F/M Spanking Story Challenge 2017

Voting is a rather delicate process. I've also wondered how I should vote thinking whether I should go with the plot, those that push my buttons or just plain excellent writing. The F/M challenge is the only one where I intend to vote on each story because that is simply my thing and I wish to encourage rather than discourage. Saying that, I can also be harsh if a story appears to be just thrown together ... which brings me to another aspect. Had I known earlier beforehand that this challenge was coming up, I probably would've had an entry but with so many irons in the fire at this point in time, I just couldn't make the cut considering the timeline. Believe me, I really tried. That's all I got.

I think it is best to mark as you read because by the time I get to the end I have forgotten what some stories were about. It is always possible to readjust your marks when you read one that blows the rest out of the water. Working on the assumption that my own story is the best one that not only I but anyone else has ever written, I award it an 8. Stories which in my opinion are not as good but which would be justifiable winners get a 6. Other stories get marked accordingly. The most demoralising feature of this scheme is the significant number of 9s and 10s I find myself begrudgingly awarding.

I always mark in a strictly random order and always make a point of reading every story. However, if I did not manage to read them all, I think I would award the unread ones a mark equivalent to my average mark to minimalise penalising stories simply because I had not read them.

As regards criteria, I tend to vote on overall impression. I find the stories I like best tend to score high on all criteria, i.e. they are well written with a good plot, good characters and are emotionally satisfying. I feel that by trying to identify specific criteria there may be a danger of over-thinking the issue.

Uhm, shouldn't that by definition be a ten, if it's the best one ever written...?

LOL ...everyone judges a story at sometime to be the best one ever written. Trouble is a few days or weeks later there is always a new best one ever written.

I judge each story right after reading them. I tend to give at least a 5 just because the writer made the effort. One does not know if the Challenge writer is perhaps a new author trying for the first time at writing or an experienced author. Very few have ever rated a 4 or less in all of the Challenges I have voted in. I know that in some ways makes no sense but then again whoever said I ever had any sense.

I found in looking at my past votes that rarely have I ever rated what turns out to be the top three among the highest scores in my own voting. I give my own stories points for sure.

CS

Yep, that happens to me too. It's really hard to pick the winners.

By the way, I doubt if I'm the first, but I just finished my reading and judging. Thanks for your contributions everyone! I can't wait to see the results.

canadianspankee:
I found in looking at my past votes that rarely have I ever rated what turns out to be the top three among the highest scores in my own voting.

Guy:
Yep, that happens to me too. It's really hard to pick the winners.


Yeah, I don't have a very good track record either. So, using that logic, if what I like doesn't seem to win and I rate my own story highly, that pretty much guarantees it's going to death-spiral in the voting.

I rarely end up picking the winners either. Such a case of "different strokes for different folks".

I agree, but I think we can already say that this challenge has been a success. The average vote per entry is 440, compared to the previous vote that reached 452 votes as an average. But let's everybody kick in a few more reads and we'll smash that past challenge, shall we?

At end of day it is the readers who are the winners, and most certainly if F/m is your genre of choice, then you have presented before you 37 stories for your delectation.

Read commented and voted.
I am sure LSF will never have a LaLa moment when it comes to announcing the winner

Finally got through all 37 and I have no idea which ones are going to "win." Made a few tweaks to earlier scores to even things out; kind of like the 1st pair of figure skaters setting the bar for those behind them on the program.