Welcome to the Ninth Annual Quicksilver Quill Awards

Hello, and welcome to the ninth annual Quicksilver Quill awards!

Yes, that’s right, everyone’s favourite MNFF award ceremony has rolled around once again. Since 2006, the Quicksilver Quills have celebrated the best writing MNFF has to offer, last year giving twenty-seven writing awards across twelve categories. Each year, stories are nominated and judged by our members. Some of MNFF’s finest readers and writers assess each nomination and decide upon the winners.

This year, there will once again be twelve categories. In each category, there may be one or two winners, and winners may be separated into one-shots and chaptered.

 

Categories

Best General Story
Best Dark/Angsty Story
Best Humor Story
Best Canon Romance Story
Best Non-Canon Romance Story
Best Same-Sex Pairing Story
Best Alternate Universe Story
Best Poetry
Best Marauders' Era Story
Best Post-Hogwarts Story
Best Next Generation Story
Best Original Character

Nomination open today and will close at the end of the day on the 23rd July, at which point there will be a one week break in order to assign judges to each category. Judging will begin in August. Anyone is welcome to submit a nomination either via the forums or as a comment here on the archives. We are looking to find the absolute best stories from the last twelve months. They should be well-written, have engaging plots and characters, and be a good representation of the category for which they are nominated (though they don’t necessarily have to have been submitted to the corresponding archive category). In short, they should be the stories that make you go WOW.

The rules are similar to previous years but please refresh yourself with them anyway to make sure you nominate the right stories in the right categories. There is also at least one new rule for you to take note of.

 

Rules

+ Only stories written (or, in the case of chaptered fics, updated) since the 1st June 2013 are eligible to be nominated.

+ Stories do not have to be in the corresponding archive category to be nominated. For example, a story may be in a romance category but if you think it is particularly funny, it can be nominated in humour.

+ An author or story can win more than one award in the same year. We reserve the right to place a cap on the number of awards given to any one author/story at a later date.

+ An author is eligible to win in a category they have been either winner or runner up in before.

+ Winning stories from previous years may not be nominated again in any category, though with the twelve month rule, we do not expect this to be an issue.

+ Please use the form provided in the first post of each nomination thread and ensure you provide a working link. Nominations that do not follow the correct format will be removed.

+ Do not second nominations – seconding clutters up threads and gives an unrealistic indication of how many stories have been nominated. Having more than one nomination does not increase a story’s chances of winning.

+ Any author can be nominated, including moderators.

+ New Rule: Each person may only nominate a maximum of TWENTY-FIVE stories across the twelve categories. Unfortunately, this is a necessary step to keep the number of nominations under control, as an ever-decreasing number of judges means we simply don’t have the resources to judge overly large categories. Please try and keep all your nominations for a category in one post to make it easier to keep track of how many stories you have nominated.

This is a change from last year’s rule of three per category. It does allow for fewer nominations per member, but it permits people who read more heavily in certain categories to concentrate on what they know and love best. I don’t anticipate any abuse of this policy. However, if certain categories or individuals spiral out of control, I reserve the right to re-impose a per-category cap to keep the categories judge-able.

+ The judging committees reserve the right not to present an award in any categories where they do not feel the standard of nominations is high enough. However this will only be done as a last resort.

Judging

As with the past few years, I will be opening a thread in the QSQ forum for members to volunteer to be judges. Judging can be demanding but also fun, and we really value the input of as many members as possible in the judging process. You can find more information on judging in the sign-up thread. If you would like to be a judge, please sign up in that forum. If you are not a member of the forums, it takes under a minute to set up an account and send a Sorting Hat request via PM to SortingHat. All judges must be sorted members of the forums simply because it is the only way you can see the judging forums.

Finally…

If you have any questions, please post below! Any nominations, also post below, using this form:

Nomination Category: (Best General, Poetry, etc.)
Story Title:
Author:
Character Name: (only use for Original Character nomination)
One-Shot/Chaptered:
Reason for Nomination: