ~~cafemercury~~ shiiki

81) Courage is like -- it's a habitus, a habit, a virtue: you get it by courageous acts. It's like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging. -- Mary Daly. claimed by shiplizard

82) I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other. -- Harriet Tubman. claimed by sasha_davidovna

83) It is only the vulgar who are always fancying themselves insulted. If a man treads on another's toe in good society, do you think it is taken as an insult? -- Lady Hester Stanhope. claimed by wizefics

84) We want to be in control of our lives. Whether we are jungle fighters, craftsmen, company men, gamesmen, we want to be in control. And when the government erodes that control, we are not comfortable. -- Barbara Jordan. claimed by bloodrebel333

85) The truth about your own life is not always easy to accept, and sometimes hasn't even occurred to you. -- Anna Quindlen. claimed by kerrymdb

86) Tact is, after all, a kind of mind reading. -- Sarah Orne Jewett. claimed by sarah_frost

87) The extravagant gesture is the very stuff of creation. After one extravagant gesture of creation in the first place, the universe has continued to deal exclusively in extravagances, flinging intricacies and colossi down aeons of emptiness, heaping profusions on profligacies with fresh vigor. The whole show has been on fire since the word go! -- Annie Dillard. claimed by author_by_night

88) Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides. -- Rita Mae Brown. claimed by xenokattz

89) They have not wanted Peace at all; they have wanted to be spared war -- as though the absence of war was the same as peace. -- Dorothy Thompson. claimed by sambethe

90) The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession. -- Julia Ward Howe. claimed by laurus_nobilis

91) When I care to be powerful -- to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. -- Audré Lorde. claimed by stephanie206

92) Brass shines as fair to the ignorant as gold to the goldsmiths. -- Elizabeth I. claimed by buckle_berry

93) It's not so much that we're afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it's that place in between that we fear....It's like being between trapezes. It's Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There's nothing to hold on to. -- Marilyn Ferguson. claimed by cinnamon_sakaki

94) It's never too late, in fiction or in life, to revise. -- Nancy Thayer. claimed by anonymous_sibyl

95) I happen to disagree with the well-entrenched theory that the art of conversation is merely the art of being a good listener. Such advice invites people to be cynical with one another and full of fake; when a conversation becomes a monologue, poked along with tiny cattle-prod questions, it isn't a conversation any more. -- Barbara Walters. claimed by maraudersaffair

96) Anyone who says you can't see a thought simply doesn't know art. -- Wynetka Ann Reynolds. claimed by limyaael

97) There are many persons ready to do what is right because in their hearts they know it is right. But they hesitate, waiting for the other fellow to make the make the first move - and he, in turn, waits for you. -- Marian Anderson. claimed by likeadeuce

98) There is really nothing more to say -- except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how. -- Toni Morrison. claimed by romanticalgirl

99) Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size. -- Virginia Woolf. claimed by lyras

100) No one can dub you with dignity. That's yours to claim. -- Odetta. claimed by emei

101) My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today; I knew it then as purpose. -- Bette Davis. claimed by ladywhitehart

102) Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous...as irresponsible talk. The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character. -- Margaret Chase Smith. claimed by piecesofalice

103) We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them. -- Abigail Adams. claimed by orange_crushed

104) The truth is I've never fooled anyone. I've let people fool themselves. They didn't bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn't argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn't. -- Marilyn Monroe. claimed by tielan

105) The worst has happened...it's rather liberating. -- Ruth Rendell. claimed by xahra99

106) Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle. -- Annie Besant. claimed by anderyn

107) I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance. -- bell hooks. claimed by m00nbrain

108) The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere. -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh. claimed by mandy_jg

109) The great advantage of living in a large family is that early lesson of life's essential unfairness. -- Nancy Mitford. claimed by nicolen

110) The hardest times for me were not when people challenged what I said, but when I felt my voice was not heard. -- Carol Gilligan. claimed by msmoocow

111) Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. They are engines of change, windows on the world, lighthouses erected in the sea of time. -- Barbara W. Tuchman. claimed by crazylittleme

112) Pioneers may be picturesque figures, but they are often rather lonely ones. -- Nancy Astor. claimed by shinigamikender

113) Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training. -- Anna Freud. claimed by lottelita

114) I believe that always, or almost always, in all childhood and in all the lives that follow them, the mother represents madness. Our mothers always remain the strangest, craziest people we've ever met. -- Marguerite Duras. claimed by static_pixie

115) A cultivated style would be like a mask. Everybody knows it's a mask, and sooner or later you must show yourself -- or at least, you show yourself as someone who could not afford to show himself, and so created something to hide behind. -- Katherine Anne Porter. claimed by array_of_colors

116) Never let a problem to be solved become more important than the person to be loved. -- Barbara Johnson. claimed by escritoireazul

117) As long as I live I will have control over my being. -- Artemisia Gentileschi. claimed by celtic_sky

118) Oh, God, why don't I remember that a little chaos is good for the soul? -- Marilyn French. claimed by trinity_clare

119) We are not ashamed of what we have done, because, when you have a great cause to fight for, the moment of greatest humiliation is the moment when the spirit is proudest. -- Christabel Pankhurst. claimed by nextian

120) Pain is real when you get other people to believe in it. If no one believes in it but you, your pain is madness or hysteria. -- Naomi Wolf. claimed by xskadi

121) You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation. -- Marian Wright Edelman. claimed by emeraldserpent

122) Yet if a woman never lets herself go, how will she ever know how far she might have got? If she never takes off her high-heeled shoes, how will she ever know how far she could walk or how fast she could run? -- Germaine Greer. claimed by mk_tortie

123) I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death; I am not on his pay-roll. -- Edna St. Vincent Millay. claimed by lexie_b

124) Never retract, never explain, never apologize; get things done and let them howl. -- Nellie Mcclung. claimed by thegiantkiller

125) People's dreams are made out of what they do all day. The same way a dog that runs after rabbits will dream of rabbits. It's what you do that makes your soul, not the other way around. -- Barbara Kingsolver. claimed by veracity

126) I would much rather have regrets about not doing what people said, than regretting not doing what my heart led me to and wondering what life had been like if I'd just been myself. -- Brittany Renée. claimed by ladylisse

127) Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. -- Marie Curie. claimed by ulkis

128) I did not lose myself all at once. I rubbed out my face over the years washing away my pain, the same way carvings on stone are worn down by water. -- Amy Tan. claimed by edenfalling

129) We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. -- Joan Didion. claimed by xplodey_di

130) Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd. -- Dame Edith Sitwell. claimed by wiccagirl24

131) Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true. -- Diane Arbus. claimed by goddess09807

132) I hope there's a tinge of disgrace about me. Hopefully, there's one good scandal left in me yet. -- Diana Rigg. claimed by lazy_neutrino

133) The family, that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor in our innermost hearts never quite wish to. -- Dodie Smith. claimed by fayevalentine00

134) If it is the mark of the artist to love art before everything, to renounce everything for its sake, to think all the sweet human things of life well lost if only he may attain something, do some good, great work - then I was never an artist. -- Ellen Terry. claimed by etrangere

135) You are about to begin the hero's journey. Travel well on the quest. A life of More is your birthright. Know the vast resource that reside in you and are provided for you in the world. You have raised the battle cry of There Must Be More Than This. -- Judith Wright. claimed by such_heights

136) Sometimes I feel like a figment of my own imagination. -- Lily Tomlin. claimed by ~~summerborn~~ urban_folk_girl

137) The world's male chivalry has perished out, but women are knights-errant to the last; and, if Cervantes had been greater still, he had made his Don a Donna. -- Elizabeth Barrett Browning. claimed by secondsilk

138) Gossip isn't scandal and it's not merely malicious. It's chatter about the human race by lovers of the same. Gossip is the tool of the poet, the shop-talk of the scientist, and the consolation of the housewife, wit, tycoon and intellectual. It begins in the nursery and ends when speech is past. -- Phyllis McGinley. claimed by osmalic

139) Risk-taking, trust, and serendipity are key ingredients of joy. Without risk, nothing new ever happens. Without trust, fear creeps in. Without serendipity, there are no surprises. -- Rita Golden Gelman. claimed by bofoddity

140) Good days are to be gathered like grapes, to be trodden and bottled into wine and kept for age to sip at ease beside the fire. If the traveler has vintaged well, he need trouble to wander no longer; the ruby moments glow in his glass at will. -- Freya Stark. claimed by lareinenoire

141) I was the shyest human ever invented, but I had a lion inside me that wouldn't shut up. -- Ingrid Bergman. claimed by hoshi_ryo

142) It is bitter to lose a friend to evil before one loses him to death. -- Mary Renault. claimed by daegaer

143) What's really terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is the first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do, or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better. -- Doris Lessing. claimed by elwing_alcyone

144) I really don't think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don't mind the failure but I can't imagine that I'd forgive myself if I didn't try. -- Nikki Giovanni. claimed by kiarasayre

145) Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy, and it isn't original sin. He's born with the tragedy that he has to grow up...a lot of people don't have the courage to do it. -- Helen Hayes. claimed by squirrelarmy

146) The writer of originality, unless dead, is always shocking, scandalous; novelty disturbs and repels. -- Simone de Beauvoir. claimed by slowmercury

147) I am a spy in the house of me. I report back from the front lines of the battle that is me. I am somewhat nonplussed by the event that is my life. -- Carrie Fisher. claimed by florahart

148) You can't start worrying about what's going to happen. You get spastic enough worrying about what's happening now. -- Lauren Bacall. claimed by alittlewhisper

149) Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. -- Maryanne Williamson. claimed by loony4lupin

150) The only tired I was, was tired of giving in. -- Rosa Parks. claimed by featherxquill

151) One would like to be grand and heroic, if one could; but if not, why try at all? One wants to be very something, very great, very heroic; or if not that, then at least very stylish and very fashionable. It is this everlasting mediocrity that bores me. -- Harriet Beecher Stowe. claimed by originalpuck

152) My wish is to ride the tempest, tame the waves, kill the sharks. I will not resign myself to the usual lot of women who bow their heads and become concubines. -- Trieu Thi Trinh. claimed by rosefyre

***

If you have any questions, ask them in the comments, and I will do my best to answer them.

Good luck to all of you! I hope that some excellent stories come from this!