Here's my input, and I apologize for the length – this project is just so exciting! I want to participate, but I'm not 100% sure I'd be able to produce a fic of appropriate length. What I would love to do is co-author a fic. My ideal would be a team of two authors, one beta and one artist all working together. If anyone is interested in this idea (or the ones below) you can email me: pikkalam[dot]sri[at]gmail[dot]com.
1. I'd like to see art in line with text. As a side note – how do other people feel about asking for several simple illustrations from the same artist, rather than detailed art from several artists? Just a thought. 2. I think a minimum or 30K and maximum or 50K would be ideal. If there are enough people interested in < 30K fics, maybe there could be a separate section (What comes before the Big Bang … Quarks?). 3. A theme I'd like to see is rekindling – Snape and Lupin had a relationship/a one-off/smoldering UST (either as school boys, teachers at Hogwarts, spies for the Order) but were kept apart by circumstances. How do they get together in the end? We could call it “Fan the Fire” (get it? And the shorter fics could be Sparks :-P). I don't know if you all were envisioning this as an annual thing, though, in which case this idea may not work. 4. I vote 'yes' for sign-ups – when I'm writing fic, accountability is one of my major motivators. Six months for writing seems like a long time, but personally I would not be able to do it faster than that. How about four months (furthering the Fan the Fire theme, could be due on Beltaine?) for the first draft, then the last two months could be for editing and artwork. I don't really have an opinion about how long for posting to the website. 5. Secrecy adds to the excitement – I say, separate community! Motivation prizes would be great – maybe everyone would meets the deadlines will get a promotional post (in which mods quote/endorse the fic without revealing the author) on lupin_snape? Also, especially if no one takes me up on the co-authoring idea, I'll be happy to help any way I can.