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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.
0/5, 0 votes
Page 5 of 5
  1. H_A_Greene

    H_A_Greene Unspeakable –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    Jul 6, 2018 #81
  2. Striker

    Striker What's up demons?

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    Jul 6, 2018 #82
    Or don't worry about who gets to be first loser when there are less than half a dozen competitors.
     
    Lungs, Sey
  3. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    Jul 6, 2018 #83
    Just one word prompts.

    • Azkaban
    • Polyjuice
    • Memories
    • Time
    • Marauders
    • Forgivness
    Or phrase prompts

    • Never again
    • Why Hagrid?
    • Master of Death
    • The cock-up
    • Dog days
    • Harry and the Dragon
     
  4. Zombie

    Zombie Black Philip Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐

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    Jul 6, 2018 #84
    This goes for everyone that might be reading this now and in the future. You do not have to be established DLP to compete in this. You do not have to worry about if you win or lose. The whole thing is that you have fun. If you can't have fun doing this, then maybe its not for you.

    You're going to be judged. That's the whole point of a comp.

    What I'm interested in going forward is getting more people to compete. I want to see everyone try something. showuswhatyougot.mp4

    Generally, I'm interested in what everyone can come up with. There is so much voting on what goes into these stories but so little execution that it boggles my mind.

    What's stopping you from entering something? Time? Is the prompts shit? Are you afraid of having someone say something bad about your work?

    If its the latter and not the former, there is only so much accomdation that can be done. I want more entries. Anyone got any authors from off site that might want to contribute? Or authors that are members, but don't post all that often, and might be little known? The last comp was won by someone who I've never read their works before, and it was decent. There needs to be more of that. It doesn't have to be the same four people all the time. It feels like an obligation then.


    I like the post that @Sorrows just made. Its all about flexability. Maybe that's what we're lacking here. We're all too caught up on humor. Maybe those are too broad above. But that doesn't meant you can't come up with something.

    That also makes judging more difficult. Which is great. The readers should be prompted to think about what you've got here. Not just checking off a list of tropes that you've got on your list.
     
    Wynter
  5. Dubious Destiny

    Dubious Destiny Seventh Year

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    Jul 6, 2018 #85
    Just my opinion here, surprisingly few people voted. Looking at Quarter 1, I see that a similar number of people have voted in the past. Even if a small number moved to write instead, we might end up having the same number of writers and voters.

    Could we encourage more people to participate in the process if DLP ever gets gamified? We could set something up currently... say library check-outs or something separate from other posts. People could be awarded check-outs for reviews on fanfics and story competitions while the rest of the site(xcept Little Italy) could continue boosting post counts.
     
  6. Red

    Red High Inquisitor DLP Supporter

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    Jul 6, 2018 #86
    This. For me, a quote-based prompt with the stipulation that is has to be the first line just feels restricting. I'd like something broader, perhaps not as broad as a one word prompt but general scenarios/concepts?

    -Explore Harry becoming an Animagus
    -Happy Potter and a day in Hogsmeade
    -Harry's falls off his broom during his first quidditch match but because Quirrelmort's curse was directly responsible he ends up in Kings Cross Limbo.

    Okay, I admit those were shit too, but you get the idea. At any rate, I've been writing more personally and I will 100% promise that I'll submit something during Q3 - who's with me?
     
  7. Lindsey

    Lindsey Chief Warlock DLP Supporter

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    Jul 6, 2018 #87
    I agree with @Red. I have not entered because the prompts have not been inspiring. I am not a comedic writer, which had given me limited options on the previous prompts.

    I can't promise I will participate in the following prompts, as my current story takes priority, but I do want to.
     
  8. TMD

    TMD High Inquisitor DLP Supporter

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    Jul 6, 2018 #88
    Agreed with @Red also, I was super stoked for Q2 and planned to try and enter even though i've never really written anything before and I know it wouldn't score well, but the prompts really didn't do anything for me. From the sounds of it though most people are saying the same thing so I think the Q3 prompts will end up getting a shitload more entries.
     
  9. Wynter

    Wynter Order Member

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    Jul 7, 2018 #89
    Fully intended to get one out this time but I honestly saw the prompt and just felt nothing come to mind that felt good. Then studies took precedence. Personally speaking, I don't think the prompts have been bad, maybe we should look at the next one being a theme or something with a bit more breadth?
     
  10. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    Jul 7, 2018 #90
    Well toss some suggestions into the ring guys.
     
  11. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    Jul 7, 2018 #91
    Zombie said it better, but I wanted to chime in as well.

    You were not penalized for submitting something short, and it pissed me off (briefly) to see you accuse me of that. I'm the one who pushed for the "no minimum" in the first place because frankly I think the majority of fanfiction is over-written to the extreme and could do with a lot fewer words.

    It's possible to say a lot in a small amount.

    There was a runner-up last time because there was a tie for first place if all votes were counted. See here:
    https://forums.darklordpotter.net/threads/q1-2018-contest-winners.37712/

    Counting up the votes from people who used the system properly gave us a winner, but counting up everyone votes had it end in a tie. So the "runner-up" technically tied for first place depending how you counted it.

    That wasn't remotely the case here. And eventually going forward we might have more uniformity - but I've been clear that we're still adapting and adjusting as we go. We can take into consideration that we always have a runner-up, especially if we have more entries, but as Zombie said I don't think that's the real issue here.

    There may be a runner-up in the future if it is really close again, but I never intended for it to be an always thing. Runner-up isn't just second - it means you were close enough to be competitive (or at least that was my thought a few months ago). I suppose it could use more clarity, however.

    I need to go and look at how everyone voted but I'm busy planning a party I'm spending several thousand dollars I don't really have on.

    The reason why I said that people could just leave 250 words of review and then rank their stories was an attempt to get more people to review. Using the 'suggested' criteria is a crutch for people who don't know how to review a story - my hope is that as people become better at critique they won't need to use it and more people will review (since it's quicker, at least for me, to not follow a formula).

    I don't know how else to encourage more people to read and review - though I will still be reading and reviewing myself after this party.
     
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2018
  12. H_A_Greene

    H_A_Greene Unspeakable –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    Jul 7, 2018 #92
    @Ched
    Thanks for the follow up. I was mostly salty as shit because I knew I had no chance of overtaken entry #1, but when I'd seen that the rest of the entries were about as short as mine, I thought I stood a chance of beating the others- which did happen so I shouldn't have complained, but I got my hopes up about the runner up thing since there was no explanation at the time about how that was done for Q1 so I was assuming you'd ranked it as winner>runner-up because of the amount of entries, not by the way the votes were sorted, so I was needlessly stupid twice over.

    Anyway, I'm passed it now, and I've still gotten a couple of good ideas out of the Q2 prompt I can look over in time, and as usual I'll do my best to submit something(and an actual story rather than a last-couple-day concept) for Q3.

    EDIT: Also, I'm sorry.
     
    Ched
  13. Lungs

    Lungs KT Loser ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Jul 7, 2018 #93
    I think this had a chilling effect on Q2 reviewing because I know i'm not the only one who was like "okay entry 1 is the only one that isn't dogshit" - and maybe I should have at least just reviewed that one, but I was about to put in more effort into reviewing 2/3/4 than the effort put in for those stories.

    We're all fucking writers. We know the score. Appears that entry 4 was a meme submission (wasn't sure what Millwall was, though the explanation I got was funny enough), entry 3 reeks of some anachronistic Snape bashing paired with classic FFN humor (which is not only not funny but it's not even cheesy - it's got the timbre of the self-congratulatory writers of the past who came up with some original pranks for Gred and Forge), entry 2 is Harry Dresden and Some Side Characters (not even from Harry Potter) playing DnD.

    Upon arriving at those conclusions, which didn't take very long seeing as I don't think a single one of those submissions passed a thousand words, I decided that I would only review if entry 1 stopped winning. Unsurprisingly, it won. Surprisingly, a good story came out of this prompt (but that's neither here nor there).
     
    Sauce Bauss, Ched, Sey, Paladin
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