August theme should be Madness.

 

Madness? THIS! IS! DLP!!!

But seriously, I agree with Stalin. The next month theme should be madness. Or maybe historical.

 

Historical could be good. One issue the majority of DLP might have is that the entries would most likely not be Harry-centric.

 

Was about to go on some spiel about how historical is virtually impossible to do both right and well at once, before realising we're dealing with fanfiction. We have guidelines, the parameters are narrower, and there's no precedent. You can't get it wrong, which gives you plenty of room to write a decent story.

Hmm. Bring on historical. I'd love to write a canon-compliant, historically themed oneshot, and not have to worry about historical accuracy. I personally have no problem with a dearth of Harry-centric fics for a month if it gets people writing and means interesting stories, Potter Law be damned.

 

But who would not read an epic action duel between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald taking place at the end of World War II?

By historical I meant both the magical and mundane history. A story describing the signing of the Status of Secrecy. Or maybe a muggle-wizard diplomacy during the Congress of Vienna. Or a story about goblins from Gringotts opening their branch in the South East Asia during the Dutch expansion in that region.

 

So where's the August theme announcement?

 

Does Harry going back to the founders time count as historical? heh.

 

If there's really only two entries, that's disappointing, and saddens me slightly.

It also motivates me to actually complete an entry for the August theme, whatever it may be - these contests have been excellent for DLP, and it's not fair for us to expect the same people to crank out stories month after month for our enjoyment, without ever putting forth content ourselves.

If you aren't part of the solution...

 

Judging by the number of story threads, it looks like 3 or 4 entries. Politics is a hard prompt even with the extra week we had to write.

 

I can't speak for others, but after throwing down 25k words in 2.5 weeks, I definitely had no intention of participating in July.

 

There are three entries. There hasn't been any judging yet.

It seems this thing has lost a bit of momentum - we'll see how we can rekindle this. I'm guessing the next theme will be announced sometime this month, with the deadline being the end of September.

 

That pissed me off to no end on the month I judged for. Threaten bans or something, man, it's massively unfair for the authors if people who've volunteered to judge just don't. Less than two days left til the end of judging, ffs.

Next round, provided it's a workable topic, will I think have more submissions. There's a few people who've been talking about it in here at least. Politics was a little iffy, for some reason. I'm going to try and get something in (once I know what the genre is >.<).

 

Personally, submitting something in July burnt me out on writing for a while. By the time it was over, I really didn't even want to look at the story anymore.

And not to be a whiny bitch or anything, but... almost no one even commented on the july entries (as opposed to the other months). I'm not sure if it was because of the topic or what, but that doesn't exactly inspire people to bust their ass for a month to get a submission out.

I know that sounds douche-y, but let's be real: anyone who produces anything and posts it on this website is looking for a little return on their investment. It's just the nature of the beast.

EDIT: One way to help fix this would be the following:
I don't know if every judge is required to write a review of each story, but if not - do so. Then post all the reviews anonymously once the judging is finished. That way, the authors are guaranteed a fair amount of critique on their work. After all, the judges have to read the stories anyways, they might as well review and post the reviews. And if they're posted anonymously, I don't see what the problem would be. Anyway, just my 2 cents.

 

Genuinely think that Politics was probably the worst choice for a topic anyone could have made. There's like four authors on DLP who can have pulled it off with any style.

 

I think, provided a good topic and an extra month to write, we should be seeing more submissions for August/September. This gives time for most authors who got tired of doing these contests to take a break and still have time to write, if they want.

 

Have the topic as Dark Arts again and you'll get plenty of writers. Politics is a bleh topic, and although I attempted it, I probably wouldn't have read them. I still haven't read any of the crossovers, because they don't really interest me.

 

I don't know about you, but I don't have enough time to finish a story in a single month. More spare time would be needed. Study and work take up a fair bit of time. And even when I manage to squeeze in a couple of hours of free time, there're other things I'd like to do as well, and sometimes you don't even have the energy to come home from work and sit in front of the PC to churn out a couple thousands words.

In other words, can we make the contest every two months? That should be enough time to get a story done. I know most of us work and/or study. If the contest were to happen bi-monthly, I think a few more entries would make it into the contest, cranking up a little the competition.

And while I'm here, completely agree with the comments about the judges. I believe they should be asked to attach a review to their score. Putting down a "Awesome. 5/5" is FF.net shit. As someone who is not part of the judging process (never been chosen), I'd like to know the judges' reasons for choosing one story over the other. It's as simple as asking them to write a short review and then post those reviews below the story when the Story Showcase subforum comes up.

kthx

 

Okay, while this might be more than a little true, the attitude still infuriates me.

I mean, come on: as aspiring authors, shouldn't we be trying to push our boundaries, write something unfamiliar or different or outside of our comfort zone, just to show that we can, in fact, do it? I'm sorry, but I just don't buy the excuse that 'only four authors on this site can pull it off' - arguably because only maybe four authors on this site have tried. And considering how many excellent authors we have on this site, I've got to admit I'm a little disappointed.

And yeah, I know people have lives and friends and relationships and aren't stuck in the asscrack of Canada with shit-all to do all fucking summer (even though I am working full-time), but come the fuck on! I'd love to see someone like Joe or Swim or Calz or NMB or VotN or even real political nuts like Vir and vlad take a crack at politics, just to see what they'd produce. And while authors may have their strengths, I think that good enough authors can at least produce something interesting if they put in the effort.

And on that note, I agree with attaching anonymous reviews to the judging.

 

Maybe it was a pessimistic attitude to take, but it is apparently the attitude most people seem to have taken this month. Either it is something that genuinely does not interest DLPers, or it is seen as something that's nigh impossible to get right. Or maybe people have just reached the point where they're fundamentally uninterested in the whole process.