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

[luvscharlie]

It was a fantastic drabble! It makes me want to snuggle George a little bit (as George is perfectly snuggable)

Girl, I have got to get moving on hp_getlucky!

[katmarajade]

Thanks! I am rather fond of this one! I thought it quite fun. Plus, talk about nice to be writing fluffy bits after that emo Draco/Rose fic. My get lucky fic is pure silly fluff too!

Have you started? Do you know what you're writing about and/or whom? If you need help getting the wheels turning I'm free all morning! :)

Also, if you get stuck, I'd be happy to switch days if you needed it. But I won't steal your St Patty's Day posting unless it gets dire and you've got nearly a week still so I don't think that should be a problem. I'm on Fri 21.

[ragdoll]

I absolutely loved yours and am sorry you didn't make it past this round. There were so many great stories, and it was so hard to vote!

[katmarajade]

Thanks, bb! I'm rather fond of it too, but knowing that my competitor's was also good makes me feel much better. (If I'd thought hers was FAR superior, I'd have felt inadequate, and if I'd thought mine was far superior, I'd have be annoyed at losing.) and yeah, this round had such great match ups-- I really struggled to choose for so many!

I'm just as happy to read and vote for the sweet sixteen! Honestly, drabbles have never really been my forte anyway! I've got too much to say. And I really should focus on my other looming deadlines anyway. :)

[bluemermaid]

It was so hard to vote in all the brackets, because so many of the drabbles were amazing. I definitely enjoyed reading yours! :)

[katmarajade]

It was SO hardto vote! Agreed! Lots of great work. It's been fun! Congrats on moving on! :) Sweet Sixteen! Good for you. Thanks! I had fun writing this one. :)

[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

[secretsolitaire]

I think this is delightful. ;)

[katmarajade]

Thanks, bb! I was pretty fond of it. I haven't written these two in a while and I miss them! *squishes them together and smiles fondly*