Judges' Top 10 - voting begins!

I originally put up the fanfiction site and this blog saying we would vote based on the judges' top 10 for the public's top 2 favorites.  We have 25 entries posted and judged.  It is about half of last time and a couple of weeks ago I changed my mind and thought we would only do the top 8.  Now having the results from the judges, the scores were a tie for 8 and 9.  I will say number 11 was only a fraction of a point from number 10, also 11 and 12 not far behind.  But I want everyone to READ all the entries and that is why I narrow it down to the judges' top scores.

I do this contest to encourage and support authors and to have more stories.  It is for FUN!  It won't be perfect because nothing is perfect.  It's as objective as it can be.  If it were totally objective, we wouldn't need judges, I would just have a computer do the scores or something.

These judges were tough, very critical compared to last time.   The bulk of the scores ended up in the 5s and 6s.  I translate those to a score out of 100 and the top story got a 70.   That is much lower than last time. The judges don't always like the happy stories I do, which is part of why I need a hosts' pick.  It never ceases to amaze and confuse me how one judges' favorite is another judges' lowest scoring story.

I have created a poll to see when might be a good time to run this contest next year when the last book comes out and another season of True Blood. Vote if you haven't
I Write the Songs 2013 poll

Here is the voting; please READ the entries. You may vote for your top 2 favorites. 
Top 10 - public vote for favorites - click on Vote now

So the poll will be up until August 8th at 6pm CST.     Winners will be announced August 10th!

Do you want more I Write the Songs?

I started this contest with my dear friend Alison, because we love fanfiction,  we love Eric and we love music.    We wanted to encourage and support authors and have more stories to read.  We did some things which were new at the time.  They were things I would want if I were an author.

• A long lead time
• A long submission period
• An inspiring theme
• Feedback from the judges
• Anonymous judging with public posting
• An organized contest with pimping, tools, etc.

Some things worked better than others, of course.  But please remember the purpose of the whole event  is fun and to encourage and support authors.  This year has been tough with the fandom less active and honestly,  these judges are tough.  Their average scores are lower overall than last time by 2-3 points,  so more 4s and 5s  with less 7s or 8s.  The scoring numbers are categorized by 1- poor, 3 - fair, 5 - average, 7- good, 9- excellent and 10 - outstanding.  I believe in a full range of scores and it makes sense to have mostly 5s, which are average.   I just like so many and tend to enjoy and love a wide range of stories.

So I am thinking about whether this contest will happen again.  Last year is the final Sookie Stackhouse book.  True Blood has also been renewed for next year.  I am hoping people will want to write their own version of the last book  or what happens after the last book,  or something all human and totally different.  

I love this fandom and hope it will not end with the end of the books or the show.  So I am asking you to tell me when you would most like the contest to run at least one more time.

Please vote in a poll to tell me the timing you prefer for another I Write the Songs.  You can choose more than one or enter your own suggestion.   Go to the poll

Everyone,  thank you again for all your help and support!

Anne