Potty Game: Five Words (Vol. XVI)

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Post-Story Comments for Story #142, Volume XVI,
Potty Five Words: "The Daily Prophet, 1st November 2011 - CLASSIFIED ADS"

This story was written from Nov 1, 2011 to December 4, 2011. Six writers contributed to the story, which is 850 words long. --- of the six writers posted feedback. All times listed are EST.

- Potteraholic, December 9, 2011 8:41 am: I think the ads were great fun to read and I also enjoyed participating in the writing of these classified ads. There is a really interesting variety of material, really fantastic names of characters, locations, etc. and wonderfully creative ideas, like the free mucus offer in the room for rent ad, as just one brilliant example.

I think that, these days, we do better with the shorter 'stories' as there is less 'storyline' to follow and keep up with, making it easier for less regular participants to join in occasionally. I wonder what other short types of texts we could try writing in the future? Anyone have any ideas?

- Verity Weasley, December 9, 2011 11:39 am: Thanks for posting the previous story PAH. You did a great job with the formatting. It really adds that extra oomph to the ads. I must admit that when we were writing these, I was struggling at times to try and think of ways to make them entertaining. However, reading them all together in the Daily Prophet format, they really do look like something we might see in an official version of the newspaper. They sound authentic, and have just the right balance of wackiness and subtle humour. I love some of the details we included with these ads - the ad seeking a portrait painter was perfect for Gilderoy Lockhart! I also enjoyed some of the names we created for these ads. I know that other posters give these just as much thought as I do - although no one has commented on my choice of Camille Leonne for the animagus seeking work - did you get it?


- Julia H., December 9, 2011 12:38 pm: I'm really sorry I could not participate in the ads earlier. It was fun to write them - once I had got the hang of it - although very often I was in a real rush as I popped in. Very nice layout, as usual, PAH ; and Verity, I loved the names you invented! Camille Leonne is great! ROTFL! I also liked it when an ad was connected with an actual HP character.

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Potty Game: Five Words!

Five Words is six years old (and 2 months) today! The birth of Five Words happened some time on October 9, 2005, even though the first ever Five Words post, written by the thread’s creator and Compiler Emeritus, Finn BV, clocks in on October 10, 2005, 2:17 am. The time discrepancy is due to the fact that the Forum clock had changed at various times over the past years, recalibrating the time stamps on many posts here. Note: All the anniversary smileys are care of Finn, from his previous anniversary messages. Just wanted to keep the anniversary post looking somewhat the same!

The following are the words of the inimitable Finn and can be found in these three previous anniversary messages: Year 1, Year 2 1/2, and Year 3.

Since our existence, we have had dozens of members of the Harry Potter Lexicon FanFiction Forum partake in this simple yet endlessly enjoyable game. In the game, there are no boundaries, save that you must add five words, no more and no less (though there are always mistakes), to your post that continue the story told through other members' five words. Strung together, the five words will make a much, much longer story.

Please take some time to reminisce about the history of the Five Words from our 1-year birthday celebration of October 9, 2006. This little tidbit, once again, is STILL true, to the best of my knowledge… : We invented the "Potty Five Words Crown," given to the poster who held the record for most number of posts in a story; the crown, I believe, is still currently retained by Tazzygirl (Kristina), with a thrilling 176 posts in the story "Just Another Week at the Ministry" on April 23, 2006.

—Finn BV, October 10, 2008, 4:08 a.m.

I started playing Five Words 4 years ago and am so glad that Finn started this thread way back in October 2005. I wish I had been here from the start, but am happy to have found this thread in November 2007. I have had so much fun playing this game over the past 4 years, participating in the creation of some truly entertaining and amazing stories which have delved into all corners of the HP universe. In January 2008, I started helping out Finn and Tazzygirl with compiling some of the stories and posting the official stories and statistics online. Compiling a story involves typing it up, checking it for grammatical and spelling errors, counting its words, tallying its statistics, and formatting it correctly. In the summer of 2008, while I was abroad for much of the summer, PatPat came on board, helping out with the various compiling duties, as Finn and Tazzygirl's schedules made it difficult for them to participate in and monitor the thread as frequently as they had done in the past. In October of 2008, Finn "formally pass[ed] over reins of the thread" to me and it was around this time that Kip asked PatPat and me to become Hosts/Moderators on the FFF.

PatPat was an invaluable help here on Five Words. I can't imagine the years 2008 to 2009 without her sage advice and thoughtful feedback about various changes introduced in that time. And, of course, I must thank Kip Carter for all his kind support through the years I have been a Five Worder. Thanks, Kip, in the good old days, for always updating the header whenever I put in a request in the 'Questions to the Host' thread, for making many edits to my posts as requested, and for thinking that I was *gulp* Host/Moderator material. And now, a HUGE thank you to Denise for creating this forum when World Crossing ceased to exist, so we can still continue to play this game today, almost 8 months after World Crossing shut down for good.

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And now, as we've reached this sixth year of Five Words, traditions calls for us to play ultimate Five Words. What's that, you ask? For this entire story, instead of posting the customary five words, we get to play more words! How 'bout we post... SIX WORDS! And not only that, but now, there's a new twist. Since it's the 6th Anniversary, and we are writing 6 words, we are also going to be writing dialogue and action for exclusively 6 characters. These are the selected 6:
- Ron Weasley
- Luna Lovegood
- Ginny Weasley
- Professor Severus Snape
- Hedwig
- Professor Gilderoy Lockhart

Only these selected 6 characters can be present in the story, but other characters can be mentioned. These characters can be introduced in any order, and can be present as many or as few times as we want... whatever makes sense in the story.

It would be helpful if folks kept track of these characters and periodically posted the names of any that had not been included in the story yet, especially as the story begins to wind down. If you have any further questions, please read this post, which is a transcript of the evolution of this idea. It's quite detailed, and should explain everything.

So, let the festivities begin, and thank you for staying by Five Words!

—Potteraholic, Dec 9, 2011 8:30 am

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 * Five Words – Volume 16 Index * 

 * Five Words - Volumes Index * 

* Five Words - Main Archives *

* Five Words - Stories Index (by topic) *

quill. She had a vague feeling

I'm really sorry I could not participate in the ads earlier. It was fun to write them - once I had got the hang of it - although very often I was in a real rush as I popped in. Very nice layout, as usual, PAH ; and Verity, I loved the names you invented! Camille Leonne is great! ROTFL! I also liked it when an ad was connected with an actual HP character.

PAH asked if anyone had ideas for other short text types we could write. Here are a few off the top of my head - they may or may not be good ideas:

Hogwarts detention files; readers' letters to the editor of the DP or the Quibbler; answers written by students during their OWL exams (we could write various students' anwers to the same set of OWL questions); Albus Dumbledore's correspondence (like all the letters he gets and writes in the course of a single week, for example); Chocolate Frog Cards; CV's of Hogwarts teachers or MOM employees or other characters; the chapters of a book written to celebrate a special birthday /anniversary of Minerva McGonagall / Albus Dumbledore / someone else by the person's colleagues; Daedalus Diggle's secret diary of his days with the Dursleys (DH year)...

• 6 words • 6 characters •

that it was nearly dinner time                

Verity and Julia, all of my siblings are artistic and just happen to all be graphic designers, so formatting the ads, and the other newspaper 'stories' before this one, as well as Snape's and McGonagall's reports, are my own way to do something creative visually, in spite of my very limited design abilities. I'm glad you enjoyed the layout!

Julia, ALL of your ideas for short texts sound like great ones to me, and I am going to include them as a link in the Bulletin Board to a post I'm going to set-up now called 'Potential Five Words Story Ideas'. Thanks for this starter set and feel free to post more when you think of them. That goes for story ideas as well, and everyone, feel free to post ideas that can be included in this central location.

Verity, I KNEW there had to be something going on with Camille Leone, but I was too intent on posting about the upcoming anniversary story that I didn't catch it. Another minute or two and I would have done! Great choice!

It would be amazing if we were still Five Wording here in 6 years, and even more amazing if Finn dropped in to say hello, as he occasionally tells me that he will do, over on Facebook. Yoo hoo, Finn? Are your ears ringing? Long live Five Words!

EDIT: Not quite sure how to follow Julia's words, so I look forward to what you write, Verity, or anyone else.

, yet, she could not even think

Thanks, PAH, I'm glad you like my ideas. Now you've mentioned the Bulletin Board, I think the contents of the Hogwarts Bulletin Board could be interesting, too. (I think we can find there notices like the opening of the Duelling Club in Cos, the arrival of the guests in GoF, the start of the Apparition lessons in HBP and perhaps even the Weasley twins' ad seeking "guinea pigs" for their experiments in OOTP.)

how to begin to answer the



Julia, you have some really great ideas that sound like they would be a lot of fun to write. I especially love the exam question idea!

PAH, maybe you could also post the Daily Prophet ads on your Facebook page. It might entice Finn back to post here, and sometimes I think it would be nice if our finished stories could have a wider audience.

• 6 words • 6 characters •         • 6   y e a r s •


essay question Professor Lockhart had assigned                

I left the sentence open, in case someone wanted to write what the question was about.

• 6 words • 6 characters •         • 6   y e a r s •


in order of importance. She decided                

Ginny sighed and put down her quill. She had a vague feeling that it was nearly dinner time, yet, she could not even think how to begin to answer the essay question Professor Lockhart had assigned to retell his six greatest adventures in order of importance. She decided...

Thanks, Verity. The idea came to me this morning, after I posted the 6th anniversay message, while I was washing the breakfast dishes.

• 6 words • 6 characters •         • 6   y e a r s •


library, she saw Luna sitting by                

.

the window, absently watching the moon

Comments later.

6 words

below. She did not seem to

Thanks, Verity!

Welcome back, Mona!

• 6 words • 6 characters •         • 6   y e a r s •


notice the paper airplane Ginny had                

Spoiler:

And then there were 4. Welcome back, Mona.

Verity, I didn't notice your message to me in your earlier post re: Finn and Facebook. I sent him a message, with a link to the story, which, fortunately, he will be able to open easily now since the Games thread is not in the private section of this forum anymore, making it easily viewable to all visitors. Let's see what happens. *fingers crossed*

• 6 words • 6 characters •         • 6   y e a r s •


, the clock struck six. Luna turned                                

Six seemed to be an appropriate hour for our story.

Verity, it's all those reading lessons I've taught about inferring over the years catching up with me, one word at a time.

gazing at her. Soon they were

Now I wonder if they end up doing the homework or watching the moon together. Or maybe neither ...

• 6 words • 6 characters •         • 6   y e a r s •


the best way to answer Professor                                

Verity, I can post a tally at the end of the story of all the times 'six' was used.