Think you can write seven ficlets before book seven? We think you can.

Ficlet : A short, (usually) one chapter fanfiction.

Here's the challenge: seven themes, seven short ficlets. You have until the release of HPDH to write all of them. It's simply a race to finish, and the best part is, everyone can be a winner if they are determined enough!

Although it is not a requirement to finish all seven, there’s no reason why you can’t! The point of this challenge is to encourage everyone to share your love for your ships, to write as much as you can, but most importantly, to have fun! What’s more, you also do not have to pick one ship to sign up for. Branch out if you feel so inclined! If you want to write one ship for all seven themes, go right ahead, but if you want to try your hand at other ships, the more power to you!

For example: since there are seven themes, you can write a mix of ships with those seven themes, such as: three Harry/Hermione ficlets, two Draco/Ginny ficlets, one Ron/Luna ficlet, one Lily/James ficlet, or any other combination of seven.

In addition to the challenge of writing 7 Before 7, readers and writers alike can participate in a rating system: every ficlet posted will be rated by popular opinion! The highest-rated ficlet of each theme will receive complimentary awards.

Have we got your attention? Read the...

Rules/Requirements

• Each ficlet must be central to the Harry/Hermione, Draco/Ginny, Lily/James, or Ron/Luna relationship.
• Each ficlet must be 1000-3000 words, but don't let that scare you! 1000 words is easily two pages of fic, and 3000 is approximately three to four.
• Each ficlet must correspond with one of the seven themes.
• You do not have to be a Fanfiction section author. - Anyone can enter.
• You do not have to write the ficlets in order of the given themes.
• Each ficlet must be original and written specifically for this challenge and not beforehand. No recycling old fics!
• No fics rated higher than R

That's all! Still interested? Take a look at the...

Seven Themes

1. This fic must include some sort of confusion over a Muggle object.
2. This fic must include a Prank. Any prank. On anyone.
3. Your Choice: Write yourself into a ficlet, or write the most cliched/overdone/OOC fic you can. We're throwing in a silly one!
4. The fluffy (or angsty?) first kiss. Go crazy with this one.
5. A character in this ficlet must say the sentence, "You can't possibly expect me to wear that."
6. This ficlet must mention a Daily Prophet Article filled with mistakes.
7. The all encompassing "Make YOUR favorite PK ship work in Book 7" ficlet. Do this any way you want.

Each theme has its own subforum where you will post your finished ficlets. But more on that later--first let’s go over signing up!

Sign Up!

Ready to sign up? You can sign up at any time and join in! Post the following information in your very own thread here, in this forum.

Fill out the thread title with: “Your PK User Account Name”
The subtitle should read: “SIGN-UP”

In the post body itself, please copy, paste, and fill out the following short form:





As you finish ficlet after ficlet, you’ll use this sign-up thread as a tally for your personal use, and for our modly use, as well. Each new ficlet submission deserves a new post, with the following appropriate header. You will NOT post your actual ficlet here; only the header and a link to your finished ficlet will be appropriate. This is for tally purposes only.




To see an example of this, you can visit the example thread we've made!

Posting Your Ficlets

So, you’ve signed up. What now?

Before you rush off to write, there are just three more things you must keep in mind:

First, when you are finished with a ficlet and are ready to post it in its respective subforum, you must fill out the thread title correctly and secondly, use and fill out the appropriate header. You should post your ficlets as you finish them and not all at the last minute! Also, all submissions are final!

Fill out the thread title with: “The title of your ficlet, the SHIP of your ficlet, and the rating of your ficlet”

A good example would read: Pumpkin Pie, HARRY/HERMIONE, PG-13

The codes to the appropriate header can be found below:

And last but certainly not least, remember to HAVE FUN and write ‘til you drop!

Feel free to reply with any questions or comments! You can also PM or email Crystal/InTheStars, Tina/Sakura1287, or Daniela/vanillapuf with any questions or comments as well!

Revision Log
12 June 2007 8:42 PM. Added "all submissions are final."
9 June 2007 11:56 PM. Added colour codes.
8 June 2007 1:23PM. Added list tags and other tiny tweaks for readability. ~Jonathan

Deadline
Right up until the release of the book. So July 20, 11:59pm.

Prizes & Awards
As always, we'll be handing out little gift to our fic authors. What exactly they would be - aside from the love and adoration of the masses is still being formulated But we should have a few good ones

Cool!!!

so can you tell me what exactly is a ficlet?

A ficlet is basically a one-shot.

And I'm so doing this challenge...already have one story finished

What is a Ficlet?
A ficlet is a short story. Usually written in 1 part. Some times the bigger ones might be a broken up into two parts. They are usually centered around a topic or theme.

And the ficlets for this challenge must be 1000-3000 words. - Crystal

Ooh! This definitely sounds interesting, and like a good cure for my writer's block. I think I might actually try this.

Do it!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!


Crystal

Peer pressure...

But seriously, you should do it-- we'd love the competition to have lots of people signing up.

Oh I'm going to do it. I am hoping it will get rid of my own writers block

Use it as a way to get my mind poppin.

Hey second question is there a rating limit?

Oh HELLS YES!



WOO! This is going to be awesome! And because half of my mind is that of a guy, I've got the most hilarious ideas! Bwahaha!

Great challenge to the webmasters...daymn (you know it's good when there's a 'y' in there!)!

Right, well I got to get to work...I've only got til *checks calendar* the 9th...

...

Might need a little magic with this one..

Yay Portkey is my king!

Technically, about six days/fic...

I've started writing...have you?

That's a question for Nappa. We're running it by him now and we'll get back to everyone ASAP!




Haha thanks! We hope you guys enjoy it... we're happy everyone is so enthusiastic about it!




Oh yes... I've got one nearly done already!




Crystal

Ratings upto R - is allowed. Anything higher than this, is really not going to be something everyone can view and enjoy. So while older readers might like the NC17 fics, having only been read by those older readers, it wouldn't be fair to compare those.

NAPPA
** who can't believe he is turning down smuttiness .... :'( **

*Clutches chest and wails*

I feel your pain! At least we still get R...so not all of my ideas have to go away

I'll start tonight, I believe...it will be specnificent!

aww.....no NC17? Oh well R can be just a little bit naughty can't it?

hee hee



I'm starting tonight.

LOL am I even allowed to WRITE R rated? I'm 16!
Well actually, I just remembered I turn 17 on June 12th haha. As if it makes a difference. I've been reading some R and NC17 for a while now, my parents can't be arsed. Yeah, I was sad enough to ask permission lol.

Hm... how tempting. Would loosely connected ficlets be okay?

As long as they contain the 7 themes.

...your signature, by far, is the greatest thing ever. bahahahahah! good thing I'm the only one home right now or else my family would think I was crazy for laughing like a dolt in the basement by myself!

Hey, I have a question.

#6 The ever reliable Daily Prophet
- This ficlet must mention a Daily Prophet Article filled with mistakes.

My question is, what kind of mistakes? Misinformation (like Rita Skeeter-esque) or typos and stuff like so. (Stupid question, I know, but I just want to be sure.)

Thanks in advance!

Any kind of mistakes you want!


Crystal

Though it's going to be difficult to make an interesting fanfic out of just typos. But I bet someone could do it!



Kristina

Off Topic:

Is there a particular reason for having a plane in the logo?

At first I thought it had something to do with the "7 'fore 7" (747 = related to the Boeing 747 plane), but then I took a better look at the pic and I realized such plane was not a 747.

It was then when I thought "hey, this could have a hidden meaning, foreshadowing perhaps, like someone from a certain shiping site has been invited by a certain female author to be interviewed by them, and could be flying next month to Great Britain to do so, which would mean fantastic news to those who ship a certain ship between a girl with bushy and brown hair and a boy with black messy hair and a scar in his forehead".

Please tell me I'm not overanalizing.

OFF-TOPIC:
It's supposed to, well, represent a 747, but it really doesn't look like it? (I pay no attention to 747s and whatnot.) It took me the longest time to figure out what 7 'Fore 7 was when we discussed it.

You never know if it could be your theory.

ON-TOPIC:
*sniff* Yay, more entries!


It'll be fun to read though. You know how reliable the Daily Prophet is.

Evernight : :'( Unfortunately, it's not what you're thinking. It really is supposed to be a 747. I know the plane isn't. But that was the best looking plane I could find to make the graphic for the contest ^.^ It's supposed to represent a 747 plane.

The name 747 - came from the idea that we'll be writing 7 fics before 7, OR 7 ficlets FOR 7th book.

I really want to try and be a part of this but I am not an author at portkey. Can I still do it. I have already started with one story in hopes of being able to.

You not need to be an author on PORTKEY. You can enter with just your forum membership. If you want to use your entry into the competition to become a fanfiction section author - you can let us know. Just point to where your fanfictions are located, we'll give you a membership too

OKAY I've done my citizen's duty by writing my first ficlet and my democratic duty by rating and reviewing every single fic that's been posted so far!

I might take a shot at this. I'm pretty busy between trying to find a job, get the books read before DH comes out, and working on a couple of my own stories (the "in progress" one and the sequel to "All I Want for Christmas"). Still, I might take a shot at this...who knows, maybe something I write for this will find its way into my version of book 7 that I'm still planning on writing at some point.

And here I was thinking we could win a flight to London.



Btw, I'm giving this a try.

Just wondering...why doesn't my story show up in the Muggle Confusion forum? Yet, if I go to the topics I have posted, it's there and it works...any answer would be appreciated.

Mods, there is something WRONG with the muggle confusion section. No threads show up! All the other sections appear to be fine, but section 1's fics have all dissapeared! GTI's problem is probably something to do with this...

This is the message that shows up in there:

No topics were found. This is either because there are no topics in this forum, or the topics are older than the current age cut-off.

MOD NOTE: In Section 1: Muggle Confusion, we are aware of a problem with the threads. This is because the forum has set itself (I think) to only posts from Today. If you scroll down to the bottom, there is an area which says Order/Time: Today, or something like that, which is a drop down menu. Just change "Today" to "All" to get the fics. This is a short term measure and I have contacted NAPPA to fix it.

Adam, Portkey.Org Mod Team

--

MOD NOTE: NAPPA's fixing it right now.

Miss Mady

Thanks muchness for clearing that up, Adam! Cheers to all ya mods!

PK Mods rock. That's a fact.

Thanks for the fix

RE: Muggle Confusion Issue :

Fixed.

For theme 3/Your Choice, is it truly the author's choice or are we restricted to only the suggestions you have listed?

I'm late in the starting, but I've already completed my first entry! So that's good news!
Sadly I've been away from the H/Hr community, but have made a valiant return! Just in time for this contest too XD
So yeah, I'm in on this one; good luck to everyone Pull those quills out! And no cheating ^^;;

Oh, and by the way, QUESTION! What if mine exceeds 3000 words? but is like ... 3500? I mean, it's not like it's a whole novel, right? Right? ^^;;

I have a question about the focus rule. My story for the Prank challenge has Harry/Hermione and Ron/Luna as established couples, but it focuses on Fred and Angelina more. Is that allowed? *crosses fingers in hope*

Question, do we have to focus on a single couple the whole time? Or can we jump around between D/G, H/Hr, and L/J ?

Nevermind. I'm an idiot. Re-read and found it. Thanks anyways. -blush-

Go crazy! The bits we put under there were really more like general guidelines. You can write anything silly at all.




I'll PM you shortly about this.


Crystal

Oops! I forgot to add the ship and rating to the thread title and it won't let me fix it. Help!

A quick question...when will the winners of the competition be determined?

I am also wondering this.