Fannish post #2 - Eglerio!
Jan. 4th, 2012 03:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olorielor, MEFA results are in!
It's funny: Somehow I never manage to anticipate how fandom at large - or the part of fandom that participates in the MEFAs, anyway - will react to my stories. I had five pieces nominated this year (OMG YAY), but I had only expected one, maybe two of them to actually win something: The rest was (in one case) too odd, and (in two cases) too uncomfortable, grim, debunking beloved fanon and/or theoretical.
Well, turns out that the story I was certain would score did indeed score - Third Place.
The other story that I figured might have a chance as well didn't get anything.
The odd story managed to receive Honourable Mention, which is worth something, I guess.
And the two uncomfortable, grim, dark, either theoretical or else furious stories won First Place in their respective categories. That was unexpected. I even got various positive (read: long) reviews from people I was sure would hate the stories! And then there were those reviews where people discovered little details I hadn't even thought of. And some people who said "I don't usually ..., but in this case...", or who agreed with my points, etc. etc.
And in general, I'm currently a bag full of squee because there's just nothing like a pat on the back in the form of inner-fandom success, and the feeling that you're a good writer after all because a sufficient number of people enjoy your stuff enough to talk about it until it wins something. ^^
So I shall self-indulgently put my winner's banners here. Yes, they are unimpressive because I made them myself and I do not know Photoshop-Fu and am too lazy to fake it this year. And too proud to ask someone else. Oh well! One day, I'm sure, I'll be able to have my son do it. ;)
I'm particularly thrilled by the First Place for The Children of Alqualondë -- that one was sparked by a story I read during my first year in the MEFAs, which was pretty good overall (except for its use of ellon/ellyn/elleth/ellith, a custom which I hate) until I came to a chapter that started with "There were children playing on the docks of Alqualondë, did you know that?" and I just thought "Oh, BULLSHIT". When I was done fuming and biting into my desk (at work, I should mention), I wrote a furious, flaming entry, and then I deleted it and wrote that story instead. Having it win is accordingly a special treat, as it means that a lot of other writers will have read it - possibly even the one who sparked it in the first place - and many of them were convinced by it. So aside from the joy of winning, I may also hope that I'll encounter that particular piece of "Wah wah evil Fëanorians" crap a little less frequently in the future. (Secretly I hope that other people who encounter it will subtly link to my story, of course, but that's just my righteous inner demagogue! >:D)
The three that scored places also managed to score "Smaug's Treasure" awards. I had to look that up - when I did, I remembered that I'd read about that at the beginning of the MEFA season, and then duly forgotten it as I hadn't expected many Silm-based stories, and certainly not mine, to slide into that category. "Smaug's Treasure" is awarded to the first third of stories that compete in the MEFAs altogether, which is probably supposed to console those people who compete in extremely high-frequency categories and get a lot of reviews and points but just not enough to reach the top three, but may still have way more than the winning stories in the more obscure categories. But Silm fandom is no longer as obscure as one would think, apparently! Which is also good.
So all in all, great joy and jubilation! Thanks to all on my f-list who found the time to review my stuff, and thanks also to those not on my f-list who nonetheless enjoyed my stories! \o/
Well! Now I can only hope that I'll manage to get back to writing a bit this year. So many WiPs, so little inspiration... and so many ideas, but so little time. *exaggerated theatrical gesturing*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-01-04 02:26 pm (UTC)*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2012-01-05 04:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-04 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-05 04:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-04 04:54 pm (UTC)I think there is sense of the fandom growing up, making room for more diverse and creative applications of the canon (and greater canon knowledge outside of simply LotR). Silm stories are sexy now. (I am not referring to PWPs!) I read several Silm stories this year by people who have been writing LotR stories for years and as far as I could tell from their past work had never read the Silm!
I think another part of the reason for Silm stories doing better overall, has to do with the quality of the writing. (Although, I could make a list of what I consider classic Silm stories which did not place or placed very low in the MEFAs of the past.) They are still in the minority of stories participating (if I weren't so lazy I would count them and give an exact figure).
I was astounded to win a First with a Silm-based story running in "Elves-general." There was a time when a similiar category would have been dominated in every way with Rivendell, Mirkwood and Lothlorien largely Third Age stories.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-05 04:10 pm (UTC)I wonder how many Silm-fic authors have actually read the Silm, and how many rather draw their information from other fanfiction (and some encyclopedias or essays on the side)? Not that there's anything wrong with that; it just means that there'd be a sort of secondary canon evolving. Which might result in something interesting, depending on whether an author's secondary canon is based on (say) the works of someone like Fiondil or rather on the works of someone like Dawn... XD
Indeed! I was surprised by the success of Introspection in "Drabble Series: General" as well. My pessimism (as
no subject
Date: 2012-01-06 05:20 pm (UTC)I am weeping with laughter. There is definitely a heavy Silm fanon that has little or nothing to do with The Silmarillion itself, much less the extended available sources. It's one of the reasons why I am highly motivated to continue to write the monthly character biographies for the SWG. They are certainly not unbiased, but I do try to keep my bias transparent and present the other arguments as well.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-04 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-04 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-05 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-04 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-05 04:12 pm (UTC)Danke für die Glückwünsche!
no subject
Date: 2012-01-04 07:45 pm (UTC)I am 100% behind you on The Children of Alqualondë. I hadn't come across it before, so I thank the MEFAs for helping me find it.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-05 04:14 pm (UTC)That's the awesome thing about the MEFAs (or things like Yuletide, I think) - it helps us find all these stories we missed! And because of the nomination process, there's even a sort of quality-control mechanism in place. After all, we very rarely make recommendation posts or the like...
no subject
Date: 2012-01-06 05:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-04 10:19 pm (UTC)Congratulations!
no subject
Date: 2012-01-05 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-08 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-09 10:55 am (UTC)