Rules/FAQ post 2010
Hi, and welcome to this year's LGBT Fest, a fest for fanfic that focuses on the experience of being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. This fest is multi-fandom and open to stories about any characters you want to write as LGBT, whether they're canonically LGBT or not.
Please don't submit your prompts to this post; the prompt submission post is here.
FAQ
We're looking for stories that deal with issues like:
Coming out (coming out for the first time, or in a hostile environment, or to a heterosexual partner, or negotiating how open to be with various people and in various social worlds).
Figuring out sexual orientation and gender identity (deciding you're LGBT, making a gender transition, moving between labels, dealing with other people's labels that don't necessarily fit you.)
Dealing with prejudice (job discrimination, hostility from family or friends, legal problems, violence, and what characters can or can't do about them.)
Being part of an LGBT community (gay bars, student groups, social groups, activist groups, LGBT neighborhoods, networks within the military or a profession, circles of friends, etc.)
LGBT history and politics in fictional worlds (What real-life history have characters lived through? Who might they see as role models? What's the LGBT history of the future? What are LGBT politics like in the wizarding world or on alien planets?)
And there are plenty of other things you could write about -- we're looking for a wide variety of prompts to give people plenty of choices.
We're not looking for:
PWP smut. Stories can be any rating, and can include or be about sex, but if there's no point to your story other than "these characters having sex is very hot," this isn't the place for it.
Stories that are about straight non-transgender people. For this fest, we want stories to focus on the LGBT character(s). This means we are not allowing stories that focus on straight non-transgender characters:
• mistakenly being assumed to be LGBT
• living in a society where being LGBT is the norm
• reacting to having LGBT family, friends, or co-workers
• questioning their sexual orientation and deciding they are straight
• questioning their gender identity and deciding they identify exclusively as the gender that they were assigned at birth
• having sex with someone of the same gender despite actually being straight
We like those stories, too, but they're not what this fest is about.
We also ask that stories not include sex involving pre-adolescent characters, and not include explicit (NC-17) sex involving characters under 18.
What's wrong with slash that doesn't focus on LGBT issues?
Nothing! We like lots of different kinds of slash. We like fluffy romance where there are no hard problems. We like pure smut. We like stories where the characters' sexual orientation is totally irrelevant to the plot. We like stories set in worlds where no one cares about the gender of people's partners. We like crack!fic where aliens make everybody have sex.
We just also like stories about what it's like to be an LGBT wizard, or mutant, or space pilot, and that's what we want to see for this challenge.
Can I submit a prompt for/write gen?
Absolutely. Or slash, or femslash, or polyfic, or het in which at least one partner is LGBT and that's a central issue in the story.
What about characters who wouldn't use these labels (for instance, characters in historical/alien settings)?
You can certainly write about characters who wouldn't describe themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (for instance, because their culture doesn't have those terms available). If your main character is attracted to people of the same gender, or doesn't identify exclusively with the gender they were assigned at birth, and faces some of the issues above, you're fine. If none of these issues are relevant to your main characters at all, this probably isn't the place for your story.
What about heterosexual characters raised in a community or society where that's not the norm?
We're not taking prompts for stories about heterosexual non-transgender characters, even if that's a minority sexual orientation in their community or culture.
Can I submit prompts about asexual characters?
Yes, prompts and stories that focus on asexual characters are fine.
Can I submit prompts if I'm not planning to write for the fest?
Yes, that's fine!
Can I resubmit prompts that weren't claimed in previous rounds of the fest?
Yes, that's fine; just submit them as if they were new prompts.
Schedule
Prompt submission: March 18 through March 24
Prompt claiming: March 26 through April 1
Posting begins: May 1
Posting ends: June 10
Tell your friends! We'd like to get a wide variety of fandoms represented.
Please don't submit your prompts to this post; the prompt submission post is here.
FAQ
We're looking for stories that deal with issues like:
Coming out (coming out for the first time, or in a hostile environment, or to a heterosexual partner, or negotiating how open to be with various people and in various social worlds).
Figuring out sexual orientation and gender identity (deciding you're LGBT, making a gender transition, moving between labels, dealing with other people's labels that don't necessarily fit you.)
Dealing with prejudice (job discrimination, hostility from family or friends, legal problems, violence, and what characters can or can't do about them.)
Being part of an LGBT community (gay bars, student groups, social groups, activist groups, LGBT neighborhoods, networks within the military or a profession, circles of friends, etc.)
LGBT history and politics in fictional worlds (What real-life history have characters lived through? Who might they see as role models? What's the LGBT history of the future? What are LGBT politics like in the wizarding world or on alien planets?)
And there are plenty of other things you could write about -- we're looking for a wide variety of prompts to give people plenty of choices.
We're not looking for:
PWP smut. Stories can be any rating, and can include or be about sex, but if there's no point to your story other than "these characters having sex is very hot," this isn't the place for it.
Stories that are about straight non-transgender people. For this fest, we want stories to focus on the LGBT character(s). This means we are not allowing stories that focus on straight non-transgender characters:
• mistakenly being assumed to be LGBT
• living in a society where being LGBT is the norm
• reacting to having LGBT family, friends, or co-workers
• questioning their sexual orientation and deciding they are straight
• questioning their gender identity and deciding they identify exclusively as the gender that they were assigned at birth
• having sex with someone of the same gender despite actually being straight
We like those stories, too, but they're not what this fest is about.
We also ask that stories not include sex involving pre-adolescent characters, and not include explicit (NC-17) sex involving characters under 18.
What's wrong with slash that doesn't focus on LGBT issues?
Nothing! We like lots of different kinds of slash. We like fluffy romance where there are no hard problems. We like pure smut. We like stories where the characters' sexual orientation is totally irrelevant to the plot. We like stories set in worlds where no one cares about the gender of people's partners. We like crack!fic where aliens make everybody have sex.
We just also like stories about what it's like to be an LGBT wizard, or mutant, or space pilot, and that's what we want to see for this challenge.
Can I submit a prompt for/write gen?
Absolutely. Or slash, or femslash, or polyfic, or het in which at least one partner is LGBT and that's a central issue in the story.
What about characters who wouldn't use these labels (for instance, characters in historical/alien settings)?
You can certainly write about characters who wouldn't describe themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (for instance, because their culture doesn't have those terms available). If your main character is attracted to people of the same gender, or doesn't identify exclusively with the gender they were assigned at birth, and faces some of the issues above, you're fine. If none of these issues are relevant to your main characters at all, this probably isn't the place for your story.
What about heterosexual characters raised in a community or society where that's not the norm?
We're not taking prompts for stories about heterosexual non-transgender characters, even if that's a minority sexual orientation in their community or culture.
Can I submit prompts about asexual characters?
Yes, prompts and stories that focus on asexual characters are fine.
Can I submit prompts if I'm not planning to write for the fest?
Yes, that's fine!
Can I resubmit prompts that weren't claimed in previous rounds of the fest?
Yes, that's fine; just submit them as if they were new prompts.
Schedule
Prompt submission: March 18 through March 24
Prompt claiming: March 26 through April 1
Posting begins: May 1
Posting ends: June 10
Tell your friends! We'd like to get a wide variety of fandoms represented.