Okay, giving it some consideration, I think we should probably start with something on the slightly simpler side, and work up to voting contests once people are writing (I definitely intend to get to them, just not at first). But, we also should get a fire lit, so going too simple won't be good, either.
Sooo... what about a month-long Fic Fest? The intention will be more to get authors writing and increase the quantity of drama-based fanfiction, than to make anyone worry too much about quality just yet. In this case, we also won't aim for super long fics-- perhaps, word counts between 100 to 3k. We'll assemble a list of prompts (I'm thinking we can open prompt submissions to anybody here who'd like to suggest some, which can also get more people interested and hopefully reading the fics), but my question is this: would you guys prefer just having the prompts available if a writer wants them, or should we have a rule that each fic has to use at least one? And I'd like to get some beta readers lined up, too. Again, we're not going to worry too much about perfection, but encouragement and a second pair of eyes are always helpful. There'll be a sign-up form for that, to make sure writers and betas can pair up well; but it'd be fine if people wanted to arrange that outside of the fest, too.
To spice things up a bit, there could be competition for most fics written and highest word count (if there aren't a ton of participants, we'll just go with the #1 spot; if we get enough people, we could also do 2nd and possibly 3rd places)-- with profile banners as prizes.
How's this sounding?
Meanwhile, @Juniko raised a couple of good questions regarding ratings and content. Personally, I'd rather see fics centered around dramas/films and the characters in them than rpf, to possibly get people interested in things they haven't seen yet, and also to set aside any question of crossing lines; however, if the majority disagrees with me, I can be outvoted on that. And I'd think if everything is properly labeled and rated, there shouldn't be a cap on ratings-- unless it violates the site rules, which obviously we won't do. (I'll ask about that.) If MA rated works can't be posted on the site-- and if this doesn't also violate rules, which I'll also check into-- we could have them hosted off-site, instead, such as at FFN or AO3. (If that's not okay, either, then we'll just cap the ratings at T.) And speaking of that, would anybody want to cross-post at those sites? I can set up an AO3 collection and/or a FFN community to group them together.
@chibiladychoi - How would you like to help? :)
@Juniko - Nah, I'm not an expert; just had some time on my hands when my older kiddo was in preschool and the younger one still took naps, lol. I'm glad you'll be writing! And let me know if this is something you'd like to help run. (No pressure if you don't!) :)
@rainruma - Awesome! That'll be a big help!
Since not everyone gets on the forums, I'm going to link to this on the feeds to try to get more people interested. If anyone else wants to give it a boost, that'd be helpful, too! :)