SG Fan Awards

[kriadydragon]

The SG Fan Awards have finally announced the winners, and congrats to all those who won :D (kristen999 , you totally kicked butt this year;))

I didn't win but I'm not surprised, neither am I disappointed. I didn't think they would - and I swear I'm not being self-pitying when I say this. Castles in the Sky, for example - way too angsty, dark and depressing (and emaciation was involved). One of the stories was a fusion AU (and didn't get a lot of attention for that reason) and Eternity I had to put into the het category just because of that one little scene of Sheppard/OFC pairing that doesn't even involve sex:P Okay, the latter I'm a little ticked about because Eternity is not a het story, and the het part was small and more like friendship. I understand the mods' reason for doing this, but I'm still not happy about it :(

But it was nice to be nominated, better than having nothing nominated at all. There are fics I'm surprised didn't win, and fics I'm surprised (and a little disappointed) that did win. What I really love about the fan awards is finding stories I've never read before. I hope that, though both SG-1 and SGA are over, that the fan awards keep going. Although, with SGU around, it probably will - the only good thing about SGU thus far :P

Comments

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

Castles in the Sky, for example - way too angsty, dark and depressing (and emaciation was involved).

IMO that should never be criteria which automatically
precludes someone from winning.
At least you were honest about it.
What gets me is all the ff that is written and Sheppard ends up in bad shape only to just bounce back like "Hello, that sure was a bad experience but I am just as good as new and ready to take it on again" ie like nothing has happened.
I forget where I was reading a story and he had not only been imprisoned, but held in isolation, beat up at whim,
and finally is rescued. The next scene is he is about to be released from the infirmary (and just let me say, I am NOT saying there should be a lengthy infirmary scene e.g. The Vigil, but let's have some reality at least)
AND speaking of the infirmary, in the military
infirmaries are for temporary care, NOT for ICU cases.
It is never treated properly anymore than fevers are. Fevers do NOT present with sweating. High fevers
present with radiating skin....
There is no sweating until the fever breaks.............
I have been there, done that including massive amounts of IV hydration and at no time was there any sweating during the high fevers.
Finally, you cannot hang someone by the wrists for any extended amount of time, as they do in ff so often,
and come out of it just with badly bloodied and bruised wrists. The lungs collapse if they are held that
way too long.............
There is an intense amount of disbelief in the ff
At least yours was accurate.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I meant that CinS wasn't going to attract a lot of votes because it was dark and torture-heavy. Back in the early days of SGA, I think, was when heavy whump was all the rage. These days, people like whump, but lighter on the dark.

You have to remember that when it comes to whump methods, some of those methods can be hard to research. I had no idea that hanging a person by their wrists causes a lung to collapse (because if I did, I so would have worked that into a story;)). Some things, like illness, are easy enough to to research. Other things, like torture methods, are not. So most people, though they try to be accurate, more often than not can only wing it.

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

I meant that CinS wasn't going to attract a lot of votes because it was dark and torture-heavy


I understood what you meant. My response was merely how I feel about it in general.
IMO, life does not always offer a tidy resolution when there is trauma. It is often left open ended. There are cases of that laying/sitting in Walter Reed Medical Center right now that testify to that. I feel a sense of betrayal when someone presents a terrible trauma and then wraps it all up in a bow tie at the end.
The rest of my comments were not research, they were either personal experience, e.g. high fevers, or from reading intelligence reports which outlined in detail what happened to POWs in Vietnam.

[coolbreeze1.livejournal.com]

None of my stories won either, but I was up against some of my favorites so I'm kind of glad I didn't win. I liked those stories more than my own!

Ditto on some things just being really hard to research. I'm willing to suspend a great amount of disbelief if the story is well written and sticks to its own internal logic. There are obvious things, of course - I don't want to see Sheppard jump up good as new five minutes after getting the crap beat out of him - but as long as the writer has made some effort to treat the whump as best as they know how to, I'm fine with it. The vast majority of writers aren't in the medical field and just don't know some of this stuff.

Also, I think Atlantis can get away with not being exactly like the real military, because they are, after all, in another galaxy. Maybe infirmaries on military bases here don't have ICUs, but it seems logical that Atlantis would have to have some kind of contingency set up for this (like in Conversion, maybe?). One of those things I'm more than willing to suspend my disbelief on. Maybe I'm remembering this wrong, but even after season 1, they couldn't just run back to Earth through the gate whenever they wanted or needed to, yet the risk of serious injury was always present. I think one of the show's writers said the reason they got rid of Midway was because they couldn't have Earth be that easy to access, otherwise people would gate to Atlantis at 8am and clock out and gate back at 5pm, and where's the fun in that? Just my two cents ;)

Congrats on your stories' nominations tho! That is really awesome. CinS is one of my favs and I would have liked to have seen that win.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there were a lot of good ones nominated.

I think most shows and stories requires a certain level of suspending one's belief. We're not doctors, and there's only so much research can tell us. It is the author's obligation to know as much as they can concerning what they're putting a character through, but I feel it unfair to get after an author because they didn't know "this" kind of injury could sometimes lead to "this" kind" of complication (with an emphasis on sometimes).

But if the author breaks a character's leg and that character is walking around on said leg... uh, no, I don't think so.

Mostly, I'm just happy that a writer does the research at all, as some (raises hand in humiliation) sometimes won't (but I've changed! I do research now!)

And Thanks! :D Congrats to you as well for the same.

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

None of my stories won either

That is a real shame because I loved your
Possession and End Of The Line
They were both deserving.
They won on my list.
:P
But I realize it means nothing so...........
Finally, I realize I am a nit picker.
My life experiences
have been different which leads me to a different way of
looking at things.
Perhaps I should just shut up.
:P

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Well, no, because it's insights like yours that are needed. You know things we authors need to know, and to correct an author on a minor detail can help make them a better writer. As long as you're not one of those reviewers heck-bent on pointing out only mistakes and not the good in the story, then it's all good ;)

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

as you're not one of those reviewers heck-bent on pointing out only mistakes and not the good in the story,

No, I would never do that and feel my reviews are reflective of that fact.
Actually when I think of it, I realize now that I have never made any observations about what I have shared here.......e.g. life is not wrapped up in a neat bow tie etc. or anything else.

[coolbreeze1.livejournal.com]

I echo what Kriadydragon just said! Keep sharing your insights! There's been a number of times when you've made a comment that has made me stop and think, and consider a situation in a way that I haven't before, which is always a good thing, and it has impacted the way I've approached a story for the better.

Possession was written after this year's deadline, so there's a chance it could make into next year's fan awards if it's nominated. I can't remember when I wrote End of the Line, so that may be the same situation... Thanks for your kind words!

[karri-kln1671.livejournal.com]

I'm not a big fan of fanfiction awards, even ones where I've been nominated/won. They always seem more like popularity contests than anything else -- dependent on how many friends the author can get to vote for him/her or how many times the author can vote for him/herself, or how good of friends the author is with the judge(s). Even when it's not a popularity contest, what wins tends to depend a lot more on the taste of that contest's demographic than on the quality of the story or the skill of the writer.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I personally think the SG fan awards more fair since it's such a huge fandom with so many writers. But I do think that winning as a lot to do with the latter of what you said - that it's about taste. As I said to Sharpes_Hussy, I didn't think Castles in the Sky would win because it's so dark and torture heavy, and the more popular fic today have next to no torture involved (or non-explicit torture that happens off-screen).

[coolbreeze1.livejournal.com]

You could vote for yourself? *facepalm

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I still think Castles is among your very best works, and I'm sorry it didn't win. I think having awards is better than not having awards, but it is a bit of a popularity contest, and shorter, less demanding works seem to win out over better works. But the same holds true for the Oscars, Emmys, and all the other awards. It's a cliche but true - the nomination is the honor.
Every year there are stories I'm shocked were even nominated, and stories I'm frankly sorry that won, but most often I found the stories that won, while maybe not by own personal choice, were at least worthy.The best thing about the awards is finding new writers.


- Shiloh42

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the stories that do win are very worthy. I'd come across a lot of fic - bad fic - the reviewers still gushed over and swore they would nominate. That the majority of stories that won are pretty much quality stuff gives me hope that quality still matters, and not what satisfies certain kinks.

I really wasn't surprised it didn't win. In fact, I was surprised it was even nominated. Dark, heavy fic were big in the early days of fandom but not so much, now. There was a lot in that story that squicked people, so I had no expectations of it winning.

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

I just posted about this, but thank you very much my dear. I know you worked very long and hard on Castles. I often feel odd about awards sometimes, never knowing the reason for votes, but I know I try to read each fic of each category and vote based on that.

I hope to continue to see wonderful stuff from you as you are one of the foundations for SGA fanfic!

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

You're welcome, and thanks :D

That Castles was even nominated was a surprise :P.

I'll admit, I was disappointed by what of mine was nominated. I know that's being picky and that I should be happy anything was nominated - and I am - but I felt that some of the nominations were not my best work (As I said in my post, one was an AU fusion, and AU fusions tend to get very few readers since most feel they have to know the universe to understand the story.)

Eternity, though... I am so ticked that I had to put it in het. But I'm just as much at fault, since I didn't tell people I had to place it in the het category :P

[wildcat88.livejournal.com]

I personally loved Castles and think it is well-deserving of an award. Keep putting out quality fic. Your work is one of the reasons I'm in fandom.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

[2bluaeryn.livejournal.com]

Sorry you didn't win 8-(.

However, when I looked over some of the winners I was surprised to see these are stories that have been nomed before(at least I thought) on this comm and many were not *new* material. Not dismissing the quality of the stories but it would have been nice to see newer works in the mix.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Well, the fan awards tend to run super long, so some of the nominations probably only seem old though they weren't when nominations began... if that makes sense.

[saltyd.livejournal.com]

Sorry it took so long to announce winners this year - RL always seems to get involved somehow! But rest assured, we'll already gearing up for the next go-round, and will be including SGU. Not to worry, we intend to help SG1 and SGA live on in fanfics! And we're tossing around the idea of keeping noms more current - sounds like it's a good idea from the chatter here :)

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

"Not to worry, we intend to help SG1 and SGA live on in fanfics!"

Yay!

Castles in the Sky and Eternity...

[ninja007.livejournal.com]

Girl, you should have won for both those fics! They were so freaking awesome! Both are in my special file of favorite fics, as well as Wrong End of the Leash!

I didn't like most of the fics that won. There were two fics I liked. One I didn't even know about (the graphic)! I was very disappointed. I adored a SG-1 fic, "The Insurance SNAFU at the CPO". There really weren't ANY SGA fics that won that I liked. At all. You know me, I'm really not interested in Rodney centric fics...

Re: Castles in the Sky and Eternity...

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Huh. Now that you mention it, many of them did have more McKay leanings. Yeah, I definitely wasn't a shoe-in this year :/