Sorry. I get that point. But getting drunk in order to tackle the hardest story task I've ever taken on seems contradictory.

 

Well, any booze-related advice is a moot point. Thanks for the advice anyways, I'll be using it in roughly 8-10 years.

 

Honestly, I don't think it's something to worry about overmuch, because the setting and culture are both going to be fundamentally alien to anything IRL anyway. It's a hidden society cut off almost entirely from the muggle side. The magical side will be its own thing, as distinct as you care to make it, and all you'd see of the muggle side from there is the stereotypes anyway. It doesn't strike me as a real problem to present it that way.

That said, I've found history and anthropology are the best ways to do foreign cultures and societies justice. You don't need to get super detailed or anything, but a decent-ish understanding of the major events of the last century or so, and, most importantly, how they as a society reacted to them, will let you get a decent understanding of what the Wizarding version of that place would be.

For example, I would imagine Wizarding Russia would be hidden primarily in St Petersburg, and would be like a glimpse back into the time of the Tsars. Pureblood nobility hobnobbing all day, while the muggleborn proletariat toil away, largely pointlessly, as punishment for trying to rise up during Lenin's revolution. I picture lavish feasts of traditional Russian cuisine, and a major cultural appreciation/fetish for Catherine the Great, as a symbol of the 'good old days' if nothing else.

And at the same time, there'd be a sense of subtle desperation underlying it all, as everyone feels but refuses to acknowledge the slow downward spiral they've been on all their lives. The food a little worse, the buildings deteriorating, etc, but they ignore it with proper Russian stoicism, sure that they can tough it out until things start looking up again.

 

This website has always been a great resource to help me learn about lesser-known, weird/whimsical places and things in areas I'm unfamiliar with (or familiar with, for that matter): https://www.atlasobscura.com/

Some of the recommendations are obvious and touristy, but there are often real gems in there too. It's a great resource when you're looking for fantasy inspiration within real life. It's also great for IRL travel.

 

I think CE is the new hip way of saying it. What historical event is it, if you don't mind me asking. Is it Charlie's coronation?

 

CE is just AD with copious amounts of hipster energy. It's pretending that a calendar based around Jesus' birth is not religious in any way.

Looking forward to it either way. I'm intrigued now.

 

Put it this way, I spent about ninety percent of the time on wikipedia and like eight other websites. The region I picked is actually something I've already touched on in a story, though I doubt anyone on here has read it. For the record, I like to imagine that the 'muggle history' is at least the tiniest bit related to the wizarding history.

 

So I've got a decent start, and plans for the middle and end-game. Bridging it all together is the problem. We may or may not see a submission in time! Exciting!

 

I was so proud of myself for having this written and beta'd a week before the deadline. Then, for fun, I wrote myself a scathing review that I could post for myself once the submissions went live.

Then I realized I... made some good points. So now I've decided to completely change my entire ending, which is going to take a ton of work that I will somehow have to fit into my busy week.

You know, like a crazy person.

 

Scathing self-reviews are great fun. Glad to hear you’re enjoying yourself.

 

My entry is about 80% done but I just couldn't get the final pieces together in time without it looking rough as fuck.

I'd rather post this oneshot at a later time and have it be polished, then a rushed and only an okay piece now.

Still sucks as this was the one competition I really wanted to enter.

 

Voting, as usual:

1. Entry #3
2. Entry #2
3. Entry #5