Congratulations to Entry #7 by @Shinysavage !!
Also holy shit at you, DLP. A Harry/Ginny fluff piece won a competition? Here? Oh how the mighty have fallen.
(Kidding - I never hopped on the hate-wagon for that back in the day)

Feel free to go claim your stories in their threads! And if you won let me know if you want credit!

AND - I'll be checking who reviewed/voted. I know we were short on time, even with three weeks, and the next time we do this I'll make sure we have more time. I think that the relaxed reqs for voting make up for the time, since you can skim/review quickly, but it doesn't account for people who want to do a "good job" on their reviews.

So I'll be talking to those who didn't vote/review but did enter, but I do understand somewhat in this case. Kudos to everyone who did finish! And if you didn't... the threads won't close for a while, feel free to review late. Authors always appreciate it.





“You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.”
—Tina Fey

Q3 2021 - Flash Competition!
​

A poll will be going up for the main Q3 competition later tonight, but I wanted to get an exciting Flash option in here for us while we vote! We've had some decent luck with Flash comps in the past, so let's do it. Don't overthink it! Just write.

Topic: POV must be 3rd person Harry but no other requirements (can be AU, post-Hogwarts, non-canon, canon, whatever)

Word Count: 750-1500 words (word count will be STRICT - does not include title)

Due Date: July 28th at 11:59 PM EST - send stories to @Xiph0 via private message

Voting: July 29th - August 5th EXTENDED​

The winner of this competition gets a 'star' on their avatar but the temporary banner is for the main competitions, so LucyintheSkye will get to keep theirs until the primary Q3 comp finishes.**

Xiph0 and I may know your identity but otherwise you'll be kept anonymous unless you choose to claim your story after the competition.

"Anonymous" means that you don't widely advertise / discuss your story. PLEASE feel free to grab a handful of beta readers / brainstormers to help you out. This has always been the case but I want to emphasize it - run your ideas / drafts by people you trust! Get feedback and help with edits, etc.

VOTING

1. Leave a few (50+) words of review in the story thread
2. (( voting via poll vs points to be determined ))
3. Authors must vote but cannot vote for themselves

**subject to change after I discuss with Jon


== == == ==

What is 3rd Person POV?
Don't be embarrassed to ask questions!

 

The previous flash competition we had got a lot of entries - I hope we'll be as excited about this one. Go check it out if you want some inspiration:
https://forums.darklordpotter.net/forums/q2-april-flash-competition.187/

 

Yeah. Instead of a topic everyone has to write their story with a 3rd Person POV Harry. I was going to make it past tense like canon but I forgot so any tense is fine.

Also if you want to be ‘clever’ with Harry POV and have him be possessed or possessing someone or whatever other POV shenanigans you want that’s fine. Won’t be disqualified. Not really the intended goal but I’m not micro managing here.

 

So, caveat - this is a HP competition. We've specified in the past when we did non-HP comps (and had no turnout).

However crossovers are traditionally allowed.

So if you want to do an HP/Dresden crossover that won't be disqualified. Pure Dresden will be. I'd say that the protagonist should still be Potter but eh, if you want to use that loophole and do Dresden's POV go for it.

However keep in mind that you aren't as likely to get votes for that, since some readers won't be familiar with it and others won't feel it meets the prompt 'well' since you'd clearly be skirting it.

 

3rd Person means you use "Harry" instead of "I" when you are writing!

Examples:

Harry kicked Draco's arse.
(( 3rd person, past tense ))

Harry kicks Draco's arse.
(( 3rd person, present tense ))

I kicked Draco's arse.
(( 1st person, past tense ))

I kick Draco's arse.
(( 1st person, present tense ))

You kick Draco's arse.
(( 2nd person, present tense ))

--HP Canon was in 3rd person past tense.​

 

Working on the Voting right now - I was going to do a poll, but we got so many entries! Give me a bit to figure out exact rules, and in the meantime read/review.

No real rules on 'how much' you have to write to review, but 50 words (or a decent paragraph) is the expectation.

Example of 50 words:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi vel tincidunt odio, nec blandit metus. Sed in feugiat lorem, quis pulvinar massa. Donec at mauris in odio commodo blandit commodo eu tellus. Nunc eu convallis mauris. Aliquam tempor ligula quis justo molestie vestibulum. Praesent vitae pellentesque neque. Cras ut luctus.

 

Voting is extended - 15 entries holy shit <3 - the polls will close in 11 days (Aug 10th?) as opposed to August 5th.

At that time we'll have a Round II go up wherein the top contenders will go up in a fresh poll to determine the winner / runners-up. Each poll can take 10 options, but I expect we'll be good with voting on the best six or so to determine the winner.

 

Part of me wants to really study all of these entries and as a cross-section of DLP. Which themes are common? Which common themes don't show up at all?

I mean we all just wrote stories about Harry, and I bet that we all went with "write what you want to read" to some extent as well.

Fifteen entries is a lot more than I expected, but still I wonder what all the well known authors on site would have done with this prompt? Similar themes? Different? When you can only choose to write a snapshot of Harry, what do you take that picture of? Adventure? Combat? Romance? Adult!Harry? Kid!Harry? Hogwarts? Action? Drama? Reflection and deep thoughts?