Just a few days left to vote in the Sunnydale Memorial Fanfic Awards

[red_satin_doll]

Voting in Round 28 of the SunnyD Awards ends June 30th, so hurry over, check it out and cast your ballets now. Quite a lot of the stories and authors were entirely new to me and I would never have known about otherwise, which is one of the best things about these fanfic awards.

Comments

[baphrosia]

Oh hey, I like your choices. :) Especially 'Spirits', 'cause I nominated it

[red_satin_doll]

And, whew, I stole your forum. :)

Stole? No way! I was hoping that other people would feel free to do just this, thanks for the additional recs. I couldn't begin to read everything - the same thing happened the last round, which was the first ones I'd ever heard of.

I didn't mention "My Life Closed Twice" because I like what I've read of it - were you the one who first rec'd it to me? I think you might have been almost a year ago - but I can't claim to have read the whole thing, so that doesn't seem fair if that makes sense? (I've read the last couple of chapters three times, though. I'm weird that way.)

I'm trying to remember if I've read "Well...I Sing." everytime I think I've read everything of BMB's (or of BGF's) I discover I haven't. What is UP with these prolific writers, making the rest of us look bad? ;)

'Paternity Suit' by Shapinglight is horrifying and wonderful. 'Vampires in the Caribbean' by Goldenusagi was also amusing and creepy... Darla's just scary, I guess. I'll have to check these out. I haven't read much

[baphrosia]

Well, I told 3hours and wolffan I was nominating them, and even asked which categories they thought the story ought to be in. Plus, I have no problem telling others, 'Hey! This story is worth your time!' I like the Secret Santa analogy - I know who nominated me last round, but not this one, and I wish I did. :) The folks I nominated last round knew it was me too. If there are rules about not talking about it, well, I guess I broke them. Seem silly to me. I suppose it's so the people you didn't nominate don't feel left out, especially if they're friends? But my criteria for nominating authors involves finding quality unknown, new, or fringe authors. And I don't think it's a secret I'm very picky about what I read, so... What's the polite way of saying this? It probably doesn't come as a surprise to anyone that I nominate and give my vote sparingly, and friendship means nothing to me when it comes to recommending somebody's work. Maybe if I'd been in fandom longer, I'd be more circumspect. Then again, probably not. I've

[red_satin_doll]

If there are rules about not talking about it, well, I guess I broke them. Seem silly to me.

In terms of nominations you're probably right, and it may be my hang up. Trying to behave myself a little as the "new girl in class". Afraid of not fitting in - I still tend to ask "is this ok?" a lot. I'm getting bolder though, I think? Like, ok, this is my fandom too, and I've already gotten scolded and had bizarre accusations lobbed at me, but also lots of hugs and support so.

I suppose it's so the people you didn't nominate don't feel left out, especially if they're friends? But my criteria for nominating authors involves finding quality unknown, new, or fringe authors. And I don't think it's a secret I'm very picky about what I read, so... What's the polite way of saying this?But there's no way to nominate everyone is there? Not in a fandom with so much creativity and output. And there are people who every reader will prefer for various reasons - or who are just objectively better writers IMHO

[slaymesoftly]

Yay you for nominating "My Life Closed Twice". As you say, she has so very many wonderful fics - but I don't know how many people are still reading her. This is one of my favorites of hers.

[baphrosia]

I absolutely adore Anaross. And I learned so much about poetry from this fic, which is not my forte, not at all. I'm sad she moved on to other things. But SunnyD is a way to bring attention to authors and stories which might otherwise be overlooked, so hopefully new readers will find her!

I left categories blank too - I won't read slash or songfic, so there's no way I can choose one. But I always try every Spuffy nomination, and all of the quickie and humor nominations, just to be as fair in my choices as possible.

[slaymesoftly]

Me too. That's where I usually have problems - when it's a category that I'm really not interested in reading (or, occasionally, violently opposed to reading. lol) and I don't know any of the authors. If I do know one of the authors, I will usually just vote based on knowing that they probably did a good job. Which is probably not fair to the others in the category. some of whom may have written better fics, but there are only so many hours in the day and I don't want to spend them reading things I don't want to read. Fortunately, I've usually at least looked at the Spuffy fics, if not having read them completely, so all I need to do there is to read enough to remind myself why I did or didn't like them.

Yes, the poetry stuff in My Life.... was wonderful. She's a wonderful writer (and a very nice person) who can wring your heart out in a way few others can. I think nominating older fics and authors who newbies may not know about is an excellent idea. I may think about doing that in future rounds. :)

[red_satin_doll]

(or, occasionally, violently opposed to reading. lol)

When it comes to "NC-17" or m/m slash I just "walk on by"; again, except if I know the author. Is it unfair? Maybe. When I was a little girl I honestly believed that AMPAAS voters saw every single movie that was released that year before voting on the Oscars. Hey, I was eight years old. Turns out a member might have seen exactly one movie, or based their votes on the first 10 minutes of something.

I don't know if there is such a thing as totally "fair". For the Absence of Light awards I was a judge and we each got a category (two people shared some of the major categories), and so we had to read every story in the category, so that's a bit more fair, and we had sort of of chart - specific things we had to judge the story on (from technical stuff - grammer - to characterization to plot), but at the end of it our choices are still subjective. I assume my choices are "obviously" the superior ones - except they're not to someone else, and vice versa.

I think nominating older

[slaymesoftly]

*nods* When you're judging, you don't usually have to deal with so many fics, so you can read them all and use whatever point sheet/criteria you've been given to figure out the ones that should win. One would have to be extremely dedicated (and have no life?) to do that at a large award site. Fortunately, SMA doesn't seem to mind if/when you skip a category. There have been award sites that limit you to skipping no more than three (or whatever). I know I've had to walk away from some of those if there were too many categories in which I just had no idea whatsoever

[red_satin_doll]

I just remembered - oh, yes, you know what the hell I'm talking about re: AoL. DUH. Mind like a sieve over here.

>The Spuffy sites were easier because I'd usually already read most of the fics nominated. Alas, those days are gone forever... :)

I've only been in fandom a year and in terms of most Spuffy fic I'm already "bored, now." But maybe that's what comes of having 10+ years of fanfic at my disposal.

While there are some truly amazing stories still being written now, if I saw a category full of less-than-amazing stories, I would be sorely tempted to stick in an oldie or two just so readers could see what really good is.HAH. Oh that's a good point. (And then we'll chase those whippersnappers off the lawn, right? Damn I am getting crochety in my old age

[slaymesoftly]

*nods* Not fitting the category is a big problem. It may be a wonderful story, well-written, etc, but if the category is "humor" or "angst" or "hawt sex" and the story isn't one of those things, then it's hard to vote for it as the best in that category. I think I did a meta-type post a very long time ago that addressed that issue as well as some others. This was back when more sites were judged and every story was held to a certain list of qualities and judged accordingly. Without letting on that I was a frequent judge, I tried to emphasize the things that show up on our judging sheets - suitability to the category being one of them. As well as pointing out that there is always a mechanical component to the system, so you aren't doing your friend any favor by nominating her poorly beta'd story full of mistakes. At that time, on a lot of sites you'd see maybe ten or twelve fics in a category and probably as many as half of them didn't belong there - not only because they didn't fit the category, but also because they just weren't

[red_satin_doll]

As a judge, a category where you can dismiss half the entries is much easier, but one in which you agonize over 1/2 points in an effort to figure out which wonderful story is the most wonderful is much more rewarding. :)

Exactly - it's one of those wonderful problems to have. Almost every category in the SunnyD awards this time was fairly easy for me except one and I AGONIZED over it. Again, good problem - I want the fic to be that good.

I think thats part of the reason I like fic recs, or things like the Buffyverse Top 5 site. You can list favorite stories without having to rate them numerically. (I know people who love to make lists, like Nathaniel Rogers and his The Film Experience blog, but it doesn't come naturally to me.)

[baphrosia]

I'm enjoying reading the downthreads on all these comments. And here is where I consolidate into one big reply

You know this is gonna be a long reply...

[red_satin_doll]

I wish there were judged awards, or more like there used to be. They seem... more fair

That's part of what I like about the Absence of Light Awards. It's based on a certain set of criteria, which doesn't mean we all agree on what's best even then, but for me at least it made me examine WHY I like or disliked a given story more carefully.

And here is where I remind myself that everybody is just trying their best and having fun, and there's no need to be such a *snob* about it.

Well why not? *ducks flying tomatoes* Remember back in the day when at most we got to share our writing with a few friends, assuming it didn't end up in a dresser drawer? The internet allows the world to have access to your work and that's heady stuff. But I think some people are more selective (read: insecure) about the value of their work, sometimes to a fault; on the other extreme you have people who think every damn word they write is precious.

Yes, I have often been accused of being an intellectual snob as well, but that attitude came directly from

Re: You know this is gonna be a long reply...pt 2

[red_satin_doll]

With regards to slash - I never thought about the fact that it separates straight from gay relationships on purpose. I suppose because in my mind (and ONLY in my mind), 'slash' means shipping a cannonically straight character in a gay relationship.

I'm not sure that was the original intention? But that's what it's become. it highlights the fact that there are almost no outright gay characters and almost all same sex shipping is non-canonical by necessity.

I wouldn't consider W/T slash, but W/Buffy would be. Spike/Angel is border slash for me...but Spike/Xander? Definitely slash.Your definition hinges on canonical or non-canonical, if I'm reading correctly; but I don't think that's the general definition? there's still a problem in that, or at least for me as a "lesbian" (yes, I know that's still a label) because I've lived with my relationship not being considered not as "real" or legitimate (morally or legally) as if I were with a man. Whereas I'm fine with canon/noncanon, and Smut/Romance as categories. Those apply to any pairing

Re: You know this is gonna be a long reply...pt 2

[baphrosia]

Yup, my slash definition is my own personal one. But since I only ready Buffy/Spike (unless it's in the humor or quickie categories), it doesn't matter to me whether it's conventional or slash or whatever. I don't have to hurt my brain thinking about these things. But I suppose we need some way to categorize