Regulus Fest stats

[swissmarg]

regulus_fest has posted their master list, paving the way for some more juicy statistics. And here they are!

Fest community: regulus_fest 
Fest type: Open anonymous prompting
Premise: Regulus Black-centric
Rating restriction: None, all ratings allowed
Length restriction: Minimum 500 words, no maximum
Creation period: 5 months

There were 3 artworks and 15 fics created for this fest.

By rating:

ART
G - 3

FIC
G - 1
PG - 0
PG-13 - 8
R - 4
NC-17 - 2

By pairing:

Gen - 7

Barty/Regulus - 4
James/Regulus - 3
Sirius/Regulus - 2
Lucius/Regulus - 1
Remus/Regulus - 1

By word count:

The shortest fic was 960 words long. The longest fic was 4,900 words long.

<1K - ii
1-2K - iii
2-3K - iiii
3-4K - iii
4-5K - iii

Total words written: 40,340 words
Mean (average fic length): 2,689 words
Median (half the fics shorter, half longer): 2,500 words
Mode (most frequent length): 2-3K

Some thoughts: Nice turnout for a minor character fest. As usual, the ratings for the art were lower than for the fics. This didn't turn out all that much smut though, with only 13% of the fics rated NC-17, and over half being PG-13.

I was surprised at the amount of Genfic (and art), with nearly half of the submissions not featuring any pairing. Of those that did feature a pairing, however, all were slash. Of those that featured a pairing, over half paired Regulus with one of the Marauders (but interestingly never Peter), and the rest with either Barty, Jr. or Lucius, both Death Eaters. I suppose one limitation is that we don't know that many characters who would have been of an age with Regulus and whom he would have interacted with. Still, there would have been plenty of female characters (Lily, Emmeline, Hestia, Narcissa, Bellatrix) to choose from. I'm not sure what it is about Regulus that makes people see him as gay more often than straight (or in the case of the participants of this fest, exclusively so).

The word counts were also very interesting. At first, in tallying up the word counts, I assumed that there must have been a 5,000 word cap on submissions, because they lined up so nicely with that amount, and given the length of the creation period, I would have expected at least one or two much longer fics otherwise. But in looking over the rules, it turns out there was no maximum. I'm not sure why there were no longer fics, then. Maybe Regulus is just a character that most people don't know that well, or feel that strongly about.

There's also probably a word in statistics to describe the fact that the mean, median, and mode were basically the same.

Comments

Cool

[brighty18.livejournal.com]

This was interesting. Thank you for compiling all this and for sharing your thoughts.

I was one of the people who wrote Gen!fic here - rated G, in fact - and I think that you are very correct about Regulus is a character that most people do not know much about. Personally, I've always seen his sexuality as being somewhat ambiguous, although I generally pair him with Snape in my universe. Still, it's a pretty vague pairing. I think that part of the reason that people are unsure is that, frankly, he does not seem to be a character who really gives off any sexuality. Whilst Regulus may be one of the post popular peripheral characters, there doesn't seem to be an obvious pairing (like Ron/Hermione or even Remus/Sirius) nor does there seem to be any underlying sexual tension that could be channeled into a pairing (as there is for Harry/Draco or Harry/Snape.)I've mostly read him paired with James, Snape, or Barty Crouch, but have occasionally encountered a Regulus/Lucius. I think that Regulus/Sirius is perhaps the most common, but that might have more to do with the angst and tragedy of it than any actual pairing-type attraction. After all, Sirius is the only character with whom we really know that Regulus had any sort-of relationship at all. The only het pairing I've really noticed much is the rare Regulus/Narcissa.

Your comments on length were interesting, too. My story was fairly short (2,100 words), but I tend toward stories under 8,000 words, anyway, even for my main pairing (R/S). (Okay, there are exceptions to that, but it is mostly for Big Bangs.) Honestly, though, I think that part of it was that people were busy and perhaps did not have the time/energy to give this fest it's due. That happens often with first-time fests. We write HUGE things for big bangs and sometimes even for competitive games, but this fest struck me as low-key and oriented toward shorter works. In other words, I think it was the structure of the fest rather than the character. I could be wrong there, though.

Just out of curiosity, how do you see Regulus' sexuality?

Re: Cool

[swissmarg]

Thank you for your comments! I'm glad to have another insight.

There could be something to what you are saying about the first-time fest lending itself toward shorter works. Also the fact that it is not an exchange could play into it, in that no one was really trying to 'impress' someone.

But on the other hand, if you look at the Dudley Redeemed fest, which was for a generally unpopular, minor character and even more specific than the Regulus fest, in that Dudley had to end up being good or nice, and that had several fics over 10,000 words, with a shorter creation period (3 months, as opposed to 5).

I think that in a certain way, the super-long creation period might have worked against the word lengths for this fest. I know that if I'd signed up for this, I would have looked at that really long-away deadline and (also given that this wasn't an exchange and no one would be personally disappointed if I didn't write anything), thought I could put off writing anything for a long time. And then all of a sudden, the deadline would be looming, and I'd have to come up with something short. Whereas if I knew the deadline was in 2 months, I'd be more likely to start writing right away and probably end up with something over 10,000 words. That's just how I work, though. I have no idea how it was for the writers for this fest.

As to Regulus' sexuality? I never really thought about it, but I suppose my first instinct is to say he wasn't anything. What I mean is, he was really young when he died, and he might never have really had a relationship with anyone by that time, especially if he grew up in a very sheltered and strict family. I think gen fic probably works best for him.

Re: Cool

[brighty18.livejournal.com]

I'm totally with you on the time period aspect of this. And, yes, there is A LOT more emphasis to write huge works on exchanges, etc.

You know, something else just occurred to me here (in regards to length.) I think that different ships have different cultures - especially in regards to length. A lot of people in this fest were also R/S (or Marauder) people and, for some reason, it's a group that tends toward shorter works. For example, nearly all of the works in rs_games were under 8,000 words and there were only a few that were over 10,000. Also, rs_small_gifts is one of the most popular fests in the ship and everything there is expected to be around 1,500 words. In fact, other than Big Bangs, most R/S or Marauder-based fests tend to produce shorter works. I wonder why?

By contrast, I've noticed that most ships that revolve around Harry, Ron, or Snape tend to produce very, very long works.

Oh, I totally agree about Regulus' lack of sexuality. He WAS very young. He was also a Death Eater and, from what we are told, very obsessed with Voldie, etc. He might have been so into his cause that he really wasn't into dating. (Isn't that what Rowling said about Sirius, too? LOL)

Who do you usually ship? Do you do a lot of fests? I really stay mostly with the Marauders, but I am doing my first femmeslash fest this year.

Re: Cool

[swissmarg]

My main ship is SS/HG. :) I have done quite a few fests this year... more toward the beginning of the year, when I sort of signed up for more than I could handle, so I've toned it down a bit, and only have Harry Holidays for this season. :p Mostly, the fests have gotten me to write a lot of rare pairs, but also gen.

Re: Cool

[brighty18.livejournal.com]

That's a great pairing!

I totally know what you mean by signing-up for too much. That happens to me, too. Worse, yet, I mod. I've done rs_games since it's inception, but this year I ended-up taking on the marauderbigbang about halfway through because things were falling apart for the poor mod who was trying to do it herself. I'm a big fest person, though.

I'd love to read your stuff. Do you have a fic journal or do you post on your own?

Re: Cool

[swissmarg]

This is my fic journal. :p Well, my fandom journal. There is a master list to all of my fics on the first page. Just click on my username to get there. ;)