Winter Holiday 2024 Contest Support and Seasonal Story Discussion Thread

[MelissaBaby]

Congratulations to the winners.

And to everyone else, don’t think of it as losing Christmas, think of it as keeping your eligibility for Valentines Day.

 

[Bassytian]

Congrats to the winners and everyone else! While I did get my hopes up that I had a shot of making the top three this time, I have no regrets. While a lot people loved my first story, others hated aspects of it and I will keep these flaws in mind for future stories.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Holy Shit. HOLY SHIT. I did not see that coming... for a whole bunch of reasons. For one, I thought my category was too niche to draw the necessary traffic. More to the point, I don't really know what I'm doing and didn't have a strategy. I posted mine to get it up on the first day, but then saw all the warnings on here that doing so put a target on your back for trolls to pull it down (and of course, in the last hour or so, I see some trolls are still at it...). I'm new enough that I have no idea about the mechanics of how things are scored, but I figured it was better to just lay back and see what happens.

Congrats to everyone... there are some amazing stories and this place is an amazing resource!

Handing over the Christmas crown…

Use your power wisely, my friend.

 

[Ian_Snow]

Congrats to the winners! Hell of a field this year.

 

[Inkent]

My Romance entry lost about 19 votes and gained 0.06 points to 4.78 so I was happy with the score but the number of views was down compared to my stories in past contests. While in a different category (LW, which gets more traffic), my new story that premiered this morning already had more views, more votes, more favorites, and almost as many comments and new followers in about 12 hours than my contest entry had in over two weeks. The one thing it was lacking was a decent score, which is why I didn’t try that category for the contest!

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the LW section has too many extremes within the audience to gain the value within the vote count needed to be a contender. I accept that on entering, it would be nice to think a LW story may do it one day, but that's a fairy tale in itself. Like SouthernCrossfire you certainly reach out to a big chunk of Lit readers and can see numbers sky rocket quickly. As I've commented before, I do it simply based on the love of writing and a competition provides a goal to aim for. I've read two of the three winning stories, and from all the other entries I've managed to read to date, Redgarters has been my personal favourite. It comes down to taste, and it's nice to see there's a diverse representation of genres throughout the comps. Tally-ho, onto the next one!!

 

[AtlantisGuy]

Handing over the Christmas crown…

Use your power wisely, my friend.

Thank you ! I've now started marching grandly through the house bellowing "Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, Bring me pine-logs hither!" like a veritable Good King Wenceslas!

 

[AtlantisGuy]

Having read more on this thread, I echo the appreciation of others with the way it helps clarify scoring... and the backlash that happens. My story shot up in ranking with the last sweeps, but it is again taking a hit. Ah well, I'm not gonna let it ruin my day. Cheers everyone!

 

[taytay4eva]

I'm a little sad I didn't win, but I'm super pumped that my story did as well as it did! PLUS, my other story is doing much better now!

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Congratulations to the winners, and all the participants, too. There were a lot of great stories this year.

 

[RBeemer]

I know what you mean, same here!
But wow!! Your win is so well deserved. I just read your story, and holy hell! That is hotness on a whole other level Congratulations!
If anyone needs me, I'll be in my bunk reading this again...

Your story got my vote for "best of show" so I'm glad you placed. Congrats!

 

[MelissaBaby]

Thank you ! I've now started marching grandly through the house bellowing "Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, Bring me pine-logs hither!" like a veritable Good King Wenceslas!

Good luck with that. I demanded figgy pudding, and yet, no pudding was provided.

 

[Voboy]

Congrats, winners!

I’m a little bummed - my story was leading the last few days, bumped up in the last sweeps, and then finished just behind 3rd place. But that’s just my ego.

When that happens for the fifth or sixth time, you stop caring. Ask me how I know.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Congrats to all! That was a huge field to read through, and I nowhere near finished.

Onwards, To Valentines!

 

[ChloeTzang]

Congrats, winners!
When that happens for the fifth or sixth time, you stop caring. Ask me how I know.

I can see I'm just going to have to put an end to this whining by killing you again, Voboy! A glorious death awaits you should you be so daring as to volunteer again! You CAN be part of a winning story. Just, mine, all mine!!!!! But I will credit you!!!!

 

[Actingup]

Congratulations to the winners! I was just a little off the pace, but I think I came close (graph below is for my two stories), and the 4.87 for 'Peace on Earth' was my highest score yet for a story so I'm very pleased. Those sweeps were amazing. I know that all the old-timers have said it, but the score during the comp really is irrelevant.

I'm looking forward to reading the winning entries, and improving my craft.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

Congratulations to all the winners, some really good stories in the list this year

 

[MajorRewrite]

I really wish they’d include the category for each of the stories on the contest list. The list is too long to click on everything looking for something I might like.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

I really wish they’d include the category for each of the stories on the contest list. The list is too long to click on everything looking for something I might like.

I've always thought that too, but I think that's by design so that readers from particular categories don't just read and vote for stories in those categories.

Instead, we have to explore and take chances on stories in the list and, maybe, take chances on ones in categories we don't usually read. There are some categories that I won't read; if I see a story come up in one of those, I'll bail, but there are a number of other categories I don't usually read that I'll take a chance on for a contest if the story looks interesting. I've received a couple of comments similar to the second part of this in the past so I think the category-less listing may work for at least some readers despite us wanting it the other way.

 

[NotWise]

I've always thought that too, but I think that's by design so that readers from particular categories don't just read and vote for stories in those categories.

Instead, we have to explore and take chances on stories in the list and, maybe, take chances on ones in categories we don't usually read. There are some categories that I won't read; if I see a story come up in one of those, I'll bail, but there are a number of other categories I don't usually read that I'll take a chance on for a contest if the story looks interesting. I've received a couple of comments similar to the second part of this in the past so I think the category-less listing may work for at least some readers despite us wanting it the other way.

Readers unwillingly exploring categories they don't usually read (and may find offensive) are probably more likely to down-vote if they vote at all. If you care about the score on your contest story, then it might be a good idea to avoid the more polarizing categories: I/T, GM, and NC/R come to mind.

 

[MajorRewrite]

I've always thought that too, but I think that's by design so that readers from particular categories don't just read and vote for stories in those categories.

Instead, we have to explore and take chances on stories in the list and, maybe, take chances on ones in categories we don't usually read. There are some categories that I won't read; if I see a story come up in one of those, I'll bail, but there are a number of other categories I don't usually read that I'll take a chance on for a contest if the story looks interesting. I've received a couple of comments similar to the second part of this in the past so I think the category-less listing may work for at least some readers despite us wanting it the other way.

I think more potential readers of contest stories are like me — they see a long list of who-knows-what, click on a couple, see that it’s not what they’re interested in, and give up.

Annoying or frustrating people is a poor way to get them to do something.

 

[TheLobster]

I think more potential readers of contest stories are like me — they see a long list of who-knows-what, click on a couple, see that it’s not what they’re interested in, and give up.

Annoying or frustrating people is a poor way to get them to do something.

Definitely agree. Pretty much the only contest stories I read are those from AH participants whom I already know, and ideally who put the links in their signatures.

This long list that Lit puts up is really off-putting because all you have to go on is the title. The least it should include is the description; that's the two items that author chooses to promote their story and both should be visible, not just one.

 

[NotWise]

Definitely agree. Pretty much the only contest stories I read are those from AH participants whom I already know, and ideally who put the links in their signatures.

This long list that Lit puts up is really off-putting because all you have to go on is the title. The least it should include is the description; that's the two items that author chooses to promote their story and both should be visible, not just one.

It's also possible to go the other direction and have the page list just "Contestant 1", "Contestant 2", and so on, to keep everyone's chance as even as possible. Even the author's name is enough to give some entrants a better chance than others.

If you only look at stories by writers you know, then that pretty much proves the point.

 

[MelissaBaby]

If everyone would just tag their stories "Winter Holidays 2024", readers would be able to click the tag and get all the stories, with the info including category.

 

[taytay4eva]

If everyone would just tag their stories "Winter Holidays 2024", readers would be able to click the tag and get all the stories, with the info including category.

Tagging that didn't occur to me until well after I'd published, but I'll remember that for the next competition for sure!

 

[RejectReality]

Most of your votes are coming from the standard selection process anyway, where all that information is included. They get more than the average attention because they have top billing on those lists, and are thus more likely to remain on the list without getting pushed off by new releases for extra days as well.

The contest page only contributes to the longer tail contest stories have. The number of people stumbling upon a subject they don't like on the contest page and down-voting because of it is probably minimal at best. Any depression of scores after the honeymoon period is more likely to be trolling and the few people who use the scale instead of 1 or 5 exclusively. I suspect more people lean toward the latter in contests than on everyday releases.