For #fanficfriday's #valentines contest for 2015 you need a piece that contains your OTP and is a romantic fluff that is 5,000 words or less. I'll start off with the usual. Your story needs to be “new” because they want everybody to have the same amount of time to write their stories. Your story must also be easy to read as well, “convey feeling and emotion in your story with ample depth and detail” and be PG-13 – no mature content. (They did away with the other two ratings so only the two highest ratings are left.

Picking an OTP

You also need to write for an OTP. What though is an OTP? It stands for One True Pairing. There are actually two definitions of OTP out there. The first is a pairing you absolutely believe to be meant together, while the second happens to be the pairing for a given fandom you prefer to write the most about. Fanlore says “it is the sole or primary pairing someone is interested in for a given fandom”. How though does one go about choosing an OTP for the contest?

First – I don't believe crossover pairings are allowed. An OTP is supposed to be your preferred pairing. The vast majority of writers will have only written one series for any given set of fandoms crossed over so picking a pairing one favors that doesn't apply to just one fandom is hard. Second – I do believe OCs are allowed. I know of some people who only write for pairings containing OCs.

The thing I have to say about this is to day only two stories for an OC has ever been published that has won that has not been for a real person fandom, or judged by guest judges. (Originally I thought it was only one story, but went back and double checked.) I didn't include the story for the Sherlock fandom that included OCs as the murder victim and suspect for the plot with this number either. The judges prefer you working with canon characters, so it needs to be really good in order to win and really stand out from the crowd.

Picking an OTP for the contest will be hard for people who have only ever written for one given pairing. Some people haven't written enough to have a preferred pairing that shows up in their writing, while others have none. Some people have a long list of OTP and even secondary OTP. Mine for example looks something like this.

Avatar: The Last Airbender ~ Zuko/Katara
Best Christmas Pageant Ever ~ Ralph/Beth
Bleach ~ Toshiro/Karin; secondary – a ton
Chronicles of Narnia ~ Eustice/Jill
Computer Kakumei ~ Key/Mako
Harry Potter ~ Draco/Hermione
Free! ~ Haruka/Gou
My Great Uncle Dracula ~ Wolfie/Wanda; secondary Hector/Whitney
My Little Pony ~ None
Pokemon ~ None

This is only ten of the fandoms I'm interested in writing for. Normally I write for Bleach all the time, but for some reason I am wanting to write a fluff piece for My Great Uncle Dracula involving Wolfie and Wanda.  The first would explore a topic I want to explore and I don't think it will lean towards fluff as much as I would like, but the second would definitely be a fluff piece and have an interesting way of doing the Valentines theme.

Not that you have to work Valentine's Day into your story. Some Valentines pieces don't mention romance at all, nor did they say the fic has to take place on Valentines day.

One way is to pick the fandom you want to write for, but this won't help if you have no OTP for a given fandom. Another strategy is to come up with a story idea to work with and pick a pairing that might work. What though is a fluff piece? This is a piece that leaves you with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Most are going to be romance pieces, but some lean towards the family genre. One way to think of a theme is to think of something that makes you feel warm and fuzzy. By doing that you're more likely to get the depth and detail you want. Then pick the OTP of yours that works the best.

Still stuck? Here are the fandoms that have won the contest. Whether you choose to limit yourself to this list, or to use it to remove things from your list of possibilities is your choice.

Anime ~ Bleach, Naruto
Books ~ Eragorn, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Middle Earth, Night Circus, Ouran High School Host Club, Peter Pan, Percy Jackson, The Vampire Diaries
Cartoons/Comics ~ DC; Batman, Jabber Jaw, Marvel; Avengers, X-Men, My Little Pony, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Movies ~ Pirates of the Caribbean, Rise of the Gardians, Star Wars
Telivision ~ Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Downton Abbey, Elementary, Glee, How to Get Away With Murder, Shelock, Star Trek, Supernatural, The Walking Dead
Real People ~ 1D, 5sos, Exo, Ghost Explorers, Kellic, Youtuber
Other ~ Creey Pasta

Note ~ Writing for any of these fandoms doesn't guarantee winning. Popularity doesn't guarantee winning either – winners are based on the hard work you put in as well as how much you can stand out from the crowd.