Round 2 blog

Howdy, everyone!

The Fanonbenders, back again for our second contest. Ah, but first, the winners from the previous one, yes?

Okay, choosing the winner was not all that hard, however we actually got into a rather heated debate about the second- and third-place recipients. Why? Because they were all absolutely brilliant submissions. was especially pleased with the one-shot submissions, I'll tell you, but it was interesting to see the number of chapters we were given, too. All of the stories were well-written, and while a few had more grammatical errors than others, there really wasn't a significant difference that swayed us. It actually came down to the prompt, "introduce an OC character", that decided this round.

For this round, we looked at how well the character was introduced. Was is just a passing, 'oh, hello there!', or did they have significant depth? Were they a fully-fledged character?

Another was how strong the character was. This relates in part to the depth, but not always. You can have an especially shallow character, because the 'strength' actually refers to whether or not they can stand on their own to feet; are they original, or just a copy from another character?

In these categories, everyone did rather well. Collectively, we found it a little difficult to discern who the new character was in 's, and the grammar and punctuation weren't quite up to scratch in 's submission, , and 's. For the grammar and punctuation, a beta could help, and for the introducing of an OC, make sure it stands out—it really grabs the reader's attention. Every character, no mater how minor, is important.

So, without further adieu:

Third place:

is a relatively new user on the wiki, and we were all impressed with how she introduced Kozin, the Fire Nation Army's poster boy, as it were. We could really envision this character, least of all because of the amazing description she gave, and his character was not one we had come across before in a story.

It was noted that Kozin seemed to be a more distant character than the others, and we're still undecided as to whether that's a good thing or not, taking into account his character. What really set this apart from the other stories was it felt like his story aspect was complete; that is, he is a complete character. noted that he "was executed so it was like you were experiencing things through his perspective, truly".

Second place:

It was a unanimous agreement that is one of the most under-appreciated authors on the wiki, and there is absolutely no reason why. Seashell was the epitome of a one-shot, and he executed it absolutely beautifully. It was a single moment in time—a snapshot—and he chose the perfect witness; a child. Emrah was portrayed absolutely beautifully, and that was due to one defining factor; she was not telling a story.

Kyoshidude did not write a story. He wrote a character, and how she felt to a specific event that occurred to her. This story really submersed the reader, and was not overtly fluffy with unneeded adjectives and actions. We focused on how Emrah felt, and for this reason, Kyoshidude pushed through to second place.

First place:

is also a recently new author, although she jumps around a little more between humor and tragedy. Cycles was neither. Instead, it was a telling of events through the second-person perspective of Asami as she works her way through school. An AU, it has the same poetic flair that the authoress is known to use, and it was truly the introduction of Akua, her OC, that pushed her through to the top.

Similarly with Kozin, the introduction began with a description, but it never stopped. We not only see the boy, but also get an understanding for what he's like as there is the bias of the other character; Asami introduces him, and thus we only get half of his story. It was unanimously agreed that Cycles was the most well-crafted submission this time around.

Special mention: We also want to give a special mention to, by. It was only by a very small margin that this story did not place, and a rather long and difficult discussion ensued. In the end, it was decided that there was only one thing missing; an end. There was an end to the story, however we found that Isabella did not feel complete. There needed to be just a little more depth to her character, as it seemed as though we were spectators, standing across the street watching her. We didn't know what was going on inside her head, and that was just what was missing. Other than that, it was an absolutely stellar effort!

We want to thank all the participants, and we even made a userbox for you to have! Just type out  to stick onto your profile! Just change 'round' to 'round 1', 'fanon' to your fanon's name, and 'type' with whether it was a one-shot or chapter!

For Sparks, she gets a special one. It works the same way, only it's to show everyone that she won this round. Your box uses the code

Now, onto this month's prompt.

This month, we didn't want to do another 'character' prompt. We want to get the ball rolling, to so speak, with the whole 'create a world for your OC to live in', and so this time, it's a personal matter. The prompt, which will run from May 1 - May 24, is 'someone has a deep, dark secret. Who is it?'.

We want to specify, though, that despite the prompt having the word 'dark', it doesn't actually have to be dark. It could be dark as in, 'horrifically dramatised to sound darker than it should be'. Another thing we want to point out is that you don't actually have to reveal what the secret is. You just have to show that a character has a secret.

We don't care if the character killed someone, or if they stole the last cookie. So what if they're pretending to be the Avatar, or they're the one who wet the bed. We're looking for how well you reveal that a secret is being kept, and the reactions of the characters around the revealer. As always, thank you for participating, and good luck!

~The Fanonbenders

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