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This does come as quite a surprise to me, very much so. I haven't considered Correspondence a lesser work of mine, but I certainly feel that my characters are somewhat... undercooked. Yes there have been quite a few chapters now, but seeing there is such a vast array of characters, we have hardly met them at all. Take the man behind the title, William Howard Russell, we have seen him in three chapters now, but I don't feel we know that much about him. What makes him tick? Can you see his face when you read his description? I don't feel that is so. Some characters are easy enough to imagine, Colonel Ainslie is just... nice, and he has a gliggly wife, something we have all probably seen somewhere. Major Grant, a depressing though sometimes witty character, and with his name you can imagine the more famour American General of that name. Captain Buckle, awkward, bad at conversation. These characters aren't jumps out of the book; if anything they are very stand of the line, and I while they may be noticable, I don't think any of them have a developed enough individuality. They just appear as generic character 1...

I can only blame myself. You see, unlike some, I don't plan my writing. I have a start point, a couple of middle references, and an end point and I just fill in the details as I go. It is very bad practice. I thought that being about an actual historical event, Correspondence wouldn't require that planning, but how wrong was I. The characters weren't planned around each other, as part of a coherent story; more as individual stories surrounding one event. It gave the writing a clumsy and rigid feel that I just did not like. There was no clarity. As a result, I called it to a temporary halt to work on another AAR that I decided I would plan out quite thoroughly. I will take time, eventually, to build up a more convincing story to the characters, something more interesting of this award, but as I was saying in private to Cartimandua, the writing can only been judged by the individual, and my views, like most writers, are simply the negative side of things. It is a joy to know that others think differently, and that they feel my writing is having the desired effect. So thank you, Cartimandua, and everyone who congratulated me, and everyone who reads Correspondence. It is your view on my writing that make this forum such a special place. Be it highly critical or full of praise, to understand my writing in such a way as you can, it is a gift that not all writers recieve, so thank you for it, thank you so much.
 
On Enewald's point - ideally all of these weekly awards should be rewarded to work done in the past week as the award title suggests but every now and then, it's perfectly fine to reward someone truly deserving even if they don't fit specificallly into the scheme of things.

Makes sense. After all, sometimes someone's magnum opus falls on a week that's already taken by someone else. :p
 
Many congratulations.
 
A hearty congradulations robou!
 
Nice going, mate!
 
Thank you, again, everyone. Though I have not served out a full week, in an attempt to get this running sunday-sunday, at least for a while I will hand over the award today, if you don't mind that.

It seems that everyone, me included, is very busy at this time of year. I'm not sure totally why, I have my theories, but for me this has meant cutting back on reading quite so many narratives as I once did. This made giving this award aa much tougher contest, as I generally continued to read those which I enjoyed most, and there is so little between them that it is difficult. Now don't say I am a vicky favouritist... I have moved to EU3 for the time being, but the award I shall hand over to one of Vicky's finest AARs.

A Special Providence has always been my favourite AAR; it encapsulates everything I love in both history and narrative. The vast array of well tuned and interesting characters deserves serious recognition, but, actually, I intend to award this to Director for a single character, one that most of you will know; General US Grant. Director manages to get this... tricky character and nail it right on the head. He is short, sharp, not over dignified, everything Grant was, and you can really get a feel of what the General would have been like through Director's writing. So, Porter, get up here and accept this damn award, ok?

Let me be the first to congratulate my dear friend:

Director​


 
"A Special Providence"... one of those things that are on my eternal list of things-to-read-when-school's-over-and-life-restarts. Congratulations, Director!
 
Yep. easily one of the best AARs on the go, with a host of great characters. Congrats,buddy!
 
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Congratulations, Director!

Very well chosen.

Rensslaer
 
Conga-rats, Director!

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Many congratulatiosn my friend.
 
My favorite author on the boards (yes, others come very close, but if I had to pick just one, it'd be Director)! All of Director's AARs feature memorable characters, be they AI constructs, time-traveling merchant-meddlers, space opera admirals or a mysterious German (or should that be Czech?) advisor responsible for the explosive growth of Bremen. Whether they are entirely fictious or modeled on real historic characters, Director succeeds in making them human. It's always a joy to see what makes those people tick.

Congratulations, D! I hope that you get better soon, so that we may enjoy more of your fine writing. :)