I decided to do this as a separate post from the story announcement so I wasn't cramming too much into one.
Voting for the Indie Twific Awards is now open. As I mentioned earlier, three of my Twilight stories have been nominated. These awards are intended for lesser known stories in the fandom. They say: "And because everyone was a newbie at some point, we want to acknowledge the great up and comers. Those wonderful diamonds in the rough, which with a bit of polishing, could be a heart shaped diamond hanging from a charm bracelet..."
Honestly, I don't think that quite fits me as it's been a long while since I was a newbie writer of anything, and even in fandom, I probably verge on dinosaur status. :p I certainly hope my stories aren't rough and still in need of great polishing. Nor is it true for several of the others nominated. Now, to be fair, the award people also add "under recognized Twilight Fan Fiction" to the list -- but in truth, I think that second category should be the primary category. A lot of the stories qualify because they're not novels, they're posted primarily on LJ (not the chief Twilight fic dissemination place), they're canon, they feature less popular characters or pairings, or they're gen.
Twilight fandom is strongly dominated by novels (which is a bit unusual for fanfic), but the result is that one-shots and novellas slip off the radar quickly. It's also dominated by Edward-Bella romances, including a huge number of the "all-human" subcategory. Now as we mostly all know, romance is a large chunk of fanfic in ANY fandom, but given that at least 3 of the original source novels are, essentially, Romance novels, that very tight romance focus shouldn't surprise. Yet that means gen stories do even less well in Twilight than in other fandoms -- readers come for romance in SOME form even if not E/B. (Although slash hasn't heretofore done well either, romance or not, but that seems to be changing. I have a few theories as to why slash was so slow to take off in Twilight, but won't go into them here.) Last, some characters -- especially the natives -- are not only not popular, they're out-and-out rabidly hated by large chunks of the fandom. As my few Twilight stories tend to be shorter than typical, gen, mostly canon-compliant and 2 of the 5 feature Leah (who's popularly demonized in much fanfic), it's no surprise if they aren't what the fandom particularly wants to read. :-D
That's okay. This is not a rant; it's a series of observations. After almost 10 years writing fanfic and a good 15 years reading in various fandoms (although not as many fandoms as some of YOU), I'm well-aware that each fandom develops popular pairings, characters and fads. And as someone who has, from the very outset, tended to BUCK fandom trends -- writing Cyclops/Phoenix when Logan/Rogue was all the rage, writing Cedric, and now writing canon gen Twific -- when you choose to take the road less traveled, you aren't going to win a large readership. In the past, I've sometimes managed to win one anyway, but that's not going to happen in Twilight until the sun sets in the east because it's just not the nature of the Twilight fandom beast. I still write what I want to write.
All that said, and while I really don't expect to make it past this round, I WANT TO MAKE IT CLEAR that I APPRECIATE those who may have nominated my stories. It's certainly an ego-boost and lovely compliment. In the end, I'm just glad my own dabbling in Cullen family dynamics and vampire-werewolf relations does amuse at least some of you besides me. :-)
This first round is the "weed out" round due to the massive number of noms. The voting closes the 12th, I believe, which is ... Sunday. So if you DO want to vote, make it snappy. :-)
FULL LIST OF NOMS in all categories.
CLICK TO VOTE. (All mine are in the 'complete' category.)
Cowboys & Indians: "Best Alternate Universe," "Best Characterization, non-E/B," "Best non-E/B storyline," and "Most Original Storyline."
"This is My Beloved Son": "Best Canon"
"Beauty, Shining in Company": "Best Canon," "Best Original Character," "Most Original Storyline."
Also, several stories that I follow are nominated there. I'm not going to give a complete list since the number of noms is HUGE. (Hence the weeding down ...) But if you're looking for reading material, go check out that list of noms linked above.
ETA: Another observation on the fickleness of awards ... I dearly wish "Beauty" would win SOMEthing, but it's the one least likely to win anything, I suspect. Why the wish? IMO, it's one of the best stories on my site, writing wise. Certainly it's better writing than some that have raked in awards, like Climb the Wind. But the latter is novel-length, and strongly emotional, and hit a nerve in the fandom at the time -- became my "Claw" story (to use
penknife's amusing term) -- and basically CONNECTED with readers. And that's key in fandom. We can't really predict it, or manipulate it. It happens, or it doesn't. And it's what causes stories to become popular (and win awards) ... or not. But it is indicative of how much emotion drives awards, not "quality of writing." If it were quality of writing my list of story awards would have different titles in it.
I'm not sure that's "wrong" or even "bad." It just is. We vote with our hearts, not our brains.
(Please note, I'm rating my stories against each other, not trying to paint myself as hugely better than other authors! Not that arrogant. *grin*)
ETA2: I have been ADMONISHED by email, ha. But a good point. The reason Climb won more awards than Grail is because by the point Grail was finished, most of the old X-fic awards were dead. This is actually a relevant point for comments on awards. Grail probably was more popular and had a better plot/was better written, so the fact is won no awards had less to do with popularity than with availability of awards in any given fandom at any given time. Very, very true.
Voting for the Indie Twific Awards is now open. As I mentioned earlier, three of my Twilight stories have been nominated. These awards are intended for lesser known stories in the fandom. They say: "And because everyone was a newbie at some point, we want to acknowledge the great up and comers. Those wonderful diamonds in the rough, which with a bit of polishing, could be a heart shaped diamond hanging from a charm bracelet..."
Honestly, I don't think that quite fits me as it's been a long while since I was a newbie writer of anything, and even in fandom, I probably verge on dinosaur status. :p I certainly hope my stories aren't rough and still in need of great polishing. Nor is it true for several of the others nominated. Now, to be fair, the award people also add "under recognized Twilight Fan Fiction" to the list -- but in truth, I think that second category should be the primary category. A lot of the stories qualify because they're not novels, they're posted primarily on LJ (not the chief Twilight fic dissemination place), they're canon, they feature less popular characters or pairings, or they're gen.
Twilight fandom is strongly dominated by novels (which is a bit unusual for fanfic), but the result is that one-shots and novellas slip off the radar quickly. It's also dominated by Edward-Bella romances, including a huge number of the "all-human" subcategory. Now as we mostly all know, romance is a large chunk of fanfic in ANY fandom, but given that at least 3 of the original source novels are, essentially, Romance novels, that very tight romance focus shouldn't surprise. Yet that means gen stories do even less well in Twilight than in other fandoms -- readers come for romance in SOME form even if not E/B. (Although slash hasn't heretofore done well either, romance or not, but that seems to be changing. I have a few theories as to why slash was so slow to take off in Twilight, but won't go into them here.) Last, some characters -- especially the natives -- are not only not popular, they're out-and-out rabidly hated by large chunks of the fandom. As my few Twilight stories tend to be shorter than typical, gen, mostly canon-compliant and 2 of the 5 feature Leah (who's popularly demonized in much fanfic), it's no surprise if they aren't what the fandom particularly wants to read. :-D
That's okay. This is not a rant; it's a series of observations. After almost 10 years writing fanfic and a good 15 years reading in various fandoms (although not as many fandoms as some of YOU), I'm well-aware that each fandom develops popular pairings, characters and fads. And as someone who has, from the very outset, tended to BUCK fandom trends -- writing Cyclops/Phoenix when Logan/Rogue was all the rage, writing Cedric, and now writing canon gen Twific -- when you choose to take the road less traveled, you aren't going to win a large readership. In the past, I've sometimes managed to win one anyway, but that's not going to happen in Twilight until the sun sets in the east because it's just not the nature of the Twilight fandom beast. I still write what I want to write.
All that said, and while I really don't expect to make it past this round, I WANT TO MAKE IT CLEAR that I APPRECIATE those who may have nominated my stories. It's certainly an ego-boost and lovely compliment. In the end, I'm just glad my own dabbling in Cullen family dynamics and vampire-werewolf relations does amuse at least some of you besides me. :-)
This first round is the "weed out" round due to the massive number of noms. The voting closes the 12th, I believe, which is ... Sunday. So if you DO want to vote, make it snappy. :-)
FULL LIST OF NOMS in all categories.
CLICK TO VOTE. (All mine are in the 'complete' category.)
Cowboys & Indians: "Best Alternate Universe," "Best Characterization, non-E/B," "Best non-E/B storyline," and "Most Original Storyline."
"This is My Beloved Son": "Best Canon"
"Beauty, Shining in Company": "Best Canon," "Best Original Character," "Most Original Storyline."
Also, several stories that I follow are nominated there. I'm not going to give a complete list since the number of noms is HUGE. (Hence the weeding down ...) But if you're looking for reading material, go check out that list of noms linked above.
ETA: Another observation on the fickleness of awards ... I dearly wish "Beauty" would win SOMEthing, but it's the one least likely to win anything, I suspect. Why the wish? IMO, it's one of the best stories on my site, writing wise. Certainly it's better writing than some that have raked in awards, like Climb the Wind. But the latter is novel-length, and strongly emotional, and hit a nerve in the fandom at the time -- became my "Claw" story (to use
I'm not sure that's "wrong" or even "bad." It just is. We vote with our hearts, not our brains.
(Please note, I'm rating my stories against each other, not trying to paint myself as hugely better than other authors! Not that arrogant. *grin*)
ETA2: I have been ADMONISHED by email, ha. But a good point. The reason Climb won more awards than Grail is because by the point Grail was finished, most of the old X-fic awards were dead. This is actually a relevant point for comments on awards. Grail probably was more popular and had a better plot/was better written, so the fact is won no awards had less to do with popularity than with availability of awards in any given fandom at any given time. Very, very true.
42 observations | Muse a Little
