Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2022: Week 32

101 Ways To End Up In A Canadian Shack was a short story challenge created by Speranza in December 2001.

It stemmed from prevalent fanon in due South fandom that had Ray Kowalski and Benton Fraser "shacking up" in northern Canada (sometimes, but not always, literally in a shack) after the series finale, Call of the Wild. After Speranza joked about this trend with friends, a number of authors across other fandoms were inspired to place characters in the same situation, and so the 101 Ways challenge was born.

Usually the shack was isolated, and the characters being stuck in a blizzard earned bonus points. Thus, the challenge was an opportunity for deploying tropes like Huddling for Warmth and Bed Sharing. While the original challenge had a strong focus on due South (including several DS crossover works), the submitted stories and vignettes were from many fandoms.

Speranza continued on to moderate similar ficlet challenges with many fandoms united by the use of a theme, including The Inappropriate Elf Challenge and the Tax Shelters challenge.