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On the Verge · FiM Short Story ·
Organised by RogerDodger
Word limit 2000–8000
Show rules for this event
#1 · 5
· · >>Trick_Question
Hi ho, the darry-o the cheese stands alone
Post by Trick_Question , deleted
#3 · 6
· · >>Trick_Question
Hey guys--if you were wondering whether I'd be above using this space to shill for the other MLP Writeoff group, let it be known that I absolutely am not!

At time of posting, the Friendship is Short Shorts group is close to wrapping up its inaugural contest, titled "Uncharted Territory." The quality of fics has been pretty high, and some of the art is downright hilarious.

Uncharted Territory brought in fresh faces and the energy of something new. With that said, I'd love to see more Writeoff veterans check it out the next round, with a 4-day writing period scheduled to start October 18th!
#4 · 2
· · >>CoffeeMinion
>>CoffeeMinion
I wish I'd known about it in time. It's extremely annoying that your groups don't show up in the main feed. How are you supposed to keep track of what's going on?
#5 · 5
· · >>Trick_Question >>Trick_Question
>>Trick_Question
I agree 100%, the current situation is not great. I've pinged Roger and expressed my views. What I will say at this point is that Roger has been fantastic in general; first for adding the groups functionality at all, and second for responding to some "growing pains" that have come up during the initial contest. But I hope the front page can be changed a bit; it's even awkward now with both a She-Ra and an MLP round active at the same time, much less with Friendship is Short Shorts going on too (albeit being buried on a sub-page).

I think the core issue is that the interface wasn't really designed to handle multiple contests going on at the same time. Clearly it can, but it's not optimized for it. Hopefully in the next few days I'll be able to mock-up an idea for an interface tweak that would accommodate this a little better. Whether Roger likes it and seeks to implement it is another matter.

I'm also open to thoughts about where I can/should advertise future contests if this doesn't get addressed for a while.
#6 · 3
·
>>CoffeeMinion
I'd be happy with a main page that shows all the active and just-finished contests, even if I have to tick a box or something to get it. I don't care how it's organized. There's a poetry one about to start too and I'm def going to miss stuff at this point.
#7 · 4
·
>>CoffeeMinion
And yes, Roger is awesome. :heart:
#8 · 1
·
Whoa, I missed prompt submission already? Drat, I thought I had notifications turned on too. :\
#9 · 3
·
I've finally gotten back into writing. Published my most recent chapter a couple weeks ago. looks at Writeoff schedule, looks at personal schedule. I don't know. This is the busiest week of the semester so far, but I'll try.
#10 · 1
· · >>Zaid Val'Roa
I can't believe the prompt selection is so small. Is it because it's pic-to-fic?
#11 · 2
·
Hey, the writing phase lasts until Tuesday. Swell!
#12 · 1
· · >>Baal Bunny
>>Trick_Question
I forgot to submit a prompt.
I'm assuming some people forgot too.
#13 · 5
·
>>Zaid Val'Roa

I submitted a prompt:

Then forgot to come back and vote for any of them. Ah, the joys of the human brain.

Mike

EDIT: And the first day of the writing period here is the only day for writing in the first ever Poetry Writeoff. So much going on!
#14 · 1
· · >>Anon Y Mous
So we have a prompt. Does that mean writing may commence now? Or do we need to wait until 10/3 to start, as shown on the little timing/calendar thing?
#15 · 3
· · >>GrandMoffPony
>>GrandMoffPony
It’s a pic to fic which means the artists draw something and when the art is revealed you can write a story based on one or more of the pictures. Your story doesn’t have to relate to the original prompt at all.
#16 · 1
· · >>Miller Minus >>Miller Minus
>>Anon Y Mous
Oh! Huh, I did not know such a setup was in play in Short Story Writeoffs. Guess I missed a lot of new things while I was away.

So I have two basic choices:
1. Write a fic based on the art, which itself should be based on the prompt
2. Write something totally unrelated to the prompt (or the art, presumably)

/is that a correct reading of things?
#17 · 2
·
>>GrandMoffPony
Only choice 1. Think of it like a complete reversal of the usual round, where the artists create art based on the stories. Now we get to write stories based on their art.

In pic2fic, some writers like to write stories that feature exact scenes from the art, while other writers get inspired more loosely. It's up to you how close you want to align with the picture(s)!
#18 · 3
·
>>GrandMoffPony
And, just to reiterate what Anon said, if you're writing this round, the prompt means nothing to you. When the artists are done and the gallery goes up, give it a perusal and see what strikes your fancy.
#19 · 1
·
Welp, I was going to submit an art this round... then I left what I was drawing in somewhere not here, and I'm going out of state tomorrow regardless :/

Hopefully, others have been having a better time with their art than I have!
#20 · 6
·
Given how this is the last FiM event going down before the show finally stops (here in the States, at least), I'm definitely going to give this contest a whirl. A goodbye of sorts for the show, though definitely not the fandom.
#21 · 6
·
Really, REALLY can't promise anything but I might try and put in an entry for this one? I'm currently trying to scrape my brain through creating midterm exams despite a) no teaching qualifications b) about a month of teaching experience so it entirely depends on whether I can finish THAT before the weekend....
#22 · 4
·
I think I'll give this one a go.
#23 · 1
·
Somehow, the poetry competition ended one hour and five minutes before the drawing competition here ends. I think.
#24 · 3
·
Also: Roger?

THANK YOU!!! for making the new events here accessible! :yay:
Post by Trick_Question , deleted
#26 ·
· · >>CoffeeMinion
Dang it. :( I tried to push myself into getting an entry written, I really did. But that was back on Friday when I had a day off, and as soon as I got sucked back into my work schedule, my focus just scattered.

Good luck to those of you still working on your entry!
#27 ·
·
>>horizon
FWIW, there’s still another day to work on it, if that helps.

I managed to get a concept down before my weekend got sucked into the Family Events Nebula. I’m hoping tomorrow can be a decent writing day...
#28 ·
· · >>CoffeeMinion
I too am failing to get anything entered this time. Damn you, real world responsibilities!!! :-P
#29 ·
·
>>Xepher
Yo Xeph! Good to see you around, at any rate. ^^

I dunno, I’m starting to worry I might not be able to pull off a fic either in the time remaining. I’ll give it one more heave-ho tonight.
#30 · 1
·
The bad news: Despite my promises and desires, I won't be able to submit my story for this final round while the show airs. School work and my own sloth kept me from fleshing out enough of a story to meet my standards (however low they are). I'm really bummed about this, because as a tight-lipped introvert who exchanges few sentences with any of you, I was hoping I could say goodbye to the show in my own special way.

The good news: What little amount of story I managed to crank out has given me a grand project to finish on my own. It'll give me something to do this month and allow me to say goodbye in my own weird way. So thanks to everyone for being here and giving me the drive to complete stories. I hope this place keeps going for a long time and that we continue to make interesting stories to read.
Post by Trick_Question , deleted
Post by Trick_Question , deleted
#33 · 3
·
*fortnite dances*

I'm in
#34 · 2
·
To my eternal frustration, I came within spitting distance of finishing an entry but fell just short. But you bet your various booties I'm finishing this AND the other entry I wrote 2 pages of (I can't not write a concept I like that much).

Good luck to the actual entrants: I just hope you don't make me feel too bad with how inevitably awesome yours will be.
#35 · 3
· · >>Trick_Question
*AHEM*

Hey hey sorry to interrupt when you were all about to start reviewing, but I just wanted to let you know that I've opened up a new group on the writeoff called Miller's Cash Money Contests!

Because if there's one thing we all need, it's more writeoff!

What makes my group special, as you can probably already tell from reading the title, is that it's MINE! Also, you can win some money. The format for the contests will be similar to that one event Jaxie hosted last year with long writing times (up to a month), special guest judges, and of course, the opportunity to read and critique each other's stories.

Full details regarding genre, judges, and the precise quantity of dolla dolla bills you can win are all contest-dependent. If you have any questions for now feel free to hit me up on the discord or through PM.

Please consider joining the group! The first contest will be MLP related :O
#36 ·
· · >>Miller Minus >>Miller Minus
>>Miller Minus
I can't argue with more MLP-related fiction, but do you think that maybe at some point too many contests might be a problem...?

I remember when we used to do only FiM stuff once every four weeks and we'd get maybe a hundred entries for our minific rounds. While this isn't a minific round, we only have eight entries and that's not very many. So I do support this (and joined), but I dunno what is going to end up happening.
#37 · 1
·
>>Trick_Question
We are already discussing this on the discord.
#38 · 1
· · >>Trick_Question
>>Trick_Question
Oops that may have been too terse.

Uh.

I agree, and there are ongoing discussions in the discord about this.

*hugs you*

That's better.
Post by Trick_Question , deleted
#40 ·
·
I want to start review madness here, but I gotta do the Poetry thing first.
#41 · 1
· · >>Trick_Question
>>Trick_Question
S'all good, friendo.
#42 · 1
· · >>Miller Minus
>>Miller Minus
Also tell me how I can put money where your beak is for help with your fabulous cash prizes.

Also also I'll try to win so I can reject the prize to help too.
#43 · 1
·
>>Trick_Question
We have our first donor :V

I will certainly be letting you know. Thanks!
Post by Trick_Question , deleted
#45 · 2
· · >>CoffeeMinion
>>Trick_Question
Reviewing really is a thankless job sometimes. I try to always throw a Like at any reviews my entry gets as a "Thank You" to the reviewer before I can thank them properly in my retro, but I don't have an entry in the running this time around. :P
#46 · 2
·
>>Trick_Question
>>Bachiavellian
Thankless though it be, the reviews are IMO what separates the Writeoff experience from other groups, contests, et cetera. I’m grateful to see the time and effort that I see from you guys (and others!) to keep the flame burning.

So: thank you!
#47 · 5
·
http://0.media.collegehumor.cvcdn.com/11/21/32cb1e97946b537b54fabd8634662da8.jpg
So uh, maybe I’ll go look at some stories, and stuff...
Post by Trick_Question , deleted
#49 · 2
·
Just as a heads-up: I went ahead and created the FimFiction story folder for this Writeoff here. Please do not post your stories on FimFiction yet! Wait for the results to show first. One anonymity break is more than enough for this round.

Adding to the group folder is reserved for folks with “Contributor” status, purely to prevent spam. Anyone who’s written a story during this round (and who isn’t already a Contributor) is welcome to become a Contributor. Just ping myself or Horizon and we’ll add ya.
#50 · 3
·
Congratulations to our winners thebandbrony, alarajrogers, and wishcometrue! Evidently all-lowercase names are where it’s at this round!

For those who can’t get enough Pony, stick around—we may have just said goodbye to MLP:FiM’s broadcast run this past weekend, but we’ve got another contest for the Friendship is Short Shorts group coming up later this week! Truly the ride never ends!!