Deflower Draco Fest Statistics

[swissmarg]

Fest community: deflower_draco
Master List: Here
Fest type: Open prompting
Premise: Draco being deflowered by a female character
Ratings restrictions: NC-17 only 'expected'
Length restrictions: No restrictions
Creation period: 2 and a half months

There were 17 fics written for this fest.

By rating:

PG-13/light R - 1
R - 1
NC-17 - 15

By word count:
The shortest fic was 2,199 words long. The longest fic was 28,810 words long.

2-3K - 1
3-4K - 2
4-5K - 1
5-6K - 2
6-7K - 1
7-8K - 2
8-9K - 0
9-10K - 0
10-15K - 2
15-20K - 2
20-25K - 2
25-30K - 2

Total words written: 202,529 words
Mean: 11,914 words
Median: 7,650 words
Mode: There was no fic length that was more frequent than any other

Most popular pairings:
(Note that some fics had more than one pairing)

Draco/Hermione - 12
Draco/Pansy - 2

House of Draco's lover:
(Note that some fics had more than one pairing)

Gryffindor - 12 (all Hermione)
Hufflepuff - 1 (Hannah)
Ravenclaw - 0
Slytherin - 4 (Pansyx2, Daphne, and Millicent)
Unknown - 2 (Rosmerta and Asteria)

Some thoughts: See? Draco can also be heterosexual. Although I sort of think that if slash pairings had been allowed, they would have pwned. ;-)

The participants did well with delivering the smut; only one person wrote a lower-rated fic, but it must be said that the author did it on purpose to be different.

Despite there not being any minimum word count, all of the fics were longer than 2,000 words. There was another fest a while ago where the same thing happened (no minimum, but all fics ended up longer than 1,000 words). Unfortunately, I don't recall which one. But the point I will make is the same: authors don't actually seem to need a minimum word count imposed on them. Or maybe the fandom is so well conditioned that everyone automatically writes over 1,000 words when it's not specifically a drabble challenge.

I was surprised that there were so many Big Bang-length fics, with almost half (47%) of the fics over 10,000 words, but I think that is explained by the popularity of Draco/Hermione. All of those 10K+ fics were Draco/Hermione, and conversely all but four of the Draco/Hermione fics were over 10K. The distribution of the fics was also interesting, with no bunching anywhere. It is almost as if the authors were assigned word counts, and everyone filled in their slot.

Despite the flood of Dramione, Draco got around a lot and had a good variety of partners, most of them from Slytherin. It was nice to see a Hufflepuff in there, too.

Comments

[vaysh]

Draco can indeed be straight! But then he is a virgin. ;) Awesome stats, as always.

[swissmarg]

Right, it's entirely possible that he tried it the first time with a girl and decided it wasn't for him. ;)

[vaysh]

Not to offend anyone, of course: this fest, as many others, shows ample evidence that Draco can indeed be happily heterosexual. :)

[worksofstone (from livejournal.com)]

Cool statistics! I never thought of it that way, but you're right that many of us broke Big Bang minimums. That's both impressive and a bit daunting for a fest that had no minimum word count!

I think you're right that at this point, HP fandom automatically thinks in 1,000+ words plot bunnies for anything that isn't explicitly a drabble contest.

Thanks for putting this together!

[eevilalice.livejournal.com]

One correction: NC-17 was not required (as evidenced by the R and PG-13 fics produced).

Well OF COURSE Draco can be heterosexual. There's tons of het out there, and the genesis of this fest came from the fact that in so much of it, Draco is painted as the Slytherin Sex God while the girl is often the Blushing Virgin (especially Hermione).

I came to a different conclusion regarding length of fic, which is the nature of the fest. For most people, it took some plot to get to the deflowering. The situation doesn't lend itself to PWP, especially given the character being deflowered and the associations that come with him (particularly in het).

Slash was under consideration originally, but given the genesis of the fest (plus the astounding number of slash fests out there already), it was decided that, for this initial round at least, it would be all het. Next round we may very likely include slash; it's just that it's not too hard to find virgin!Draco there already.

[swissmarg]

I'm sorry, I just assumed from the fest rule which stated:

Due to the nature of the fest, it should be understood that NC-17 material is to be expected; this is one reason why members (thus participants) are required to be 18.

that NC-17 was a requirement, although I understand the mods not wanting to turn anyone away who wanted to participate.

That's a really good point about the plot necessitating longer fics. And I agree that structuring this fest as het-only encouraged people to be a bit more creative and think outside the standard fandom fare. It was a really neat idea!

[eevilalice.livejournal.com]

is to be expected =/= required. In the context of the rule, it simply means that naturally some people would end up writing NC-17 material given the fest's theme. It doesn't proscribe that everyone write it, just anticipates the likely possibility that it will be written, hence the age requirement for the comm.

I wish I'd heard of this when it was going on

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Why the Heck didn't I think of it myself? Deflower Draco - plot bunnies just proliferate, each more funny, more humiliating and more perverted than the next. I don't do smut as a rule, but this is simply too tempting... well, you might see something unexpected from me. The deflowering of a hero or heroine or both should be a romantic and probably a nuptial moment - although my Harry/Narcissa fic was anything but - but when it comes to Draco, the subject just begs for low comedy. Well, we'll see.

Re: I wish I'd heard of this when it was going on

[swissmarg]

Do it! (And so as not to miss any more golden opportunities, you can also subscribe to potterfests. ;) )

Re: I wish I'd heard of this when it was going on

[eevilalice.livejournal.com]

We advertized as far and wide as we could! And smut's not required. We'll probably have another round again next summer. :)

Re: I wish I'd heard of this when it was going on

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm blaming myself, certainly not the mods! The fact is that I am normally very much a gen writer, and my shipping output is very much both limited and orthodox. But still I think I could come up with something funny for this.