The winner for Q3 was entry #5, Upside Down by Zombie!

Runner-up was entry #6!
Congratulations to all!​

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And the prompt for Q3 is... VAMPIRES!​

And we're off again! There's four options in the poll this time - and you have 1 week to vote - but don't panic if your favorite isn't chosen. The popular ones from the "prompts" thread will reappear in at least one future poll (so make sure to comment and 'like' your preferred prompts there so they turn up as options).

Sticking to the same method (more or less) as before for the competition itself.

Word limit: 17.5k max (no minimum)
Deadline: September 23rd (because the equinox!)
Voting: September 23rd - October 6th​

Send your stories to @Xiph0 once you're done.

Authors will be kept anonymous between Xiph0 & myself - and I won't know who you are til the competition finishes. It's understandable that sometimes people might guess which story is yours, or that you might need a beta-reader, so don't stress about that. And of course once the competition is over you're free to shout it far and wide.

Crossovers are allowed, however... (1) keep in mind people might not be familiar with the fandom you crossover with and therefore may not vote for it, and (2) the rule might change to 'no crossovers' for the next competition.

Voting Rules:
After you have read and reviewed ALL entries, post in this thread with your top three stories ranked. Preferably with links to your reviews.

Before posting your Top 3 you must read and review all entries. The only real requirement here is that you leave 200+ words of useful review. If you don't know how to leave useful feedback then comment on the plot, pacing, characters, prompt usage, and anything else that comes to mind.

One of the rewards for authors participating in this competition is the feedback, critique, and overall useful commentary on their work. Don't dial it in.

In the last few competitions it was required to rank categories out of five and come up with a total score, etc. In the interest of getting more people to review and vote I'm going to make that a guideline this time (as a test run). If you're in doubt follow the formula here and you won't need to worry about being told your feedback was not useful... probably.

If you rank a story as #1 it will get 3 points, #2 will get 2 points, and #3 will get 1 point. Highest score wins. There will always be a winner. There may or may not be a runner up, depending on the number of entries and how close they are.

Go write! And use this thread for discussions and whatnot to keep it in front of people - the more they see it active the more likely they are to think of things to write.

 

The Elder Wand is my least favorite of these four options. The concept of the Master of Death is a fascinating one, and I love reading fanfics that have original takes on the Hallows themselves, but I think the nature of the Elder Wand is going to invite a certain style of story with less wiggle room for originality than the others.

Could be wrong though... I'll probably brainstorm tonight for all of these. If we end up picking Vampires I am so pulling out my old notes for "Gilded and Gold." I had a whole section on vampires as Harry spends a significant part of his third year with some of them in Albania. I'm sure I could play with that somehow, but whether or not I actually would...

And time travel not from Harry's POV? Remember all those old theories about how Ron was either (1) Dumbledore or (2) a Death Eater? Yup. Time travel can make those happen. I had ideas for both almost immediately.

 

Vampire's.

Vampire's everywhere.

 

If it's vampires I'll submit you into sparkly jizzness.

 

Are you trying to imply that there are good Vampire fics?

 

This mean you going to write something for the comp if it wins mang?

 

If Azkaban wins I think we should start a thread discussing how a wizarding prison could/should/might work considering the HP canon paints it as a completely inhumane torturous dumping ground for apparently every wizard lawbreaker.

Its pretty clear JK Rowling had never even been inside a prison from her descriptions so a lot could be done with developing it into an actual working institution. Plus as a shared setting people can workshop ideas without giving away their story which seems to have been a concern in the past.

Vampires could be cool also though turning a HP character into a vampire feels fraught with pitfalls.