User blog:Gideoncrawle/Gilded Chris Acceptance Speech - First Author to have Two Noncompetition Stories Featured

I never seriously expected that I would get to write this speech.

I must admit that, when I first nominated Courtney and the Violin of Despair (or CatVoD, to use the most common shorthand) for Featured Story back in September, I never expected it to win. Not withstanding a 6-months stretch last year wherein the wiki’s “Big Three” single-author noncompetition stories (Life After Lies, Legacy and Violet Hill) were all Featured, the voters here have demonstrated a clear preference for competition stories. More to the point, they prefer long competition stories, presumably because a well-written competition story takes more effort to produce than most noncomps. CatVoD, as a noncompetition story of only 5,000 words (~11 pages equivalent) therefore came to the plate with two strikes against it, so I nominated it mainly to publicize it. I also hoped to get some feedback on what people thought of it, for its talk page was (and, to this day, remains) virtually dead.

It didn’t help CatVoD’s chances that its subject matter is somewhat controversial. Billed as “a kinder, gentler Courtney-bashing story” because Courtney is portrayed as a sympathetic comedy protagonist (the “kinder, gentler” part) rather than the usual caricature who can shatter mirrors merely by glancing at them, but is nevertheless repeatedly humiliated (the “bashing” part) I realized that Violin of Despair might carry the presumption of suckiness in the eyes of people familiar with the usual brand of character bashing. Sure enough, there were some people, including some whom I consider friends, who couldn’t get past the bad stuff happening to Courtney. Others were concerned that CatVoD might prompt a new wave of unpleasant “revenge fics”, as the TV Tropes wiki calls them. Most of you, though, gave me the benefit of the doubt when I asked you to trust me.

Despite these obstacles, my little—well, I’ll call it a dramatic comedy, for want of a better description—did have a couple of things going for it. The most obvious was the reputation of its author. A more subtle advantage is that CatVoD is a story that can be enjoyed on two levels. Courtney haters can focus on Courtney’s repeated humiliations. Courtney fans, on the other hand, can focus on Courtney’s sympathetic portrayal, and on the fact that her tribulations are things that could happen to anyone.

So Violin of Despair sat on the Featured Story ballot, picking up two or three votes per month. I was content with that, because I was getting the feedback I wanted and because I knew that three supporting votes is an excellent showing for a noncompetition story.

I knew that a noncompetition story generally has to be seen as something special to get more than a handful of supporting votes; and truth be told, I didn’t see CatVoD as anything special in that sense. It’s a well-written and entertaining story, if I do say so myself; but it has neither the emotional power of Legacy or Violet Hill, nor the scope of Life After Lies or Total Wikia Elementary. (As an aside, CatVoD does have a notable similarity to TWE, in that both stories consist largely of a series of standalone vignettes loosely connected by an “excuse plot”.) I did notice, though, that Violin of Despair tended to have different supporters every month, so I came to think that it might have a real chance if everyone who had supported it at one time or another would support it in the same month.

On the January ballot, a core of regular supporters came together, turning CatVoD into a serious FS contender. CatVoD would finish in a second-place tie in January and February.

On the March ballot, the stars aligned, and most of CatVoD’s previous supporters did indeed support it in the same month. (Yet again, though, there was a new supporter. More about her later.) To be honest, CatVoD still might not have had a chance during the Featured Story “Golden Age” in the first half of 2010, when FS winners routinely pulled double-digit vote totals. With the voter turnout that we’ve seen in the last six months, though, eight supporting votes is a perfectly respectable total for a Featured Story winner.

Ever since I first nominated my neither-fish-nor-fowl crossover, Total Drama Island, by Gilbert and Sullivan, for Featured Story, it has been an ambition of mine to become the first writer on this wiki to have two noncompetition stories Featured, for TDI-G&S isn’t really a competition story in the sense that the term is normally used here. I have now achieved this distinction, albeit not the way I expected. With CatVoD winning instead of TDI-G&S, the scrappy little underdog has done what the titan (so far) could not. (I liken it to a basketball team getting into the playoffs with a record of 13-10 and then winning the State tournament.) I’m still optimistic that TDI-G&S’ day will come sooner or later, though, given that it’s finished with at least a tie for second in five of the seven months it’s been on the ballot, including each of the last three. I just hope it can win before LTDI gets far enough along for me to nominate.

And now, for the acknowledgements:

Although Violin of Despair didn’t have anyone who supported it every one of the six times it was on the ballot, there were several voters who supported it repeatedly.

Four people supported CatVoD thrice in the last four months; and it was they, by virtue of supporting the story regularly, who really turned CatVoD into a serious FS contender:

First and foremost are Crystal, Intrudgero, and TeamMu. Not only did they support Violin of Despair for the third time in four months, but these three say on their user pages that they regard Violin of Despair as one of their favorite stories on the whole wiki. While I don’t know which other stories they’ve read here, that’s still no faint praise—especially with Crystal, whom I happen to know has read the wiki’s noncompetition heavyweights.

Crystal supported CatVoD three months running; and while Intrudgero and TeamMu each “missed” a month for whatever reason, it was they who supported CatVoD on the December ballot when no one else would, and so helped persuade me to leave it on the ballot.

Although he hasn’t gone so far as to declare it one of his favorite stories, Reddy also supported Violin of Despair in each of the last three months. He’s also planning to write a formal review for it one of these days.

Shane supported CatVoD for the second time in three months.

Lalainee was the “bookend” supporter, supporting CatVoD the first time it was on the ballot (October) and supporting it for the second time during its last month on the ballot. Lalainee’s comment on the March ballot suggests that the only reason she didn’t support it more often is that she hasn’t been voting much at all of late; and given that she recently named me as one of her favorite writers on the wiki, I have no reason at all to doubt her.

Sunshine also supported CatVoD for the second time, with no special pattern to her support. (That actually fits well with our favorite pixie’s personality, for those of you who don’t know her well.) Sunshine’s vote came with such fine and detailed commentary that her comment now appears on the story page as a testimonial/mini-review.

Last, but not least, is Hipchick. While she’s been on the wiki for a while now, she only became eligible to vote fairly recently, and supported Violin of Despair for the first time. In fact, it was she who got the ball rolling by giving CatVoD its first supporting vote on the March ballot.

Two other repeat supporter bears mention: Although Kevin and Zinc didn’t happen to vote for Violin of Despair this month, both did support it on two previous occasions, including the February ballot, and in so doing played a role in persuading me to keep CatVoD on the ballot.

So, here I am, with my second FS Gilded Chris in hand, and the coveted (well, coveted by me, anyway) distinction of being the first author on the wiki to have two noncompetition stories Featured. For the rest of you, the moral of the story is this: Courtney and the Violin of Despair has proved that ANY well-written story could become a Featured Story someday.