EFNW Writing Contest Winners and Runners Up · 7:50pm Mar 30th, 2014
As March comes to a close it’s time to announce the winners of Everfree Northwest’s 2014 Pre-Con fanfiction contest! We will start with the winners but also include reviews further down the announcement.
Drum roll please.
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Our third place winner is The Revelation of a King by Tidal. King Sombra was the most redeemed character in this contest.
Tidal will be receiving a 3rd place patch, a copy of our special 3-print run of the contest winner compilation book, and will have their story information for The Revelation of a King included in the EFNW 2014 con book.
Our illustrious second place winner with a clean lead was Tarnish by KitsuneRisu. Silver Spoon was tied for our 4th most redeemed character in this contest.
KitsuneRisu will be receiving a 2nd place patch, a copy of our special 3-print run of the contest winner compilation book, a messenger bag, and will have their story information for Tarnish included in the EFNW 2014 con book.
Our mighty first place winner not only beat the competition, but also did so with the only Mane-iac fic. Seriously, Broken Gladiator by BronyWriter is amazing. Bronywriter had also applied, and was recently accepted, to be a panelist at Everfree Northwest 2014. We are still accepting applicants for writing track panelists, so feel free to apply here.
BronyWriter will be receiving a 1st place patch, a copy of our special 3-print run of the contest winner compilation book, a messenger bag, the EFNW 2012 con exclusive Fluttershy foil card, and your story will be featured in full in the 2014 Everfree Northwest Con Book. Congratulations!
The winner of the Community Choice (Herd Choice) patch is Reformation by Regidar. With 267 votes, after accounting for some liberal use of the reload button, Reformation was the clear winner. Regidar will receive a Herd Choice patch.
Speaking of the best, how did we rate our best fics and what did our judges have to say for each of our winners?
The contest ended up with a combined total of 75 entries. Initially Piquo Pie, EFNW Writing Track Lead, was going to review all the fics, but when we started getting 5-10 entries a day Horizon and Xepher—both Writing Track staffers—were brought in to review a section of the submissions. Each reviewed around 25 stories, grading each fic based on Technical aspect, Plot, Character, Creativity, and a bonus category of ‘Other’ (to represent that special something).
Each category was scored on a 1-5 (1 being highest) and then totaled. Each took their top individually rated fics and 1-2 of each of our favorites to be graded by the other judges (with special guest judge Pen Stroke) and rated them from favorite (1) to least favorite (14).
Below you can see each judge’s comments on our winning three fanfics.
Broken Gladiator - 1st place with a score of 12
Pen Stroke: This one pulled itself of well as a super villain monologue and gives an interesting commentary on what heroes would be without the villains they face.
Piquo Pie: Not only is this a interesting take on redemption, it would make logical sense in it's own world without changing the cannon. It's well executed with excellent pacing. It shows a momentum in the world that extends beyond and before the fic at hand. At the same time between the beginning and the end of the fic, nothing has changed, which is quite poetic. And as someone with a degree in Psychology, I can really appreciate Man-iacs feelings and the actions she has taken to try and keep herself sane.
Horizon: Nice take on the superhero genre, one of the comp's most original ideas, solid execution.
Xepher: Very creative twist for Pony, if slightly cliche in superhero fiction.
Tarnish - 2nd place with a score of 15
Pen Stroke: I feel this one captures Pinkie Pie well in the sense of "She explains it in her own round about way that gets you thinking," but it doesn't stand out to me much otherwise.
Piquo Pie: I loved Pinkie, one of the best characterizations in the contest of any character. I also loved how Silver felt like a actual kid.
Horizon: Utterly magnificent character building and execution, marred only by a bizarre analogy that … works despite itself, I suppose.
Xepher: Near perfectly executed piece of introspection and minor redemption. I... I'm wowed.
The Revelation of a King - 3rd place with a score of 21
Pen Stroke: I liked this one for it's use of the ultimate end as a means of redemptions, purification by fire and the torment of Tartarus. Also liked the authors use of Sombra's cellmate. If this had been a longer story I feel we could have come to care for the cellmate and been hit, as Sombra was, by what happened to him.
Piquo Pie: I like religious themed stories when the religious aspect makes sense. In this story it makes sense and has that certain flow that is smooth and reasonable. It never struggles and, while dark, it shows a true redemption. It also shows a very believable psychology.
Horizon: Seemed initially weaker but grew on me over time. Nice slantwise, less-morbid take on hell. Thematically powerful.
Xepher: Dark, and... dark. Unclear who the ponies are that come for Sombra in the end to give him another chance too.
Honorable Mentions
Here is the rest of the top 14 fics that made it to the finals list in no particular order. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t other great fics, and you can see all the entries in the ‘Everfree NW 2014 Pre-Con Contest’ story folder in the Everfree Northwest FIMFiction group. All of us wanted to include more fics in the top list than we were able to.
The King In Crystal by The Headless
A Dream of an Other by stanku
Second Chances by Grand_Moff_Pony
Trixie’s Number One Assistant by Rustle my Jimmies
My Penance, My Plans, My Hope by Blood Brandy
Rogues Anonymous by Nyronus
A Little Silver Lie by Serious Contemplation
Changeling to Fit the Role by Darkentrophy
Lightning by BlazzingInferno
Left In The Dust by RainbowBob
Despicable Blue by Einhander
Thank you once more to everyone who entered the first ever Everfree Northwest 2014 fanfiction contest, and another hearty congratulations for our winners and runners-up!
Random facts
- The Everfree Northwest Pre-Con Writing Contest generated over 30 thousand views as of March 15th.
- Hello Sister by Michael_Ravencroft was featured on fimfiction. (There may have been more featured but monitoring the feature box would have taken away from grading the fics.)
- Both Tarnish and The Revelation of a King barely missed being included in the final cut but were included as a favorite.
- Cobalt Phoenix created a chart for us concerning the distribution of redeemed characters. Find that, including the graph, here.
- Fimfiction miscalculates the word count by up to several hundred words. This caused more than 30 authors to send us messages or include notifications in their fic description that their story was under 3k words and phrases like “Please Please Pleeeeeeaaaase don’t disqualify me.”
- We had to send over a dozen fics back to the author to adjust for things like word count or PG 13 content. Several of the authors withdrew their entry but the rest successfully adjusted and several made it into the honorable mentions.
- The Fluttershy foil card given out for the 1st place winner has been ebayed for over $125.
- The Fluttershy foil card depicts a face that mirrors our response the last fact.
Congrats to Tidal
1967011 [sarcasm]I'm just as shocked as you are.[/sarcasm]
Ooh, I won community choice! Sorry about the whole refresh to revote thing, some of my followers are not exactly... the type of people who care about rules.
Still, I would have never suspected THAT many votes. 
I'm happy and somewhat honored regardless.
1967011 generally, the authors here are popular for a reason. Myself excluded, a good portion of them are fantastic writers, and Bronywriter, although with his share of flaws, in one such writer. I'm not surprised he won either, but it's for a different reason: his talent shone through and helped him win that fairly.
I, on the other hand, won simply because of my followers, so you have every right to be passive aggressive about that.
1967080 A share of flaws that I will be first in line to admit to...
All that to say, I'm beyond honored that you guys thought that my story was worthy of the win. Thank you so much!
Although one note, Pen Stroke's comment for both the first and second place winners is identical. Might... wanna fix that...
1967080
I'm a little... frustrated today.
Apologies for acting out as such. Was rude of me to you and to others, and you dont' deserve the barbs of my ire.
I'm going to go back to my little corner of the internet, and not bother with this stuff again. I am reminded, once again, why I stay away from story promotion gimmicks. I am simply never, ever good enough for them.
1967115
Congrats on the first place finish! I really loved your entry!
1967120 Eh, it's alright, you're only human (I hope)
besides, without attitudes like yours, these things tend to get hugboxy, and no one likes that.
If you pull yourself out of the lottery, it's the only way to make sure you DON'T win. Don't give up on these sort of things, you've got to push yourself on through.
Runner-up! Rubber-up!
....
F***, not even an honorable mention.
Runner-up. Not bad. And two out of my three predictions for the top three were correct.
I'll call this a moral victory.
1967141
After eighteen separate EQD rejections, Two complete failures of short-stories, and five utterly failed out contest entries, I don't think I've learned much beyond "I don't seem to write like all of the cool kids want me to."
But whatever. It is what it is, and congrats to those who've won.
1967182
I'll rub you up1967204 >Wanting to be on EqD
>ever
because being hailed as the personal pick of a bunch of elitist assholes with a shoddy taste in fiction is definitely something you wanna work for.
Besides, enjoyment in writing is first and foremost. Just have fun, submit it to something, and if it gets in, that's awesome! If not, at least you have the experience to show for it.
1967115 Indeed it is! Pen Stroke's comment has been edited to the correct quote.
1967120 We're sorry to hear that Lapis-Lazuli, we hope things get less frustrating for you. And don't give up, write for you and keep improving! We didn't make this contest to frustrate people, we wanted it to be a celebration of writing, and you played a part in making this an amazing contest. Don't sell yourself short.
1967187 Just because you did not receive an honorable mention doesn't mean we didn't like your stories. One of your stories for the contest, 'Compassion' (http://www.fimfiction.net/story/172194/compassion) has over 200 likes, so obviously you're doing something right! This content had 75 entries so some stories, despite being good, were not listed.
1967227
What can I say? I was young and stupid and thought EQD was supposed to be the creme de la creme, until I learned what jerks they were.
It's hard getting exposure in this community, especially when you have to fight your way out of the shadows of Pen Stroke and Anonymous Materials and Chengar Quordath and Bronywriter and this Regidar guy everyone's heard of.
But yeah, I basically write for fun. I just... you know, kind of wish I could be seen as a good writer while I was at it. Even jaded, isolated loners like me enjoy a bit of recognition once in a while.
(This comment not the view of all Jaded, Isolater Loners. Jaded Isolated Loners Ltd. does not advertise the thoughts of this post.)
Runner-Up list is dang good in my book! I'll take it!
Congrats to the winners as well!
Wow, runner up...A lot better than i thought I'd get.
Um...Yay?
1967252
Who? Sounds like a real hack.
1967507
I dunno. Everyone keeps telling me he's a good writer and really personable and shit, but I've never seen any of his stuff and I dont think he's read any of my work... It's like he's some kind of ghostly presence, simultaneously everywhere and nowhere...
I've begun to suspect that he's actually The Doctor.
1967517 one might say that's a fantastic observation.
Simply fantastic.
1967556
Someday, perhaps I'll find out for myself. In the meantime, I shall seethe with silent jealousy of all those more popular than I, and continue to try and fight my way up to the echelons of legend and greatness and high follower counts.
Maybe even someday, Cold in Gardez senpai will notice me. I got AnonponieDASHIE to notice me, so maybe I'm on the right path.
Maybe.
..... I kind of hope he's the Doctor though, I'd like to ask him his opinion on tuxedo vests and if the Browns ever win the superbowl.
I approve of these results. :3 This was a fun contest to monitor!
1967585 Tuxedo vests are cool, and...
spoilers
1967734
I need to have conversations with you more often and at happier times.
1967762 Hehe, feel free to anytime you like.
Congrats to all. Don't even care that I didn't place or get mentioned. Wasn't counting on it. Just wanted to participate.
I've gotta finish reading those winning entries and runner-ups now.
Congratulations to the winners and honorable mentions. (insert party canon smile here).
While I neither got honorable mention or any of the winning spots, I'm still thrilled to see the stories that did manage to get up there. As I've said before... There is next year.
Now I have a better idea of what it takes to win contests of this sort.
I'm also happy that I actually ended up reading the winning stories at some point before the announcement (except for Tarnish, but there is no time like the present!).
1967596
Agreed.
Oh wow, an honorable mention? I am indeed honored. (Besides mine) out of every fic listed I had only read Despicable Blue and Tarnish. Looks like I've got some reading to do.
Can other authors find out the scores they got on their fics?
1967080
Didn't happen so much for you. There were 3 other fics that came in with around 150 erroneous votes.
1967195
What was the one not included?
1967204
EQD is like a publisher. They look for a specific thing and if you aren't that then you need to find someone else.
1968401
Yes.
I, Piquo Pie, will send out a message to you as I graded your fic.
1968572 Ah, alright.
May I also have my score? Just to see where I stand.
1968576
Sent
1968572
Well I wasn't what YOU guys were looking for either. Nor TRG. Nor... pretty much any of the so-called experts.
So I really don't know what I'm doing wrong, considering I usually only get a lot of English Lit Professor gobbldygook that means nothing to me.
I guess all I can do is keep on keeping on.
1968576 You're standing by yourself, in a dimly lit room. The pungent scent of mildew emanates from the wet dungeon walls.
Aw, it's nice to come in second. Thanks very much to the judges for their time and effort in judging 75 entries! 2nd place? I'll take it. And many congratulations too to the other winners and the people who came up honourable mention.
This was fun.
bubblews.com/assets/images/news/2113201885_1395698191.jpg
fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/242/4/8/spiderman_shrug_pony_by_flygontamer493-d48apsq.png
1968609 are you trying to trick me into playing zork
1968642
What you fail to realize is that you have been playing Zork THE ENTIRE TIME.
And you have just been eaten by a Grue.
1968606
Actually, I was the one who graded it initially and I liked it. It scored 19.5 out of 20 after you include the bonus category. Which, for your fic, was a 4 out of 5 which means I thought it had a lot of merit.
Sadly, as I graded over half of the fics, it also competed against a number of others that just ended up with a slightly higher grade. You were only 2 points off of tying the final winner.
Sadly your fic seems to no longer exist, however from my notes if it was a more technically correct fic (formatting, grammar, spelling, punctuation) then it would have made it to the honorable mentions list at the very least.
Edit: found the cahe. Now that I remember which story it is I can say that it was very good and I really liked how you portrayed the psychology. A lot of other people liked it as well. You should defiantly put it back up.
1968655
That.... means a lot to me.
If you still have the details, I would appreciate them for my notes.
As to the fic, I've removed it because I liked the central concept enough to turn it into a full blown story as opposed to a short, and It would feel inappropriate to keep the short story there when I intend to expand upon the concept at a later date. It is something of a habit of mine to take my failures and attempt to improve upon them in some small way.
If you'd like, I won't mind linking you to the Gdoc where the original still remains.
As it stands... *sigh* Again, I am plagued by the technical issues, and have no idea how I can make those better.
1968658
I'll send the notes now. Also see the edit to the previous comment.
I like the idea of you making it a full story, though that didn't mean you should have taken it down.
1968660
I was, perhaps foolishly, extremely frustrated and angry this morning. Not entirely because of this contest, but because of a number of other factors that ended up being focused on this disappointment in particular.
The story itself had done very badly for exposure and views anyway, and so was already a source of disappointment for me, which didn't help matters. So I deleted it, probably more out of anger than anything else... then I went back to see the original, and decided I needed to make peace with myself by taking what I had failed with and making it into something better.
So now, it goes back to the workstation to be remade I will look into restoring it, and will keep you appraised.
thank you for being forward and frank about the details with me. Hopefully, I'll be able to quickly move past this and try to improve.
1968666
Well, the reason it probably wasn't popular was because it's Lightning Dust. Certain things just are not popular. It's psychologically accepted that the human brain likes familiar and unique things.
Lightning dust makes sense, but it's not unique and it's not common. It falls in a grey zone where people can easily imaging mediocre and yet they have never considered it. MLP in general is both unique and familiar to a lot of us, it's why it has such a following.
Lightning Dust as a character seems to be specifically designed for one shots, not world building or expansion. She was a bit more 2d so people have trouble seeing past that. And thus they aren't interested in seeing more.
An opposite example. People saw Derpy as like the other ponies, but with an eye problem. She was familiar, yet unique and it invited exploration because we had a good base for 'a pony' and something to explore 'her eyes.'
1968652 motherfucker
1968675
Just remind yourself: "It's Just a show, I should really just relax."
1968677 kek
Haha. It was a good ride. Now I can finally take down Applebloom's Tiara.
1968572 RainbowBob's "Left In The Dust" as the one I thought most likely to be included in the top three, though the ones I thought most likely to win and the ones that were my personal favorites weren't the same thing.
1968401 1968576 I am probably going to regret this, but... Anyone that participated and wants a more detailed opinion from me on their story can get one. I won't promise a super in-depth review, but at least a few paragraphs of detail and opinion. So, well more than the single blurb and score that went into the contest judging at least.
I've already read all the winners and honorable mentions, as well as the following stories:
Compassion
Foalishness
To Be A Better Dragon
The Real Deal
Sombra's Song
Applebloom's Tiara
On the Run
Trixie's Clubhouse
As such, I can more easily provide some feedback for these. That said, if your story isn't one of those (or the winners/runners-up/honorable-mentions) I'm still willing to read and provide feedback on it, both in general and in the context of the contest guidelines. It just may take me longer to get around to it, especially if I get a lot of requests.
So, want more feedback from me? PM me, and include a link to your story to save me some time.
Well, even though I didn't make an HM, This was still the best time i have ever had entering for a contest. This has been extremely fun though! :)