Crossing Over Awards

[ffutures]

Is it just me, or is it getting VERY hard to find stories that qualify for the Twisting the Hellmouth crossing-over awards and are actually worth rewarding? I've just tried to nominate some stories, could only find 12 categories I was happy with out of the permitted 60 nominations, with a total of 10 stories (a couple were in two categories). Four other stories I wanted to nominate were ineligible because they were finished after 1st June.

I shall obviously have to do more reading, but I'm wondering why it's so hard to find sufficient stories. My best guess is that many of the best writers have moved on from Buffy and write comparatively few crossovers that would qualify. Increasingly the authors I would have recced are writing in other genres, and what we're left with are the people who write fanfic based on other people's fanfic and rehash tired old ideas.

Looking at my stories in the qualifying period, at least half would not be eligible as complete Buffyverse crossovers, and a lot are entirely non-Buffyverse, which would tend to support that theory.

I hope that I'm wrong, and that there will be some good stories to vote for in most categories when voting time comes. But I'm not holding my breath waiting.

Much later - and the mods have just said that there will not be a NO AWARD option when voting,

Comments

[averageshmoe.livejournal.com]

Outside of you, SpeakerToCustomers and a few others, TTH has fallen into the "wouldn't they make the perfect couple lets write a story about them" claptrap that permeated FFN sometime back.

It's not that there is a complete lack of worthwhile reading, it's just that there's more garbage and fewer diamonds and it gets exhausting going through one to find the other.

Good writers will emerge, write and, most likely, move on. I keep following them as long as they help me enter into the universe that they choose to participate in and expand upon. I've never enjoyed Harry Potter, but was happy that I let you take me along with your expeditions into his world. Speaker2Customers writes a story where the Buffy crew interact with gaming characters that have never interested me before but he is able to engage my curiosity and leaves me awaiting the next installment.

(was that too subtle?)

I'm still going over to check things out at TTH, if anything some of the excesses are good for a chuckle. Even if they do revolve around someone driving across the continental United States in less than eight hours.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That's about it, I'm afraid.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

You summed up quite well what happened with me: I moved away from the Buffy fandom into other fandoms, and what I posted at TTH over the last few years was mostly non-BtVS crossovers, which is sort of cheating the spirit of the site (but I do it because TTH still has such a great reader base).

Another thing i've noticed is that fic writers move in waves: You get into a show, start writing fic for it, where you are in your life... the kids these days are starting writing fic for current shows. Buffy went off the air in 2003. The fact that TTH has stuck around strong for this long is quite a testament to the folks holding it together. I've always liked TTH for just that reason.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

But yeah, it's getting harder and harder to find quality BtVS/AtS crossovers there.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I agree - there's no other large site I post to with anything like the same sense of community. But it's a community that's increasingly rehashing old glories.

I've seen similar things elsewhere - for example, stories posted to the Lois and Clark fanfic boards these days are more than 90% episode rewrites. Buffy fandom isn't that far gone, but it's definitely fading a little.

[ci5rod.livejournal.com]

I can't disagree, I'm afraid. I rarely nominate anything for CoA anyway, but there doesn't seem to be a lot worth nominating when I had a quick scan the other day.