Welcome to the Fan Works Revival Committee thread! As part of the Redwall Forum Revival Movement (http://redwallabbey.com/forum/index.php?topic=7874.0), this Committee will strive promote Redwall-themed art creation by members.
Committee Members: Gonff the Mousethief, Wylder Treejumper, Lord Ashenwyte, Skyblade
I'm still writing my fan fiction and drawing my art, but I've not been in the mood recently. . .
What sort of action will we need to start with Wylder?
I was thinking that sponsoring fanfiction contests would be a good start... Perhaps, also a periodic award for the most gifted fan artist/writer?
But first, let's try a fanfiction contest. If we do that, we'll need prizes for the winners... Something people want... Which means not my art... ;D
Any other ideas?
Well, we could maybe have something to go in their Signature. If not that, maybe a poem or short fan fic from their favorite forum writer?
We could solicit art donations from popular forum artists...
Great idea!
So, who should we ask? MatthiasMan is the one that springs immediately to mind, but I don't know how often he gets on or if he has any time...
I could do some prize art if you guys want. I'm willing to try. :D
Wow! Thanks! you just made our lives a lot easier- one down and we didn't even have to ask!
No problem I love to draw stuff for the forum, Redwall and drawing are both things I love.
Perhaps the prize could be a custom profile pic? That way the winner can display the art.
I could do a banner for signatures as well.
I would like to join the Committee.
I'd volunteer for some prize art as well.
I think with the fan works we should have more collaborations to encourage members to work with each other and create things. I'm try to work on a interactive story for Redwall on textadventures and will eventually need voice actors for the characters. I think that projects that we can all pitch in and work on together would help the Fan Works Board.
Well, that idea was going to happen, but the company that owns Redwall shut it down...
I do like the idea however.
Collaboration is excellent. We must find some way to promote it.
There was a fan fiction in which any member could continue the story by posting one by one. It's called "Pass Along Fan Fiction" or something along those lines, but it died off a while back. Perhaps we can start up a thread like that again?
Part of the issue I see with that is how many different styles of writing people have, so it kinda turns people off on it if one person enjoys writing slower, more deliberate segments whereas another person might spontaneously add another character in some fast-paced and pointless battle.
I have an idea. We could have a fan fiction contest and the winner gets a drawing of their character of choice. Or the other way around, an art contest and the winning artist gets a fan fiction of the character they drew.
Well, that's the idea. So far, I believe, we are planning to do a bit of a variation on the usual: all participants will write about the same character, which is yet to be created.
Now, for prizes, we have something by Edraithel and something by Skarzs. We need at least one more prize. I think we should be a bit more specific. What type of art? Of what? That, at least, we need to organize.
Maybe a scene from their story or a type of book cover for their story? I am not really strong in this part.
Now we get to the fun part... Decisions!
So... Who makes the character? Easy! We integrate it into the contest! Those who enter submit a character to the contest. The winning character is chosen randomly from those characters which qualify, and then everyone writes about that character. The choice fanfic authors receive the prizes.
Now to the prizes- Do we want to offer artwork based on the characters submitted? Based on the actual writing? Free choice? What other possible prizes could we include to add variety?
This all sound good to everyone?
Sure! But will we chose the character randomly, or based on certain qualities? The rest sounds great to me!
Some of both sounds good... That way, as long as everyone is willing to take the time to make a good character, they have a reasonable chance of theirs being chosen. Depending on the amount of people we have join, we could pick the top three or five that would make the best story and go random from there.
It will pass by my!
I can draw the character as the animal that they are but I could also do a humanized version as well. I can try and make gif of the character to mix things up. Maybe a main pic of the character and then a front view, 3/4 view, and back view.
Right. I'll ask Skarzs what he can do.
I like this idea. Don't know if I'll be able to write a story, though; we'll see.
It's a shame that I'm writing a story but it's rated M and not suitable for posting here. Dang it.
...Why is it rated M? If it's just for violence, then perhaps you could put a warning in the first post. (Not sure what the forum's policy on violent content is, though...)
Quote from: Jukka the Sling on May 09, 2015, 04:17:11 PM
...Why is it rated M? If it's just for violence, then perhaps you could put a warning in the first post. (Not sure what the forum's policy on violent content is, though...)
It's rated M for mention of r*** and slightly gory violence. Oh, and swearing too.
Oh. . . :P
*Decisions that have been changed*
Sorry I've been gone, I've been pretty sick. Hacking a lung up, and all that. In fact, I sound like Batman right now...
Anyways, we only need one more prize for the contest. Any ideas? requests?
I guess I could write a poem or One-Shot for the winner.
What exactly is a one-shot-- is it like a short story?
Quote from: Izeroth on May 14, 2015, 01:33:42 AM
What exactly is a one-shot-- is it like a short story?
Yeah, a one-chapter story that's uploaded in one go and not updated further.
I have done some in the pats. To see and example, just to go my One Shot thread in Fan Fiction
OK, so we have four prizes. Here they are (please tell me if I have made any mistakes!):
Edraithel: Main picture, front view, 3/4 view, rear view of character
Skarzs: Anything (Preferably no groups)
Gonff: Poem/One-shot
MatthiasMan: TBD
Yep that works for me :)
For clarification about the prize I would do a fully colored and shaded main drawing and then a flat color ref sheet with the front, 3/4, and back view. Just in case you wanted specifics.
That looks about right Wylder!
All right, looks like we just about have enough to get this thing started. I'll start getting everything set up for the competition!
Er, we'll need judges. Three of them. I'll do it... Gonff? How about you? Then we need one more. Sky, maybe?
We'll assume that judges won't be judging their own work if they submit.
Sure! I would love to be a judge! I probably won't enter, so that won't be a problem with me.
I would like to be a judge.
Alrighty, we have three.
Hello? Can we facilitate discussion here again?
So are we still waiting for more fanfic contest competitiors, or what?
We could have a coloring contest. If someone wants to make a lineart (I could do that if nobody else wants to) then we could have people color it for a contest and have some judges pic the top two. We could have a digital and traditional category. The prize could be a drawing for the forums and a poem for first place and then second would get a drawing.
Quote from: Wylder Treejumper on June 01, 2015, 07:53:18 PM
Hello? Can we facilitate discussion here again?
Quote from: Sagetip, the hare on June 01, 2015, 07:57:56 PM
So are we still waiting for more fanfic contest competitiors, or what?
I'm real busy, so I'm afraid I'm not able to join said competition, and most of my fan works (art and writings) are at a snail's pace as it is.
As someone who spends most of their time looking at the fanfiction boards, I have a couple of ideas I would like to add which could improve the overall quality of existing fanfictions.
We should pin a topic to the fanfic section that acts like a folder for "most popular fanfics". I think it would give new people a place to start when they get to the boards, as I've found getting a huge wave of fanfictions at once can be a tad overwhelming when trying to find where a good place to begin would be. What I think this would do is serve as a sort-of spark to that person in the sense that it would then influence them to go on and read more of the entries on the board afterwards. It's a very small thing to do, but I think it could add a little bit to the forum page, as well as give fanfic writers an incentive to write more. Who wouldn't want to see their story on that page?!
This brings up another idea for the fanfic boards. You see, there are a few fanfiction competitions here and there which serve as incentive to write new stories. But what about improving the old fanfics? Right now, there are over 250 individual fanfictions on the forum, many of which have not broken the 1,000 view and 5 non-author reply mark. While putting emphasis on new content is always a vital thing in that section of the forum, what about shifting some of our focus to improving the existing fanfictions? I propose that the fanfiction boards holds an awards ceremony in which awards are given out to fanfictions for different factors, like the Oscars (i.e. Most Original Character in a Fanfiction, Longest Fanfiction, Best Drama, Best Mystery, Best Action/Adventure, Best New Fanfiction, etc.) We could make enough awards to make a good number of existing works stand out and show that they have particularly good quality. This, in theory, should increase traffic flow to those fanfics. In addition, I feel that this should be something that happens every so-often (maybe bi-annually? Details can be worked out with the committee, but I'd like to help out on this project as well, should it be supported) so that the awards are moving around the forum and directing people to the fanfics that most deserve the attention. Of course, having 250+ fanfics, it may be a good idea to have authors submit their works into the competition... What do you think? I think it's completely doable and would yield a great amount of activity to the boards, as well as add incentive for people to write new works since now there's something to actually work for besides views and replies. I really do think that this could help!
Very good ideas, Captain; I feel they should be considered. (I would say more, but my brain is fried.) I myself wish I could have more time to work on my fan fiction, so that should be something one might think about when considering the lack of activity in the board: the authors can be very busy. :P
Authors are busy, which is why we need an added incentive for new content, and something to shed light on the many existing works. I think that this will create short term spikes around award season and increase the long-term quality of the board. Additionally, with the forum revival movement, we could use outlets like the FNN (Forum News Network) to advertise the award ceremony/ changes we make and really take advantage of the increased traffic flow.
In addition to that, I suppose we can all make the extra effort to encourage people to view the other boards.
However, as I believe it was Dawnwing who said that the forum is going through classic site degradation; most people who have been online for a while are a bit burnt out on the topics, most things having been discussed and whatnot, and any questions they have have probably been answered. The newer members would be the ones reviving those old points, but their questions can be answered with a simple link to similar topics.
Quote from: The Skarzs on June 05, 2015, 05:28:42 PM
In addition to that, I suppose we can all make the extra effort to encourage people to view the other boards.
Right, but since you guys are the Fan-Works Section, maybe it'd be a good idea to advertise for only the Fan-Works Pages and let the other committees advertise for their boards lol
Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you guys gave my proposals a good read through and vote on whether it should be enacted or not. At the very least, this could be a fun thing to do for us fanfiction people :)
I feel the fanfic board should be mostly exempt from "burnout" because of the fact that the amount of times a fanfic is read does not degrade its quality- fanfics are made to be read, not discussed. In addition, imagination allows an infinite amount of different interpretations of similar events in narrative, which means two people can write fanfics on exactly the same subject and have two totally different outcomes, and both will be enjoyable to read as long as they are well executed. Now, not all fanfics are good to read- and that is the main problem. People want to read good ones, and sifting through all of the bad ones to find one good one is a bit difficult. That is why I agree with Tam.
(I'm working on my fanfic. . . hopefully it'll be out soon.)
I am as well. However, work speed up for one day, and dropped off I cliff the next. But I have a good plot, and a few good paragraphs.
*original post edited out due to new info*
Glad to see you guys like the idea! I'll draw up some plans on how this could work for the awards and PM the committee members the product for approval/edits. You can expect to see that in your inboxes no later than Firday afternoon.
In the meantime, we could set up the "Most Viewed Fanfictions" board pretty easily. I'd say we just put the top 10 Fanfictions in terms of viewcount on there along with an approximate viewcount and an "Updated monthly" note at the top or bottom. Maybe we could copy and paste the Fanfiction descriptions and such over so it reads just like the directory for those fanfics? Here' a sample template:
#1. [Fanfiction name that is linked]
[some words describing the story (can be taken from the directory page). Blah blah blah]
[tags that this story has (again, reference the directory)]
Approximate number of views (I'd say we round it to the nearest hundred to simplify things)
#2. etc.
.....
#10 [stuff here]
"Board is updated monthly!"
Do you guys think that could work?
It would work indeed. It's quite similar to the Fan Fiction Directory (something that hasn't been updated in around a year), but it serves a different purpose.
Who would be able to update the "Top Views" page every month? I can PM the post to them and they just have to copy and paste the topic (this is done because, as far as I know, only the original poster can edit a post)
I'm on quite often, so I can step up for it.
If Skarzs isn't able to I would most certainly help out.
ok, the post was sent out to Skarzs and Gonff for the "Most Viewed Fanfictions" thread. The award stuff will be done by Friday
Fanfiction Awards: Here is the post I want to pin and lock on the Fanfiction boards. Content that is surrounded in [brackets] is my comments for you guys and will not show up on the actual post. I don't think we need a ton of judges, but the more the merrier! The job of the judges is going to be reading through the submitted fanfictions (which actually takes way less time than I thought it would, but there will be loads of time to do this anyway, so don't worry ;)) and rating each based on a few criteria. I will type up a judging rubric which will help simplify judging significantly, as well as make the judging uniform and easy.
I really do believe that this will help create a ton of activity in the fanfiction boards and be just what we're looking for! I'm going to work on getting this sponsored by the mods and advertised on the Forum News Network (hopefully working out a way for advertising to be done in the general boards. I think I can make the arrangements for that). Let's turn this into a really big thing!
So anyway, here's the post!
Welcome to the first ever Forum-Official Fanfiction Bi-Annual Awards Contest!
There are a lot of fanfictions on the forum (over 250 of them)! The purpose of distributing these awards is to shine a bit of light on the most notable of fanfictions on the forum and reward the authors for their dedication and the quality of their work.
There are many awards to be given out, but first, we need to introduce you to the judges!
[Insert judges' names and brief, 2 sentence description showing why each are qualified to be a judge in the contest. You guys will be responsible for sending me a bullet-styled list (it doesn't have to be huge, just a few things that are fan-fiction related which you think makes you stand out and qualify to be a judge) of your qualifications. This could include things like fanfictions you've written, how long you've been active on the fanfiction boards, fanfiction contests you've won or placed in, other fan-works you've done such as recipes or artwork, etc...). Otherwise, one of your peers will write your qualifications for you. I will then take the information you've sent and put together a sort-of brief intro for each of you (and I'll have one of you do mine).]
Now, what fanfictions will be serving as candidates for the awards? Let's see...
[Insert list of judge-picked fan-fictions. You are allowed to enter one or multiple fanfictions that are your own into the contest, even if they are still in progress. Additionally, it is a good idea to pick at least one or two fanfictions you've read and nominate those so that we have a bigger pool.]
Don't see your fanfiction up there? Don't worry! We are still collecting nominations (self-nominations are allowed and encouraged, even if they are not fully complete) until July 15th! Just post your entry or entries down below! The official awards ceremony will start on August 1st and run through the 7th [the reason for this is to build suspense! If you have the awards ceremony start and finish with one post, then that's it, it's over. But if you announce just a few awards each day, it'll create discussion, speculation, and an actual awards "show" people can look forward to and enjoy checking in on every day!"]
So without further ado, here is a list of the awards...
[Award Number] [Award Title] (Restrictions that apply)
1. Best Drama (requires a [DRAMA] tag on your fanfiction from the Fanfiction directory.)
2. Best Action (requires an [ACTION] tag on your fanfiction from the Fanfiction directory.)
3. Best Adventure (requires an [ADVENTURE] tag on your fanfiction from the Fanfiction directory.)
4. Summer 2015 Most Promising Fanfiction (Fanfiction must still be in the process of posting from the time of submission to August 1st)
5. Best Tragedy (requires [SAD] and/or [GRIM] tag on your fanfiction from the Fanfiction directory.)
6. Best Canon-Related Fanfiction (requires a [SP0ILER] tag on your fanfiction from the Fanfiction directory.)
7. Best Villain in a Fanfiction
8. The Cascavit Award (requires a [FLIP] tag on your fanfiction from the Fanfiction directory.)
9. Best Song or Poem (must be a thread dedicated to song or poem. May not be taken from within a fanfiction)
10. Best Hero Award
11. The Minority Tag Award (must have one of the following tags: [MYSTERY], [COMEDY], [MYSTERY], [ROMANTIC], [AU], [SILLYFIC], [FLUFF], [XOVER], [INSERT], [THRILLER].)
12. The Rising Star Award (best fanfiction with less than 1,000 views at its time of submission)
13. The Brian Jacques Award (awarded to the author who has had the most significant impact on the Fanfiction page. This can be done in ways of offering support to other authors, publishing many fanfictions, commenting on fanfictions, running contests, etc...)
14. Summer 2015 Best Fanfiction Award (Fanfiction must be complete)
< Individual entries are capable of more than one award. Awards are given based on the word of the judges. Only the winner of each award will be announced. Judges are forbidden from disclosing voting results and/or judging criteria before, during and after the award ceremony has taken place. If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please PM Captain Tammo or direct your questions to the Fan-Works Committee located here (http://redwallabbey.com/forum/index.php?topic=7878.0) >
One thing Tammo. A lot of the finished fan fics are by users who aren't here any more, plus it takes a while to write a fan-fic. Maybe we could add a little more for the non-completed? The rest is great and should work well!
Also, I am starting a new fan-fic that will be very odd compared to my others, so I will try to get that up soon.
Sounds great, Tammo! I'm sure the mods will be pleased.
Does this deal with all fan fictions? Because I've written a few one-shots and I have one ongoing (pleasereadcommentandcriticizetoyourheart'scontent), so I'd like a bit of clarification as to what the whole awards thing is about. Is this for things for the contest going on, or for just the general fan fictions?
Quote from: Gonff the Mousethief on June 12, 2015, 04:15:47 AM
A lot of the finished fan fics are by users who aren't here any more, plus it takes a while to write a fan-fic. Maybe we could add a little more for the non-completed? The rest is great and should work well!
Good point. This is why I'm having you guys look over things, first!
I can go back through and add/swap out a couple of awards to make them more friendly to fanfictions which are not finished. Maybe I should just take off the "(Fanfiction must be complete)" restriction on a few of the awards so that it's more open to people. What do you guys think?
In regards to inactive authors, I still think we should go through with things. Remember, the purpose of distributing the awards is to show people who are newer to the fanfic boards where a good place to start reading is. It's not just so that authors can say "Winner of the ____ Award!" in their Fanfiction title, though that's always fun, too :)
Quote from: The Skarzs on June 12, 2015, 04:37:36 AM
Does this deal with all fan fictions? Because I've written a few one-shots and I have one ongoing (pleasereadcommentandcriticizetoyourheart'scontent), so I'd like a bit of clarification as to what the whole awards thing is about. Is this for things for the contest going on, or for just the general fan fictions?
Any fanfiction is allowed to be entered in the contest whether it's a one-shot, series, work-in-progress, or has been finished for a few years.
Again, the awards show has a few goals (this is not something that's being done for no reason)! The purpose of the awards show is to:
1. Give people who are new to the boards a place to start if they're feeling overwhelmed by the number of fanfictions. People want to read the good ones, so this will help show them the way, keep them on the fanfiction boards and
increase board activity.
2.
Give fanfiction authors an incentive to continue creating quality content. Who wouldn't want to see their fanfiction get an award?!
3.
Reward authors for their hard work! There are a lot of great fanfictions on this forum that haven't received the attention they deserve. This will help change that!
The awards show is not meant to be affiliated with any ongoing fanfiction competitions. It is meant to be a BIG event that everyone can go check out by entering existing content, making new content to submit, or discussing contest entries.
-------------------------
I am hoping you guys would be willing to judge for the competition, seeing as you are all already dedicated to the Fanfiction Board Revival. Does this sound like something you'd all be interested in? (BTW, Gonff, I got your PM. You're all set! :) )
Anything else that needs to be addressed before moving forward? If you guys want more details and such before making a commitment to judge, like seeing my judging rubric proposal and stuff like that, let me know!
I'm Sage Tip reporting for the FNN. We see Fan Works revival activist Captain Tammo as he launches a fan fiction contest. Mr. Tammo, what do you have to say regarding the possible success of this contest? Many people are backing you, but there is the slim chance of failure.
(Real question) So, we can start writing a fanfic purely for the contest?
What sets this awards contest apart from other contests is its versitality. What content creators send in to be judged can be any sort of fanfiction-- action, adventure, crossover, song, poem, oneshot-- anything. Whether it's been finished for 2 years, it's still in the works, or you only just started, any and all Fanfictions are welcome to enter!
Right now, the Fanfiction Committee and I are working hard discussing the details to make this THE event of the Summer on the forum. In the meantime, keep your eyes open. The event is scheduled to begin taking your submissions soon!
Thanks, Sage! The publicity is much appreciated!
Sorry to cause issues, but I'm still a bit confused. I thought the contest was specifically new writings. :P
No, look what I posted!
Quote from: Captain Tammo on June 12, 2015, 04:09:26 AM
There are a lot of fanfictions on the forum (over 250 of them)! The purpose of distributing these awards is to shine a bit of light on the most notable of fanfictions on the forum and reward the authors for their dedication and the quality of their work.
Quote from: Captain Tammo on June 12, 2015, 05:38:41 PM
Any fanfiction is allowed to be entered in the contest whether it's a one-shot, series, work-in-progress, or has been finished for a few years.
Quote from: Captain Tammo on June 12, 2015, 08:12:34 PM
Whether it's been finished for 2 years, it's still in the works, or you only just started, any and all Fanfictions are welcome to enter!
So this means you can write a fanfiction for the contest, you can submit a fanfiction that is complete for the contest, you can submit a fanfiction that is still being written for the contest... like i said, A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G! :)
Again, the purpose of this fanfiction contest is to shine some light on both the new and existing works of the forum. The Awards Page will have links to the fanfictions that win awards. The purpose of having this is so that if someone new decides to check out the fanfiction boards and is feeling a bit overwhelmed due to the number of fanfictions, they can go to this page and get an idea for what the better fanfictions on the forum are. This is providing an easy start for those new people and will make them more likely to stay on the boards :)
(Now who do I send it in to?)
I mention that here:
Quote from: Captain Tammo on June 12, 2015, 08:12:34 PM
Right now, the Fanfiction Committee and I are working hard discussing the details to make this THE event of the Summer on the forum. In the meantime, keep your eyes open. The event is scheduled to begin taking your submissions soon!
We need to get everything set up before submissions can be taken.
Right now, the team has to gather a few volunteers to be judges. Judges
are allowed to submit entries into the contest, but they may not vote for their own entry. If you're interested in being a judge, take a look at what the responsibilities will be (see my first big post about the competition on this thread), then let me know :)
Thanks, Tammo!
Commercial break:
The Plague, Captain Tammo's stand alone-entry in his renowned fanfiction saga, is now on the forum! Become a part of the revolution to end the terrible reign of King Damien the Damned, an evil greatrat who has centered his rule from the Great Land of Agrinaut's beloved Cathedral, now his palace of darkness! Your secret weapon: a mere mouse, half-mad and nearly ancient. Click [http://redwallabbey.com/forum/index.php?topic=7408.0] for more!
((honestly, I posted that here just so I could promote this. It's a little obvious, but go with it.
hahaha wow I'm gonna go check it out now!
P.S.
(try doing this to the link:
[ url=_____]here[/url]
put the actual link to the page in the ____, then delete the space in there and leave the rest as is :))
Also on the topic of the Fanfic Awards, I'm in the process of getting a PM out to a couple mods to see if we can get the forum to sponsor the show. In addition, we're still looking for a couple of people willing to judge the entries! If you're interested and want to know more details about the responsibilities of the judges, please shoot me a PM or just post below :)
Sorry for the double post, but this is an update.
I just heard back from the mods! Once things are ready to go, anything that requires magical mod powers will be taken care of (thanks, James)!
Now it's just finding another judge(s) and we're all set to kick this thing off! If you're interested in judging for the competition, let me know via post or PM. I may end up posting the competition thread anyway and putting an ad out, but hey, more judges will be pretty darn useful!
What a judge for the Fanfic Awards Ceremony does:
-Reads all of the entries and judges them with a simple rubric (judges will have at least 20 days to do this, so don't feel rushed!)
That's it! But there are some perks that come with this:
-Want to catch up on the forum's fanfictions? This can help knock a good chunk off your list! Already read a fanfiction in the contest? Fantastic! That makes for quicker judging!
-Judges have the option to help present the awards! Since the awards will be announced over the course of a few days, there will be different presenters!
-You're helping put together and run the biggest Fanfiction Contest the forum's ever had as part of the Fan Works Revival!
What I'm trying to get at here, guys, is that this is something that I think can really help the forum out for activity, especially the Fan Works Boards (and you guys said you think so, too!). So what do you say, are you willing to put yourself out there and be a judge? We can talk all we want about inactivity in the Fan Works boards, but are you willing to act and actually make it better?