This isn't a competition

[pensnest]

I just saw an announcement for a new community on LJ that made me wince. It's for fan awards. Not, I should add, in popslash.

Like the poster says, "it's being able to say you are THE BEST EVER that's important". Except, not. I just don't like the idea of fan stories being judged in this way. I think it's actually divisive—for every individual who squeaks with joy to find that her/his story has been nominated, there are going to be a dozen, a hundred, who are crushed that their story has not been nominated. For every 'winner', a dozen 'losers'.

I don't think this is a good approach. I perfectly understand the inner desire of every—okay, of *most* authors to be hailed as THE BEST WRITER EVAH!!! I mean, yeah. Sure. But I just don't think it's necessary, and I don't think it's worth the disappointment to everyone else. Instead of being a fun thing where everyone gets to share, it's a divisive thing where some people are deemed worthy and others… aren't. Damn it, it's frustrating, disappointing, upsetting enough to see, say, rec lists which don't feature the story you so painstakingly wrote—even when you *know* it's just a matter of the reccer's personal taste—but now there are to be prizes? Gah.

Besides—how, for heaven's sake, do you judge?

Comments

[kaigou]

This is actually why I don't like having prizes attached to the challenges on the archive I host. It just makes me feel like... it's putting a little too much weight on the competition, y'know? Although I do think competition is a good way to inspire people -- some writers can really pull it out for a challenge and enjoy the experience -- I'm not so sure about the notion of putting a price on the eventual ending.

I'd much rather consider all entrants to be winners in their own right, if only for having the guts to give it a shot, and maybe an extra gold star for the ones who got the most votes -- but even that makes me uneasy, sometimes, which is why I also prefer anonymous entries, and discourage people from telling friends who-wrote-what. (I mean, I'm sure there's some who do, but it's a lot harder to be noisy about it to really unbalance the voting, when it's clearly stated that it's expected to be anonymous.)

It's also why I think nomination-based competition has its place, it works best if it's balanced by competition in which self-nomination is also welcome. But even then, it's important for the challenge organizer to be really explicit that it's not only acceptable to nominate yourself, but welcome -- otherwise people feel like the hidden message is that tooting your own horn is somehow not-okay, even presumptuous... and if there's one thing I think some writers need to learn is that sometimes self-marketing is also a valid tool in the writer's toolbox. That is, that it's okay to tell people you think you're pretty good. Sometimes, you really are, and if you don't say so, who will?

[pensnest]

I think challenges are great—a large percentage of all the fanfic I've ever written has been for challenges of one sort or another, and in popslash, the annual SeSa challenge regularly produces really good stories. And it's anonymous for a fortnight, so nobody's reputation influences the readers, which I think is also a good thing.

I also agree with you about self-nomination. Sometimes people just aren't visible to a wide circle, and it's a pity to let good stories languish unread for want of a little publicity.

It's just the prize-giving aspect that I'm uncomfortable with. People didn't write their stories as entries for a competition, but the whole thing effectively judges them anyway. Even not being nominated is a judgment, and how are the authors to know whether they were not nominated because everyone thought their stories were rubbish, or because nobody thought of them? (In either case, it's a bit depressing...) And this kind of thing is likely to turn into a popularity contest rather than an honest judgment of the stories, anyway. Meh.