kerravonsen | Not Deeply Horrible

Well, my story for

deeply_horrible has been rejected by the vetting committee, because Snape isn't horrible in it. I'm not that surprised. I wrote to the prompt, which I think is only reasonable, and the prompt didn't lead me to write a Snape who was "nasty, cruel, unforgiving", but rather a Snape who was "desperate and full of self-loathing".

I am somewhat annoyed by the way the fest was run. They should have vetted the prompts rather than vetting the stories, and then just left us to write to the prompts, like any reasonable ficathon does. So if they run it again, I don't think I will participate.

I thought, going in, that it was simply going to be a Snape-centric ficathon which discouraged people from writing Snape as nice. Which I was quite happy with. When the prompts were going up, there were of course very dark-and-nasty prompts, but there were also prompts that were not so dark. So I was still hopeful it wouldn't necessarily be a fest consisting only of darkfic. Then came the post by the mod "clarifying" what they meant by "deeply horrible" and about what stories they would accept. This filled me with foreboding, and it seems that foreboding was justified.

Okay, I am more than somewhat annoyed. I am disappointed and angry. Please let me make it clear that this isn't sour grapes at being rejected. I perfectly agree with their assessment of my story, and had already considered it possible that they would reject it - expect to see it posted here in a day or two.
What makes me disappointed is that I probably won't be seeing the stories by other people that I was really looking forward to (judging by the prompts that were taken) because they would be rejected too.
What makes me angry is the whole concept of vetting stories, of not allowing people to write to the prompt, as their muse leads them. As I said above, if they were going to vet anything, they should have vetted the prompts, and allowed people to write as they want. To do otherwise is breaking an unwritten rule, that's what it feels like to me.

It's almost enough to make me want to run a competing ficathon. Which will be an utter failure because nobody will write for it. (sigh)

Current Mood: rejected
Crossposts: http://kerravonsen.livejournal.com/950864.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

evilawyer

I'm not in the HP fandom, but I'm always fascinated and slightly stunned by differences in perception of what is "dark" in a character. A character who is "desperate and full of self-loathing" can, indeed, be very, very dark, but I've seem such a contrary reaction to such depictions in my little batch of fandoms that I've been surprised over the chasm in interpretation.

From:

kerravonsen

It may be dark, but it isn't horrible, see.

From:

evilawyer

Then is must come down to me. Dark, I like. Horrible is typically too one dimensional to engage me.

From:

sahiya

That sounds like a ridiculous, controlling, and almost inevitably wank-generating way of running a ficathon.

From:

kerravonsen

I'm feeling less angry now that I've vented. I'm also feeling less angry now that I've asked the mods if they can do a post where people can give links to the rejected stories, because that gives me hope that I will actually be able to read all the stories and not just the horriblest ones.

But it is far too controlling, yes.
Thing is, I think she meant well. Which still doesn't make it a good move, but it does make it a little easier to forgive.

As for wank... I really hope there isn't much wank, because wank always makes things worse.

From:

altariel

This. Joyless, too.

From:

ysabetwordsmith

You probably aren't the only person who feels that way. You could suggest that all rejected material be listed in a post under "Shallowly Horrible" (or whatever) so that all participants could, in fact, participate and everyone could see the material -- without obscuring what they were really attached to as a very narrow tonal goal.

I agree with you that filtering out prompts would've been far more appropriate than rejecting stories. That's not what most folks are into fanfic for. I've also observed that broad-to-medium projects tend to do better than really narrow ones.

From:

kerravonsen

You could suggest that all rejected material be listed in a post under "Shallowly Horrible" (or whatever) so that all participants could, in fact, participate

Well, I've asked the mods to make a post inviting people to post links to the rejected stories; I'm waiting to hear back from them.

I've also observed that broad-to-medium projects tend to do better than really narrow ones.

I think there's a balancing act to be had with organizing ficathons. A certain amount of focus-narrowing is needed so that there are enough people with something in common that they can write for each other. Even with a prompt-driven ficathon rather than an exchange-ficathon, you need people who can give prompts that the writers can write. That's why Yuletide, huge as it is, narrows down its list of qualifying fandoms.

I think it's easier to filter by subject than by tone. Filtering by fandom, by character, by theme; and then letting people do what they will.

From:

ysabetwordsmith

>>I think it's easier to filter by subject than by tone. Filtering by fandom, by character, by theme; and then letting people do what they will.<<

That's often true. However, I'm loving the

cottoncandy_bingo fest, which is any setting focused on a light-hearted tone. Closely related is

hc_bingo which has a content requirement that leads to a fairly tight cluster of tones somewhere in the middle of the flangst spectrum. So tonal focus is possible, just tricky to do well.

From:

kittylefish.livejournal.com

that sucks really bad. i don't blame you for being upset and disappointed and angry - i would be too. i wonder if someone could start a comm to host the stories rejected by their fest as not horrible enough - now i might actually be interested in reading those stories, lol, unlike the actual deeply horrible ones.

From:

kerravonsen

Well, I've made a request of the mod that they put up a post where people can post links to their rejected stories, so maybe it will happen.

From:

kittylefish.livejournal.com

that would be a nice gesture on their part - i hope they do it.

From:

kerravonsen

I have a name for the hypothetical comm: The Snapes John West Reject
(smirk)

From:

izhilzha.livejournal.com

Wow. They did not handle that very well, it sounds like. I like your idea better--if something's going to be vetted, let it be the prompts.

*hugs* (I look forward to reading your story, btw.)

From:

kerravonsen

I think it was their first time running a ficathon, and they did put a very admirable amount of work into it, such as collating the prompts by theme... which in some ways makes it even more disappointing, because it had such potential to be really good.

(I look forward to reading your story, btw.)

8-)

From:

droxy.livejournal.com

Hugs. Post your fic anyway.

From:

kerravonsen

Oh, I will be. Just not this minute.

From:

lynnylou.livejournal.com

Sorry your fic got rejected. Just post it anyway there are alot of people who would love to read it!

From:

of-anoesis.livejournal.com

That's awful! I had concerns over my dh story, but I think my Snape was just self serving enough to get in under the radar.

If you'd still like to share it, why not post it to the Newbie Fest as a gift? That would guarantee you a receptive audience (and guarantees us a great fic!) Just an idea...

Either way,I can't wait to read it!

From:

kerravonsen

If you'd still like to share it, why not post it to the Newbie Fest as a gift?

I would have thought it wouldn't fit the Newbie Fest, since it's just Snape, not Snape + Hermione.

Either way,I can't wait to read it!

8-)

From:

of-anoesis.livejournal.com

we wouldn't be put off by a little thing like a missing hermione! ;)

From:

jaxomsride.livejournal.com

I was concerned my Snape story wasn't "horrible" enough. However it did actually get accepted. It wasn't darkfic either but still managed to pass the vetting process.

I wonder how many other well written stories also failed the vetting process? I'm not sure I will be participating next year, but my Muse may have other ideas, it depends on the prompts.

I'm looking forward to reading your story, wherever you post it.
Perhaps the comm ought to be called "Not Horrible enough". It would be nice if the authors of stories had somewhere to post their fics. They had spent time and effort in creating it, it would be a great pity if there was nowhere to post it, other than their own journals.

From:

kerravonsen

I'm still awaiting a response to my request to the mods for a "link to other stories" post.

From:

imhilien.livejournal.com

Am sorry to hear that...

From:

sue-bursztynski.livejournal.com

What's to stop you inviting all those people to send you their stories for your web site? Ah, Kathryn, do you ever yearn for the days when there were straightforward fanzines? :-)

From:

kerravonsen

What's to stop you inviting all those people to send you their stories for your web site?

Because I don't know who they are.

do you ever yearn for the days when there were straightforward fanzines?

Naw, not really; there's a LOT more fic to read now. True, it obeys Sturgeon's Law, but there are still strategies for finding the gems in the dross.

From:

sixpence-jones.livejournal.com

I am sorry to hear that your story was rejected. I would like to read it very much.

I thought you might be interested to know that a response to your prompt was posted today. A very impressive sestina which I am sure you would appreciate.

From:

kerravonsen

Thanks. I have since heard from the mod, and only three stories (including mine) were rejected, so it's not as bad as I thought. The mod also intends to have a links-for-other-stories post after the reveal.

I thought you might be interested to know that a response to your prompt was posted today. A very impressive sestina which I am sure you would appreciate.

Yep, I'm subscribed to the deeply_horrible comm and have seen it. It is indeed very impressive!