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Oh, but I've scored writing the message on how stories will be categorized for
the contests, and it is a complicated subject! Each story competing will be
assigned to a main category for competition, and then probably into a
subcategory as well, one that will contain between five and fifteen pieces all
told. Making certain your piece is competing fairly against other pieces in the
proper subcategory requires a fair amount of thought and proper choices when
filling out the author's form.

The first few questions asked when filling out the author's form are already
answered for you, if the story was nominated by someone else: the Author Name
by which you are identified in the contest, the Title of the story that has been
nominated, and the URL for the story at least one site where it can be read.

The first question that truly helps identify how the piece will be categorized
is the Story Type question: whether the piece is a Drabble, Incomplete (work in
progress), Nonfiction, Poetry, or Story. The answer should be obvious and easy
to choose.

The next question that helps identify how the piece will be categorized is
Length. This is a question that is vital for stories, but is not used in
categorizing either Poetry or Nonfiction works. Again, this question is fairly
straightforward and can be answered pretty easily. Most word processors have
word-count options (under Tools for Microsoft Word and Works) that can be used
to determine with fair accuracy how long a particular story is, although if you
are a frequent user of dashes as I am it may undercount your actual word usage.
However, such inaccuracies are only vital in works intended for fixed-length
categories such as Drabbles, so ordinarily they are sufficient for most usages.

If your story is a drabble or drabble series or a work in progress, then there
are two more questions that will need to be answered appropriately--the
Drabble/WIP confirmation and Drabble/Ficlet/WIP description questions, which
will assist in making certain your work will be placed in competition with other
works in the same classifications.


It is when you come to the Main Categories question, however, that what you
choose and the order in which you choose it become highly important to how your
own story will be classified for competition. It is vital that you think
carefully, and choose as your first category the one that you feel best fits
your piece. If you have a story that is AU, is a Drama, is basically about
Hobbits but includes Men as well, and is set in the post-Ring War period,
consider well which of those features you consider most important in
categorizing the story before making your first choice. Which category best
defines it--AU, Drama, dealing with Hobbits as a race, dealing with Men as a
race, or the time period in which the story takes place? Think carefully to
prioritize your choices, and choose IN ORDER the three choices that you feel
best describe your story. I had an AU crossover piece that would perhaps have
best competed in the Humor category competing in the general category of Hobbits
last year because I did NOT properly prioritize my selections.

Story Setting is another important choice that may well be used by the
categorizers in assigning your story to an appropriate subcategory. If in your
story you feel its setting is immaterial to the tale, you may choose to leave
this choice at N/A. If you choose a setting, however, be aware that whatever
setting you choose may be used to assign the story to a subcategory involving
that setting.

Characters For Categorization is the next setting that may be used to assign
subcategories. If the categorizers find that there are, say, forty stories
whose primary category is Humor, then they may decide to break them down into
smaller categories depending on whether or not the story is focused on
particular popular main characters such as one of the members of the Fellowship,
one of the Peredhel, members of Feanor's family, and so on.

If you feel the actual characters are immaterial to the story categorization
itself, again you can choose to leave all three settings at N/A. The same may
be true for the Events and Time Periods choices and the Subgenre choices.

So, as you fill out your forms try to think how each story would be best
described and prioritize your choices before committing yourself. It makes the
categorizers' jobs that much the easier and will cause you less stress when the
check ballots are released!


Remember--some careful thought now may save you grief later in the MEFA season!
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large

"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." LOTR

"Don't go where I can't follow."