2013 Fanfiction Awards Discussion Thread

[The Great Butler]

First off, I must apologize that this is late. That's entirely on me.

I'm going to start by listing the rules and categories used last year. After that, we'll discuss ideas for how to carry out this year's.

The rules:

-Anything posted from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013 is eligible.

-Nominations will last from today - January 2, 2014 - to February 13, 2014. If necessary due to low nomination totals, an extension to February 26, 2014 will be given.

-Each nomination form must nominate at least four different authors/fics. No nomination form may nominate the same story more than five times total, or the same author more than six times total.

-As a clarification, the awards are for material posted in 2013, not older moments in fics that were updated in 2013.

-Do not ask people to nominate/vote for you, as it is cheating and can result in disqualification. And no, you cannot nominate yourself either.


Here is the list of categories. You may enter up to two nominations for each category.

Overall Fiction Awards
Best Pokemon Chaptered Fic
Best Pokemon One-Shot
Best Non-Pokemon Chaptered Fic
Best Non-Pokemon One-Shot

Other Fic Awards
Best Plot
Most Original Overall
Best Writing Style
Best Description
Best Setting
Best Expansion of Canon
Best Character Development
Best Characterization in a Short Story
Best Romantic Relationship
Best Non-Romantic Relationship/Interaction
Best Original Species
Most Suspenseful Fic
Most Heartbreaking Fic

Pokemon Genre Awards
Best Trainer Fic
Best Horror Fic
Best Comedy Fic
Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi Fic
Best Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Fic
Best Pokemon-Centric
Best Canon Character-Centric

Character Awards
Best Human Main Character
Best Non-Human Main Character
Best Human Supporting Character
Best Non-Human Supporting Character
Best Human Villain
Best Non-Human Villain
Best Minor Character
Funniest Character

Fic Moments Awards
Funniest Scene
Most Frightening Scene
Most Heartbreaking Scene
Most Heartwarming Scene
Best Action Scene
Best Cliffhanger
Most Memorable Quote

Author Awards
Best Established Writer
Best New Writer
Most Dedicated Writer
Most Improved Writer

Reviewer Awards
Most Helpful Reviewer
Most Dedicated Reviewer

 

[Dragonfree]

Wouldn't these be the 2013 fanfiction awards, since they're awarding fics from 2013? That's how it's worked previously (the last awards were the 2012 awards).

 

[jireh the provider]

So, had there been an award that specifies for the Murder / Detective Genre? I mean, finding stories of those variants are quite difficult for this forum. Poke-fanfic or not.

 

[JX Valentine]

So, had there been an award that specifies for the Murder / Detective Genre? I mean, finding stories of those variants are quite difficult for this forum. Poke-fanfic or not.

Yeah, unfortunately, I'd imagine that's why we haven't had one. An award for murder/mystery fics, I mean. If we included one, there would probably only be one fic a year for it, which rather defeats the purpose of having a competition. If we had a lot of murder/mystery fics in a year, then I could totally see this happening, but sad to say, Serebii just doesn't produce a lot of them. *le shrug*

 

[Firebrand]

Yeah, unfortunately, I'd imagine that's why we haven't had one. An award for murder/mystery fics, I mean. If we included one, there would probably only be one fic a year for it, which rather defeats the purpose of having a competition. If we had a lot of murder/mystery fics in a year, then I could totally see this happening, but sad to say, Serebii just doesn't produce a lot of them. *le shrug*

Wasn't this the reason we spliced off PMD fics last year? There had been a huge influx of them, and people were opposed to just lumping them into pokemon-centric. There were enough to justify a split, so we did so. There's no great market for detective/mystery stories here. Jireh, I think you've got the only one, or maybe there was one other who was working on one. I'll be honest, I'm not in the standard fic section much, just the cafe. If it's not being discussed here, I don't really know what's going on. Right now, the genre categories we've got here pretty well encompass the fics on the forum. As far as I know, we don't have a need of a new splice this year.

Now you kids all play nice and have y'selves a nice award show *quietly retreats back into corner, because I've barely read fics on the forum this year, and haven't posted a thing*

 

[Chapter]

Already that time of year again? I gotta wrap up my fic quickly! I only have...
Argh, 10 or so chapters to go. Well, oh well lol.
I can't wait for this to be up. Voting and nominating and what not.

 

[JX Valentine]

Wasn't this the reason we spliced off PMD fics last year?

Eeeexactly. *le nods again* And you're right. As someone who lurks the main forum quite frequently, I can't say I've spotted any new genres emerging this year. Not like last year when we had a lot of new PMD fics just starting up, anyway. In some cases, we've even seen a decrease of fics for the categories we've already got (like comedy), but I'm not sure it's gotten to the point where we need to remove anything, either. Tbqh, I think the balance that we have is working pretty well.

Also, to Chapter, there's really no pressure. So long as you update within this year, you still qualify. Granted, whether or not you think those other ten chapters would contain something that would guarantee your place on the ballot's another matter (and even then, I wouldn't worry too much about it because you never know if someone thinks your work is so awesome already that it deserves a nomination), but point is, don't stress yourself out too much.

 

[Negrek]

Ah, nice. I was wondering when this was going to pop up. Anyway, there are a couple of things I've been thinking about for this.

The first of these is a new category: Best New Pokémon Chaptered Fic, for chaptered stories begun since January 1, 2013. In the past, the winner of the "Best Chaptered Pokémon Fic" has often been a story that's been running for at least a year before the awards for which it was nominated, meaning that it's had some time to establish itself and attract readers. I was thinking that it would be nice to feature some stories that haven't had as much time to attract a reader base, perhaps by newer authors, and maybe encourage people looking to nominate/vote to read some fics they otherwise might not have. I think we get enough new chapterfics each year that it would be a viable category, too. On the other hand, while I think it would be nice to do the same kind of thing for non-pokémon 'fics, I don't think we generally get enough of them for adding a separate "new" category for them to make sense.

It's true, though, that there are usually a healthy number of "new" stories at least nominated for best chaptered 'fic, even if they don't win as often, and Cutlerine's won twice with a "new" story. So maybe it's a totally unnecessary category! Just thought I'd throw it out there.

The second suggestion is actually for the voting form. I was wondering whether it might be possible to include the first two-three paragraphs of each story nominated along with the title and link on the voting form. I think this might help entice voters to read more stories, the premise being that they'll be drawn in by some really nice openings. At the least, it would give them a quick way to narrow down which stories they actually might consider for the award. Obviously, the text is already just a click and a little scrolling away anyway, but I'm sure that even those little steps deter a surprising number of people from actually reading the stories. On the other hand, I realize this is more work for Dragonfree, who already has the unenviable job of having to gather all the links and get things formatted, and it might also lead to an unpleasant "wall of text" sort of effect on the voting page. This is also kinda awkward for stories that get nominated multiple times.

Other than that, I think things ran pretty smoothly last year... doesn't seem to be any need for major changes.

 

[Dragonfree]

Ooh, I think a Best New Pokémon Chaptered Fic (man, that's a mouthful) could be nice. Best Pokémon Chaptered Fic is one of the most important awards, so it tends to get a lot of nominations - splitting them up would make things a bit more even, plus just that it's nice to let new stories get their own spotlight.

The second suggestion is actually for the voting form. I was wondering whether it might be possible to include the first two-three paragraphs of each story nominated along with the title and link on the voting form. I think this might help entice voters to read more stories, the premise being that they'll be drawn in by some really nice openings. At the least, it would give them a quick way to narrow down which stories they actually might consider for the award. Obviously, the text is already just a click and a little scrolling away anyway, but I'm sure that even those little steps deter a surprising number of people from actually reading the stories. On the other hand, I realize this is more work for Dragonfree, who already has the unenviable job of having to gather all the links and get things formatted, and it might also lead to an unpleasant "wall of text" sort of effect on the voting page. This is also kinda awkward for stories that get nominated multiple times.

I'd be willing to do this if it's something people are interested in.

 

[bobandbill]

I think both those ideas are good. That category does get a bunch of nominations as said, so having a form to promote newer ones more in general I think is worth a run.

I wonder if there's any manageable way to have the first couple paragraphs show up without being intrusive or annoying (spoilers/roll overs?). But I suppose Dragonfree will be in charge of deciding that one. ;p

 

[Deadly.Braviary]

The first of these is a new category: Best New Pokémon Chaptered Fic, for chaptered stories begun since January 1, 2013. In the past, the winner of the "Best Chaptered Pokémon Fic" has often been a story that's been running for at least a year before the awards for which it was nominated, meaning that it's had some time to establish itself and attract readers. I was thinking that it would be nice to feature some stories that haven't had as much time to attract a reader base, perhaps by newer authors, and maybe encourage people looking to nominate/vote to read some fics they otherwise might not have. I think we get enough new chapterfics each year that it would be a viable category, too. On the other hand, while I think it would be nice to do the same kind of thing for non-pokémon 'fics, I don't think we generally get enough of them for adding a separate "new" category for them to make sense.

It's true, though, that there are usually a healthy number of "new" stories at least nominated for best chaptered 'fic, even if they don't win as often, and Cutlerine's won twice with a "new" story. So maybe it's a totally unnecessary category! Just thought I'd throw it out there.

Agreed, I'd like to see this category.

Aside from this, I can't really think of anything that would improve upon last year's format.

~Deadly

 

[The Great Butler]

I'll be honest, I'm lukewarm on the "Best New Pokemon Chaptered Fic" one. I'm not crazy about it, but it does have some merits as an idea, so I guess I'll leave it to you guys to discuss.

I don't think the paragraph idea is necessary, because the nominations and voting form already include links to each fic's first post.

Here's an idea I thought of though. What if for the reviewer categories - Most Helpful Reviewer and Most Dedicated Reviewer - people nominating included a link to a review done by the person they were nominating? I think this would make the voting for those categories much easier, because the candidates would be easily accessible.

 

[Psychic]

Very minor point, but what about just naming the new category "Best New Chaptered Fic"? I don't really see why we should limit this one to Pokemon-oriented stories, after all. Of course, the majority of stories posted here are in the Pokémon fandom, but this could potentially give another opportunity for other stories to get some visibility.

Here's an idea I thought of though. What if for the reviewer categories - Most Helpful Reviewer and Most Dedicated Reviewer - people nominating included a link to a review done by the person they were nominating? I think this would make the voting for those categories much easier, because the candidates would be easily accessible.

I rather like this idea.

~Psychic

 

[Dragonfree]

Very minor point, but what about just naming the new category "Best New Chaptered Fic"? I don't really see why we should limit this one to Pokemon-oriented stories, after all. Of course, the majority of stories posted here are in the Pokémon fandom, but this could potentially give another opportunity for other stories to get some visibility.

The problem with that, I think, is that then either we keep the current awards as they are, in which case there will be a huge amount of overlap between "Best Pokémon Chaptered Fic" and "Best New Chaptered Fic", or we change the current awards into "Best Established Pokémon Chaptered Fic" and "Best Established Non-Pokémon Chaptered Fic", in which case the few non-Pokémon fics we have that get read get spread even thinner than they already are. I can barely imagine getting as much as two nominations for both new and established non-Pokémon fics on this forum. The main reason to have an award specific to new Pokémon fics is that the "Best Pokémon Chaptered Fic" award gets pretty crowded and new fics might get drowned out by all the fics with huge established followings, but I don't think there's any danger of anything getting drowned out in the "Best Non-Pokémon Chaptered Fic" category, so I think new fics should be fine there. Pitting non-Pokémon fics against Pokémon fics, even new ones, bumps into the sad fact that barely anybody seems to read non-Pokémon fics here.

 

[The Great Butler]

I think I agree with Dragonfree on this one. If the change is to be made, going with "Best New Pokemon Chaptered Fic" and "Best Pokemon Chaptered Fic" is probably the best way. The numbers really do say everything when it comes to non-Pokemon fics here, to be honest.

 

[jireh the provider]

Ah, nice. I was wondering when this was going to pop up. Anyway, there are a couple of things I've been thinking about for this.

The first of these is a new category: Best New Pokémon Chaptered Fic, for chaptered stories begun since January 1, 2013. In the past, the winner of the "Best Chaptered Pokémon Fic" has often been a story that's been running for at least a year before the awards for which it was nominated, meaning that it's had some time to establish itself and attract readers. I was thinking that it would be nice to feature some stories that haven't had as much time to attract a reader base, perhaps by newer authors, and maybe encourage people looking to nominate/vote to read some fics they otherwise might not have. I think we get enough new chapterfics each year that it would be a viable category, too. On the other hand, while I think it would be nice to do the same kind of thing for non-pokémon 'fics, I don't think we generally get enough of them for adding a separate "new" category for them to make sense.

It's true, though, that there are usually a healthy number of "new" stories at least nominated for best chaptered 'fic, even if they don't win as often, and Cutlerine's won twice with a "new" story. So maybe it's a totally unnecessary category! Just thought I'd throw it out there.

The second suggestion is actually for the voting form. I was wondering whether it might be possible to include the first two-three paragraphs of each story nominated along with the title and link on the voting form. I think this might help entice voters to read more stories, the premise being that they'll be drawn in by some really nice openings. At the least, it would give them a quick way to narrow down which stories they actually might consider for the award. Obviously, the text is already just a click and a little scrolling away anyway, but I'm sure that even those little steps deter a surprising number of people from actually reading the stories. On the other hand, I realize this is more work for Dragonfree, who already has the unenviable job of having to gather all the links and get things formatted, and it might also lead to an unpleasant "wall of text" sort of effect on the voting page. This is also kinda awkward for stories that get nominated multiple times.

Other than that, I think things ran pretty smoothly last year... doesn't seem to be any need for major changes.

After giving these some thought, I'd say that I accept your voting ideas. Especially the second idea you have. At least other fanfics that never got reviews -just many views- could give itself a spotlight.

But it makes me wonder if it will require the writer to make a short paragraph similar to a short trailer presenting the story itself.



An idea that pops into my head is a category called "Most Edited/Modified chaptered Pokemon fic". Also, there is the "Most Edited/Modified chaptered Non-Pokemon Fic".

How two work are very similar (one is for pokemon, the other for non pokemon fics). Simply, fanfics that have been constantly edited and/or modified would become the winner. But spelling changes do not count. What I mean by "Edited and/or Modified" is when any chapter of an existing fanfic either (a.) Adds new content not found on the very first post of a chapter, (b.) Changes the conversation of characters that further fits a character's said personality, and (c.) Modify and fix a badly written scene/event by removing unneeded scenes from the original first post. Then replacing it with a much more suitable written scene. Usually happens after a writer gets a criticism review from a respected reviewer. Harsh yet helpful reviews of course.

As an example, I got this idea from having an actual writing project in my English Communication class last college semester. What our professor told us is to write a formal letter to someone who failed a job interview. Thus, after our professor evaluates our original work, he circles out parts of our letter on what to change, modify, remove and/or replace on the printed version of our project.

Spoiler: another example you could look at...

As how my writing drastically changed, when I was spamming metaphors back then on my edited original story, JX Valentine told me that I only made my story all the more vague as a result of my misunderstanding of using Metaphors as a way of making my story much more attractive to the readers to prove that I'm showing my work, not telling my work. She convinced me to actually head back to my basic correct improvements: simply writing my work much more naturally. Thus, after reading her suggestion, I remodified my original story once more to something that I could let others relate to while making my tongue sound much more like myself.

It's all up to you fellows to decide.

 

[Dragonfree]

We already have "Most Improved Writer". I guess we could have "Most Improved Fic", but since it's the writer who gets better and it's reasonable to expect all their fics improve similarly when they do, it makes more sense to me as a writer award. And there definitely aren't enough non-Pokémon fics to sustain their own version of that award. There is a reason only the overall awards are split between Pokémon and non-Pokémon: we're very unlikely to get enough nominations in the non-Pokémon one if the award is for something specific that only a fraction of stories would be eligible for.

I would also stand by using "Most Improved" rather than "Most Edited", simply because "Most Edited" without indicating actual improvement was made is not something to be awarded - you could win a "Most Edited" award by just constantly churning out new versions of every scene of your story without really learning anything.

 

[Firebrand]

We already have "Most Improved Writer". I guess we could have "Most Improved Fic", but since it's the writer who gets better and it's reasonable to expect all their fics improve similarly when they do, it makes more sense to me as a writer award. And there definitely aren't enough non-Pokémon fics to sustain their own version of that award. There is a reason only the overall awards are split between Pokémon and non-Pokémon: we're very unlikely to get enough nominations in the non-Pokémon one if the award is for something specific that only a fraction of stories would be eligible for.

I would also stand by using "Most Improved" rather than "Most Edited", simply because "Most Edited" without indicating actual improvement was made is not something to be awarded - you could win a "Most Edited" award by just constantly churning out new versions of every scene of your story without really learning anything.

Stepping into the ring again. I agree with Dragonfree here. "Most Improved Writer" pretty well encompasses what Jireh is getting at here. Also, there are some writers that don't like going back and doing rewrites. "Most Improved Writer" allows someone to show growth and improvement in their work while still moving forward with a story. Personally, I probably wouldn't go back and rewrite a fanfiction unless I managed to open up a substantial plot hole (I can barely bring myself to go back and rewrite portions of original work that I'm trying to get published, so there's my stance on the whole thing)

And Jireh, not to be rude, and I don't want to overstep myself here, but to me it seems like you're really fishing to add in new categories where you would be, if not the sole contender, then one of the few on a very limited playing field. I refer first to your earlier suggestion of a murder mystery category. Sounds great in theory, but I believe you might be the only one working on one of those this year. As I said before, maybe I'm wrong and there are a few others out there on the forum, I don't know. But at this point, yours is the only one I know of. I will then refer to your current posting, about an award for a "most modified" fic. We are all quite aware that right now you're working on a massive rewrite for your stories. To the best of my knowledge, there are very few other writers here who are doing something similar. Unless, is Jax doing a partial rewrite of Anima Ex Machina? Thought I heard about that somewhere. Whatever. Point stands, you'd be probably the only candidate for that award.

You posted:

Simply, fanfics that have been constantly edited and/or modified would become the winner. But spelling changes do not count. What I mean by "Edited and/or Modified" is when any chapter of an existing fanfic either (a.) Adds new content not found on the very first post of a chapter, (b.) Changes the conversation of characters that further fits a character's said personality, and (c.) Modify and fix a badly written scene/event by removing unneeded scenes from the original first post. Then replacing it with a much more suitable written scene. Usually happens after a writer gets a criticism review from a respected reviewer. Harsh yet helpful reviews of course.

That's pretty much to the letter what you're doing with your story, which would seem to make you the obvious candidate for an award. Especially if there was the distinction made between pokemon and non-pokemon fics. You would literally be the only candidate. Okay, I can't think of a way to say what I'm going to say next without putting it bluntly, but I'm not trying to be rude: It's all well and good to propose new categories for the awards, but when the awards you're proposing match up completely with the projects you're working on, and there is no other competition in the field, it more sounds like you're proposing a way to just be handed one of the awards. And it just seems like it's in bad taste, like you're just fishing for compliments.

 

[Negrek]

But it makes me wonder if it will require the writer to make a short paragraph similar to a short trailer presenting the story itself.

The idea would be to use an excerpt from the story itself--I think it would make more sense to have each 'fic judged solely on the content of the 'fic itself, so a direct quote would be preferable to a summary or teaser.

Plus, it would be a nightmare and a half to coordinate getting everyone who was nominated for one of the appropriate categories to write up a thing.

 

[jireh the provider]

Stepping into the ring again. I agree with Dragonfree here. "Most Improved Writer" pretty well encompasses what Jireh is getting at here. Also, there are some writers that don't like going back and doing rewrites. "Most Improved Writer" allows someone to show growth and improvement in their work while still moving forward with a story. Personally, I probably wouldn't go back and rewrite a fanfiction unless I managed to open up a substantial plot hole (I can barely bring myself to go back and rewrite portions of original work that I'm trying to get published, so there's my stance on the whole thing)

And Jireh, not to be rude, and I don't want to overstep myself here, but to me it seems like you're really fishing to add in new categories where you would be, if not the sole contender, then one of the few on a very limited playing field. I refer first to your earlier suggestion of a murder mystery category. Sounds great in theory, but I believe you might be the only one working on one of those this year. As I said before, maybe I'm wrong and there are a few others out there on the forum, I don't know. But at this point, yours is the only one I know of. I will then refer to your current posting, about an award for a "most modified" fic. We are all quite aware that right now you're working on a massive rewrite for your stories. To the best of my knowledge, there are very few other writers here who are doing something similar. Unless, is Jax doing a partial rewrite of Anima Ex Machina? Thought I heard about that somewhere. Whatever. Point stands, you'd be probably the only candidate for that award.

You posted:


That's pretty much to the letter what you're doing with your story, which would seem to make you the obvious candidate for an award. Especially if there was the distinction made between pokemon and non-pokemon fics. You would literally be the only candidate. Okay, I can't think of a way to say what I'm going to say next without putting it bluntly, but I'm not trying to be rude: It's all well and good to propose new categories for the awards, but when the awards you're proposing match up completely with the projects you're working on, and there is no other competition in the field, it more sounds like you're proposing a way to just be handed one of the awards. And it just seems like it's in bad taste, like you're just fishing for compliments.

I understand what you meant. Like, its just an observation that I had at least. I'm not really asking for a position in the first place. I'm already too busy with my game designing to even ask for one position.

Thus the last sentence I place in my post meant I accept any valid response at least. Since you and Dragonfree said no need too, I have no problems. Simple as that. No more concerns needed to be asked. Simply, an end of discussion with respect.