Stealthy Stories

[Willowfly]

Without further ado, here's a rundown of everything you need to know to participate in this year's competition.

The Rules:

1) It is forbidden to nominate or vote for yourself. Do not try using any form of alternative screen name, cannon, or OC character personalities. They will be checked.
2) You may only nominate one person or story per category.
3) You may nominate any story published between January 2009 and December 2009, or any stories that are still running from the previous year(s) that have updated during that time.
4) The winning stories of the 2008 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 for those same categories.
5) All nominations and votes must be sent to the given e-mail address (crazy4ninjaturtles@gmail.com). Unless pertaining to the contest, do not send any other forms of communication to this e-addy. Please keep this account spam-free.
6) All nomination e-mails must include a viable link to your profile from Stealthy Stories, Terrapin Tarts, deviantART, LiveJournal, or Fanfiction.net
7) 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.
8) It is not required to fill out a complete ballot to nominate. If you can’t think of a story for a few categories, don’t sweat it. Just enter as much as you can.
9) All participants will enjoy anonymous standing.
10) If you do not want your stories to be a part of the competition, please state so before the beginning of the voting period.

Categories

Best Action/Adventure: Whether the characters are facing off against an enemy or exploring dangerous new territory, stories here should involve some sort of action.
Best Comedy: For stories that make you laugh your ass off.
Best Drama: Should feature stories with a more serious nature.
Best Horror: Be it zombies, ghosts, or gruesome killings, if it literally scares the crap out of you, it goes right here.
Best Romance: No matter what the pairing, if it’s love, it goes here. Either het or slash are welcome, as long as it’s not too graphic.
Best Tragedy/Angst: From hurt/comfort to angsty darkfic, this slot’s for those heavy, deeply emotional fics that get your gut twisting.
Best Crossover: Stories 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.)
Best Alternate 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 or it can amuse you, but as long as it gives you that odd feeling in your stomach, it goes right here.
Most Accurate Portrayal of the TMNT: Stories here should feature a strong portrayal of all four turtles (any other canon characters is an excellent bonus).
**For the following seven categories, please try to indicate the character and/or specific scene for which you are nominating the story. Though it isn’t necessary, it will be a huge help for our illustrators when it comes time to hand out the first place awards.**
Best Leonardo Scene: Stories should include an excellent portrayal of Leonardo.
Best Donatello Scene: Stories should include an excellent portrayal of Donatello.
Best Raphael Scene: Stories should include an excellent portrayal of Raphael.
Best Michelangelo Scene: Stories should include an excellent portrayal of Michelangelo.
Best Villain: Fics nominated here should demonstrate good use/portrayal of one or more villains, canon or otherwise.
Best Canon Ally: Fics nominated here should demonstrate a good use/portrayal of canon characters besides the turtles.
Best Original Character: Stories nominated here should involve the use of a character created by the author.
Best Happy Ending: For stories with a more cheerful ending.
Best Sad Ending: For stories with a sadder ending.
Best Short Work: Here, a short work is defined as a piece with 1,000 words or less, including ficlets, drabbles, 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 of stories with two or more fics directly related to each other. Please list the stories included in the series you nominate.
Best Multichapter: Your overall favorite multichapter fanfic of the year—be it something new started this year, or something that has continued from previous years until now.
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.

Story Qualifications:

In order to ensure the quality of stories making the final ballot, all nominated stories will be reviewed by the competition staff. Although we won’t be narrowing the ballot as much as last year, we do want to make sure that every story is commendable according to the following guidelines.

•Stories must have minimal grammatical, formatting, or spelling errors.
•Stories must be free of NC-17 material.
(If you are unfamiliar with standard fiction rating criteria, you will find more information here: http://login.fanfiction.net/story/story_tab_guide.php Note: You must be logged into your FF.net account to view.)

When it comes to making the final ballot, decisions regarding which story makes the final cut will be based primarily on the story content guidelines found on Fanfiction.net.

Comp Schedule ’09:

January 8th—Jaunary 29th: Gathering Period-- For hunting down fics and making your lists.
January 22nd—February 13th: Nomination Period-- For perfecting your ballots and sending them in to crazy4ninjaturtles@gmail.com

E-MAILS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED BEFORE MIDNIGHT (EST) ON JANUARY 22ND OR AFTER MIDNIGHT (EST) ON FEBRUARY 13TH

February 14th—March 13th: Reading Period-- For reading the nominated stories and picking your faves
March 13th—March 27th: Voting Period-- For going to the voting site and casting your votes!

THE VOTING BOOTHS WILL ONLY BE OPEN FROM MIDNIGHT ON MARCH 13TH TO MIDNIGHT ON MARCH 27TH (EST)

So like I said in my other thread, not too much has changed since last year. If you guys have any questions, comments, or concerns, my staff and I would love to hear them!

Much Love,
Willowfly


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For what is beauty but opinion; what is light without the dark?

[Willowfly]

That's right, it's January 8th, which marks the first official day of the 10th Annual TMNT Fanfic Competition! So gather up your nominations and start constructing your ballots. We're gonna need all the participation we can get!

So show your favorite writers some love and get ready to get the ball rolling. You guys decide the quality and quantity of the stories that will make the final ballot. It's up to you to make this competition great!

The Nomination Period will begin January 22nd and will run until February 13th. We look forward to hearing from all of you, and remember, even if you can nominate one story, that's one more talented writer who gets the chance to get some lovin' from their grateful fans.

Also, I've been talking to TF, the head of the Awards Committee, about how our artists will select their winning stories. We've both decided that once the official ballot is out, artists will be allowed to choose a specific category for their illustration before the winners are announced if they so choose.

This will be done by private message, and selections will only be accepted after the ballot has been posted.

This's not required, however. If you choose to wait for the final winners to be announced, you may do that as well.

Thank you all again for your participation, and here's looking forward to another wonderful and exciting competition.

Much Love,
Willowfly
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For what is beauty but opinion; what is light without the dark?

[Cynlee]

Whew! I'd better get gathering and reading! Good thing I'm off-track at the moment!
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"Poor dumb Kumquat..."

[Willowfly]

Yesssss, join ussss...

I mean... HOORAY!

>__>;


I can't believe time's flown by so quickly. I mean, we're gonna be open for nominations in just nine days. Seriously!

Glad to know you're on board! We'll be looking forward to getting your noms ^^
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For what is beauty but opinion; what is light without the dark?

[Cynlee]

Okay, I've been checking the rules. Is there any limit about how many people have to nominate someone or a story to get it included? Like for example, only 9 people send in a nomination for Author Mary Sue, but she's not included in the voting because she needed 10 people to nominate her?

And how are you limiting the number of candidates per category? Last year they limited them. Just curious.
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"Poor dumb Kumquat..."

[leradomi]

I don't believe we are limiting them this year

[Willowfly]

As Lera said, we aren't eliminating any nominations this year unless the number of entries become ridiculous. Pi told me that last year, even with the limitations applied, there wasn't really a need to eliminate many stories because there weren't a huge amount of entries to begin with.

I'm not expecting an overwhelming amount of nominations to come in anyways. But if we do happen to get a lot this year, my staff and I will decide how to narrow down the ballot in the most democratic way possible.

If a story does get eliminated, it would be for basic things like gross amounts of spelling errors, NC-17 content, or blatant abuse of formatting (bold, centered text, etc.)
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For what is beauty but opinion; what is light without the dark?

[Cynlee]

Gotcha! Thanks!!!
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"Poor dumb Kumquat..."

[Willowfly]

No problemo
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For what is beauty but opinion; what is light without the dark?

[Willowfly]

IT'S TIME! IT'S TIME!

THE 2009 FANFICTION COMPETITION IS NOW ACCEPTING NOMINATIONS!

So send in those ballots to the competition e-mail at crazy4ninjaturtles@gmail.com

Ballots do not need to be complete, but the more you can include the better.

Nominations will be accepted through Saturday, February 13th. But after that, the ballot will be closed with NO EXCEPTIONS. So don't miss your chance to voice your opinion and give your love to all of those wonderful ficcers who work so hard to entertain us.

We'll be looking forward to your e-mails

And, as always, questions, comments, and concerns will be eagerly received and answered.



~Willowfly and staff
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For what is beauty but opinion; what is light without the dark?

[Cynlee]

WOOHOO!!!!!! I've sent in my ballot!!! And I only left a few empty, but WOOHOO!!!! I've done it!!

Emoticon party!!


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"Poor dumb Kumquat..."

[Willowfly]

I got it!

Hyessssssssss. Have some spam.



And bananas. Many bananas.



Thanks Cynlee! You're awesome.
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For what is beauty but opinion; what is light without the dark?

[GreenWillow]

Okay, just so I'm very clear because I am easily confused: a story only needs to be nominated by one person to be in the running? (assuming it meets all other criteria) In other words, a story doesn't need a second nomination to secure the nomination?
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"Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for fun, then you do it for a few friends, and then you do it for money."

[Willowfly]

Nope, so far we haven't been getting many noms at all. Cynlee's is the only non-staff ballot we've received so far. At this point, I'll take anything you guys have to offer. I'm in no position to be picky as long as the stories people send in are adhering to the rules and category criteria.
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For what is beauty but opinion; what is light without the dark?

[BubblyShell22]

I just sent in my list of nominations. I hope you got it.
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"A warrior who never fails, never learns." The Ancient One.

"Screw you guys, I"m goin' home." Eric Cartman.