my .02 about participating in fests

I hesitate to post this, since I feel most of my friends are actually more clued in about this sort of thing than I am ... But, not everyone who reads this LJ is a veteran of fandom, and people I care about are wibbling and/or upset over various goings-on, and that's too much on my mind at the moment. So, for what it's worth, some miscellaneous observations (as much as a reminder to myself as everyone else). YMMV, usual buckets of salt, etc. [ETA: #6 and #7, in particular, may well be minority opinions. See the comments for other perspectives.]

( In the course of a misspent life, I have learned that... )

(13) All fretting and cantankerousness aside, the fact remains that fests are wicked cool. There's splendid work being posted daily at lupin_snape (some of which I've had to bookmark to read later -- Wonderland author, I'm looking at you in particular -- the parts I've skimmed so far are fantastic, but I want to sit down for a proper all-the-way-through read before I comment). I still think it's incredible that there are all these hundreds of people volunteering to make things for each other, just because they can, and that the rest of us get to partake of the gifts as well if and how we so choose. (For instance, "What We're Fighting For"? Not a prompt I would have come up with on my own, and not a story written for me, and yet it is such a well-wrought story, and my life is the richer for it. And from last year's fest, stories I revisit over and over include "Double Happiness Masala" and "Warmth". And then there's the art, which has included illustrations to ellid's "New York Minute" and a breathtakingly gorgeous wolf with pregnant Snape (sounds soppy? It isn't, that's what's I find marvelous about it)).