1. DLP Flash Christmas Competition + Writing Marathon 2024!

    Competition topic: Magical New Year!

    Marathon goal? Crank out words!

    Check the marathon thread or competition thread for details.

    Dismiss Notice
  2. Hi there, Guest

    Only registered users can really experience what DLP has to offer. Many forums are only accessible if you have an account. Why don't you register?
    Dismiss Notice
  3. Introducing for your Perusing Pleasure

    New Thread Thursday
    +
    Shit Post Sunday

    READ ME
    Dismiss Notice

Q2 2018 - Story Competition

Discussion in 'Q2 2018' started by Ched, Apr 9, 2018.

?

Pick a Prompt!

Poll closed Apr 14, 2018.
  1. "Breaking into Snape's office in the middle of the night was a risky move at the best of times..."

    23 vote(s)
    67.6%
  2. Hermione makes an unexpected discovery in the Hogwarts staff room.

    3 vote(s)
    8.8%
  3. Muggle Studies Field Trip!

    8 vote(s)
    23.5%
Not open for further replies.
  1. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

    Joined:
    Jan 6, 2009
    Messages:
    8,379
    Location:
    The South
    Topic for Q2 - 2018 Story Competition is....


    "Breaking into Snape's office in the middle of the night was a risky move at the best of times..."

    The original suggested prompt was too long, so it was shortened to the above. Do with it as you will.

    Word limit: 17.5k max (No minimum)
    Deadline: June 18th
    Voting: June 18th - 30th

    Send your stories to @Xiph0 once you've completed them. Authors will be kept anonymous between Xiph0 and myself - and I won't know who you are until the competition finishes.

    Crossovers are allowed, however... (1) keep in mind people might not be familiar with the fandom you crossover with and therefore may not vote for it, and (2) the rule might change to 'no crossovers' for the next competition.

    VOTING RULES:
    After you have read and reviewed ALL entries, post in this thread with your top three stories ranked.
    Your top3 don't have to match how you scored, you can rank them by a gut feeling on which you enjoyed the most, though hopefully it shouldn't deviate too much from your scoring.

    Before posting with your top3 stories for this competition you MUST have read and reviewed all entries. The following critera are suggested (but if you just leave a good review that's 250+ words along with a rating I probably won't bitch at you):
    • 250+ words of review
    • Plot & Pacing (out of 5 points)
    • Characters (out of 5 points)
    • Prompt Use (out of 5 points)
    • Other (out of 5 points)
    When you rank your top 3 go ahead and help us out by linking to your reviews in the other threads so it's easy to verify.

    If you rank a story as #1 it will get 3 points, #2 will get 2 points, and #3 will get 1 point. Highest score wins. (This is a change from the original post, which had an idea that wouldn't work for scoring)

    As usual I am open to thoughts on how to improve this. Keep in mind that getting solid, constructive reviews is one of the draws for authors to compete in this competition. Don't skimp on your contributions there if you can avoid it - 250 words is not that much. Say something useful however trivial.

    Follow the rules!

    Note: You don't have to keep yourself anonymous. @Sorrows and I think that people were taking that a bit far in the past. Don't market your story or shout it from the rooftops, but you don't need to worry about hiding it either.
     
    Last edited: May 4, 2018
  2. H_A_Greene

    H_A_Greene Unspeakable –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2009
    Messages:
    715
    High Score:
    4,492
    Ugh, can I just say that none of these prompts strike a chord with me? I'm getting nothing inspiring at first glance.
     
  3. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

    Joined:
    Jan 6, 2009
    Messages:
    8,379
    Location:
    The South
    Question for folks, before voting finishes.

    Would you prefer the "due date" be June 18th or a week prior on June 11th? I mostly ask because I'm curious how much time you feel is needed for voting. We can get an extra week to vote if we move the due date back.

    Thoughts?

    @Zenzao, @Zombie, @Sorrows ...& @ who else? @Halt @BTT @Shinysavage @James @Jarizok

    Another question!
    How do you all feel about removing the "out of 5" requirement for reviewing? If reviewers aren't required to spend time ranking categories out of 5 points and tallying up their numbers do you think we'd get more people leaving useful reviews? The "250+ words" requirement would stay. We could leave the sub-categories that people are supposed to comment on if that would help keep reviews from being useless, etc.
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2018
  4. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

    Joined:
    Jan 6, 2009
    Messages:
    8,379
    Location:
    The South
    Eh, I'm envisioning an elderly!Hermione at the end of her life going back to Hogwarts one last time to teach a guest lecture. She takes a breather in the staff room - a place she never spent any great deal of time as she never taught at Hogwarts - and comes across some item or other that sends her down memory lane.

    A very nostalgic take on the concept, I admit. But it's the only idea that punched me in the face looking at these. The "Muggle Studies Field Trip" one I have ideas for as well but no real desire to write it at present. Those plot bunnies are mostly tied into my other, longer story (that I may never finish).
     
  5. Selethe

    Selethe normalphobe

    Joined:
    Feb 13, 2012
    Messages:
    562
    Location:
    Maryland
    With prompts like these, even though they’re clever and fun, I find that they feel constraining. I really enjoyed how DLP did story competitions in the past, where the prompt was a single word like “Azkaban” or a theme like “Politics”. Is this an option we can possibly consider?
     
  6. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

    Joined:
    Jan 6, 2009
    Messages:
    8,379
    Location:
    The South
    Of course - go post in the Story Prompts thread with that idea and run with it. That's why that thread is there.

    Staff can select a single-word prompt such as that to put in the next poll. I'll suggest that to staff myself and push for it if others want to see it. Whether or not the winner/s choose a single word prompt or not is up to them - picking a prompt for the poll is part of the reward for winning, after all.
     
  7. H_A_Greene

    H_A_Greene Unspeakable –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2009
    Messages:
    715
    High Score:
    4,492
    June 11th works for me. I prefer offering reviewers/voters additional time.

    I don't think it would unduly hurt. It might make it easier for people reviewing from mobile if they just want to get their thoughts down about the overall story rather than spend time as you said ranking by category.
     
  8. BTT

    BTT Viol̀e͜n̛t͝ D̶e͡li͡g҉h̛t҉s̀ ~ Prestige ~

    Joined:
    Aug 31, 2011
    Messages:
    437
    Location:
    Cyber City Oedo
    High Score:
    1204
    I voted for the first prompt, breaking into Snape's office. I don't care for Hermione and even less for Muggle Studies, so by process of elimination...

    I think that the first competition was probably the peak of number of members participating. I don't think adding another week will the problem of declining participants. That said I certainly don't see the harm of it either, so yes to extending the voting period another week.

    It's weird, really. People tend to give big reviews for the fics in Almost Recommended threads or the Review Board, but they can't scrounge up the effort needed to review the competition's stories?

    I've never felt the "out of 5" requirement to be that much of a hassle, to be honest.
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2018
  9. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

    Joined:
    Jan 6, 2009
    Messages:
    8,379
    Location:
    The South
    Not 100% clear here. The question was if we should decrease the amount of time that participants have to write in order to increase the time that reviewers have to review.

    I'm not sure if this is a yes or a no to taking time from writing to give to voting, @BTT.
     
  10. BTT

    BTT Viol̀e͜n̛t͝ D̶e͡li͡g҉h̛t҉s̀ ~ Prestige ~

    Joined:
    Aug 31, 2011
    Messages:
    437
    Location:
    Cyber City Oedo
    High Score:
    1204
    It's a "yes, but". Sorry if that wasn't clear.
     
  11. James018

    James018 Third Year

    Joined:
    Mar 20, 2016
    Messages:
    83
    High Score:
    0
    If anyone has an issue with the prompts, blame me. I was the one who thought up the Snape's office and Hermione ones. Didn't expect they'd both make it into the poll, to be honest - wasn't sure even one of them would. Anyway, I'm not too sure how I feel about single word prompts, but it's probably worth trying out at least.

    I noticed in the last competition, everyone who wrote reviews (bar me, and that was for obvious reasons) wrote them within the first five days after the submissions were posted, and then no one reviewed over the last five days of the voting period. That suggests to me that an extra week is unlikely to make much difference. Really, 13 days to leave a review should be more than enough: any more and the competition might just lose its momentum. I'd keep it as is.

    I like the out-of-5 ratings method of structuring reviews, as they help me to think about the story and realise, on a conscious level, what I liked and didn't like. When I sat down to write my reviews of the other stories, I was surprised at how easy they were to write within that structure. I'm not sure if it would have come so easily if I simply had to leave 250+ words with no other guidelines. Having said that, perhaps other people feel the opposite is true for them.

    There is a very obvious problem with this that I'm surprised no one has picked up on: what about the stories outside each reviewer's top 3, assuming we get more than 3 submissions? If they get 0 points then the top 3 (which got points) are actually put at a disadvantage. I think we should keep to the existing MVP-inspired 3-2-1 voting format. That was easy to understand and worked well.
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2018
  12. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

    Joined:
    Jan 6, 2009
    Messages:
    8,379
    Location:
    The South
    Ah. Then there was some confusion. We were meant to get one prompt from you (of whatever kind you wanted) and one from whoever tied you.

    But that said... You did win and I have no issue using your prompts. And there is nothing wrong with them. If those are things you'd like to read and see written then it doesn't really matter beyond that.

    Good point on scoring.
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2018
  13. Sey

    Sey Not Worth the Notice DLP Supporter

    Joined:
    Aug 9, 2016
    Messages:
    856
    Gender:
    Male
    High Score:
    0
    I think its just kind of disappointing that the last two, and this prompt, lend to something that is kind of crack-y.
     
  14. Conquistador

    Conquistador High Inquisitor

    Joined:
    Jan 19, 2017
    Messages:
    544
    Location:
    At Peace
    High Score:
    0
    Considering that we are doing this in quarters, I think we should come up with 4 genres of HP fanfiction. They rotate, coming back every year. Then when one of the genres become less relevant, or if there is a new "in" thing, we can replace out.

    But I truly think we would get wider participation and better content if we did genres instead of prompts.
     
  15. H_A_Greene

    H_A_Greene Unspeakable –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2009
    Messages:
    715
    High Score:
    4,492
    Welp, I've got my first two ideas. Kind of hate the first, so lets see how the second pans out.
     
  16. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

    Joined:
    Jan 6, 2009
    Messages:
    8,379
    Location:
    The South
    My thoughts on the prompts:
    https://forums.darklordpotter.net/posts/1047012/

    In summary... next competition we'll have at least one of these broad/genre prompts on the poll. But it still has to win to be the next topic, and the winner of the competition still gets to pick any sort of prompt they want (of these types or another).
     
  17. James

    James Unspeakable

    Joined:
    Jan 22, 2015
    Messages:
    746
    I agree with @James018 that additional week for voting is hardly going to matter in the end — but a week extra for writers might be beneficial :)

    As for the "out of 5" for sections, I don't care much — the 250 words minimum was a bigger problem for me, especially on the stories I didn't like.

    I don't understand, why don't we use the numbers from reviews for the "top X" list, though.
     
  18. Harry_J_Potter

    Harry_J_Potter Second Year

    Joined:
    Apr 9, 2013
    Messages:
    73
    So where can I see the whole line? I don't see it in story prompt thread. Am i missing something?
     
  19. James018

    James018 Third Year

    Joined:
    Mar 20, 2016
    Messages:
    83
    High Score:
    0
    I think the idea is just to use the segment of the line that was voted on, and the rest is up to you.

    For what it's worth, the original line I suggested was "Breaking into Professor Snape’s office in the middle of the night was a risky move at the best of times, but some risks just had to be taken."
     
  20. Harry_J_Potter

    Harry_J_Potter Second Year

    Joined:
    Apr 9, 2013
    Messages:
    73
    Gotcha, thanks
     
Not open for further replies.