Too busy with my other stuff to think about new stories - but I would like to judge, that's easy enough to make time for.

 

Totally good point, and this actually makes me excited about the future of the contests, because it almost ensures that things remain unique and at least authors will have to work to create something that might not be their usual MO.

And yeah, politics is a really interesting topic, to be sure. Just not sure anyone can top Sesc from the General story section in January.

 

Since I guess his story won't be entered again you don't have to

 

I would ask to judge, but I will be attempting to write something... coherent for this month.

 

What. Really?

Yeah, I'm glad the Mods aren't just mailing it in and choosing the straight-up Library categories. And in that vein...

All good ideas, wordhammer, though slapstick or "physical" comedy will be hard to pull off without it being a crack-fic. Not that crack-fics shouldn't be considered as having their own category or theme, but I'd bet most of those would still be submitted in a Humour category contest. A Black Comedy is one of the only fics that used that kind of humor and didn't come across to me as a complete crack-fic.

As for suggestions for future contests - well, I've been thinking about it pretty much since the first one. As the monthly contest came about (from the general DLP perspective) because of Xiph0's lament about the lack of good dark!Harry stories, I wouldn't mind the Dark Arts category being the stated category more often. I'm not suggesting it's every other month or something, because I think that would actually decrease participation in that category. What I mean is maybe twice per cycle of themes, or twice per year if there'll end up being twelve different categories, etc.

I also think that a few of the themes should be more narrow and/or focused, such as a Harry/Fleur month, whether it has to be Romance or not. Perhaps a Harry-in-World-War-II themed contest, whether it's time-travel or just a vast AU. How about a Dresden themed contest - no crossover, just Dresden - or even a specific crossover requirement with Dresden.

I realize that last one might backfire and result in fewer entries, or if it were a different fandom then there might be fewer entries and fewer members knowing the backstory being crossed with. I for one have little interest in crossovers in general and even that pretty much stops at Dresden.

I'd also like to see a contest where the theme is open, but the story must be written in first- or second-person. There's no reason to not also use the contests to expand people's writing skills in addition to seeing new stories.

How about a contest where one major thing from canon is different, and entries have to take that into account or explore it? For example, have the requirement be that Peter was exposed and Sirius raises Harry. It could be a great way to take the long list of fanfiction cliches most of us have come to hate, and turn them on their heads or make them awesome. Hell, even a Harry-raised-by-Snape theme could be good, since there's at least a couple people on DLP who could make that work and likely show us a twist on it that'll blow our minds.

Again, I don't advocate doing this all the time, or even very often. The broadness of the contests so far has left so much to the writers' imaginations that I'd hate to see that stifled. There's always going to be better participation when you have themes "General" and "Time Travel" and "Dark Arts." It leaves room for surprises in the stories as far as pairings, time period, main character(s), setting, and on and on.

If I were to draw up a calendar of the monthly contests for a year or two, my first thought would be to spread the best categories throughout the time-frame, like say, "General" and "Dark Arts" and "Independent" twice in a year or three times in two, "Time Travel" and "Alternates" at least once a year... Heh, I start running out of months pretty quick there...

So yeah, those are my half-assed suggestions - that I've been thinking about since January. Dumbledore would be very impressed by my "well-organized mind," amirite? I realize much of what I've said are more "challenges" than "themes," but World did ask for suggestions.

^This. That story was superb.

 

The topic intrigues me, but really need to work on some of my WIPs before I start anything new.

Count me out this month.

 

Wanna judge.

 

I'd like to write something, but I'm already behind in updating my fic.

I'll throw my name into the judge's pool.

 

Portus touched on it briefly for an idea, but what about a Cliche month? Not the standard, but overly done ideas in Canon that usually make people cringe? Example would be how Santi turned the Twin-who-lived cliche into a decent story. Others could be talks to snakes, maybe gets an uber wand, an introduction on an OC that is Voldemort's daughter, or lestrange's. Maybe a Super:Harry. It be great too see these cliches tackled well.

 

That would be awesome. I'd probably do Manipulative!Dumbledore.

 

I was going to try writing something for this month, but Politics really isn't my cup of tea, so I'll throw my cap in for judging.

 

I'll also judge if the signups are still open.

 

I would enjoy judging, please consider me.

 

Hmmm, Politics. Interesting. I'm in.

 

I'm quite looking forward to seeing to what this genre will produce. I'm a mere 500 words into my entry, but it's already looking quite good :awesome.

 

I've come up with an idea I like, but I'm wondering if someone would like to hear it out before I start writing it.

 

Haven't put anything into this entire endeavor yet, so putting myself up for Judge.

I'd write, but I don't think I would be able to pull off a good politics story.

 

PM it over, Anarchy, if you want. VotN isn't submitting this round and my BETA-truncheon is getting dusty.

 

I volunteer to be a judge; I've been wondering for the longest time what it's like.

 

I'd like to try my hand at writing something. Could I write a short one-shot attempt for this competition? Something that's somewhere between 3k-10k words.

Politics? Anything politic related?