Triatha-Ron 2008 FAQ
Triatha-Ron 2008 FAQ
Why a Ron fest?
Because we love him. More importantly, we'd like to generate some new and exciting fanfic and art about a character who is frequently dismissed or overlooked, if not downright vilified, by a large segment of the fandom.
How do I sign up?
There are three teams for this fest - Team Het, Team Slash, and Team Gen. The Mods have invited some of last year's participants including our beloved pinch hitters. In addition to those reserved places, we are reserving 2 slots from each team for people who did not participate last year. Then we also have several slots that are open to anyone. Sign ups for the new participants and the "free for all" slots will begin March 1 and end March 8. A lottery system will be used to fill those slots so that sign ups are fair to all time zones (you will have a chance to indicate which teams you'd prefer to join). Participants can offer to both write fic and make art, but they will only be chosen for one of those.
How will prompts be assigned?
Like sign-ups, prompts will be assigned by lottery. Artists will be competing against each other, not against authors (so for example we won't assign two fics and one piece of art on the theme of "warmth" - each prompt will be all fic or all art). We'll post the team rosters and notify all participants of their prompt on March 9. You may switch prompts within your team and your medium so long as you let the mods know, but you may not switch a fic prompt and an art prompt.
What are the criteria my fic or art must meet?
They're simple:
1. The fic or art must be about Ron. That's kind of the point of the fest.
2. Fic must be at least 1,000 words. There's no upper limit, but if your fic is too long to fit in a single LJ post, talk to the mods about options for posting it. Art should be roughly the same as you think a 1000 word piece would be in terms of effort and quality.
3. The piece must fit with your team theme: Slash, Het, or Gen. Aside from those categories, you are wide open: a Team Het writer can choose to write Ron/Hermione, Ron/Luna, Ron/Ginny, Ron/Bellatrix, or anything other (het) ship that catches her fancy. Other pairings are permissible as long as they're in the background-say, a Team Slash fic can mention past Ron/Hermione, or a Team Gen fic can refer to Ron's current relationship. (See below, "How do we define gen?")
4. The piece must make use of the assigned prompt. The prompts are deliberately somewhat vague in order to accommodate all our participants, but we encourage creativity!
5. Authors, we generally prefer that fic stand alone for this fest, ie, that it not be part of an existing universe. That way readers can judge your entry on its own merits.
6. Fic or art MUST NOT depict sexual activity involving characters under the age of 16. Sorry, but we're trying to do our best within LJ's current restrictions.
How are you defining "gen"?
Basically, for our purposes, gen is fic or art that doesn't focus on a romantic or sexual relationship. These relationships can certainly be present, but they shouldn't be the focus. An example might be a hypothetical fic about Ron and Molly: if the fic focuses on the mother-son dynamic, then it's okay to mention that Ron is dating someone, as long as that doesn't become the centerpiece of the fic. If Ron's other relationship is given equal time or plays a major role in the story, though, then it's more of a ship fic. For art, you could show Ron on a family outing and that may well include a romantic relationship, but again, the emphasis should be on the whole rather than on the pairing.
Obviously the line between gen and ship fic is very hazy, so we at the Triatha-Ron choose to cast a wide net. There are plenty of characters that Ron can interact with without necessarily getting down and funky: friends, family, teachers, employers, and more. We encourage all our authors to flex their creative imaginations!
Would a threesome count as het or slash?
We've considered this, especially in light of the popularity of the Harry/Ron/Hermione ship. And the answer seems to be that it depends on how it's written. In an MFM threesome such as the Trio, the writer might choose to focus more on Ron and Harry than Ron and Hermione, and make it slash, or she might focus more on Ron and Hermione and make it het.
In a FFM threesome (say, Ron/Hermione/Luna) the focus will naturally be on Ron and one of the girls rather than the girls together, and the fic would thus be het. This is a Ron ficathon, after all.
Is there a posting template authors and artists need to use?
Posting will be handled by the moderators (it's the only way we can insert the polls). However, in order to make our job easier, we ask that authors write a header for us with all the following information:
Title:
Author name:
Team:
Prompt:
Rating:
Pairings/Characters:
Warnings:
Length:
Summary:
Author notes: (optional)
And artists, please use this header:
Title:
Artist name:
Team:
Prompt:
Rating:
Pairings/Characters:
Warnings:
Summary or brief description:
Artist notes: (optional)
YOU MUST warn for the following elements: character death, graphic violence, graphic sex, AU, and any far-out kinks. Please use your best judgment in assigning a rating and a list of warnings to your piece, but try to be as accurate as possible. If you have questions about the rating or about the warnings your should include, please contact the mods for advice. We do not require blanket warnings for het or slash, since that ought to be obvious from the team and pairing information!
Fics can be submitted as .html, .doc or .txt files. The Mods can code your fic for you, but we would really appreciate it if you did any special formatting (italics, for example) yourself, so we don't inadvertently mess anything up.
How will fics be posted?
All the work for a given prompt will be posted together, every day, until we run out of stuff! The Mods will post each piece in order to get the polls for scoring formatted correctly. Speaking of which...
How will scoring work? Who wins?
Each piece will be posted with a LiveJournal poll at the bottom asking readers to rate it on three scales:
How well did this piece use the assigned prompt?
How well did this piece use and portray Ron?
Overall, how much did you like this piece?
The total scores for each piece will be averaged to some number out of thirty. The sum of these averages will be the team score. The team with the highest score will be declared the winner!
What do we get if we win?
Eternal glory, pride, and Ron-love. Oh, and a nifty banner.
What are you going to do about ballot-box stuffing?
Absolutely nothing. The goal of this fest is to get some great Ron fan work out there. If you want to pimp your fic or art hither and yon about the fandom in order to get more votes, go right ahead-just remember to mention it was written for the Triatha-Ron!
Tell me more about the drabble-a-thon that will happen while the main teams are working! How does this drabble thingy work?
Good question! Ummmm, look, over there, a bunny! (ie, we're working on it!)
Where can we ask more questions?
You can comment here! Or if you prefer email, the official e-mail for the fest is triatharon.mod@gmail.com. You can direct any questions there, and one of the moderators will happily answer your question.
Regards,
Marginaliana
Tarie
Mad Maudlin