And the winner is! · 2:54pm Dec 19th, 2012
Welcome, one and all. After much deliberation and more than a little fretting, two victors have emerged. There were quite a few entries, and more than enough to keep me second guessing myself. Many of them were excellent, and simply choosing two of them was a hugely problematic task.
To those of you who entered and aren't named "CloudySkies", this next bit may come as somewhat of a relief. Cloudy was invaluable and much appreciated during the judging, both for opinions and as a wall to bounce things off. It's fair to say that without him this contest probably wouldn't have been judged until January. Of course, he also *entered*, and we both felt that this perhaps caused a conflict of interests. As such, No Recipe For Perfection was not in the running, but you should go read it anyway--it's a fantastic story.
Secondary special thanks goes to kits, for some opinions and, more importantly, moral support throughout.
Before I reveal the victors I'd just like to make clear my biases and criteria for victory. I care about technical quality, but not as much as concept and heart. A great story written poorly beats out a poor story written perfectly every time, for me. As such, judgement here isn't necessarily a reflection on the technical ability of the writer. I am hugely biased towards cute ponies being cute, and that's what this contest was all about. I'm unashamed in saying that it's the characters that draw me to shipping--I love seeing a character I empathise with happy. This doesn't rule out non-main cast members, and doesn't even rule out OCs, but it does put both at a disadvantage. A very very personal bias is that I'd also rather give light to a lesser known author than a more known author, all else being equal.
So, with no further ado, here we go.
First place goes to:
Stubborn as Ponies by Esle YnopemosA pony is called stubborn when they refuse to change their mind no matter the persuasion against them. A pony is called persistent in hindsight when their refusal turns out to be a wise decision. "Persistence" is nothing more than what they call stubbornness when it turns out to have been for the best all along.
Pinkie Pie and Applejack may or may not be persistent, but they are most definitely stubborn.I loved this one, I really did. Like no other entry it really captured the spirit of the contest, and was very well written to boot. This one I had little trouble deciding on, because with this one story the entire contest was justified. ApplePie is an adorable but underappreciated ship, and this story brought out why. Perhaps a mite unprofessionally of me, I couldn't help but break official silence on this one and suggest the author submit it to Equestria Daily.
Basically, everybody go read this, and then go follow the author. 120 watchers is a little bit criminally low, there.
Second place goes to:
In Search Of Knowledge by thehalfelfOn a normal weekend, Cheerilee assigns everypony an assignment she had been giving for years, to tell why each type of pony is different than the others, and how they can work together. However, Cheerilee finds out the book is old, and Twilight offers to help her rewrite it. Along the way, however, some things may be learned that aren't exactly in the curriculum.
This one was a much harder decision. There were a lot of contenders, and anybody who's read them all may be a little surprised at my choice here. As I said above, my biases are clear. Yes, this story has issues. A lot of the characterisation is a bit off, especially with secondary characters. Grammar is a bit iffy and conversations often resemble a telephone call due to the lack of body language. Word repetition is often jarring, as well.
Problematic execution can be fixed by a good editor and a close eye. Problematic concepts or ideas won't shine through no matter how perfect the execution is. That's why this is here: Yes, it has some problems, but the important bit--the romance at its heart--shines through strongly. So long as the technical framework that holds a story up is good enough, then it can be enjoyable, and here it is well above "good enough", just not quite into the realms of "flawless".
Here, the ship carries the rest, and it does it well. It's an adorable, well paced progression that doesn't make it too easy, but also doesn't drag it out. As a short feel-good piece, it excels. Everybody should go read it right now.
Finally, a closing personal note. Thank you all very much for taking part, I appreciate the chance to bring some good out in this community for once. I wish every one of you the best. You all deserve it. <3
A side note, I probably won't be around much over Christmas. As my primary internet enabled device away from home is my trusty Galaxy S3, and fimfiction appears to take every opportunity to make itself unusable on a touch screen, I won't have a great deal of access. I am not buying a bluetooth mouse just to work around poor design.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, everybody!
-TAW
yay results~
Silly TAW. Moral Support is a funny name for my tail.
You can connect a Bluetooth freaking MOUSE to this thing?
Best phone ever? Best phone ever.
627892
Kinky.
627902
If you only knew...
Merry Christmas, English.
Wait a minute... I won?
Hrkgphblppkr... I don't even know what to say, I--I had no expectations of even placing when I entered this, I just was shooting for a link on TAW's blog to get a couple extra views!
Thank you. Thank you, TAW, for holding a contest that just so happened to be exactly what I wanted an excuse to write. Thank you, kits, for linking to SaP in your blog in an effort to give it more exposure. Thank you, Cloudy Skies, for letting me win (because, having read No Recipe for Perfection, there's no doubt in my mind that should have beaten mine!). Thank you everybody that's read or written for this thing.
I've read the other entries in the contest, and you all deserve props. You guys are awesome. You really are.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to drink a cup of coffee and pinch myself. Good day!
Oh, yay! I hadn't gotten around to Stubborn as Ponies yet! I know what I am reading tonight
Applepie best ship name :3 (Unless there is a Blueberry pony)
628175
I know right? My editor/ co-writer is sitting right here next to me and we both freaked out. Great story, by the way. I read it and agree, you deserved the win there.
So yeah, great fun, and now I actually know what I'm doing wrong, going to go hit all the people that review me.
Thanks to everyone. Going to pass out from finals stress
Well gosh, I'm a well-known author AND I used an OC.
Wish I'd known my own reputation would bar me from the running in such a contest.
Judges are supposed to be impartial, not to sound mean, but you've spent a lot of time saying how bias you are.
You should have made a list of like 10 things that would give a story a better chance, NOT among them the author's popularity or drive.
That's like going to a costume contest at city hall and the sign says "no professionals". Super-talented people gtfo! This is for casuals!
/endrant
628735
I said all things being equal, I would prefer to spotlight the lesser known author. All things were not equal. I was open with you that OC shipping was very unlikely to win when you submitted it, so I'm sorry if you feel slighted but this shouldn't come as a surprise. This was always a contest to be judged on my tastes, that was rather the point of it, so yes, my biases do very much shine through and I am open about that.
Shipping, to me, is taking two characters and seeing how they would work in a relationship. If one of those characters is completely new, then I'm afraid I can't consider it more than a romance story. Not a bad thing from a literary standpoint, but a bad thing from an entry into a shipping contest's standpoint.
I'm not sure I appreciate the implication that this was a "casuals only" contest either. I think you'll find that many of the entries were top-notch. Popularity on fimfiction does not particularly correlate with quality or ability--I think you'll find I'm a prime example of that--and wanting to give lesser-known, but excellent, authors a shot is very much one of my biases. Again, that is not to say that popularity is an active detriment, if a story was "better" then I would consider it "better" regardless of who wrote it.
I am not impartial, and at no point did I say I would be. I actually said the exact opposite to you specifically, so why you are now turning around and accusing me of foul play I'm not sure.
628175 Pah, don't be acting so surprised; SaP was absolutely amazing, and while your words are very flattering, I don't think comparing different fics in such a manner has any purpose to it. At least I know that I, personally, don't want to see how I come out of that. Part of why I'm never hosting any contest of my own, and why I'm glad I managed to bail out of this one, hah. Too much of a chicken, me.
Definitively plugging SaP, as well as some of the other stories from the contest asap, too. Congratulations to both winners, I say!
No honourable mentions? Silly TAW, always make honourable mentions!
I kid, I kid.
Congrats to the winners, well done guys. Gonna mark your stories for later reading and get round to them when I have time.
As happened to me:
In kits's shipping contest earlier this year, reading the other entries this past week made me push my own story further and further out of the running. Congratulations to the winners, and thanks for giving me some great stuff to read!
Mike