No Cinderella Here!

[katmarajade]

Well, the results of the first round of Hump Madness are in and I am out! The Drabble I was up against was a very different style (sexually explicit, emotionally complex, angsty ...) than mine (silly, funny, sexy innuendo, fluff) so I'm holding on to the belief (whether mistaken or not!) that hers was chosen as preference for the style and the

Comments

[kellychambliss]

I really enjoyed yours! Lots of good entries overall; there were only a very few that I thought were weak.

But as you say, given the different styles and pairings and tones, it's hard to say that each match-up is comparable. It's like the Academy Awards - sometimes it's comparing apples and oranges. Comedy and drama are usually just too different. Plus, you don't know what other people's standards of "good" or "better" are. I think sometimes people vote for their favorite pairings and characters rather than literary elements.

Part of me enjoyed being able to pick whatever pairing and tone I wanted; another part of me thought it might make for a more balanced contest if we had all been assigned the same pairings and genres. "Fingers ~ Draco/Bill ~ melancholy" or something like that. The results would have been more comparable. But then, they might have all ended up sounded the same, too. So it's hard to know.

[leigh_adams]

Hi! Mod poking her head in here -- we've definitely considered doing uniform challenges for the entire round. This year, we decided not to, but that's always open for the future. If we did, it would be the one-word prompts -- the problem with assigning the pairings as prompt is that there are a lot of participants who won't write slash/het/femme, and we don't want to limit who can or can't write.

But there will be a post-Madness poll up for feedback, so please leave some! :D

[kellychambliss]

there are a lot of participants who won't write slash/het/femme, and we don't want to limit who can or can't write
Yes, this is a good point, and for this reason alone, I think it's worth keeping the current set-up.

But there are other reasons, too --

--as a reader, I find the range of characters/pairings fun and interesting
--if pairings were assigned, it might create disadvantages for some writers. For example, I don't write next-gen and rarely read it; I'd find it more difficult to write than an Next-gen fan would. And the same would be true in reverse if I got assigned one of my typical old-lady pairings; I might have an unfair advantage over my opponent if they were someone who didn't read old-lady fic.
--there's always going to be some subjectivity in making literary judgments, so we'd never be able to have a completely level playing field anyway.

So I'm fine with the way things are.

[katmarajade]

I agree with this so much! Many of the match ups were apples and oranges. I tried to judge and vote impartially and focus on use of the prompt and writing, but with such good stories, I know my personal preferences came out. I loved a lot of the funny ones and I often prefer steamy innuendo to explicit sex scenes

[kellychambliss]

You're right -- there's always going to be subjectivity involved, and the broad range of pairings so far has been fun. For myself, I try to set up standards that are not based on particular characters or genres. I'd never enter a contest like this saying, "I hate Trope X or Character Y and will never vote for it." I allow myself no squicks or character preferences in a LDWS sort of fest. Anything goes, if done well. (And for me, "done well" means a) with a sense of literary style, one that suits the characters and plot and that shows a facility with languages, and b) the presence of characterization. Even in 300 words, even with characters readers are very familiar with, a writer needs to do something to show characters beyond just citing their names.)