We have all now had a chance now to read and digest Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. Opinions as always vary greatly, as different people looked for different things in the 7th and final book.
No, the Harry Potter series did not end or feature Harry and Hermione together, according to the epilogue. But if you take the epilogue out of it, a strong case could be made for all relationships. So that is just what we are doing. For this competition – we’re taking the epilogue out of it!
We hope that this competition will help to cheer those of you up whose spirits were dampened by the 7th book. If you want to read quality stories that end the way you want them to, then this competition is definitely for you. On top of your awesome reviews, we’re going to feature prizes for our top authors in this competition.
This time around we’re actually making one distinction. Stories will be divided into two “categories” when prizes are awarded. The first category will be short stories of 5 chapters or less, and the second category is intended to be more along the lines of “novel length” – greater than 5 chapters. This will provide greater chances for shorter stories, as results told us from the last competition that the top stories were in that case all novel length.
We have created a mini site for this competition - it can be found at http://fanfiction.portkey.org/elderwand/. You will find that it is much easier to discover whether your favourite entries have been updated, what rating you gave them and when you last read the story!
How does the competition work?
The format is almost identical to the one used in our book 6 competition – titled “Felix Felicis”. The real basis of the system is that authors enter their story into the competition if it meets the criteria of it. Entries are then rated by registered members of Portkey over on the fanfiction section, with one rating per member per story. That rating can be changed/updated at any time and members are told the rating they have given a story each chapter that they read, giving them the opportunity to upgrade or downgrade the rating based on the content and plot of the story.
Criteria for entry
- The author of the story MUST have entirely read Deathly Hollows, and the story must be set DURING or AFTER the Deathly Hollows story. So for those of you starting a book 6 fanfiction just now, your story is not eligible. Furthermore, the story must have been started AFTER 21 July 2007. (Authors that posted after that date will have the option of “editing” their stories in their author preferences in order to enter the competition)
- The story cannot “ignore” all the events of the Deathly Hollows (exception: the epilogue may be ignored! See later rules). Different takes on the Deathly Hollows are fine. This means that your story could potentially be a 7th year story - but it would need to deal loosely with at least some of the facts and items of book 7. Put another way, it cannot be an entirely alternative and different 7th year story that could have been started before book 7, readers should clearly be able to tell that the author has read book 7.
- We entirely encourage completely ignoring the epilogue of book 7. Start your fanfiction the second that Deathly Hollows finishes! Set it a few years later. The possibilities are endless, but in the name of fiction we beg of you, if it suites your story, don’t follow or listen to the epilogue featured in Deathly Hollows.
For a full and up-to-date copy of these rules please refer to this page.
Prizes?
Yes! The prizes are not entirely confirmed at this point, but on the prizes page, which is constantly being updated. Equally, for a very good idea of what the prizes will be this time around, you can see the Felix Felicis prize page.
When and until when?
It is now possible to enter the competition – right now! You simply need to be a Portkey.org author. If you are not – there is still plenty of time to sign up within the author area.
We are tentatively setting a closing date for new story entries at September 8 (but you will have plenty of notice of the confirmed closing date). Stories will then be voted on and rated by our members for an additional 2 weeks after the closing date, so if the closing date for entries remains September 8, the voting period would end on September 22. These dates will be confirmed in time.
Any Questions?
If you have a question, simply reply to this thread and ask it! I will get to it as soon as possible. Remember most importantly that this story is about fun and finding quality fanfiction!
