Hello everybat, it's a pleasure to be here. I'll be hosting this year's writing competition.

The rules are much the same as from last year, though with a small change.

1. Can be any maturity level
2. Stories must have been published no earlyier than September 18
3. Bat ponies should take a primary or secondary role
4. Can be Halloween/Nightmare Night themed
5. Prizes awarded are based on 4 categories
-Best of mature/teen/everyone
-Staff pick
6. To vote in fan pick must be a member of group
7. Admissions will be accepted up to Halloween, no later than midnight.

There are four prizes of 25$ amazon gift cards. With the winner of the fan pick also getting an additional reward of a commission from Ashinda.

Right, well happy writing and good luck. If any of you have questions please send me a PM. I look forward to read what you all have to enter. Until next time,
-Sphinx

6119259 Is there a limit on words?

6119270
Not officially. But I would prefer if things aren't more than 15k, simply due to the fact I'm gonna have to read everything. But I would simply rather not limit people.

6119294 Alrighty then. Thanks. I'll get to it.

6119259
May the best fuzz ear win.

6119301
Indeed! May the best, fuzzy eared, fluffy bat-pony thestral win!

6119259
Due date and submission location?

6119314
The due date is Halloween, submission location is found here. It is in the "Competition folder", subfolder "2017 Writing Competition"

I'll be hosting this year's writing competition.

Is Jack about to participate in a total of 4 contests in under 3 months? Yes, yes he is.

6119259
I judged last year's bat pony contest. Want me to judge this one?

6119351
If you could, that would be wonderful. I know I could very much use the help.

6119357
Alright, cool. Just hit me up and lemme know how you're gonna run things. I'm also a moderator in the bat pony discord server, btw. Want me to advertise this contest there?

6119259
Well, I've entered in my vote. Bit of rush job, word scraps taken from a old story that I took down a few months back but the scraps were a story to themselves and I thought they could stand on their own as a one shot.

Wooo I'm in.

Eeeee~

I wrote a story a few weeks back that is perfect for this. Added.

Multiple entries okay? I might get inspired and write more.

6119259
There's no requirement that the story be written for this competition; is that intentional?

6119550
To be fully honest I would prefer if people were to enter only one story. While I don't like to limit people in their writing I would also like to give everyone an equal chance of winning a prize. And if someone has two stories in the competition it would give them a slight edge over those that only entered one. Still you can add the other stories to the other folder story folders in the group for people to simply enjoy, or you could save them for next year's writing competition. Sorry about that, but I like to give people fair chances.
Until next time,
-Sphinx

Ahh, looks like I've got more stuff to do

(great)

6120523
Yay, more stuff to do!

6121295
This is a victory and a defeat

Now I just gotta hammer the keyboard some more

6119259
If I am writing a contest entry for another contest, and it fulfills the requirements for your contest, can I still submit it to yours as well?

thanks for taking care of this while im out

6120097
Uh, people can submit stories from before the contest was started, and even from previous contests?

Don't do this.

6126985
No, you're right. I'm not going to. Sorry about that. When I had originally thought of the issue I didn't see I problem with it. Though now... yeah... Thanks for setting me back on course.

6127818
Glad you changed your mind, because then that would mean that we could see 30, 50, or even over 100 stories submitted to this. That's not what I signed up for, and my friends share the same feelings. You take out the story that's not supposed to be in the comp folder for this year?

Oh shit, forgot this was here. I'mma contribute for sure.

6138458
Noice. Better write something coot and fluffy!

6119259
So... Odd question. I made a one shot for the contest, and so many readers were demanding more I just sort of turned it into an expanding anthology of complete one shots. How do you want to handle that for the contest? I mean, technically speaking my entry was only supposed to be the first "chapter."

I see. I will spend maximum effort on writing an entry for this contest!

Give me 2 hours.

Is there any specific category you want? (Ie. theme or tags) and any age group (as in how old the ponies are)?

6144128

6127818

I was curious with this as well. I do have a story that I want to replace my current submission that will have multiple chapters but I want to get the "primary" chapter out because, on its own, it can stand alone. Does this make it difficult for you to keep track of? How should we go about this?

Can you submit more than one. Like one for each level?

I was just thinking of writing a quick batpony horror story and thought there wasn't a contest this year but I was wrong, yay!!
Maybe I can bang this thing out and see if I make it this year

excellent work

Two questions:

1: Are US gift cards compatible with Amazon UK? :v
2: What is the due date of the competition?

6119259
Yeah, you didn't mention when this competition ends. It's Nov 1 at midnight, right?

6179676
1: Most likely
2: Probably the end of Halloween night.

6179728
thanks. Submitted my story, only thing is that the competition is a really popular flutterdash, lol

6119259
Alright, so submissions are done. Do you have a timetable for when we can expect judging to be done?

Also, I never did get a response when I asked before on how my entry is being handled. It was a one shot. Now, it's an expanding anthology of one shots due to demand for more content. I don't know if you want to only look at the first chapter or the story in it's entirety. Each chapter can stand alone, though, so despite being labeled incomplete you should be able to judge something.

6184733 Sorry about that... I've been distracted for the past two weeks by a new computer. No, I don't have a timetable as to when the judging will be done.

As for your story, I suspect I'll judge it based on the first chapter, as it was originally a one-shot. Unless of course you we for it to be judged otherwise. But seeing as to how it meant to be a one-shot I'll treat it as such. Of course I'm still probably going to read through the whole thing just for funnies though.

6185048
Any new news on judging progress? How far in are the judges? Is there a goal date to finish by?

6197848 It's coming along quite well, certainly over half-done with the judging. That said, I still can't give an exact date for when we'll be done by. Ultimately I hope to have the judging finished by the 20th. We'll be finished by the end of the month at most however, here's hoping we can get the results early.