Stealthy Stories

[Pi90katana]

Now that my staff and I have finishing discussing the main details, this competition is finally ready to get going! Hopefully, this post will answer any questions you have. If not, feel free to comment and I or one of my staff will get to it as soon as possible.

In an attempt to reach as many people as possible, we've also created a community over at LiveJournal. Feel free to check it out!

I hope everyone is as excited as we are about the comp. We look forward to seeing the stories you nominate! Before you can do that, though, you obviously have to know how this is going to work this year. So without any further delay, let's get onto the details!

Schedule

Jan. 5 - Jan. 21: Gathering Period
Jan. 14 - Feb. 4: Nominating Period
Feb. 4 - Mar. 4: Reading Period
Mar. 4 - Mar. 25: Voting Period

Now's the time for everyone to start getting together all of your favorite fics! You have between today and January 21 to do this.

For those who finish selecting their picks early, we're accepting nominations a week before the Gathering Period is over. You may email your choices between January 14 to February 4, 2009.

As soon as we're done checking the nominees, we will reveal the stories that have made it onto the ballot. You will have four weeks, between February 4 to March 4, to read these fics and decide which ones you will be voting on.

On March 4, 2009, the voting booth will open. It will close at 11 AM (GMT) on March 25.

The Rules

As always, there are rules to take into consideration before you participate in the nominating/voting processes.

1) It is forbidden to nominate/vote for yourself.

2) It is expressly forbidden to use an OC or Canon Character for voting/nominating any story or person, no exceptions. We will be making a list and checking it twice.

3) You may nominate stories from any site, as long as you can provide a viable link to that story. If the story can't be viewed by everyone, it's not eligible for nomination. You may nominate any story published between December 2007 and December 2008, or any stories that are still running from the previous year(s) that have updated at least once during that time.

4) You can only nominate one person/story per category. If you have more than one name on any particular category - even if by accident, only THAT category's submission will be omited. No exceptions.

5) You do not have send in a completed list to participate.

6) Only stories up to M rating are allowed. No NC17 fare permitted. Stories with adult content are for the Adult Fanfiction Awards, not this competition.

7) A single nomination for any category is an automatic winner by default.

8) Anyone can nominate stories, but if you are not a member of either Stealthy Stories, Terrapin Tarts, LiveJournal, or Fanfiction.net and do not participate in the nomination process, you cannot vote. All others must provide either a working e-mail address, a PM (if you are a member of a forum such as SS or TT) and, if you are a member of any of these websites, a link proving as much.

9) All nominations and votes must be sent to the given e-mail address (crazy4ninjaturtles@yahoo.com). Unless pertaining to the contest, do not send any other forms of communication to this e-addy. Keep this account spam-free.

10) Everyone who nominates will enjoy anonymous standing.

11) If you do not want your stories to be a part of the competition, please state so before the beginning of the voting period.

12) The winning stories of the 2007 competition are ineligible for nomination in the same category they won in last year. The first place winners for the author categories are also ineligible.

Nomination Process

Due to complaints last year about there being too many stories to read, several changes have been made this year to reduce the number of fanfics able to go onto the final ballot. This was done in two ways- first by the removal/combination of categories. And secondly by limiting the final nominees themselves.

With the exception of a few of the larger categories, which shall be pointed out below, each category will only be allotted five nominee slots this year. In the case of the larger categories, eight will be allowed. As we typically recieve more nominations than this, this means that not all stories nominated will make the final cut.

There are several things that will play a factor in whether or not a story makes it onto the ballot. First of all, we will be making sure each story nominated is eligible for a slot based on the rules listed above. Afterwards, the stories with the most nominations will be guaranteed a slot on the final ballot.

In the case of widespread nominations in which numbers cannot determine a slot, the staff will determine at their discretion which stories will be used.

We are quite aware that this will raise some concerns with a lot of you. We too would feel the same way if put into your shoes. But I assure you that this will only be used in a last case scenario, and that no favorites will be played. If it comes to this, the stories chosen will be done so only after all have been considered properly and with the approval of the entire staff.

In addition, as in compliance with Rule 10, we will not reveal which stories received the greatest number of nominations, nor which ones did not make the final ballot.

Categories

With that information in mind, surely it's obvious that you can't very well determine which fics you wish to nominate without first knowing what you can nominate them for, right? So here is the list of categories, along with descriptions. We managed to narrow it down a ways from last year.

Categories highlighted blue will have eight nomination slots. The nomination slots for the categories highlighted red will be determined by how many nominations we get.

Best Action/Adventure: Whether the characters are facing off against an enemy or exploring dangerous, new territory, stories nominated here should involve some sort of action in them.
Best Comedy: For stories of a humorous nature.
Best Drama: Should feature stories with a more serious nature.
Best Horror: Zombies, spirits, gruesome killings- if it literally scares the crap out of you, it goes in this category.
Best Romance: For stories of the romantic nature. Can include both het and slash pairings, but as mentioned before, nothing too graphic.
Best Tragedy/Angst: This category is for the emotional and/or depressing fics out there, along with ever kind of angst you can think of, be it hurt/comfort or just plain torture.
Best Crossover: Stories nominated here should involve the TMNT and at least one other fandom. It doesn't necessarily matter how it involves that fandom (be it characters meeting each other, one fandom coming to another's universe, etc.), just that they clearly involve one another.
Best Alternative Universe: In this situation, an AU is defined as a story where one or more factors deviate strongly from canon. This can involve the turtles being human, your 'What if?' scenarios, and many others.
Best Chibi: Stories should feature the character(s) as children.
Strangest Scene: For stories both weird and wacky. It can disturb you, it can amuse you- as long as it gives you that odd feeling in your stomach, it goes here.
Most Accurate Portrayal of the TMNT: Stories nominated here should feature a strong portrayal of all four turtles (any other canon characters is an excellent bonus).
Best Leonardo Scene: Stories should display an excellent portrayal of Leonardo.
Best Donatello Scene: Stories should display an excellent portrayal of Donatello.
Best Raphael Scene: Stories should display an excellent portrayal of Raphael.
Best Michelangelo Scene: Stories should display an excellent portrayal of Michelangelo.
Best Villain: Fics nominated here should have a good use/portrayal of one or more villains, canon or otherwise.
Best Canon Ally: Fics nominated here should have a good use/portrayal of canon characters besides the turtles. This can include but is not limited to Master Splinter, Casey Jones, April O'Neil, Renet, Leatherhead, etc. Please, no villains (unless it be one of those odd cases, like Torbin Zixx or Nano) or OC's.
Best Original Character: Stories nominated here should involve the use of a character created by the author. Please state the name of the character along with the title.
Best Happy Ending: For stories with a more cheerful ending.
Best Sad Ending: For stories with a sadder ending.
Best Short Work: Many of last year's categories were combined into the one you see now. Here, a short work is defined as a piece with 1,000 words or less, including ficlets, drabbles, sentence prompts, and poetry.
Best One-Shot: Here a one-shot is defined as a story over 1,000 words, but only one chapter in length.
Best Series: For the best series, series being two or more fics directly related to one another. These can be sequels, trilogies, etc. Please list the stories included in the series you nominate.
Best Multichapter: Your overall favorite fanfic of the year, be it something new started in 2008 or something that has continued from previous years until now. Please use multi-chaptered stories only.
Best New Author: An author that is relatively new to writing the fandom.
Best Established Author: An author that has been in the fandom for a year or longer.

And that's it for now! Once again, if you have any questions, feel free to comment.

Happy reading to you!

~Pi90katana
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Pi90katana: N. Dedicated TMNT fangirl, Leonardo enthusiast, fanfiction writer, cookie-lover, MNT Gaiden addict, resistor of Footies.

[Kunoichi Nazena]

What? No "Best Splinter Scene" anymore?
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Storyticker:
Glory 17--> in progress

http://nazena.deviantart.com/

[Anonymous]

We combined Best Splnter into Beset Cannon alley which ask it state is for people such as Casey, April and of course Splinter :)

[Pi90katana]

AMENDMENT! Due to a question over at the LJ base, the name for Best Story will now be Best Multichapter.

And sorry about that, Kunoichi. It was one of the best ways to condense categories, I'm afraid.
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Pi90katana: N. Dedicated TMNT fangirl, Leonardo enthusiast, fanfiction writer, cookie-lover, MNT Gaiden addict, resistor of Footies.

[Anonymous]

I think we should make this an announcement and maybe globize it so everyone can ssee it.

[Pi90katana]

(nod) Sounds like a good idea.
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Pi90katana: N. Dedicated TMNT fangirl, Leonardo enthusiast, fanfiction writer, cookie-lover, MNT Gaiden addict, resistor of Footies.

[KameTerra]

Hey Pi, looks good this year!

One question. Last year, I seem to remember it was stipulated that a winning stories from the previous year were not eligible in that same category they already won in. Does that hold for this year as well? I'd hate to see people "waste" their nominations by not paying attention to last year's winning stories.

Cheers!
KT
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"I think this is the prettiest word - so long as you don't mind a little dying..."
-Mary Oliver

[Pi90katana]

Oh my goodness, I thought I'd put that in here!

Yes, this is still a rule. The only difference is in the author categories, in which only the author's who won first place are ineligible for nomination.

Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention!
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Pi90katana: N. Dedicated TMNT fangirl, Leonardo enthusiast, fanfiction writer, cookie-lover, MNT Gaiden addict, resistor of Footies.

[reinbeauchaser]

Pi, I think you need to edit your rules to include what Kame Terra mentioned about nominating past winners, unless you already did that. I tried to find it, but couldn't, so I'm assuming you haven't. Anyway, don't rely on people reading all the comments that follow your opener.

And along those lines, are you allowing people to vote for themselves? If you are, then you're going to find that there will be many that when they have a story nominated, they will vote for themselves, regardless, even if the opposing stories are better, just because they want to win. So, if they have 10 nominations for 10 different categories, they could vote for all 10. That's what I discovered the first year I handled this comp and why I changed it to no self-voting. I believe this comp should be peer-vote motivated only, but you're the captain, so it's your boat - steer it accordingly. :0)

Good luck, too, with keeping the category sizes manageable! Sounds like a lot of reading for you and your crew, given the history of this comp and the number of stories that are usually nominated.

Not sure if I'll participate, although I do have a few favorites. I haven't been reading much, unlike other years. Haven't been writing much, either, other than re-tooling my first fic Yosutebito Daughter. Not posting a single chapter until I have the entire thing done, too!

Well, good luck to everyone, not only in researching what stories to nom, but to all those who are fortunate to get their fics on the ballot. Sounds like this comp is in good hands.

Be blessed,
Rene'
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A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
C. S. Lewis

[Pi90katana]

Hey, Rein! Long time no see!

I was planning on fixing that when I got home from work. Would have done so sooner but I ended up running out of time before I had to go.

Anyways, it's fixed now.

Also, the no self-voting rule is still in place. Somehow I must have missed it when I cut and pasted the rules. >.< Goes right along with Rule 1. Thanks for pointing it out, Rein!
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Pi90katana: N. Dedicated TMNT fangirl, Leonardo enthusiast, fanfiction writer, cookie-lover, MNT Gaiden addict, resistor of Footies.

[reinbeauchaser]

Hey, long time no see, too! Yeah, been doing other things. Real life, and all that. Oh, and some bit of writing, like I said.

Anyway, glad I could help. I wasn't sure about pointing the self-voting thing out as I didn't want to come across as critical, but I know what would happen if someone didn't ask about the self-voting. You would end up with a lot of voters voting for themselves and then pointing out the glip in the rules if challenged. Savin' ya some headaches is all and I'm glad you received my remarks well.

Heard you moved out and are now part of the independent but working community. My son is heading in that direction - finally. He's 28, but if all goes according to plan and rumor, he will be switching from Air Force Reserves to Active Guard Reserves next month (I hope), which is a 4-year contracted assignment, full-time, and guaranteed state-side duty. He can re-sign every four years, thereby making it a career, which - if they maintain the state-side duty call - he won't have to go overseas ever again, unless he accepts a European post.

Believe you me, his dad and I are thrilled! LOL

Anyway, glad you're stepping out and on your own. It's an exciting time, as I well remember moving out on my own back in 1973. WHOOT! :0)

Be blessed and good luck with the comp!
Rene'
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A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
C. S. Lewis

[Pi90katana]

Non, not critical at all! I appreciate it! 'Cause yeah, that could easily happen. >.<

But yes, I have moved out and am currently doing the whole 'contribute to society' bit- more specifically as a humble servant of Wal*Mart.

How exciting for your son! I'm happy to hear it! Hope it all works out for him.
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Pi90katana: N. Dedicated TMNT fangirl, Leonardo enthusiast, fanfiction writer, cookie-lover, MNT Gaiden addict, resistor of Footies.

[Pi90katana]

Okay, everyone! You still have time to gather up your fics, but we are now accepting nominations! They're due by February 4. Look forward to hearing from you!
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Pi90katana: N. Dedicated TMNT fangirl, Leonardo enthusiast, fanfiction writer, cookie-lover, MNT Gaiden addict, resistor of Footies.

[Pi90katana]

Little reminder to everyone- you guys have a little under two weeks to get your nominations in!

Thanks to everyone who's already participated as well. You guys rock!
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Pi90katana: N. Dedicated TMNT fangirl, Leonardo enthusiast, fanfiction writer, cookie-lover, MNT Gaiden addict, resistor of Footies.

[Cynlee]

I resent mine. Hope they came through this time. Question: I left a few categories blank. IF I happen to find a story that might fit that particular category, can I still submit it? It's no big deal if I can't.
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"Poor dumb Kumquat..."