First Bi-Annual Pottersues Contest - Gamer-Fic Stu (Yup, I'm Changing Things Up)
I am going to start off my announcement of the annual Pottersues contest by apologizing for not having posted one since 2016. The reason for this came from the fact I received no entries for that particular year, but entry into the contest ended up dropping significantly. I think part of this comes from the fact unlike the previous Pottersues I’ve not been able to afford prizes as I got hit by the economy downturn just like quite a few others. I still can’t afford prizes, particularly with one of the changes I’m going to make.
The first change I am going to make is that the annual contest is going to be changed to a bi-annual one which will run in the spring and fall. The fall one will run from September to December like normal give or take the amount of time it takes to for me to announce said contet. For example, I was late in announcing this one, so it’s going a bit into January. January and February will be a wind down for the contest. The spring contest will then run from March to June and wind down during the months of July and August.
This change is being made in part because I think I’m more likely to remember the contest when contest time comes around. Goodness knows I’ve never once remembered the blogs anniversary. The other reason comes down to the second change I am making.
Whenever a theme was assigned before the goal was focused on taking a bad premise, we see a lot on Pottersues and write a badfic. This was encouraged over taking the premise seriously, but this time around I want to actually encourage writers to take the premise and try and do said premise well. The reason for this comes from the fact some of the recent wank where the writers argue the issue Pottersues and those following is with the premise, so I’d like to counter that.
As for the prize, I’d like the winner or winners to help me come up with the premise for the next contest, so start thinking of something you see a lot on Pottersues which you’d like to see done well, but think it possibly can be done well.
The rule about not telling people you’re participating for the still applies, but the exception is if you encourage another person to join in as we want to create as much stories regarding this premise as possible. It is understandable that they may figure out what story you’re entering. Just don’t tell them what your story is. In fact, I don’t mind if a writer enters more than once, but they can only win once. This is where a new rule regarding reviews will help out.
In that regard, I am still figuring out a point system that strikes a fair balance between the work put into the story and the old system of rewarding people by the number of positive reviews earned. On this I’m open to suggestions from the minions regarding how to score a piece. This said, there are ways to tell if a writer created a sock puppet. Reviews from other writers in the contest won’t count towards review count.
Another change is how stories are submitted. I am going to screen comments for this entry and anything submitting an entry will stay hidden. Yes, I still use the e-mails, but this way it is all in one spot and those who don’t want to share their e-mail with me don’t have to.
….
What? Bad fan fiction. Or at least bad premises.
Who? All of the lesbian minions, and anybody else who wants to participate.
Where? The Pit of Voles
When? September 6 to January 5. (3/1/2020 - Extended to September 5, 2020 due to no entries.
Why? Because, as loyal minions we should show our abilities off, and we frequent this journal because we both love and love to hate Mary Sues just like any other form of bad writing. For our previous contest announcements check out the contest tag.
How? I assign a theme which is a premise we typically see in Mary Sue fanfic and you attempt to make a serious attempt at doing said premise right. Scratch that if you want to write a Mary Sue story of course, but the goal is to try and get as many positive reviews without creating sock puppets and depending on the other writers participating. Note - If you do aim at writing an actual Mary Sue then please remember there are a lot more people aware of troll fic out there who are on the look out for trolls, so don’t make an obvious troll.
The rules are as follows.
Points will be awarded for the following definitely.
I’m open to actual suggestions regarding how to improve this point system.
Edit - I am working on the entry for today still and what I thought was a female version of Harry
The first change I am going to make is that the annual contest is going to be changed to a bi-annual one which will run in the spring and fall. The fall one will run from September to December like normal give or take the amount of time it takes to for me to announce said contet. For example, I was late in announcing this one, so it’s going a bit into January. January and February will be a wind down for the contest. The spring contest will then run from March to June and wind down during the months of July and August.
This change is being made in part because I think I’m more likely to remember the contest when contest time comes around. Goodness knows I’ve never once remembered the blogs anniversary. The other reason comes down to the second change I am making.
Whenever a theme was assigned before the goal was focused on taking a bad premise, we see a lot on Pottersues and write a badfic. This was encouraged over taking the premise seriously, but this time around I want to actually encourage writers to take the premise and try and do said premise well. The reason for this comes from the fact some of the recent wank where the writers argue the issue Pottersues and those following is with the premise, so I’d like to counter that.
As for the prize, I’d like the winner or winners to help me come up with the premise for the next contest, so start thinking of something you see a lot on Pottersues which you’d like to see done well, but think it possibly can be done well.
The rule about not telling people you’re participating for the still applies, but the exception is if you encourage another person to join in as we want to create as much stories regarding this premise as possible. It is understandable that they may figure out what story you’re entering. Just don’t tell them what your story is. In fact, I don’t mind if a writer enters more than once, but they can only win once. This is where a new rule regarding reviews will help out.
In that regard, I am still figuring out a point system that strikes a fair balance between the work put into the story and the old system of rewarding people by the number of positive reviews earned. On this I’m open to suggestions from the minions regarding how to score a piece. This said, there are ways to tell if a writer created a sock puppet. Reviews from other writers in the contest won’t count towards review count.
Another change is how stories are submitted. I am going to screen comments for this entry and anything submitting an entry will stay hidden. Yes, I still use the e-mails, but this way it is all in one spot and those who don’t want to share their e-mail with me don’t have to.
….
What? Bad fan fiction. Or at least bad premises.
Who? All of the lesbian minions, and anybody else who wants to participate.
Where? The Pit of Voles
When? September 6 to January 5. (3/1/2020 - Extended to September 5, 2020 due to no entries.
Why? Because, as loyal minions we should show our abilities off, and we frequent this journal because we both love and love to hate Mary Sues just like any other form of bad writing. For our previous contest announcements check out the contest tag.
How? I assign a theme which is a premise we typically see in Mary Sue fanfic and you attempt to make a serious attempt at doing said premise right. Scratch that if you want to write a Mary Sue story of course, but the goal is to try and get as many positive reviews without creating sock puppets and depending on the other writers participating. Note - If you do aim at writing an actual Mary Sue then please remember there are a lot more people aware of troll fic out there who are on the look out for trolls, so don’t make an obvious troll.
The rules are as follows.
- Stories must be posted on the Pit of Voles between September 6 to January 5 of this contest run. You have a maximum of four months in which to collect reviews, follows and favorites. Stories posted before September 6 will be disqualified
- You don’t have to finish the fic. You don’t have to post more than a single chapter if you don’t want to, but you’re actually more likely to win if you continue a piece.
- You don’t have to post them under your own username. I’m not that cruel. You can co-author a story with someone, however, it must be posted under one account.
- Originally the manner in which people won was by getting the highest review average meaning a story with one chapter and twelve reviews would win over a story with two chapters and thirteen reviews. However, with the advent of follows and favorite and the fact I want to encourage writing good stories the point system has changed up.
- You cannot anywhere on your profile page or in the fic itself note that this is a contest or a troll. People have to like it because they like that sort of thing. I can’t stop you, but don’t post about this in your live journal either. If you get a bunch of friends on your friends list to read and review, it’s cheating and not fair.
- Post a comment in the comment section to enter.
- You are allowed to co-write and you are allowed to enter more than one story.
- The story must be a crossover, but you can pick any fandom you want.
- The story should NOT follow the normal format for the Gamer-Fic story which involves putting the game instructions in bold which is telling the reader the instructions rather than showing the instructions. (The exception is if you’re attempting an actual Mary Sue.
Points will be awarded for the following definitely.
- Reviews
- Review Average
- Follows
- Favorites
I’m open to actual suggestions regarding how to improve this point system.
Edit - I am working on the entry for today still and what I thought was a female version of Harry