Awards Fanfic Awards -- We want your input!

It's that time of the year again! We'll all be gearing up for the fanfic awards again this summer. Last year was the first time NSWFF participated (our thread was here, in case you're interested in having a look).

The question is, should we do so again? And if we do, should it be the same format?

Last year, we ran into the problem of NSWFF being a bit too small to fill all the categories:

Genre

Best Alternate Universe
Best Canon
Best Action
Best Drama
Best Romance
Best Humour
Best All Around (at least one scene of each genre - romance, action, drama, humor)

Style

Most Underrated (a story that averages 6 or less readers per post)
Best Response To A Challenge
Best Songfic
Best Poem
Best Crossover (a story that mixes Star Wars with another movie, tv series or book)
Best Short Story (multiple posts and 30,000 words or less)
Best Epic (over 30,000 words)
Best Vignette (1 post only)
Best Series

Character

Best Canon Interpretation, Male
Best Canon Interpretation, Female
Best Original Character, Male
Best Original Character, Female
Best Non-Human
Best Child (for characters under the age of thirteen, either canon or original)
Best Villain
Best Ensemble Cast

Author

Best Author
Best New Author (must have started first story in any era between June 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. Does not include socks of a different, established user.)
Best Collaborative (Multi-author or round-robin)

Some categories only had one nomination, and a couple didn't even get any. We're worried about the same thing happening this year.

We have a couple options:

• We could shave down the categories.


• We could stick with the same categories.


• We could create all-new sillyor not-so-silly--categories (such as Best Obscure Fandom, Best Medical Bay Scene, Best character Starting with 'S,' etc.)


• We could do all of the above.

We'd love to get your input and to answer any questions you may have on the awards process (if you've never participated, last year's FAQ can answer a lot of your questions, and so can we!). What would you like to do?

And we're also taking suggestions for new categories, silly and otherwise



Category Suggestions

Best Technical Author
Best Sci-Fi
Best Fantasy
Best Multifandom
Best Obscure Fandom
Best Non-SFF
Best Drabbles
Best 50 Sentences

 

Definitely do it again! I know as a writer, it's kind of nice to get some recognition.

I'd say keep the same format, but maybe make it a little easier to get nominated. I'd say, just require one nomination to make the list. For the Most underrated story, keep the same number of nominations, but make the only other requirement that they have three or less active readers.

I think that makes it more fair to all the readers. Last couple of years, it seemed like only well connected authors were getting their stories nominated.

Or better yet, to create a qualified list, have people send in their story titles that they have written over the last year, and a hyperlink to a snippet of their story. So at first, it will list most of the stories over the year. Encourage everyone to look through this list of stories from the year, and PM a list of two or three of their favorites in each category. As we get closer to the awards, start dwindling down the list to like no more than five nominations per category, which are the ones that have survived each round of elimination. I don't know, Make it two or three rounds of eliminations, with each round about two or three weeks. Each round, the votes start again.

If you require three nominations for a story to get nominated, then you fall into the trap that only stories from authors who are well socially connected in here to get nominated, and leaving out stories that should be nominated for being a great, well written story.

As for categories, we have one for best Drama, comedy, etc, but none for Sci-Fi.

 

Nat or any of my team mates from the NSWFF awards team last year can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think NSWFF did switch to only having one nomination to qualify because there were so few stories and authors being nommed. "Best Child" was one of the categories left completely empty (no nominations at all) and I remember looking over the forum to see if anything could qualify and turned up dry.

Personally, I like the idea of coming up with a different set of categories (not so much silly ones - but we could do those for fun! - but ones like "Best Obscure Fandom").

I have some more thoughts, but I'll have to get back to them once I'm done work training for the day.

 

I don't remember if the number of noms needed was actually lowered, or if it was just a case of no story had enough/no category had more than one story get three noms. Either way, every story nominated got through. (In NSWFF, at any rate; I'm not sure about the SW eras, but we can only change things for NSWFF.)

Yeah, Best Child (and Best Collab) were two that just didn't have any nominations at all. Five or so other categories only had one nomination each, so they had automatic winners. That's why we'd like to change up at least some of the categories to make them more applicable to us.

Best Underrated only requires one nomination to get through (so basically, any story nominated in that category gets through). Good idea lowering the amount of readers required for it to qualify. Mira and I had talked about that; usually, the requirement is 6 or fewer readers, but that's pretty much every story in NSWFF.

I'm not sure that adding more rounds is the way to go, though. That makes a lot of extra work for the volunteers, who already put in a lot of time.

Good idea for "Best Sci-Fi" category!! That woud be great for us

 

I like the idea of letting authors list their eligible stories, to remind people of some of what's been there. Another idea would be to have two or three people form a group specifically to skim through what's been written and look for stuff that might be worthy of nominations (at least halfway decent and actually fits the category) to beef up the count and spread the recognition around.

 

It would kind of be like doing a "Recommended Reading" list.

 

Yeah almost. Just list the stories of the year, go through two or three rounds of eliminations, with the lower votes being eliminated until you get three to five nominations (depending on the category). Through each round, every chooses two or three of their favorites. In the end, the final round, everyone gets only one vote for which of the surviving stories, and the one with the most votes wins.

Everyone gets to nominate characters or stories they would like to see considered for nominations, and after two or three rounds of eliminations, a final list of nominations get selected. Who knows, maybe a brand new writter has very good story, but at least they have a shot at the award, even if they don't have much readership due to them being new to the boards. Let's face it, new readers have a hard time getting readers, and this could be a stepping stone for them. It's a fair way to judge a story by quality, not by popularity.

That gives me idea. Maybe there should also be an award for best technical writer of the year. Someone who has shown outstanding use of grammar, punctuation, and the overall use of language. I could have sworn that there used to be an award like that, but I could not find it. Maybe I just missed it or something.

 

I can't remember it from the last 5-ish years, but that doesn't mean there wasn't before, or in a different awards ceremony (IIRC sometimes individual genre/character threads sometimes did their own mini awards).


Category Suggestions
Best Sci-Fi
Best Technical Author

 

I like the idea of some off-the-wall or unusual categories, and maybe some that are for particular types of fandoms (like a couple just for non-SF ones). And, obviously, the Best Crossover wouldn't have Star Wars; we might want to further restrict to crossovers between unconnected properties (so Buffy/Angel or ST:TNG/DS9 wouldn't count, but Buffy/DS9 would).

 

I really like Best Multifandom and Best Obscure Fandom; I can think of several stories that would qualify for each. Best Fantasy would be great as well, especially if we do Best Sci-Fi. We definitely have enough; on the first two pages (so, last 50 threads), I count:

A:TLA
HTTYD
HP
Age of Five
Tangled
LOTR
Animorphs
Dragon Age
Merlin

(And those are just the fandoms; some, such as Avatar and Harry Potter, have multiple recent stories.)

Best Crossover, as it applies to NSWFF, means only non-Star Wars fandoms, since any crossover involving Star Wars as one of the fandoms belongs in one of the SW eras. The unfortunate thing is that there aren't very many in NSWFF; last year, only one story was nominated.


I'm going to keep a running list of the category suggestions in the first post.

I'm so excited about everyone's ideas!! I can't wait; I think this awards season is going to be great

 

I think the issue wasn't so much that we didn't have enough stories posted in the categories as we didn't have enough stories getting nominated. How many people submitted any last year? If a story wasn't read by people in that particular group, for whatever reason, then it wasn't going to stand a chance at a nom. That's why I was trying to think of an alternate nomination process, one that could let less popular writers have a shot.

 

Exactly! The current process is kinda slanted. There is some very good stories out there that deserve recognition that are not being read. Maybe get a panel of judges to read through excerpts of the stories and have them vote on nominations or the award winners. Let the authors also submit one potential nomination for each catagory, no more than one entry for a story per category, and no more than three categories on top of the current process. For instance, if an author is not on the current list of nominations, an author can PM a recommendation for one of their stories for up to no more than three of the categories (EX: Best Sci Fi, Best Drama, and Best Villain).

This is just an example of what could be done.

There is also Robocop, Superman, on the first page as well that is Sci-Fi. Sci Fi is a very big genre here. Heck, I would consider Torchwood as Sci-Fi as well. I've read at least one good Stargate Universe drabble this year.

Now that I think of it, I kind of like the idea of a panel of judges voting on the winner on each category (through help of volunteers, but a judge can only vote in a category that they are not nominated for). Maybe give them a questionnaire of five to ten questions to answer for each story in the catagory. Have questions like"

"Rate to what level of interest you would be willing to read the full story after reading this excerpt (5 being very interested and 1 being not interested at all." 5 = 12 points 4 = 8 points 3 = 4 points 2 = 2 points 1 = 0 points

"Rate the believability of the characters and scenario (5 being the most believable and 1 being the least." 5 = 10 points 4 = 8 points 3 = 4 points 2 = 2 points 1 = 0 points

Depending on the answer, so many points are awarded. In the end, the story that has earned the most points, added from all the responses of all the judges, wins the award. Have like three or four judges per category, and a judge can volunteer for as many categories as they want, as long as they do not have a nomination for that category.

 

Woah, hold on there a second. I think it?s getting a bit too complicated here.

Judging aside for the moment, what would having multiple rounds really gain us? I understand that the worry is that some authors aren?t getting nominated. Adding more rounds and allowing people to nominate more gives people the opportunity to put forth more stories. However, I?m betting that doesn?t mean people are going to look outside their comfort zone for something to nominate. They?ll just add their second choice from what they?ve already read. I really don?t think that having the opportunity to nominate more stories is going to make people read more stories. It?s unfortunate, but adding steps to the process isn?t the way around it.

As for the judging: That just way overcomplicates the whole process (and it?s even more exclusionary, if there are only a few judges per category). Not only is adding extra work not fair to the volunteers, but overcomplicating the process is just going to turn people off and make them not want to participate. We?re not looking to change up the whole system, just make everything more NSWFF-oriented. Don?t forget that we?re still operating as a fourth era in a rotation with the three SW eras; we?re not doing wholly separate awards.

I do like the idea of stories only needing one nomination to get through to the voting round instead of needing three; that?s definitely worth discussing.

Drabb: I agree that for some categories, there are plenty of stories, just not ones that have gotten attention. In my experience, keeping an unpopular category around doesn?t necessarily encourage people to nominate stories for it; they?ll just skip over it because they haven?t read any of those stories. For instance: Last year, there were 6 eligible crossover stories. Only 1 was nominated. I?m going to bet that not all the people who nominated stories happened to pick that one; it?s more likely that many people just left that category blank.

I think it?s better to phase them out for some new categories that are more inclusive so they get more participation. It won?t invalidate people from voting for stories that would fit in the no-longer-available categories, since every story is usually eligible in multiple categories.

As for numbers from last year: I asked the host, so I can actually provide those. Nine people voted, and nine people sent in noms. Four of those people did both, for a total of 14 participants.



After thinking it over and talking with Mira, I?ve decided that a list of eligible stories with categories they?re eligible for is a pretty nifty idea, as long as whoever volunteers to create it is willing to read all the stories to make sure that all the categories they?re eligible for are included. But trying to weed stories out of an otherwise comprehensive list for not being well-written is a bad idea and unfair to those authors.

 

That's good. Just throwing out some ideas.

This year, I might even volunteer for writing some entertainment for the awards. I have an idea for a hilarious skit, but I would need help of two others to make it work. It's kind of like a "Who's Line is it Anyway" improvisational skit involving the stories on this board, but like I said, I would need the help of two people to make such a skit work and be genuinely funny.

 

mrjop2, I agree with Nat. The judging process makes the awards too much work. Having been part of the team last year, it was a lot to get the whole show ready, even with the very few number of people who voted. The more simple we can make the awards, the better. Nat brings up an excellent point when she says:

"That just way overcomplicates the whole process (and it?s even more exclusionary, if there are only a few judges per category). Not only is adding extra work not fair to the volunteers, but overcomplicating the process is just going to turn people off and make them not want to participate."

I'm not going to be involved with the NSWFF award team this year, but if I was, I know that I would not want a judging process. It's too much work for something that is just a little bit of congratulatory fluff that makes us all smile and pat each other on the back for the work we've done for fun. We do not want this to become a headache nightmare - we all still have lives outside of the JC, and we can't devote every single moment to developing something that is just supposed to be fun. The awards are, and have always been, essentially a popularity contest and we can't change that: people are only going to read and vote for the stories they want to read and vote for. So yes, it sucks if you're a struggling author with less popularity than others, but there's nothing we can do to change that. Offer people the opportunity to vote; make it easier to track down stories that are eligible; and give the vote to the people.

edit -- apologies, I was writing this post as you commented, so I didn't see it.

Nat, I was so sure that we had changed the nom rule last year... Maybe I'm not remembering clearly. Anyway, in the case of NSWFF, we would definitely all benefit from a one-nomination rule so that we don't end up with a situation where only one story makes it through to the voting round. However, my one concern is that NSWFF is larger this year and has more traffic and more stories - therefore, the situation is not identical to last year's. If we change it to a one-nom rule, then we could end up with eight or ten or [insert large number here] fics for the voting round for a category. Maybe, instead of having two rounds (one nomination round, one voting round), we could have one open nomination round where every fic that receives on nom gets in. This could be followed by an excerpt period and a preliminary voting round where people vote for their favourite fic on the list, hopefully whittling it down a little bit. Then we could have a final voting round to determine the "winner."

Obviously, that system's not perfect, but it's a suggestion that could be worked on.

Some suggestions for new categories: if there's a Best Technical Author category, then what about a Best Style Author? Sometimes we break technical grammar rules in the name of style - and there are authors here who experiment with new ways of writing.

If there's a Best Sci-Fi and a Best Fantasy, I'm trying to think of a category name that would include a Best "Story set in the Real World", since we do have fan fics that don't have sci-fi or fantasy elements. The only name I can think of right now is "Best Fiction", but somehow that sounds a little silly...

Also, what about a category that would encompass different kinds of writing styles, like drabbles or 50 sentences? They're not vignettes, but they're not long enough to be considered for any of the other style categories, and it seems a bit unfair to them to only be considered for "Best Series" since "series" could mean multiple things or "Best Response to a Challenge" since most of them are written for challenges...

Also, do we need "Best Songfic" and "Best Poem"? I only remember one piece of poetry on NSWFF and the last time I saw songfics was from the JC House Cup or the Valentine's Day roulette. IMO from what I've seen, not a lot of people write songfics or poems anymore, and both those styles could fit into other categories. Well, I'm not sure about Best Poem (maybe we do w

 

My idea was that the "eligible stories" list would be something the authors would do themselves. We create a thread, and the authors get a chance to say what they wrote this year. No excerpts, just titles, fandoms, and what categories they think would fit. It'd be sort of like the "For Your Consideration" ads that film studios put out before award season. ["For Your Consideration... Best Picture: Drive Angry. Best Actor: Nicolas Cage. Best Actress: Amber Heard. Best Supporting Actor: William Fichtner. Best Original Screenplay: Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussier. And so on.] And I wasn't talking about a judging committee, just two or three people who would volunteer to go outside their usual haunts to look for stuff worthy of nomination.


EDIT:

In my earlier post, my suggestion was for a best non-SF story, meaning one with no science fiction or fantasy elements (and for a fandom without them). I just figured they need a bit of attention amid the sea of SF/fantasy. It'd be self-serving to push for new drabble categories, so... I agree about songfic/poem. If there haven't been enough written, then those can be set aside for one year.

 

mrjop: In my experience, the Entertainment Manager can always use more submissions, and for all four eras! And actually, if you?ve got time and the interest to manage entertainment for all the eras, you might consider applying for the position.


Idri: I honestly don?t remember for sure Either way, they all got through Having 10-15 stories in each category is definitely a concern. Another option is doing 2 noms to qualify instead of 3, and if it happens that enough stories in a category don?t get through, stories with fewer votes in a category will be moved through. I?m not committed to a number, and I would like to hear what everyone thinks. I don?t think we?ll be able to add any rounds this time because we?re part of a rotation; our basic format has to stay with the SW eras.

Best Non-SFF, maybe? Though we?d have to check to make sure enough stories qualify for that category to be worth it.

I?m down with adding ?Best Drabbles? and ?Best Sentences? I don?t want to do too many challenge-specific categories because there are a ton of different categories, but you?re right that those are two really popular story types. Best Songfic and Best Poem are both, IMO, ready to go; we just don?t have many/any.


Drabb: Ah, okay; I didn?t understand what you were saying earlier, then. The only problem with that is you?re going to have an incomplete list, because people either get busy or don?t notice or don?t want to put forth the effort or feel uncomfortable listing themselves.

The judging thing was directed at jop, sorry!

 

Well, the thing about letting the authors say, "Here's what I did this year," was never really about creating a definitive list. It was partly for generating ideas and reminding people of stuff they may have read a few months back. The other part, well, a little (controlled) shameless self-promotion is always fun.

 

I'm reasoning in a general sense here, but could there not be a category like "Best Lyrical Expression/Inspiration"? It would cover the grounds of both Best Songfic and Best Poem, and allow for those who did write something to be at least considered. And in the years where none have been written, just suspend the category until the next year.

Cheers,

Lauré

 

I totally get what Salacious_Drabb is saying. Some of us are writing excellent stories, and some in a fairly popular fandom, and yet can't get any recognition for all the hard work they put into their work. I have to admit, I can definitely sympathize.

I am all for lowering it to 1 vote to be added to the nominations list. That helps, but when it comes to honoring someone with these awards, there's got to be a more fair and balance way, or else the winners will only come from Star Trek, Castle, HP, and Twilight, We should find a way for readers to be willing to read excerpts for a fandom they might never have heard before.

Maybe the best way for that to happen is to get rid of the most underrated story and split it up into a series of most underrated fandom story awards. Here is a list of categories for this series as example.

Most underrated Sci-Fi(SGU, Robocop, Torchwood, Dr. Who, etc),
Most underrated Fantasy (Lord of the Rings, Merlin, etc)
Most underrated Animation (Tangled, HTTYD, Avatar: The Last Airbender etc).
Most underrated Miscellaneous (anything based on Marvel, Dark Horse, or DC comics, Wicked, Phantom of the opera, Pride and Prejudice, etc)
Most underrated Television based fan fiction (Vampire Diaries, Castle, Bones, Merlin, etc)
Most underrated Motion Picture based fan fiction (Tron:Legacy, The Patriot, Demolition Man)


Let these series of awards only go to fandoms that are not highly represented in the other categories. Any fandom that is represented in four or more of the normal categories are eliminated from contention for this series of awards. That means, if Robocop is not represented in at least four of the normal awards, including character awards, then any Robocop fan fiction qualifies for these awards. . On the other hand, if someone has a Star Trek fan fiction, they will not be qualified for these underrated fandom awards, because Star Trek is probably the most popular fandom here, and will be represented in every single award category.

If not enough nominations are offered for this series of awards, then allow someone to offer up one of there own stories that might be considered an underrated fandom. I can understand not allowing this for the rest of the awards, but to help out these underrated fandom awards, I think it should allowed to give this series of awards life.

I think this series of awards would be great, and it will give other fandoms some recognition. I can see it happening again this year that every story nominated will be either Stark Trek, Harry Potter, and etc, and I don't think it's right or fair. Give some recognition to other fandoms.

 

Another factor is keeping people informed and interested in the awards. The entire process takes a long time. How to keep people involved, I'm not sure. The various "rounds" could be shortened up or something. *shrugs*

What if there were less categories? Some could be grouped together, which might aid in securing enough nominations.

 

I would agree with there being way too many catagories last year. I would say

Keep the different Genres like best romance, agnst and Action but also do
the suggested ones and leave it at that so the master list would look something like this

Best Alternate Universe
Best Canon
Best Action
Best Drama
Best Romance
Best Humour
Best All Around

Best Technical Author
Best Sci-Fi
Best Fantasy
Best Multifandom
Best Obscure Fandom
Best Non-SFF
Best Drabbles
Best 50 Sentences


I think this would be enough for each catagory to get a couple stories each and still be enough variety for all the stories posted.

 

Anything, as long as other fandoms gets some light of day. Still pretty mad that only Star Trek and HP got 98% of all the nominations and awards last year, and it also felt like only socially well connected authors got the time of day. Another idea is to maybe just allow a single fandom per catagory. For example, for best Drama, only one Star Trek fan fiction can earn a nomination. The other two or three spots goes to different fandoms, or a fan fiction only can be nominated for one catagory, not including character awards. For example, a story that is nominated for best Sci-Fi can not be nominated for any other catagories, like Drama, humor, etc).

Personally, had no problems with most of the categories from last year, just would like to see two or three awards for smaller or underrated fandoms be offered, so Star Trek and HP doesn't win everything again this year.