Congratulations to Entry #3 - Violent Delights by @FitzDizzyspells8 !

Well done as well to Entry #2 - The Luna Lovegood Guide to Making Babies!​

Hey everyone! We're trying something slightly new this time around - a shorter story competition! There are a few reasons for this. One is that NaNoWriMo is around the corner and some folks might want to do that -- either as a cheater (writing a short story instead of a novel) or in addition to writing a short story. Another is that December is always a bit busy and not the best time for competitions. If we do a Part2 to Q4 it will be flash and voting will be done via poll votes (rather than forcing reviews).

In 2020 Q1, Q2, & Q3 will back to our normal format (which has so far worked well) unless there is significant desire to change it up.

Now, without further adieu...

Welcome to the Q4 2019 Story Competition! (Part 1?)

Topic(s): ???

Word count: 2500 to 5000 words
This is a traditional short story length (more or less). Quite a few Sci-Fi/Fantasy contests (such as the Hugo and Nebula) classify short stories as <7500 words. A lot of other calls for stories request those of 2500+ or (in terms of flash) <1000. Having a forced range to work within is something new (and perhaps quicker to write).

Deadline: November 17th (Leonids Meteor Shower) at midnight Eastern time. This means you get the entirety of the 17th to polish your story.


Voting: November 17th - November 30th

Send your stories to @Xiph0 once you're done. Authors will be kept anonymous between the two of us, and I will not know who you are until after the competition has ended. Feel free to claim credit for your story if you want it but we'll keep it confidential otherwise.

Feel free to use beta-readers but don't put your competition entry in WbA until after voting has ended. If you figure out who one of the entrants is then don't tell everyone else.

Voting Rules

• Read and review all entries, leaving at least 200 words of useful feedback.
  • Put the bulk of your review into a spoiler tag.
• After you have read and reviewed ALL entries, post in this thread with your top three stories ranked.
  • Please link to your reviews when you do this.

A guide on "how to review" in general is available here. We'd prefer that you not bias yourself by reading other reviews before making your own, but that choice is yours.

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. 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. You'll find that 200 words flies by.

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.

Note2: Got an idea for a future prompt? Put it in this thread!

Note3: I don't bite. If you have an issue with how the competition is run and whether or not it's unfairly biased in some way, PM me.

Note4: If we do a flash competition later we will not force the required review word counts.

 

FWIW - my internet at home still isn't working well, so I'm on my work laptop whilst at work (which makes me uncomfortable). If someone wants to help out by making a countdown timer again that'd be great. I can sort it out for next time but right now I need to get back to work, hah!

 

As always this is left up to the authors and readers. We didn’t define what constituted meeting the ‘Death’ prompts specifically and won’t here either.

Anything related to a foreign region will technically meet the prompt.

But as some reviewers may use how well the prompt is applied as part of their judging criteria it may help those trying to win to go further in exploration than others.

But if you just want to write for fun then you do you with a minimum of foreign inclusion.

 

Foreign Magical Relations ftw.

Leers at Beauxbaton / Durmstrang

 

... just realized this prompt might prompt Fleur writers to emerge from the woodwork. Hold on while I change my vote.

 

We are inevitable. Fleur writers unite! You have nothing to lose but your self respect.

 

Having difficulty with ideas on this one, which is rare for me. I always have good (imho) story ideas for these comps but this one...

• I have zero desire to write adult protagonists.
  
• Most feasible foreign areas for canon kids to be in are France, Bulgaria, maybe Germany, or the Triwizard schools. All of which might be overdone.
  
• I don’t want a non canon protagonist.
  
• I don’t see a good reason to put into a short story for a <15 year old Harry/Trio to be in a country other than those listed above.

... time to really brainstorm

 

I mean sure - I’d say it counts. Whether reviewers felt it counted as an amazing use of the prompt would depend on how you wrote it.

 

Poll technically isn’t over but, well... we have a clear front-runner!

Anyone feel like spit balling ideas in here? Don’t want to give your own plot/setting away but tempted to just start throwing ideas out there hoping that I’ll spark something for someone else.

Been reading a bit of JKRs world building just now. I’m on the phone so I won’t link all the various pages but here’s one (you can find others in the same section of that website - I think it’s just stuff transplanted from the old Pottermore site).

https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/wizarding-schools