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Thread: Writer's Study Yearly Awards 2017 - Early Information and Discussion

  1. #1
    Caillagh de Bodemloze's Avatar to rede I me delyte
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    Default Writer's Study Yearly Awards 2017 - Early Information and Discussion



    Writers' Study Yearly Awards 2017
    Early Information and Discussion



    Writers! Readers! Random passers-by who don't really know why they're reading this! Welcome to all of you.

    The Writers' Study Staff have (as always) had their noses pressed firmly to the Writers' Study grindstone, and we've begun planning our next Yearly Awards - but we'd also like to hear your ideas.

    So, here's your chance to tell us what you think should happen. Were there too many categories last year, or too few? Was your favourite category left out? Do you think the nominations (or the votes) should be run differently?

    We don't guarantee we'll do things exactly the way you all want - we probably can't, in fact, because you probably don't all agree with each other - but we would like to hear your views.

    One thing we are thinking of including this year is some kind of recognition for making exceptional contributions to the WS other than by writing AARs or CW. People who support our authors are just as vital a part of the WS community as the authors themselves. So if you've seen someone this year who you think has made a particular contribution in that way, make a note of it, because we may want to know about it when nominations are made.

    Posting helpful and supportive comments is something that Writers' Study Staff do as part of their job, so we are not eligible for this new category - please don't plan to nominate any of us. But if you'd like to be the person everyone nominates, this is a good time to start impressing people - get out into the Writers' Study and be supportive, insightful, thoughtful, constructive, stylish, elegant, and just the generally brilliant and helpful people you are.


    (Here is a link to the thread announcing the winners of last year's competition, to remind you what the categories were.)






  2. #2
    Caillagh de Bodemloze's Avatar to rede I me delyte
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    Default Re: Writer's Study Yearly Awards 2017 - Early Information and Discussion

    The Writers' Study staff generally like to think about things very thoroughly before making any decisions. We are therefore very surprised to find that it is only mid-November, a mere four and a half months since the original post on this thread. But here we are, with what almost amounts to a plan for the Yearly Awards!

    At the moment, what we propose to do is to have only four categories for the Yearly Awards:
    • AAR of the Year
    • AARtist of the Year
    • Creative Writing of the Year
    • Creative Writer of the Year


    If you have any comments or questions about this proposal, or would like to suggest something different, please post in this thread.

    Thank you!






  3. #3
    NorseThing's Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: Writer's Study Yearly Awards 2017 - Early Information and Discussion

    That looks like a great line up for the WS Awards. I already have some ideas for some nominations. Yes, I know I must wait until 2018 so that we have the entire year under our belts so to speak. Chomping at the bit!

  4. #4

    Default Re: Writer's Study Yearly Awards 2017 - Early Information and Discussion

    I'm not necessarily against this change, but I would like to know the reasoning behind it.

    The only problem I see is that it may end up resulting in one winner for the AARs and another for CW, considering that the best work for a voter is likely from the member he considers the best writer.
    Something like the character categories could help aliviate this - although you can argue it could make it worse because a voter's favourite character is mostly likely featured in his favourite story...
    Maybe the newcomer category could help?

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    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: Writer's Study Yearly Awards 2017 - Early Information and Discussion

    Thanks, Caillagh, NorseThing and Admiral Van Tromp.

    Yes, it's a good idea to start thinking about which stories and writers you might nominate.

    Admiral Van Tromp, you said that you are concerned that this proposal could lead to one winner for AARs and one for Creative Writing. It sounds like you're thinking that the person who wins AAR of the Year could also win AARtist of the Year. Do you know that there are normally three winners of AAR of the Year and Creative Writing of the Year, because we give awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in those categories?

    We propose to have a rule that one person could only win one award. For example, if Writer X won AARtist of the Year and wrote an AAR which won 2nd place in AAR of the Year, then they would need to choose one of those awards (the other award would go to whoever received the next highest number of votes in that category). This rule would mean that we could have 8 winners: 1st, 2nd and 3rd place AAR of the Year, AARtist of the Year, 1st, 2nd and 3rd place Creative Writing of the Year and Creative Writer of the Year.

    You asked for the reasons for the proposed award categories for 2017. You have already identified one of them - that the 'best character' is likely to appear in the 'best AAR'. Staff also noticed that there were no (or very few) nominations in some categories in the 2016 awards. There were low numbers of votes in some categories. When there are a lot of categories, it takes longer to nominate people and to vote, which could put people off nominating and voting. We hope that the simpler system, with fewer awards, will encourage more people to nominate and vote.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Writer's Study Yearly Awards 2017 - Early Information and Discussion

    Hi Alwyn!

    I'll start with the last paragraph: that's what I figured. It is a very good choice in that sense.

    Well, I completely forgot about the 2nd and 3rd place awards. Again, the best work and best writer rankings may end up mimicking eachother, but it won't be as bad as if only the 1st got awarded. The rule you suggest would solve this problem for good, but it kind of goes against the proposed spirit of a simpler competition altogheter. I trust the staff's experience and judgment on that decision.

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    NorseThing's Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: Writer's Study Yearly Awards 2017 - Early Information and Discussion

    Spreading the shiny things around is always a good idea. I know that most would hate to take all the awards for themselves.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Writer's Study Yearly Awards 2017 - Early Information and Discussion

    Norse thing is right.We need 2nd and 3rd place too.Hhahahahaha.At least i will have a chance then!
    100% mobile poster so pls forgive grammer

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    Shankbot de Bodemloze's Avatar From the Writers Study!
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    Default Re: Writer's Study Yearly Awards 2017 - Early Information and Discussion

    I like the idea of it having fewer categorises for the reasons you mention, I'll be the first to admit I don't always get round to nomination because I'm overwhelmed with the number of options, whilst wanting to make sure I get it right.

    I know someone wouldn't be able to win in two different categories, however I can't help but think AARtist of the Year and AAR of the Year are rather similar? Surely if you win AAR of the Year, you are by virtue of having the AAR of the Year, also the AARtist of the Year? I could easily be missing some key distinction though.
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    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: Writer's Study Yearly Awards 2017 - Early Information and Discussion

    Thanks for your comments, Admiral Van Tromp, NorseThing, mad orc and Shankbot.

    Yes, we are planning to have 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in both the AAR of the Year and CW of the Year categories.

    Shankbot asked about whether we need AARtist of the Year as well as AAR of the Year. You're right, the same person could get the highest number of votes for both. As I see it, AARtist of the Year would recognise someone who wrote a series of shorter AARs, all of which were good but none of which were substantial enough to earn AAR of the Year. Of course, we could just have the AAR of the Year and CW of the Year categories (six awards in total) for a simpler competition. That might give us the best chance of a good number of nominations and votes. It would be good to see more comments on this.
    Last edited by Alwyn; December 09, 2017 at 09:04 AM.

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