The MOFA Winner For February 2022 (Mockingbirb's Opinionated Flashfic Award) · 10:40pm Mar 7th, 2022
The MOFA is a competition for very short stories of 150 or fewer words each.
In February, the contest's theme was "Bureaucracy." As usual, I had some difficulty picking out a winner.
Finally I settled on EileenSaysHi's "Welcome to My World" as the MOFA first place winner for February.
This is an interesting story, partly because of what it does NOT do.
The most objective measure (and possibly the most trivial) is that at 132 words long, it doesn't even use its entire word count quota.
But I see a far more important difference that helps this story stand out. Many of the contest entries were stories that seem to take for granted the idea that bureaucracy is simply something that exists to make annoying demands that don't make sense, waste ponies' time, and stop ponies from doing what they want to do and probably really should be doing. Sometimes, a writer who's thinking this way might write a story in which events happen through only arbitrary causes, or in which characters (bureaucracy is made of people ponies!) are evil (or simply stupid) for no particular reason AND incomprehensible in ways that make the story less satisfying.
I don't have anything against writing characters (even bureaucrats!) who are evil creatures with corrupted souls, or even against seeing them express that evil through bureaucracy, but I think ultimately it should make some kind of sense as a story.
EileenSaysHi shows us a story in which bureaucracy has a positive side of sorts, and in which a triumph in the face of bureaucratic obstacles is truly meaningful.
This month, MOFA first place almost became a tie. I really liked paperhearts' "Checkmate." The story fails to gain first place for one reason: the official Flashfic 150 wordcounter says this story has 151 words, one more than the 150 word limit. So I guess this story is disqualified for breaking some petty little rule. 
Someone could also doubt whether a story about playing chess is really about "bureaucracy." But I think in at least one sense, games are about following a system of arbitrary (or seemingly arbitrary) rules. I seem to agree with paperhearts: that's close enough to bureaucracy for me, at least if your story is good enough.
Ok, now that I've (finally?) judged the MOFA, I get to read Loganberry's official Flashfic 150 contest results!
As Loganberry said in a different context, "As always, please remember that I'm the one deciding this. All it tells you is how much I liked it."
The MOFA contest piggybacks on Loganberry's Flashfic 150 Contest. So if you want to try for a MOFA (or even if you DON'T want a MOFA) just enter the Flashfic 150, and your story will automatically be in the running for a MOFA too.
The March MOFA contest theme is "Myth and Legend." Please read the Flashfic 150 rules before writing your entry.
Have fun, and good luck!
Woohoo! It’s been my dream to win this award ever since I learned it existed at the exact same time I learned I’d won!
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