Conventions » Everfree Northwest presents Scribblefest 2016! · 1:13am Feb 2nd, 2016
EDIT: Contest is now closed! Thank you to all the entrants. We'll begin judging tomorrow, and will soon list all the entries so you can read through them as well. Stay tuned!
Everfree Northwest presents Scribblefest 2016!
Art by Dark Flame http://darkflame75.deviantart.com/
Everfree Northwest, Seattle's premier pony convention is known for having one of—if not the—strongest writing tracks in the MLP fandom. As part of that, we run an online writing contest (now called "Scribblefest") every year. Entry is open to everyone, whether or not you attend the convention.
This year, we're changing things up a bit. Instead of ranking stories in simple order, we're giving out six special awards, each of which comes with a $20 Amazon gift code!
Awards
The Jaw-Dropper Award ("The Dash")
We all know the type, the stories that make us go "Holy cow, THAT just happened!" This would go to the story with the best twist, surprise, or simple moment of hoof-pumping awesomeness!
The D'aww Award ("The Fluttershy")
A staple of ponyfic... the story with the sweetest, most touching moment that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
The Nasally Ejected Beverage Award ("The Pinkie")
You know, the one that makes you laugh so hard you snort milk out your nose.
The True Fable Award ("The AJ")
The story that is most true to the spirit of the show. By definition, a fable is "a short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral." This goes to the story that best teaches a life lesson, especially using old fashioned, honest-as-apple-pie wisdom.
The Elegance Award: ("The Rarity")
For services to poetic language, beautiful diction, haunting prose, and overall elegance in writing.
The Checklist-And-Caliper Award ("The Twilight")
The story with the most attention to detail. This could be a puzzle or mystery type plot, stories that rely on actual math/science, or ones that show well thought-out rules underlying the use of magic. Basically, any story that makes you wonder just how much time the author spent on research, calculations, plot diagrams, or anything else that wasn't actually writing.
Goals
It's up to you, the author, where you want to focus your effort. Good stories will often include elements that make them eligible for multiple awards, and we encourage everyone to focus on good storytelling, rather than myopically targeting a specific award. Do note however, that no story may win more than a single award.
How to Enter
Publish one new (never before published) story to FIMFiction.net between now and March 6th, then submit it to our online form at: http://goo.gl/forms/aa5LY4s9gi
Prizes
Each of the six awards mentioned above comes with a $20 electronic code good for use at Amazon.com. International contestants may request a code for their regional Amazon affiliate (such as amazon.ca, amazon.co.uk, etc.) instead, and we will attempt to provide a code worth the equivalent of $20 US in that region. This may not be possible however, so non-US residents enter at their own risk.
In addition to the $20, winning stories and authors will also be featured on the EFNW website, various media/blog posts, and in the EFNW Convention Book.
Word Limits
Stories must be between 2000 and 6000 words in length. Note: FIMFiction’s word count uses a different algorithm than most word processors and we will allow some leniency to compensate for this.
Duration
Scribblefest 2016 will accept entries from February 1st, 2016 until 11:59 pm PST on March 6th, 2016. Judging will begin immediately afterwards, and winners will be announced 2-4 weeks later, depending on the number of entries we have to judge.
Judging Process
Judging will be done in phases by a a combined panel of EFNW staff and invited guest judges from the community. Judges will be given a randomized set of stories to read and each story will be assigned to a minimum of two judges, to reduce the chance of personal taste/bias disqualifying a story unduly. Judges will vote for their favorite story in each award category to advance to the next phase. After each phase, votes will be tallied, and the top stories in each category will advance to the next phase, where the process will repeat until only one winner in each category remains.
Additional Rules and Details
1. All entries must adhere to a PG rating. Submissions using elements that could reasonably be considered above a PG rating, including but not limited to adult situations, intense violence, or drug use will be ineligible for the contest. If you are unsure if your story meets these guidelines and wish to ask, please contact our writing track lead, Xepher, directly by PM on FIMFiction. https://www.fimfiction.net/user/Xepher
2. Any material that violates the rights of a third party will be disqualified.
3. Submissions must be relevant to the My Little Pony fandom. If it's not MLP-based fiction, an entry may be disqualified.
4. Stories must be an original work by the submitting contestant and must not have been released prior to the start of the contest.
5. Contestants may submit only one (1) story for consideration. If more than one (1) story is submitted, the submitter will be asked to select which entry they wish to enter into the contest. If the submitter cannot be reached in time for judging, the most recent entry will be used. Contestants that attempt to subvert this rule and submit multiple entries under different accounts or aliases may be disqualified at our discretion.
6. Co-written submissions are allowed, but disqualify all authors involved from submitting additional solo or co-written stories.
7. Editing/proofreading assistance doesn't count as co-writing, and authors may submit their own story even if they help edit for someone else.
8. Contestants may only win one award each. If an entry is found to be the best in multiple award categories, the judging panel will decide which award is most suited for it, and will give the other awards to lower ranked stories in the other categories.
9. Winners will be selected based on many judging criteria, including, but not limited to: technical skill, characterization, creativity, originality, impact, and personal tastes of the judges. This is in addition to the criteria defined for each award itself.
10. Submissions must be submitted via the linked Google Form. http://goo.gl/forms/aa5LY4s9gi If you have trouble submitting, please contact our writing track lead, Xepher, directly via PM. https://www.fimfiction.net/user/Xepher
11. Final interpretation of the contest rules and judging criteria are left to the discretion of the judging panel, and their decisions are final.
12. Submitters retain ownership of their submissions, but by entering the contest the author agrees to allow Everfree Northwest to share their submitted stories on our website, social media, conbook, and in other promotional media and materials.
13. Contest judges are not permitted to enter the contest.
Final Thoughts
Good luck to everyone! We look forward to reading your submissions, and hope to see you all at Everfree Northwest this May. As always, keep up-to-date on the latest Everfree Northwest news by visiting our website, viewing/following our FIMFiction account and group, liking us on Facebook, and following us on Twitter and Tumblr.
Are ever free staff members who aren't part of the judging team allowed to enter? Though I haven't gotten a reply to my staff application I sent in three weeks ago.
sounds very interesting ill share it with my group i admin
Just a thought, but as Everfree NW is kind of the recognized thing for writing, you should look into doing something similar but for the year as a whole, rather than just for a few short weeks of entries. Look through all the stuff that was a big hit for the year and pass out recognition in that vein as well. I was reading through the criteria and getting excited to see what you guys came up with until I saw the actual entry thing and realized it was a contest rather than a retrospective of 2015.
Just throwing it out there; something like that would be a lot of fun to look at.
Cool, I may enter the story I am writing right now XD
Only one story? Aww....
3727766 You mean like the writeoffs?
3727790
No, I mean like a year-end thing, where they look at some of the top stuff from 2015 or whatever year it happens to just have been, and then rate that.
EDIT: Among the community, not just those that enter the write-offs. Among fimfic and other fanfic sites.
Can you write stories that are based on (but don't cross over into) other shows/games?
I'm intrigued and would like a chance to try, now I just need to think of something to write.
Are we allowed to do multi-chapter stories?
Will Pacifica be there?
3727783 it said a new story that hasn't been published, so if none of the chapters are uploaded, i think so
3727763 If you're not on my writing staff, one of the guest judges, or in a position (like head of events) where you could directly influence the outcome, then you can enter. EFNW is staffed almost entirely by volunteers, so I want to avoid disqualifying people simply because they're helping us out with other departments.
3727766 I considered that, and I'd love to really have a "best of the best" type of thing, but that takes a LOT of effort. Plus, the idea of a contest is to encourage people to write something new, and to encourage lesser known authors to enter, not just further reward the (admittedly excellent) writers already producing great stuff. It also also helps keeps the judges sane, as we're not having to go through 10,000+ stories.
3727848 Yes, provided the MLP content is clearly there as well, and it meets all the other rules set forth. Do note that, depending on what material you're talking about, the judges may or may not recognize and "get" it.
3727863 Yes, just keep the total wordcount within the 2000-6000 word limits, and you can break it up however you see fit.
Interesting, and the Amazon gift code would be icing on the cake. Now I just have to think of an idea I'm not already using. I sense... a challenge!
EDIT: I think I finally have an idea worth submitting.
Ohh, I so want to enter ... let's see if I can get something together in time.
You might want to make up your minds about that deadline though
3729931 Fixed! Thanks for the catch. Originally, the intent was to remind people to publish a day early, as fimfiction sometimes takes time to approve new stories, but I forgot to explain in more detail. It shouldn't matter though, as long as things are submitted by the end of March 6th, odds are it'll be approved before the first judge gets to it. Direct links to stories work even if stuff isn't approved too.
What's the theme for this year?
3730558 We haven't given one... at least not for the contest. The problem we ran into last year was that with a narrow theme, we ended up with dozens of stories that all started to sound the same. It does make for a more "competitive" event when you force people into the same track, but doesn't lead to the best stories being produced.
So I started thinking about that... Imagine if other awards required adherence to a single theme. Imagine if every movie in the Oscars had to be a Western? Wouldn't that be boring? So instead, I figured why not let people write whatever idea they're most excited about, and let their own muse shine through. Then, we don't judge hyper-critically, trying to determine the best single western out of 75 entries, but instead give awards based on the differing aspects of storytelling.
So that's what we're doing. I want this to encourage people to write more good stories, meaning we all win with more good to read!
This is my first year here on this site, and I can't wait for the contest! I know exactly what my story will be about. I can't wait!
Oh cool~
I published a story two days ago, putting it in the eligible window for this—but I didn't know about this contest until just now. Can I assume it would be kind of a scummy move to submit it anyway, or are you okay with that for the sake of more entries?
I'm mostly assuming it would be a scummy move, but I thought I'd make sure, heh.
Ahhhhh! How did I miss this?! Looks like I might be doing some writing!
3732265 Then don't wait. Time can sneak up on you.
3743664 If you're talking about Raven, it's already over the 6,000 word limit, but only just.
When did you start writing the story?
3747093 February 2nd is when I first created the Google Doc. I roughed out the plot outline the night before after laying awake for an hour, and then busted 90% of it out in a day.
And yeah, it is indeed 30 words over... I thought maybe that'd be within the leniency to compensate for FimFiction's algorithm, as mentioned in the post, but if not, I could take a crack at whittling a paragraph or two down, or something.
And, of course, I'm still okay with an answer of "We want fics made specifically for this contest." It's a story I'm very proud of, so I'm not wanting to enter it because "might as well enter something," but I still totally understand if they'd rather not have it in.
3747106 No, go ahead and submit it. 6k is a bit of a soft limit.
3747130 Alright, will do! Thank you very much!
So how exactly do we enter a story?
3751823 There's a form to submit. See the section of the main post labelled: "How to Enter" for the link.
Awesome!! So excited to see this event renewed this year! I am already brainstorming an entry!
I really like the six different prizes! It's a nice way to reward a group of awesome writers without making any of their wins feel "less than" someone else's win. Truly a magical solution!
Now my only problem is ... what do I write about?!
I'm kind-of already starting to butt heads with this issue. I did the most significant part of my writing on GDocs, giving a word count of 5643. Unfortunately, FimFiction has decided to more or less add 500 words to this count, bringing it up to 6138. After an additional check, OpenOffice gives the word count as 5659.
Given that the story is still being edited, it'd be helpful to know whether said leniency will extend to this, so I might know whether to focus my efforts on trimming the word count down as well as everything else. I remember having issues with this last time around as well (which is why I've made a point of checking early). I expect the word count to shift slightly as I edit, hopefully towards a lower count, but knowing what kind of concrete limit I'm working with would be super helpful.
3773254 Regarding word counts:
We know Fimfiction counts differently than other sources, so we'll be lenient. Someone else asked about being UNDER the word limit as well. Bottom line, I won't outright disqualify any stories for missing the word count. That said, if you "bend" the rules too far, the judges (myself and others) may count that against you. So basically, if you're writing the best story you can in good faith, there shouldn't be a problem.
I submitted my entry to the Google doc several days ago. Do I get any confirmation of my entry besides the "Form Accepted" screen on the doc?
Also, is there any listing of all the entrants so we can do our own reading?
Does it have to be a single chapter or can you have multiple so long as it fits within the word limitation? Also, does it need to involve the canon characters, or would it be alright to make up a story with a newly made up pony? And is there anything that is recommended the stories not be about? Aside from the obvious ones of course: no gore, sex, etc.
so when's the folder for entries on the site going to be up this year?
3777643 There's no additional confirmation. If the form said it was accepted, it should be there. To put your mind at ease though, I do see an entry for you: "My Flight." And yes, we're planning to make a folder/listing (and blog posts) showing all of the entrants once the submission deadline passes.
3778874 It can be multiple chapters, just total word count has to be within the limits. You can use OCs, no problem, as long as it fits in the MLP universe and isn't just a halo fanfic or something (though crossovers are allowed.)
As for content restrictions, that's all the in the rules (and mostly pretty obvious) and basically about keeping it PG/PG13-ish. Keep in mind, what the panel of judges like or don't like may vary though, so you probably want to avoid things that are rather controversial, AUs that are obscure, as well as sequels or stories that require having read other stuff first.
3793264 Okay, so that about like I figured it to be. And thats fine, because the story I wrote falls well within those paramaters. I just wanted to make sure I was on the same page with everything. Thank you!
And.... Time! The contest is now closed. We'll be posting all the entries in a list soon, so you can read them yourselves while we judge. Winners will be announced in approximately two weeks. Thank you to all who entered!
3796332 Next time, man. Next time. I came close to missing the deadline too. If not for the pre-approved system, I might have. I would only is it in such a situation, not with my normal stories.
Tell Bolt the Super Pony I said Hi!
For those not following us, I just put up a new blog post, with links to all of this year's entries.
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/607886/scribblefest-2016-entries