Archer Rose Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 We are excited to have started planning the reviewing event therefore it means the inkys are coming!! we need your input and suggestions for the categories this year. we obviously want to reflect and represent what our members have been writing and reading over the last year! some potential discussion ideas: which of the previous categories you loved and would like to see again? which ones maybe didn't really work for whatever reason? (too few eligible stories/people, too similar to other categories, too difficult to judge or badly explained criteria...stuff like that - whatever comes to mind) whether some categories should be combined or not combined? eg. did combining flash/drabble work last year? which new categories you would like to see? any categories you want to see return? any other suggestions re: the awards, be it categories, the nomination or voting process, etc. any other comments a note: eligible stories must be posted on our archive or on archiveofourown.org (AO3) and be updated since January 1, 2023 (for multi-chapter stories and story/drabble/poem collections, that means new chapters/stories/drabbles/poems added since January 1, 2023, not just edited). If you wish to nominate something posted on AO3 that is not on our archives, the member authoring the story must put up their own AO3 page for consideration. Members doing so make the acknowledgement that any stories that go against our rules can be pulled at any point once staff becomes aware of this -- if this happens, the author and any nominators will be contacted. ---- last year categories (2023) best long-form story best short-form story best one-shot best drabble/flash best poem best universe/series best original fiction funniest story best dark best angst best slow-burn romance best raging-fire romance favourite lead character favourite side character favourite lead pairing best villain best cast/ensemble other relevant past categories: member-specific most versatile author (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020) best niche author (2020) best writing style (2021) best world building (2022) genre-specific best angst (2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022) best angst/drama (2019) best dark/horror (2018) best humor (2018, 2019, 2020) best romance (2017, 2018, 2020, 2021) best crime/mystery (2021) best action/adventure (2021) theme-specific best description (2017, 2020, 2021, 2022) best dialogue (2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022) best family/friendship (2018) best family (2019, 2020) best friendship (2019, 2020) best lgbtqia+ (2017) best depiction of a mental illness/disability (2017, 2018) most original story (2019) most creative story (2020, 2021) best quote (2021) best plot twist (2021) most thrilling story (2022) story type/length-specific best novel (2017) best poem/drabble (2019) best drabble (2020, 2021) best poem (2020, 2021, 2022) character-specific best lgbtqia+ character (2018) best/most original character (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022) pairing-specific best rare pair (2018) please post your suggestions/comments by January 29th. a follow-up poll to choose from the categories suggested and the number of categories will be posted after this one closes. thank you! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aphoride Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 tl;dr:: hard to find stories for last year: best humour, best poem, best cast/ensemble, best villain feels a bit duplicative: best lead pairing liked: best universe/series, the lead/side character split would bring back: best dialogue, best description, best worldbuilding general ramblings:: i haven't seen many poems being uploaded on the archives in the last year - and the ones which were seem to be pretty limited to a handful of collections which wouldn't spread the love too much (but i may be wrong, i've done a lot of lurking this year!!) while i love best cast/ensemble and best villain as categories, they only really work if people are actually writing, well, cast/ensemble stories and actual villains - which varies a lot from year to year i think. so like, it's probably more a case of are there enough potential entries to be nominated, because while there are always a couple of bigger, more well-known stories which fit those categories, once a few people nominate, those tend to be gone and there need to be more options for people to nominate, if that makes sense?? best lead pairing i like as a category but i do feel it's a bit duplicative, if only because it's sort of a third romance category, as most (if not all) stories with lead pairings will be romances. i think pretty much every story nominated for it last year was a romance. and while that's nice and it does add another option, maybe it's a bit reductive?? but i do like it, so yk i really liked the lead/side character split. it's a good way to distinguish it and to make it story-focused rather than fandom-focused, which in a multi-fandom archive where people read stories fandom-blind, is important i think there were a good number of categories last year - it was a good spread of categories across the board 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archer Rose Posted January 11 Author Share Posted January 11 so I'm going to throw some thoughts out from @Aphoride's response and maybe I'll be back later if i think of other things etc. I'm going to agree with Laura on best poem, best villain, best cast. I love the idea of these categories in theory but I do think they do need to be considered year by year. I don't think maybe there is enough of these to justify individual categories for this year's awards maybe I'm wrong. Like best villain last year was such a cool idea (so I see why it got picked as a category in voting) but I think it only got maybe 2 or 3 finalists so maybe it didn't work out in practice? Re. Laura's point on best pairing. I was thinking about the possibility of 'best romance' and 'best pairing' being the strongest categories to fill that romance genre. I feel like perhaps I've really liked a romance story but really struggled as to how fit into 'slow burn' or 'raging fire' then tried to fit into another category (as i wanted to nominate it for something) as I felt I couldn't make it work within those limits. I feel like best romance could include slow burn/raging fire as well as other types which didn't quite fit into those two. The way that I would look at it with 'best pairing' and 'best romance' is 'best pairing' is character based - chemistry/dynamics etc. and 'best romance' is more plot based. I like the idea of return for 'best friendship' or maybe slightly different wording like 'best platonic relationship' which could include family. I would mainly enjoy something based. Maybe a return for creative/original story too. wouldn't be against having categories laura suggested in the poll as I think they were unlucky to miss out last year with category voting being close and decisions needed to made. I've always favoured big number of categories as I like spreading the love and celebrating different genres/speciality etc. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackballet Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 Yes, anding to those ideas above! I also like: best family/friendship best lgbtqia+ best depiction of a mental illness/disability most creative story best plot twist (although this is tough unless multiple people have multiple works with plot twists) most thrilling story/something like best page-turner 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owlpost68 Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 In a perfect world, I'd love to see one of each past relevant categories, but personally, I really like most of the categories from last year. The bold are my additions. Possible categories for 2024 best long-form story best short-form story best one-shot best drabble/flash/best poem (Is this technically also considered One-Shot?) best original fiction funniest story best dark/angst best romance favourite lead character favourite side character favourite pairing best villain best cast/ensemble Best AU Best Canon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archer Rose Posted January 12 Author Share Posted January 12 8 hours ago, Owlpost68 said: In a perfect world, I'd love to see one of each past relevant categories, but personally, I really like most of the categories from last year. The bold are my additions. Possible categories for 2024 best long-form story best short-form story best one-shot best drabble/flash/best poem (Is this technically also considered One-Shot?) best original fiction funniest story best dark/angst best romance favourite lead character favourite side character favourite pairing best villain best cast/ensemble Best AU Best Canon In reference to your question about drabble/flash/poem v one-shot. Drabble is under 200 words, flash under 1000 words and obviously a poem has different set of characteristics too. Drabble/flash while it is a story told in a single 'chapter' but there is a different set of skills to write something short to much longer which is why they've been recognised as separate categories in the past. like best AU suggestion. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonian Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 I agree with the idea of Abbi @crimson quill that it is good to spread the love by having an expansive rather than constricted number of categories so that a larger number of stories can be recognized for their unique qualities. Of course the categories should not be redundant or overlapping too badly. A category that I would like to see restored is Most Creative Story. This category is needed for the story that boldly goes where other stories don't go, the kind of story that makes reviewers write "I don't think I've read anything like this before." A story that's not a slow-burn romance or a raging-fire romance or an exploration of teenage/young-adult angst or a dark/dystopian story, but rather a story that doesn't fit into any of the usual categories. Something notably creative/original. (Full disclosure: my medieval novel Tiramisu won in this category in 2020, and I don't think it would have won anything absent that category.) It could be thought of as the 'et cetera' or 'et al.' or 'none of the above' category. A metaphor comes to mind as I consider this. In The Acts of the Apostles, Paul comes to first-century Athens, a great metropolis and crossroads of peoples from many countries, and he notes that there are many temples in Athens, dedicated to the many gods of the visitors from all over, so that any visitor wishing to practice his religion can find a temple in Athens dedicated to his own god. But if a visitor's religion is so obscure that he cannot find a temple dedicated to his god, he can always go the the temple inscribed 'To An Unknown God,' where all the leftover gods can be worshipped. A Most Creative category would function like that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dreamshadow Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 I like a lot of the categories that were suggested already, and I agree with @Oregonian about bringing back the Most Original Story category. I'd also like to throw out the idea of some possible trope-based categories. I think we've tossed them around in previous years but the main one I was thinking of was Best Found Family, which might work as a bridge between best friendship/family category - or we could have both 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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