I'm not directly opposed to it, but I feel like it would derail from what comps are, at least what they're to me, in my mind.

Even though there's a lot of entries (some of them mine so I'm not secluding myself from this) that don't feel magical, I think they should at least aspire towards the world of magic that drew us first into HP. Since they are mostly short stories, even when limit is like 17000k words, they leave us within a certain limit to make story feel as HP. Now, if I'm writing smut I don't think I can pull off both good smut and good HP story, not without trading the worth of one for another, if this makes sense. It'd be neither here nor there. It'd be either enjoying good smut or enjoying a good HP short fic.

I'm not saying that other authors can't make it work, but if I'm about to write smut, I'd rather have it as its own topic, not something that is frequently occurring in any/every competition. I don't think that's problem since I can remember only one so far?

What I'm trying and failing to say is that I wouldn't be opposed to have a smut-focused competition, that I wouldn't mind reading one even though the topic has nothing to do with smut (though I'm pretty decent my commentary on it wouldn't be as praising), but also that I wouldn't want to encourage more smut entries than there already are.

It's sort of the same reason why I think most romantic elements/pairings are usually not making a fic any better, since they just derail from the story, with nonsensical sideplots. To be honest, I'd leave it as authors' choice. I don't know.

 

Maybe make one of next years' flash competitions smut themed? With the caveat that it needs to contain at least one bit of magic.

I don't really mind, largely agree with haphnepls.

 

I have no problem with smut in comps, but if it were the entry's main focus then that entry wouldn't get many/any votes from me simply because I don't see it as a proper story. If the smut is just one facet of a romance entry that's one thing, but when the acts themselves are the story's reason for existing It's just a different entity, written for a different purpose, and I'm honestly not sure how to critique it or compare its quality to, say, an action story.

I think it would work best in its own competition, smut competing against smut, for this reason. A flash comp as well, like Lucy said, because I don't think it merits a full comp centered around it. Even this I have mixed feelings about though because while it would be an interesting change of pace from the usual I can't help but feel it would get boring after the second entry, something of a one-trick pony.

 

It would certainly make discretely reading and reviewing at the office a riskier proposition...

 

Guys, I've really been itching to write for a comp lately.

I've been wanting to say this for months, but haven't said it out of worry that I might not follow through. But life has been pretty boring for me this year, so.... I'm pretty confident I'll follow through.

Is there any interest in reviving the comps? It obviously doesn't hinge on my interest alone.

I've tried to work on my fanfic and some og stuff, but nothing forces me to actually finish a project like a deadline. Many fanfic communities still have "fests," but these just don't motivate me like a competition.

Now, this might be a terrible time to raise this issue because the holidays are around the corner, and people will be busy with family obligations before we know it. But maybe we could bring something back in January?

Otherwise, please let me know if there are any ongoing HP fanfic writing competitions outside of DLP. Even if they're over, it would be cool to peruse the entries.

 

I think this is a lovely idea.

Perhaps we could do a holiday theme for the holidays. Have a due date around the end of the year?

 

I'm always keen to throw my hat into the ring, and I have some older ideas I could re-explore through a fresh lens.