Fest Rules

What is this fest about?

The Carry On AU Fest is a prompt based fest that celebrates any kind of Alternate Universe or canon divergent creation in the CO fandom. We accept any pairings or gen fics and art.

Who can participate?

You must be at least 18 years old at the time of signing up.

We expect you to treat everyone taking part, including the mods, with respect. 

All work must be your own, and we do not allow any kind of fic or art produced with AI.

You may register as both a writer and an artist, and you can claim multiple prompts as long as you have completed the first one you claimed first. 

You can cross post your work to other fests running at the same time.

How does prompting work?

On 5th October we are going to open prompting via Airtable. You can submit as many prompts as you like, and you don't have to claim anything unless you want to. You don’t have to create for the fest to submit a prompt. You can prompt anonymously or write your AO3/Tumblr username (in which case people can gift you their works if they wish to).

How does claiming work?

On 19th October we are going to open claiming via a Google form. You can claim your own prompt or claim someone else's. Alternatively, you can self-prompt by picking the first prompt on the list. 

Prompts are assigned on a first come first serve basis. The prompts will be available to be claimed once for fic and once for art. Collaborations are welcome.

If you decide to gift your work to the person who prompted it, please make sure that you stick to the preferences they have expressed and that you don't include their squicks.

What are the requirements for writers? 

Writers will need to write an original fic with a minimum length of 1k.

The fic needs to be an unpublished fic and it needs to be posted on our fest collection on AO3. Your story doesn't need to be complete by the submission date, but we ask that you post at least 1k by the submission deadline and wait until the end of the fest to post the rest.

You can share small snippets and talk about your story on social media platforms.

Should you need an extension, please let us know as soon as you can.

We will reveal one work per day from 8th February.

What are the requirements for artists?

You can create a variety of original fan work, such as:

- illustrations, both digital and traditional (they don’t need to be in colour) 

- moodboards (at least 6 elements)

- plastic arts (including embroidery and origami)

- playlists (a minimum of 10 songs)

- fic binding

- podfic (please make sure that you have the permission of the author of the fic you're recording a podfic of before starting)

You can post your work either on AO3 or on Tumblr (please get in touch and let us know if you prefer the second option).

What kind of rating is allowed?

Any rating is allowed for both art and fic, but please tag your work appropriately. 

If your work is rated Mature or Explicit, the characters involved must be at least 18 years old.

We recommend that you use a beta reader.

What is the schedule for posting?

You can find the most up to date schedule here.

Please get in touch with the mods if you need an extension.

I still have a lot of questions about this, how can I contact you?

Send us an ask, a DM or contact us at  and we will gladly answer.

Age Requirement

1. This is a NSFW fest, which means those under the age of 18 are not permitted to participate.

Prompting Guidelines

2a. Prompting is optional, but we encourage everyone to submit one broad prompt and one detailed prompt so there is variety. Broad prompts should be open-ended and flexible (i.e. any ship + a trope or setting), whereas more detailed prompts can include specifics (for those prompts with built-in plot points).

2b. To avoid confusion, list any triggers or squicks you do not want involved in your prompt. (Please be respectful when fulfilling prompts.)

Claiming Guidelines

3. You don't need to pick a prompt in order to submit a piece! If you do, please pick a prompt that is not your own and not already claimed. Let’s aim to make as many people happy as possible.

Please also avoid picking more than one prompt from the same person if you choose to claim more than one.

Submission Guidelines

4a. Fics should be edited for spelling, punctuation, and grammar to the best of the author’s ability, or else given to a beta reader for editing. Works that fail to meet the bare minimum may be removed from the collection.

4b. Entries must explicitly include bottom Tom | Voldemort representation. Sexual acts must either be depicted or described/referenced clearly. For this reason, all ratings should be M or higher.

4c. Finally, please email the mods at [email protected] once you've submitted your piece to the collection so that we can go in and approve it!

Bingo Guidelines

5a. There are no hard rules for what counts as 'completing' a square. Feel free to interpret each item however you like.

5b. BINGO is achieved by completing five squares in a line (horizontal, diagonal, or vertical).

Fill out a claim for this fest HERE!

Rules

All participants in this fest must be over the age of 18. No exceptions.

You can only claim one prompt at a time. If you finish and submit your work before the claiming close date, you're more than welcome to claim another prompt. Prompts are available on a first come, first served basis..

All fics must be beta-read. If you need help finding a beta, please feel free to contact the mods and we can help find one.

The minimum word count for fics is 500. There is no maximum.

The primary ship of the fic must be a rare ship. In other words, the rare ship must be the focus and/or endgame ship of the fic. It is of course fine to include common ships as secondary pairings. A rare pair for this fest is considered any ship with less than 1,000 completed works on an AO3 otp:true search. 

DM the mods if you’ll be dropping from the fest. Claimants can drop from the fest at any time with no consequences and no questions asked. Just don’t ghost us, please!

All creations must be new, completed, stand-alone pieces created for the HP Rare Pair Fest. 

No AI-generated submissions. This includes, but is not limited to: fics, art, podfics, text posts, and anything else that could be generated via an AI program.

Guidelines

A rare pair for this fest is considered any ship with less than 1,000 completed works on an AO3 otp:true search.

This fest is not anonymous - you are welcome to chat about your work with others.

You can submit up to 10 prompts with no need to claim. You do not need to prompt in order to claim.

You will need to add the AO3 Fest Mod account as a co-creator as part of the posting process. This is so Mods are able to access the work to ensure correct tagging as well as to add fest tags. Once your work is revealed, mods will no longer have access to the work. Mods will not make changes to your work, however, we may contact you with noted SPaG errors or tagging suggestions.

No extensions schedule or pinch hitters are needed for this fest. Claim, create, and post. Or, claim and try and then drop out - either is fine.

Any and all kinds of creations are welcome to be submitted! Write fic, make art, record a podfic, make text posts, create playlists, craft a moodboard (using copyright free art), invent a recipe, create a photo journal, whittle a sculpture, record a mixed tape from your 90′s boombox… the only limit on what you can create is your imagination!

If you have any questions you can check out the FAQ or contact us via:

PROMPTING IS NOW OPEN FOR SIRIUS BLACK FEST.

CLICK HERE TO LEAVE A PROMPT!

You can leave as many prompts as you want, one form per prompt!

(1) At least one character in the story/art is an Unspeakable.

(2) The story or art needs to explore a question about the nature of the HP Universe. Participants are encouraged, but not required, to write and make art about the known areas of study of the Department of Mysteries, which are love, death, prophecy, mind, and space/time. Examples will be included in the FAQ (to be posted).

(3) We strongly encourage all stories to be beta read prior to submission.

(4) Use of ChatGPT and other generative AI in fest submissions is prohibited.

(5) Common potential triggers, dark content, and squicks MUST be appropriately tagged. Here is a list of common triggers for reference:

https://trigger-warnings.tumblr.com/tags

(6) Word count minimum of 1k, maximum of 25k for fic and podfic. All works must be complete at the time of submission.

(7) SALS: Ship and Let Ship. This fest is open to multiple different ships as well as gen fic. Please be respectful.

(8) If you choose to self-prompt, we ask that you email the mods at the fest email (unspeakables.fest AT gmail.com) and describe your story in 1-3 sentences. The email should be submitted when you claim self-prompt on AO3.

For more information, visit us on Discord!

In case the hints the last couple days didn’t make it obvious... THE MAKE IT MUSICAL FEST IS BACK FOR 2022!!! Everything is basically the same as last year with a couple of minor tweaks:

PODFICS! Any fic written for the fest last year can be claimed for a podfic to be included in this year’s collection.

AIRTABLE! We will be using AirTable for prompt submission and claiming.

Full Fest Rules can be found HERE, or below the break.

The Harry Potter Make it Musical Fest is made possible by the Producers (aka fest mods): @sunflower-swan @pandora-rose-xo @hellocinnamonfreckles and @sophhao3 

H/D Cluefest is an anonymous Drarry fest, celebrating the Mystery genre. 

Bring us your case fics and whodunnits and family intrigues. Bring us codes and ciphers, long-lost relatives, hardboiled detectives and elaborate schemes. Mysterious inheritances, spies, something on the tip of your tongue that you can’t quite remember? You’re in the right place. 

Clue Fest is for participants over 18 years old only. If we find out that you are under 18 before the fest posts, you will not be allowed to participate. If we find out after the fest posts, your work will be removed from the collection.

How do you know if your work/idea fits the fest?

We’re open to fic, art, and podfic. 

What kind of works are we looking for? The work should feature a mystery, and the characters’ attempts to solve it should be central to the plot. What kind of mystery? That’s up to you, but to give you an idea of what we’re looking for, it could be about:

a crime

a disappearance

a family secret

a hidden identity

a missing object

a conspiracy

lost memories

If you’re not sure if what you’re planning fits, you can always get in touch with the fest mods. We’re here to help.

Timeline

Prompting: 1 October - 30 October 2021 Claiming: 1 November 2021 - 31 January 2022 Due: 15 February 2022 Posting: 1 March 2022 Reveals: in April 2022

Prompting

Prompts should include a key question to be answered, e.g. “What does Draco know about the recent string of murders?”, “Why is Harry late to the office every Thursday?”, “Who stole the House Cup”, “Harry can’t remember what he did last week, but he knows it has something to do with Draco. What’s that blond git hiding?”

We suggest keeping prompts brief and open-ended.

Prompts won’t have a special request section but will include a space for potential squicks or triggers.

Here’s the Prompting form for the fest.

Self-Prompting

Self-prompting is very welcome.

There will be a section to submit self-prompts in the claiming form.

If your self-prompt doesn’t fit the theme of the fest, you may be asked to clarify or change it altogether.

Claiming

Each prompt can be claimed once for fic and once for art.

Claiming will be done via an Airtable form.

Collaborations are welcome — you can claim as a team/partnership.

Submissions

Fic

The minimum word count is 1000 words. There’s no maximum.

The fics must be stand-alone pieces.

Every fic has to be a stand-alone piece, made exclusively for the fest.

All fics MUST be beta-read. If you don’t have a beta, please email the Clue Fest mods at [email protected].

Artwork

We accept drawings, comics and illustrations. They can be digital or traditional.

We do not allow photo manips, moodboards, banners, or any copyrighted images.

Every art piece has to be a stand-alone, made exclusively for the fest. 

You may include a personal watermark if you’d like, but it’s not required.

Podfic

The fic you chose must be at least 1000 words, there’s no maximum. 

The audio intro must include the title of the fic, the author’s name and any warnings that are major AO3 warnings (rape/non-con, underage, major character death, graphic depiction of violence, and creator chose not to use archive warnings). If you use any potentially triggering sound effects, such as a gunshot or screams, please also state that in the intro. 

You are free to include your name in the audio intro, but we advise against making your podfic anon. 

We’re going to use the honour system when it comes to permissions. If we are contacted by the original author stating that they did not grant permission for a podfic to be made, we will contact you for proof. If it’s not provided, your podfic will be immediately removed from the fest collection.

The mods will listen to your podfic before approving the podfic. This is to ensure all links work and that no big sections of the fics are missing. We’re not going to check if every single word is the exact same as in the fic. 

You’re allowed to create cover art for your podfic but please use images free of copyright.

You can include music in your podfic, provided it’s royalty-free. 

Please email the mods at [email protected] so we can verify the fic fits the fest theme before you start recording unless it’s from the list of last year’s fics. 

Exceptions are last year's entries that are available for podficcing. Here’s the list.

Once you’ve submitted your work to the collection, email the Clueless Mods at [email protected] with the submissions header.

Submission Header

Title: Author/Artist/Podficcer: AO3 name with a link to your page Tumblr: tumblr handle with a link to your tumblr Prompt # or Self-Prompt: Rating: Word Count/Medium/Length: Warnings: Summary: (or a short description of the artwork) Link to the work:

While you’re creating your submission, and until reveals have gone up, please keep your work anonymous. This means not discussing it in public (e.g. Tumblr, Discord) or showing it to anyone, except for a reasonable number of alpha/beta reader(s)/cheerleaders.

There’s no obligation to gift your fic/art to your prompter, but you can if you want to. If you are planning on gifting the fic or art, please stick to the list of squicks/triggers in the prompt.

Drop out and Extension

If you need to drop out for some reason, please let us know as soon as possible. We fully understand that life can get in the way of things. 

Get in touch as soon as you think you might need an extension, and we’ll see what we can do to help you.