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THE MERRIWEATHERS ARE COMING! THE MERRIWEATHERS ARE COMING!



ANNOUNCING A NEW WRITING CONTEST FOR 2005: THE MERRIWEATHER AWARDS!





The Merriweather Award is a new contest created by dedicated Lois & Clark Fanfiction lovers. It has been created uniquely for the purpose of judging fanfic on a point system with the highest score receiving top prize. There will also be winners for Second Place, Third Place and Honorable Mention. How cool is that??? If your story wins, bragging rights are yours! You’ll have a certificate AND a place in the Merriweather Hall of Fame!

What makes the Merriweathers so distinctive is its judging system. All effort has been taken to establish a fair competition. Like every authentic writing contest, there is a panel of judges who receive the stories from a gatekeeper who has deleted all references to author identity. Stories are awarded points based on criteria used in other writing contests but adapted for Lois and Clark fanfiction.

Even better, each month will have a new category! Maybe you thought that the alt-universe story you wrote in 2001 was your best work – enter it in the Merriweathers! Stories from 2001 to the present (Kerth winners included) are eligible (this just gets better and better, doesn’t it?).

The Merriweather Committee will begin accepting stories STARTING ON JANUARY 22. This month’s category: WAFFY VIGNETTES! (Everyone’s favorite category!)

So start sorting through your stories and let the Merriweather Committee know where they can find your stories. This is an exciting time in the development of Lois & Clark Fanfiction.

Remember: Lois was nominated for a Merriweather and didn’t win THAT YEAR. Show that you’re a better writer than Lois and get that Merriweather!

You can scope out the website at : http://www.geocities.com/kennychesneycantsing/index.html

Oh, this looks really cool! So you're saying that stories need to be submitted, with a different category of story every month? That's a really interesting and very different approach, and I'm eager to see how it works Do you announce who's on the judging panel, or is that anonymous? I assume there'd be some changes there from month to month... Very cool.

[edit: I'll just go read the website now and find out the answers for myself... ]

PJ
(and Kenny Chesney can so sing! )

I'll admit to being a little confused. Your rules say that you're making every effort to keep the entries anonymous (ie, the gatekeeper knows the title and author, but not the judge). But if stories from 2001 and later are eligible, isn't there a relatively good chance that a judge might have read a story before (and thus recognize it)?

Other than that, this looks like an interesting idea. I'll be curious to follow it over the year.

Kaylle

Very good point, Kaylee. I assume the judges will be FoLC? Wouldn't they recognize stories and authors styles? Or even the Universe the story is set in.

Artemis

Okay, I've read the site, and I have questions.

a) Who's on the Merriweather Committee?
b) Why only stories from 2001 onwards?
c) Will the names of the judges be published before each competition commences?
d) Do stories submitted to the cooking story category need to contain a recipe?

Otherwise, intriguing idea.

Yvonne

Neat idea; I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. I have a few questions (like how stories can be "annoymous" if already-released stories are eligible) but I see others have asked them so I'll just sit tight and wait for your answers.

So WAFFy Vingettes are up first, eh? And according to your website, that means up to 1500 words? I guess I better figure out how many words each of my short stories has, LOL.

Oh, one thing I didn't see asked yet -- what is the deadline for this months' competition? When do we need to get our story titles submitted by?

Kathy

Looks interesting, and from the rules, a lot like other professional and semi-professional writing contests I've entered. <g> Looks like the difference is that for regular writing contests, you might have someone famous judging your stuff. <bg> A friend of mine had Ray Bradbury read one of his stories in a sci-fi writing contest...

Laura

Yeah, I'm not that familiar with RWA contests or anything, but the list of questions seemed like something they would use -- with modifications to adapt it to L&C, of course. Although there's one in there that mentions cliched plot devices, like cowboys, babies, and amnesia. Not many cowboys that I've noticed in L&C fic But I'm sure they'll get that straightened out. I'm looking forward to sending in a story and see how it works through the system...

PJ

Sorry - got another question. How are the judges selected? Can one apply to become a judge? Can archive GEs be judges, even if they've GE'd the story they're judging? Can beta-readers be judges?

Okay, that was several questions. One subject, mind you <g>.

Edit: got another question. The website has a nomination form, yet the rules say that entrants must submit their own stories; no-one else can submit stories on another's behalf. Maybe you've just made a slip - surely it should be an "entry form"?

Yvonne

I admit I was disappointed at first that this isn't the same as the original Merriweathers that were first proposed a couple of years ago; that was supposed to be strictly for new authors. But this looks like a lot of fun, too!

Instead of a non-competitive kudos-from-your-peers, like the Kerths, these interesting new awards will be an actual contest, and technically judged wholly by writing quality and not by author. I say "technically," because as a few others here mentioned, I don't quite understand how a regular reader of LnC fic will fail to recognize stories that have been archived over the last few years. Perhaps the Merriweather committee could clarify that?

WAFFy stories? Yawn. I'll sit out the first month and just watch and see how it goes. Let me know when you have an anti-Herb month!

Hazel

Sorry we seem to be nitpicking this to death, but I have another one. I can't e-mail the gatekeeper through my Netscape. I need an e-mail address to put into my Outlook Express and I can't get it off the webpage (no right click allowed).
The favor of response is requested.

Artemis

I, like others, wonder just who the judges are going to be and how we know that it is going to be judged fairly if the stories are already published on the archive and the judges are writers and readers who may be familiar with the story and already have a bias about it and the author. How will the blindness of the stories be assured? I have been a proponent of blind judging, and I want to make sure that the blind judging will actually be blind.

I have a few other questions, some of which have been asked before. I will preface this with the fact that I didn't even realize there were writing contests like this out there.

- Why just stories from the last 3 years?
- I am going to ask again, because it's important, who are the judges, and how can we be assured that it is going to be completely fair. For example, if I said that I wanted to be a judge, would I be considered or are the judges already selected? And when will we know who they are?
- Cooking stories? Just wondering why cooking stories? That seems like a really random category. I can't think of any Lois and Clark stories that even deal with cooking except Annie M's Desperately Seeking Clark. And with Christmas stories, why not Holiday stories of any kind?
- In judging the characters, why would it be important to have anything other than 'in character'? Since this is fanfic, we know the characters, and they should be sympathetic if they are in character.
- Who is the judge of unnecessary dialogue and excessive introspection. One person's excessive and unnecessary could be another person's necessity. That is very subjective and could absolutely be a function of who the judge is. For example, if I were judging, I'd like a lot of introspection, but if someone else was judging, they would want practically no introspection.
- Have there been *any* Lois and Clark stories that have a cowboy involved? I can't recall reading any. So in this case, I don't think a cowboy would be cliched.
- I also don't understand how someone can judge style when style is a matter of personal preference? What is too much internal dialogue? What is unnecessary angst? Why is using adjectives a bad thing?

I really despise subjective grading of any kind. Sorry, I am an engineer and I like formulas . I think these awards might be better if they had exact things they were looking for rather than generalizations like "too much" than can be taken to mean different things by different people.

- Laura

Artemis, I can help you with the email addy:

katrinavannote@yahoo.com

At least, that's what I see when I hover my mouse over the logo.

Yvonne

Hey! The Kerths are a very different sort of competition to this panel-judging idea, but they're definitely competitive! To continue the romance-writing theme, the Merriweathers are trying to approximate private writing competitions, whereas the Kerths are individual readers deciding whether or not to buy a book. Both important, in different ways

PJ

I came up with another couple of questions. (Really I'm trying to avoid doing my schoolwork <g>)

What's a submission cycle? And is there going to be a finalized list of categories so authors know when they should plan on submitting their story? I mean, if story X could be submitted in three or four categories, the author might want to decide which categories s/he has the best chance in and only submit to those.

Also, looking at your scoring sheets, judging each story is going to be incredibly time-intensive, especially for longer pieces. Is each judge expected to read every story in a category? Or, if not, are scores from different judges going to be normalized somehow to allow for different judges' biases?

Kaylle

Pam protested:
Guess I wasn't clear, Pam. The Kerth *voting* is competitive, but the nominations aren't! Noms are submitted in vast numbers, simply because FoLCs liked what they read. I contrast this with the idea of specifically submitting a story for the purpose of winning a contest -- that's competitive from Day 1.

And LOL at your comparison -- I don't read romance novels and have no info regarding any romance contests, which might be why I'm displaying my ignorance here.

That, by the way, is why I've always been more interested in the noms for the Kerths than the actual wins. The latter is a matter of competition with other fics, but the former is recognition that the story was *good*, on its own merits.

Thanks, Yvonne. I got it.

Artemis

Sorry for the delay in getting back to answer questions---computer problems.

To answer the question "how will thejudges NOT recognize certain fan fic the answer is some writers have definite styles and some do not. However, the STORIES are judged, not the writers. Also by submitting stories that are several years old, some of the judges may or may not have ssen the stories before or may have forgotten who wrote them. Some stories might be recognizable, but that was anticipated, hence the comprehensive score sheet. It is the story's structure that is being judged, not the auther.

All the judges are FoLCs. This was done to ensure familarity with the characters and universes.

The judges were selected by the Merriweather Committee. Names were proposed and voted on and the people were then approached about being a judge. Yes, BRs and GEs can be judges.

The judges are anyonymous to avoid any e-mails to them regarding their participation or judging of a story. It takes the pressure off them to be partial to one author or a particular story. They can participate knowing their opinions and tallies are confidential.

Ooops, forgot to add something.

Each judge will see the story BUT the judges will not see each other's score sheets. Therefore a score from one judge cannot influence the score of another. Also each judge understands taht they are judging a story, NOT a story by a particular author. Even if they recognize the story they are to judge the story according to the scoresheet, not how they feel about the author. Every effort has been made to make this competition as fair as possible.

I look forward to receiving your stories

kennychesneycantsing@yahoo.com
(sorry about offending the Kenny Chesney fan. LOL)

Thanks for replying, Katrinalee.

I have a couple of questions.
Will the judges change for each category?
Are there any GEs on the panel for the current category?
Can you apply to be a judge?

Unfortunately I have a major problem with the fact that the judges are anonymous. For any competition I enter I want to know who will be appraising my work and what credentials they have. Surely a rule could be added that no entrant should email a judge. To me secrecy in competitions means mistrust.

Tricia