Fests I’ve Considered

[paulamcg]

hp-unhappily-ever-after has opened prompting.

hp_getlucky is running a mini fest, where you simply create a fanwork on the theme of luck and post it on the community on the 17th of March.

On hp_shoreofangst this is the last day of prompting.


Fest- Timeline:
Prompting: February
Claiming: March 1st
Works due: May 10th
Posting: June 1st



I feel more drawn to the latter two, as they look like cosy little corners in the weirdness of HP fandom.

Comments

[a_belladonna]

You're right, those two do sound interesting. :) The hp_getlucky in particular seems rather stress-free this time. I say go for it! :)

[paulamcg]

While Tumblr still confuses me, those two on Livejournal look very small. And small is beautiful, as I’ve recently emphasised when discussing the chances to start a reviewing community – and being distracted from fiction-writing. It might be true that hp_getlucky is planned to be stress-free, but I haven’t started and the deadline is in a couple of weeks. Thanks for commenting and encouraging me! I wonder if you can consider participating.

[a_belladonna]

Yes, small is good! :)

and the deadline is in a couple of weeks

Yes, that part is a little worrisome. One can't embark on a large multi-chapter fic, that's for sure.
And of course! Writing can be a little lonely sometimes - it's nice to feel the support from others. If I'm participating (big if!) it'll likely be art, though, as I feel more comfortable doing that with a short notice. :)

[paulamcg]

Large multi-chapter fic! No! I’m not planning another one like that. In two weeks I could finish even a 5000-word-fic, and I might get lucky with my beta’s schedule, but I should first get started.

When I’m in the process of writing fic, I don’t feel lonely. It’s after publishing something (like thirty fics on AO3 in the past three or four months) that I crave for response.

I’d love to see art by you in that fest!

[a_belladonna]

Of course, yes, there's nothing worse than posting something and feeling it goes completely unnoticed. :(

I might have a small art bunny nibbling at my ankles right now. ;) Let's see what I get around to do - I just finished a test knitting project today, which might give me a little more room for fannish stuff. :)
Anyway, good luck with your fic for the fest!

[paulamcg]

Oh no, don’t say that! Or rather I don’t want to say that. It was fine for me for most of 2019, posting perhaps twenty of the year’s 25 fics while I knew they were completely unnoticed. It was just after finding fests and making DW friends who started commenting on my non-fic posts that I started having hopes or even expectations for reader response. I get some kudos on some of my fic and even an occasional comment, and I’ve felt this is worse. But I’ve been told it’s normal, and I guess I should just focus on writing fic.

Thank you in any case, and congrats on the knitting, and I’m glad to hear about your bunny!

[a_belladonna]

Oh, I can see that. :( But from what I can gather from the fics I read on AO3 (which seems to be 'anything but HP') people these days seem to mostly give kudos. I've seen fics with several hundred reads and 100+ kudos, but only 4 comments, where two are from readers and the other two are thank you comments from the writer. And in some of those instances where there are more comments it turns out it's the writer and a reader engaging in a conversation.

I hope to be able to write something about the knitting project once it's done, but for now it's very hush-hush - I guess I can say as much that it's for a book.
As for the bunny, I'll try to feed it. ;)

[paulamcg]

Thank you for those words of consolation! Take good care of your bunny, and I’ll be looking forward to hearing about the secret knitting, too.

[gracerene]

Yay fests! I've also been thinking about Get Lucky as it seems nice and low-key. I love the concept of the unhappily ever after, but I have a thing where I try not to participate in fests that have unnecessary content restrictions, and it feels weird to me that a dark fest would not allow incest ships or underage. There are so many fests these days, I tend to try and really prioritize!

[paulamcg]

I kept just thinking for too long, and now that I’ve finally got started with my Lucky fic, we’ll see if it turns out to be completed in two weeks.

I hadn’t noticed such restrictions at Unhappily. And I would not have expected them. What a pity!

I’ve got used to being the writer of low ratings and no warnings, but having started to write sex scenes, I’ve recently been taken unawares that my sixth-year James and Lily’s first time is not allowed in all communities, and got worried if references to childhood sexual abuse could be forbidden. Now I’ve ended up writing something that could be dubcon, posted it yesterday, and worried that I’d done something very wrong, and added the warning afterwards.

At Shore of Angst, which is not a gift-exchange, I was surprised to see so many restrictions (“please don’t”, not “I do not like”, but maybe these are the same thing) in prompts. Of course, that’s different from what you told me about Unhappily. I must understand that people can have their own restrictions in what they want to read, as well as hopes that they’ll enjoy reading fic based on their prompts. My prompt comments just look unusual since I’m not saying what the fic mustn’t include. I’ve recently (when suggesting a reviewing community) declared that I’ll read anything and I still think I’ll stick to that promise, although those “please don’t”s include things I’ve never thought of mentioning as something I don’t like, while I’m not particularly fond of them (like cannibalism!).

Of course, it’s nicer to write for fests where I don’t have to expect other participants to want to avoid reading my fic. (Not that I’m planning to write about cannibalism:)) But a prompt can give some additional inspiration and motivation in any case. As I still don’t focus on sex or kink and I’ve not got familiar with Tublr, Twitter or FB in fandom, I haven’t found too many fests to choose from.

I’m sorry this reply got so long and partly out of topic, but I hope it’s all right here on my journal. Thank you for commenting and giving me this chance to elaborate!

[gracerene]

Not a problem at all! I'm definitely not bothered when people put dislikes into prompts, and I'll do that on occasion as well (though I always limit myself to 3) but, of course, there are definitely prompts I end up not choosing to write for because I find the dislikes restrictive. But when an entire fest has bans on a certain kinds of content, it starts to feel more like censorship and just seems antithetical to what I feel like fandom should be about. Even when, as is often the case, it's not actually content I personally want to create, I'm generally of the opinion that it should be allowed. :D

[paulamcg]

Thank you for reading and still commenting! I suppose sometimes it really makes sense to include “Please don’t” in a prompt so as to make clear what the prompt is about (e.g. not about sex at all). But in fests where the same prompt can be picked by several writers, why restrict them all (also in all the prompts given by the same prompter)? On the other hand, at Shore of Angst you can write without a prompt, so why should I complain.

It’s just that I’m surprised to see long lists of likes and dislikes – on people’s sticky posts, too, when I haven’t made it so clear to myself beforehand what I’ll choose to read and what not. In general I’m against censorship and I perhaps share your view of what fandom should be about. And any themes and topics that are or could be part of life must be allowed to be dealt with in art, no?

[paulamcg]

I’ve just had a look at the guidelines of HP Femslash Minifest on Tumblr, and I guess you, too, would like this prompt policy:
Theses scenarios … should be general scenes, quotes, situations, or ideas that creators can use to jump start their work. They … should not be tied to any specific character/pairing/gen. … Scenarios should not include squicks or maximum ratings as it is the content consumer’s job to read tags and cultivate their own experiences with this fest. We are not in the business of restricting creators.

[delphi]

Those all look neat!

[paulamcg]

Thanks! There must be more – and also other reasons to feel motivated to go on writing.

[delphi]

Absolutely! I like to trade off between working on fest fic and non-fest fic, myself, but there are just so many good challenges out there right now. I recently took part in chocolatebox (a multifandom exchange that matches on romantic or platonic relationships), which was a lot of fun. I'm currently signed up for hpdaddyfest/on DW, which is a more niche challenge for daddy kink in the Harry Potter fandom, and bethefirst, which is for writing the first fic in a rare fandom. I'm always scanning the various drabble and ficlet communities for a prompt that takes root, I'm (possibly a little over-ambitiously) thinking about posting a treat for smut4smut, and as a reader, I'm looking forward to hp_goldenage posting.

[paulamcg]

Thank you! I guess since November and Sirius Black Fest (and for no good reason) I’ve written too few non-fest fics, even though I haven’t participated in many fests either (just written two or even four fics for one fest). Some fests are out of question for me because I’m only in the HP fandom and because I haven’t written smut or kink. After what I’ve written above against restrictions, perhaps I should choose more smut and kink to read, and in any case it’s good to hear about where my DW friends are active. Golden Age is something I’m looking forward to (or already living, in fact:))!

[delphi]

I hear you - there are a whole lot of fests I'm interested in that I end up not being able to take part in because of my limited fandoms and ships. (Which is to say, while I actually have a lot of fandoms and ships, they're not always ones other people are requesting.) I've found that Harry Potter still often has a strong presence in a lot of multifandom fests, at least, and every once in a while I luck into getting to write one of my HP pet pairings for someone. :)

[paulamcg]

I’ve thought that in multifandom fests you need to offer fic in more than one fandom or you can’t be paired. But there must be different fests, and in any case I’m now wary of gift exchanges because it seems very few people like some features I often choose in my writing (like first-person narrative :)).

[delphi]

Oh, you're absolutely right - for gift exchanges, matching usually relies on offering at least three fandoms. I was speaking loosely in terms of fests and including prompt fests and some flash exchanges, where people are putting out a request but there's not necessarily one-to-one matching. But I hear you, exchanges aren't for everyone, and it all comes down to a compatible match sometimes, which can be tough.

I'm really enjoying working on my bethefirst story because, as it's for a fandom with zero fic, I feel like there's absolutely no one to please but myself. :D

[paulamcg]

(Oh, matching is what’s done to participants; pairings are about characters! :) I still haven’t remembered even the little I learnt about fests before my hiatus.) I suppose some prompt fests are the most suitable kind of fests for me, and even in them I mustn’t expect reader response.

I did join a flash community I found on DW thanks to Snowflake, but I haven’t been motivated to participate, when I’ve seen that all the fanwork posted is for other fandoms. I actually thought that the community could encourage me to give a try to other fandoms by reading short fic, but I haven’t done that, because it seems to be all about TV shows I’ve never seen.

I wonder if I ever get inspired to writing fanfic on the basis of a book nobody else in fandom has got that interested in. I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying Being the First!

Thank you for still replying! These conversations should be enough to sustain me while I continue to write something that might end up pleasing only me.