A day to breathe

[bironic]

I've taken a day off from work after losing Saturday to Remix and yesterday to a combination of having slept only half the hours I need to feel human, going to a (lovely!) fangirl housewarming party, and deciding to try the train instead of driving, which translated to almost four hours of travel instead of less than two (although I got some reading done). The thought of using every night this week just to catch up made me queasy, so I called in one of the "mental health days" my manager gave me after the marathon project in December.

In three hours, I've already done 10 things on my should-have-been-weekend list. What a relief. I've worked from home a few times since the new year, but I couldn't tell you the last time I took a day off when I wasn't sick.

.

In fannish news, "Substitute" was nominated for an SGA Kink Award (voting is here). I was completely surprised and thrilled by the news. I don't think the little guy has a shot at winning, but as everyone says, just the fact that it was nominated is great.

I've never had a fic nominated for an award before. House was the first fandom I contributed to online, and I can't recall any contests except for possibly a House/Cameron one. BtVS and HP had many, and SGA seems to have several as well. This particular set of awards is new for 2008. They've broken down the nominees into categories; "Substitute" is listed under "That's… Actually, I like that (Best 'I didn't think I'd like this Kink until your story...')" in the slash PWP section. You can vote for the fic you like best in that category or check out all the nominees at the main site.

While, as I said, it was a thrill that someone liked the story enough to submit it for consideration, to be honest, on viewing the other nominees, I'm a little disappointed.

One of the things I love about SGA fandom is the quantity and quality of its kink fics, and yet very few of them are represented among the candidates on the Kink Awards site. Lesson one: Don't assume other people have already taken care of nominating the stories you like. Not only does that mean many good stories won't be recognized, it also means winning won't be as sweet for those who pick up awards because the competition was sparse.

Second, there are too many categories for the number of stories nominated. Many categories have only one story: automatic wins. Some have just two. If I were the mods, I'd have combined those categories with related ones for greater selection/competition, or automatically given the award out in those single-story categories instead of putting them up for voting.

Third—and this is completely personal—"Substitute" is up against just one other story that (a) is quite hot, which makes it a worthy winner, (b) is by a popular author, which means it will win because the awards are decided by popular vote, and (c) as a cross-dressing fic, really ought to be in the cross-dressing category instead of this one ("I didn't think I'd like this kink until your story"), which makes me bitter. Again, if I were the mods, I'd've eliminated this category when only two stories appeared in it, put "Substitute" in the sex toys one and put the other story in the cross-dressing one (which, again, has only one nominee). I opted to put "Substitute" where it is instead of in the sex toy category because golf clubs are not traditionally sex toys and because I knew it wouldn't stand a chance against the meltingly hot toy stories that are out there. As it turns out, *grumble grr*, most of those fics didn't make the list, for some reason.

Fourth and finally, on a technical note, and I'll be suggesting this to the organizers in case they run this again, when you click on the "vote" link (which IMO should say "Vote for this story" instead of "Click here to vote," since that's what the link does, with no warning or intermediate step), there's no confirmation page; it just takes you back to the index. Then you have to navigate back to the category and make sure it took your vote. Confusing. Just to warn you if you do go over there.

So there are my complaints, but whatever. It is a great feeling to have a story nominated, and I'm glad to see that some of the fics I've enjoyed, like briar_pipe's Full Moon Sky, will get the recognition they deserve.

Last night when I was feeling grumpy I considered talking about Remix and why I don't like when people log in with their sockpuppets and read stories ahead of time, since it keeps popping up on the f-list, but I couldn't figure out how to do it without making people angry, and anyway, enough griping for one day. The sun is out! There's fic to be written! There's soup to be made! Only two Mondays 'til House comes back!

Comments

[bell]

Eh, am not surprised to hear that yet another award has its problems. XD While I am glad that you (congrats!) and briar_pipe have been nominated, I've never been a fan of fic-awards.

Last night when I was feeling grumpy I considered talking about Remix and why I don't like when people log in with their sockpuppets and read their stories ahead of time

*guilty as charged* Why don't you like it?

While I know I shouldn't have, I'm actually really glad I did because my first reaction wasn't, er, the best; had I read it on the opening day, I'd have probably commented with that reaction. But because I've had a few more days to reread/digest/reconsider, I was able to see it in a new way. Thanks to that, I've been able to create a response/comment in a much fuller, richer way (which my remixer deserves!). So, again, I feel that it's for the best. :3

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I've never been a fan of fic-awards.

I think some hit the right note of joy and love while others proclaim to label certain stories as definitive "best" whatevers, which will always raise hackles. Maybe it's just me, but this one I've understood as a celebration of kinky fic, something I very much approve of. :)

Why don't you like it?

Two main reasons this year. One, it's part of my personality that I'm a rule-follower and I want other people to be rule-followers ... when the rules make sense to me. :) This is true in many areas of life; if there's an area that says no parking, I don't park there and I expect other people to not park there, and it irks me when people decide that rule doesn't apply to them and park there because it's convenient, you know? The mod asked that people not read their remixes until the archive opens, so I'm holding back even though I'd very much like to read what was written based on my fic, and I want other people to hold back too.

Second, authors are able to edit their submissions before everything goes live on Saturday. Accordingly, I think they should be given the opportunity to make revisions, get their stories beta'd if they hadn't already done so, etc., before people read them. Mine is not complete, and I need to make a major update before Sat. If my remixee went in and read what I wrote for them, I'd be upset, because they wouldn't be seeing the finished product. This could be true for anyone. What if your remixer makes revisions before Saturday and they're small enough that you don't notice them on another reading, but if you'd seen them the first time they might have improved your experience?

And other subsidiary stuff, like people might read stories now and then neglect to come back and leave comments, although with Remix at least the remixees are very good about feedbacking remixers.

These are my thoughts, for what they're worth. I totally get that people are excited and don't want to wait. I get what you're saying about taking the extra few days to think about what was done and plan your response. But you can do that after the archive goes live, too. Last year, I read the remixes done for me that day, and then took the next week -- the week between the stories going up and the authors being revealed -- to write up more in-depth feedback.

y/n?

[bell]

One, it's part of my personality that I'm a rule-follower and I want other people to be rule-followers ... when the rules make sense to me. :)

I think that phrase right there can explain our different view points. Like you, I'm a rule-follower... when the rule makes sense to me. (In fact, I chose the first college I attended because it had the Honor Code, which meant that there were no rules and you acted as you thought was right-- it was great, and, for the most part, it worked.)

In this case, the rules didn't make sense to me (especially since, uh, I didn't see the mod's request to *not* look at the other entries until after I had). To me, the worst thing about looking earlier was if you didn't leave comments (so as to not get caught, or something), and in this case it didn't apply since I meant/mean to leave meaty feedback for the remix I read.

The fact that the author might edit before the archive goes live is a good argument against reading early, but I didn't realize you could do that. ^_^;;

[zulu.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on fic awards. Every once in a while I find out I've been nominated--sometimes I just find out that I've won--and it's a nice egoboo, and sometimes the graphics are pretty, but it matters much less to me than other forms of validation, because the process is rarely transparent.

With Remix, I understand how you feel, even though I break the rules. If only it weren't so easy! I'll tell you why, though. In a ficathon situation, I try to read and comment on every story, and if that gets too unwieldy, on every story in the fandoms I know. I don't want anyone to go without feedback! Because I've been there, and I hate how it feels. I want all the authors possible to have feedback from me as soon as possible, and by reading ahead of time, I can give that to them.

Mostly what I've been doing, though, is going back and obsessing over my contribution, and hoping that my remixee likes what I've done, and taking out commas and then putting them back in. *obsesses more*

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, the fun of obsessing! We know it well.

That's a nice motivation behind reading early, but I'll repeat what I said above to usomitai: this week is a grace period for remixers to finesse (or finish) their fics as much as it is time for pinch hitters to be called in, and as one of the people who's taking advantage of the time to add necessary pieces to my remix, I'd feel better knowing people weren't going in early and peeking and seeing an unfinished product and maybe not coming back again later, you know?

Also, I think people who are part of everything-goes-live-at-once fests expect that some feedback will come later, some after a couple of days, some after the author reveal, some when they crosspost. But maybe not. We're not always rational when it comes to wanting MORE FEEDBACK NOW OMG. :)

it matters much less to me than other forms of validation

Oh, absolutely. Feedback > nomination, and feedback from people whose opinions you value > other feedback, and quality feedback > quantity of feedback, etc. A cool thing about being nominated, though, is that -- since I assume none of my friends did it -- someone objectively -- that is, not because we know each other -- thought it was hot.

[zulu.livejournal.com]

Huh, I never realized that people took the week to change their remix! I mean, yeah, I'm adding and taking away commas, but that's the extent of it. Mostly I just reread it because that's what I do with all my fic, heh. So that's a good point! I have learned something new.

[celebriangel.livejournal.com]

So looking forward to next week. Remix fic! Recced originals that I probably haven't read! Yayz!

I other news, I was reading synecdochic's writing meta essays, got inspired, wrote one of my own, then started a meta free-for-all over at my journal. Totally unintentionally, you understand. As if I don't have enough to do already *facepalm*.

I'm sorry to hear you're so snowed under, and I hope you managed to calm down at least a bit on the completion of some urgent Things To Do *sends chamomile tea*.