May I ask how fics are being evaluated? Like in order to be included in the collection, what are they being "graded" on? Thank you for hosting the project I think it's great!!!
that's a great question! click here if you don't know what this ask is talking about. my answer is pretty lengthy, but I hope that you'll find something useful in its contents!
grammar is definitely going to be a big thing. certainly, grammar isn't everything. I've read many excellent works from non-native english speakers who occasionally struggle with grammar conventions, but still succeed in expressing ideas and emotions in an engaging way; however, the collection isn't being made solely with the intention of promoting fanfic writers - it's also to recommend quality works to readers! so if the story has noticeably poor grammar, then unfortunately, it probably won't end up in the collection.
sentence flow and structure is also going to be a big consideration. have you guys ever read a fanfic where it's written like, "Leo walked to the park. He had always loved going to the park. His mom would bring him to the park on Sundays. He was really excited to be going there again." there's nothing grammatically incorrect within a sentence like this, but it lacks rhythm and creates a dull reading experience. again, this is not the sole criteria being considered, but fanfics that excel in the nitty-gritty sentence/paragraph construction will definitely have a leg up on those that don't.
to help convey what I mean, I'll show you this famous piece of writing advice from gary provost:
character writing is definitely a big consideration. now, here's my thing: I actually have more disdain for people who operate with an attitude of, "I perfectly understand this character. my way of conceptualizing them is best. all of you are so wrong, stop writing them like that and start doing it like this," than I have disdain for people who gleefully enjoy their own configurations of the characters in their own way. I think it's really lame to tell people what to do with their own headcanons and interpretations, and that doing so makes fandom much less fun.
at the same time, we have to acknowledge how fanon (or canon) transforms characters into oversimplified versions of themselves. I think all of us have witnessed percy being written by others into some big dumb himbo guy (when he's actually very clever and solves problems with his brain all the time), but this stylization of his character does gets criticized a lot on tumblr. what about other characters, though? what about hazel being written as a soft, ultra-shy cinnamon roll, when she quite possibly has the most egregious pottymouth on the argo ii? what about her short temper and barely-held-back aggression towards people who offend her and her friends? or what about piper, so often portrayed as a flirty, fashionable party girl, when in canon, she hates attention, avoids it like the plague, goes out of her way to make herself "less" attractive, and never really had any friends growing up?
I am definitely not the end-all-be-all judge of "correct" portrayals of PJO characters - but when I say that character writing is going to be considered, I'm saying that I'm looking for nuanced portrayals of characters that don't reduce them to exaggerated representations of their "core" traits. I'm not really going to care if a person has small conflicts with canon in their writing (i.e., saying that frank has ADHD, when all he's got is lactose-intolerance), because the broader portrayal of who they are is what I'll be looking at.
I will also be looking for good plot progression. let me tell you guys the story of the worst fanfic I've ever read in my life: it's a slice-of-life modern day AU. two characters who don't know each other well had a one night stand, resulting in one of them getting pregnant. they decided to keep the baby, and the father decided to work hard, turn their life around, and become a better person for their upcoming child. while all of this was happening, they began to feel real affection for each other and started to fall in love. and then, after twenty-ish chapters of cute slow burn--you're not ready for this--the baby was born, and then the mother was assassinated. apparently, the father had an evil stalker all along, who was extremely jealous of the mother and wanted to be the baby's parent instead. the assassin was an OC. none of this was set up prior, just no hint whatsoever over the course of a 100k word low-stakes story. this was a normal world AU where assassins don't even belong in average, everyday life. the story ended a few chapters later, and the father went on to raise the child alone.
fanfiction is a medium where people usually don't have a firmly-structured plan for lengthy stories. a lot of the time, writers have a handful of story beats in their head to start with, and then they make up the rest as they go along. generally, I don't think this is a big deal - but sometimes, the lack of planning really shows, and it's of severe detriment to the overall story. the core issue of the above fanfic wasn't even the assassination itself (although it was tonally dissonant), it was the fact that it didn't make any sense for the story to escalate to that extreme level when nothing had been done to set it up first. you might think that the aforementioned fanfic is a rarity, but I'm actually very biased towards long, 80k+ word fanfictions. I read them a lot, and I see stuff like this more often than you'd think.
I really don't need anyone to reinvent the wheel with their story plots! a simple, predictable flower shop au is genuinely fine with me, because as long as it progresses in a sensible way, it can be a fun time! but if you're selling me a cutesy flower shop au and then, completely out of nowhere, a love interest gets assassinated by an evil stalker that's been obsessed with one of the characters for years, I will have NO choice but to launch a petition to have AO3 delete your account /j
lastly, I'd say that I'm looking for the emotions within the work. why do people go out of their way to read angst, even though it can be so depressing? it's because emotions are powerful, and so often, we crave stories that make us feel something. this applies to fluffy romance, angst, comedies, stories about friendship/platonic love, action/adventure, character studies, and so on. at the same, there's definitely a distinction to be made between properly emotional works and stories that """try too hard""" (I don't know how else to phrase this) to be emotional. for the most part, it's a setup and payoff thing!
all of this probably sounds like really harsh grading - to be clear, I don't think that fanfiction needs to be anything other than fiction created by fans. I know that everyone has to start somewhere, some people are just doing it for fun, and not everyone is confident in their writing skills - but they try, anyway, and that is always admirable. I swear I'm not some literary elitist - however, with this collection, I want to give acclaim to exceptional fanfic writers, as well as make it easier for readers who have trouble finding works that fit the above specifications.
I'm thinking that the collection will probably have a top 3 or top 5 of 2024 overall (not ranked, just a general categorization), and then everything else will be sorted by ships/lack thereof. I really appreciate your interest in the project, so thank you for asking!
