Jumping in with a few random thoughts of my own, after having watched with facination as the thread developed...
Drama, I think, used to be the A-plot category. There used to be "Best Villain" and, I think, something like "Best Action." Those, along with "Best Lost Episode," were dropped, and, for a while, Drama was the place that caught all the stories that would have gone to the old categories. "Best Relationship" was for B-plot stories and "Best Drama" was sort of opposite it, for A-plots. I don't think that's really the case anymore, though. As others have said, a story can be a drama with or without an A-plot.
As for leading or lagging... On reflection, actually, I realize that I can only speak for myself. I write whatever comes to mind, regardless of how popular I think it'll be or what categories it might or might not fit, and I send it in when it's ready (or when the archive needs stories to flesh out the weekly upload). I have little to no control over what story I'm working on, what kind of a plot it has, how long it will be, or any of that. It's all dependant upon what ideas come to me and where those ideas take me. Sure, sometimes I respond to challenges, focusing my thoughts on the idea there and trying to see where they go, but beyond that very basic level, I simply can't write to order.
I know I'd love to be able to write a good solid A-plot, and I know that I've got a few stories mouldering away in my WIPs folder waiting for A-plots to make them work. The best A-plot I've ever written was the one that was controlled by reader input. I didn't know how to write it, so I let you guys do all the work. <g>
As for A-plots in general... I enjoy reading a good story, whether it has an A-plot or not. Let me say, ML, you write good stories. Please don't stop. (I would, however, personally prefer to read your stories on the MBs. I find myself intimidated by long stories for no reason I can really name, and am more likely to read them if they're fed to me in managable chunks. That may just be me, though...)
In any case, there's something in all this that scares me a bit. This whole idea of what types of stories are "popular" and trying to fit in with that is sending up warning signals in my head. I mean, if that's really the way that writers are going to go about things, then pretty soon we'll end up with an homogenized pool of stories. Everything will have B-plots and nothing will have A-plots and then certain types of B-plots will fade away and basically we'll have everyone writing the same story. What's the point? Where's the fun?
I do hope that there's room for more variety than that in this fandom, and that, just as importantly, all you writers out there realize it.
Oh, and Chris, there is no such thing as a "runner-up." Winning is very cool, but it's the icing on the cake. It's my understanding that, quite often, the winner is decided by a rather narrow margin. If your stories are consistently nominated, then that should tell you something.
I think there was something else that I wanted to say, but if so, I can't remember what it was. Oh well. I'll just toss this out there and see what you FoLCs make of it.
Paul
EDIT: Just saw ML's latest post (which came up while I was writing this one).
/me sees ML admitting to withholding fic, considers saying something, and then decides that it's more important to just get out the way. Very fast.
