I may have the beginnings of an idea for duelling...we'll see.

 

Bonus points if you have a story that includes all four?

 

Hogwarts Ghosts is a cool topic. Work-related stress beat my plans into submission for Q1, but I’ve toyed with a plot bunny recently that could make for a nice one-shot.

 

I'm currently planning a love related oneshot so I would love for it to win. Outside of that, hmm, can't think of an idea for any others (yet).

 

Mmm. I voted for Hogwarts Ghosts, have an idea there I'll write either way I think.

...who you gonna call?

 

I voted for Hogwarts ghosts too. There are all sorts of interesting backstories to be explored there, and you can make their post-death lives intersect with others. 'Love in a time of war' could be interesting too, especially if things get angsty or tragic.

'Dueling' is the favorite? Fucking seriously? Come on, people. The 'dueling/training sessions' are the parts of every story that we all skip. It's an invitation to write uninspired action sequences, or theorize about how one's strategy is rooted in ancient runes. No one wants to read about how one dueler countered a swarm of locusts with a horde of snorkacks. There's no room for an actual story or characterization. Recreating the Dumbledore-Grindelwald duel sounds cool until you start writing it. If it veers into Dumbledore tricking him because they were lovers, it's not really about dueling, is it?

 

Damn, those are some severely uninspiring hot-takes about where imaginative writers can take Duelling.

It's almost as if DLP isn't filled with talented writers who've shown time and again they spin good, innovative stories out of any prompt. Oh wait...

 

Couldn't agree more that dueling is a rather stale topic in terms of plot, and I don't know how I'd do much with it in terms of character. (Hello, by the way -- I'm new to the forum and fiction writing.) Not to say talented writers can't do anything with it, of course, but it certainly doesn't inspire my own creativity.

The Hogwarts ghosts on the other hand would seem to be teeming with potential for humor, or horror, or a more literary exploration of rejecting the afterlife.
I've gone ahead and switched my vote from 'love in a time of war' to the ghosts. I hope this consolidation behind one of the two more interesting topics will lead others to change their vote as well, providing serious competition for 'dueling'.

 

heh im a dueling fan for what it is worth, but mostly because I think that path gives a lot of options. And a topic is only as stale as you let it be. I like the idea of taking a topic that has been done before and pushing myself to re-invent it (Ive got a couple of fun ideas for dueling that have me excited).

Nothing wrong with the others either of course.

 

You Team Duelling fanboys are all the same. At least Team Hogwarts Ghosts didn’t force Bella to kiss us and then imprint on Renesmee.

 

That’s boring, make it a mandatory combo .

 

If it's close, why not make every prompt acceptable? There would be more submissions.

Also, can we make the results of the vote public? It would be nice to know which ones are coming from bitch-ass trolls who have no intention to write.

 

Not necessarily. Being specific helps motivate people and generate original ideas, having it to wide open often leads to less creativity, not more.

 

I will be done with school by the end of May, which means I'll almost definitely have time to write for this. Tried to at least review the last competition even though I didn't manage to write, and got too busy for even that, unfortunately.

Ghosts looked really fun! The dementor first line has some potential but I'd need to ruminate a bit first.

Don't know about dueling, I can probably dredge something up. I'm just pants at writing action sequences, or at least I never like the ones I write. We'll see how it turns out, I suppose!

 

Fair enough. Speaking only for myself, I've got 1,000 words already written that will fit in two of the four categories. I won't write something for the others.

I'm asking @Ched about making the votes public because the 'dementor' vote suddenly surged from last to first place, despite the fact that literally no one has expressed enthusiasm for the topic. If half those votes come from people who joined last year and have never written or reviewed anything--well, fuck their opinions. They shouldn't be the deciding factor, even if their contributions are valued.

 

I voted for Hogwarts Ghosts. I have written two entries in the past but lately none of the prompts really sparked my interest so I didn't even vote since I knew that I wasn't going to write anything anyway. But this one seems really interesting and I would love to explore it in a story. Here's hoping that it actually wins.