Welcome to Flashfic 150! No prizes, no pressure, just fun!

As its name suggests, this is a simple, fun contest for 150-word flashfics. The rules have been kept deliberately simple; here they are, with brief explanations where necessary. Please feel free to ask any questions you have about the rules, or to make comments and suggestions. I reserve the right to change any of these rules in the future if necessary, eg adding more judges in the unlikely event the contest becomes really big, but if that happens I'll try to give you plenty of warning.

Rules (applicable from 1 July 2023)

1. All usual Fimfiction rules apply: well, duh. For clarity: submissions have to comply with story rules, not blog ones. The only exception is the word count.
2. One entry per person. That's per person, not per account. Collabs are allowed, but the person whose account the story is submitted under will be considered the official entrant, and none of the collaborating authors may have a further competitive entry that month.
3. Entries should be submitted as replies to the first comment in the appropriate month's thread. This makes them easier for me to find.
4. Maximum 150 words. I'm using WordCounter.net's tallies. Titles are optional, and do not count towards the limit. You may not use images, special characters or other non-words to get around the 150-word limit.
5. Everyone/Teen-rated entries only: This one should be self-explanatory, given that this group is not marked NSFW.
6. All entries must be G4 or G5 MLP-related: No original fiction or stories based on other fandoms, please!
7. No Crossovers, since it's almost impossible to judge those. Equestria Girls content is permitted, as is content inspired by the 2017 movie or Rainbow Roadtrip. G4/G5 crossovers are allowed. Using stuff from the comics and chapter books is not banned but is discouraged unless the story makes sense to a reader without that knowledge. Pony Life crossovers are not allowed.
8. New stories only: You can't enter anything that has already been published, on Fimfiction or anywhere else.
9: No spoilers: stories may not refer to anything that has not yet been released officially in the US. Con-exclusive previews and the like do not count.

Feedback

1. Feedback is part of the deal. The former opt-in rule has been dropped in the light of there being no opt-outs in two successive months.
2. Descriptive comments only. When you leave feedback, please stick to text. That means no grades, percentages, marks out of ten, etc. This rule is intended to make comments feel a bit less like exam results!

Judging

1. I am the law...: I'll admit it, one reason I set this up was that I've always wanted to be a fic contest judge!
1a. ...but I still can't win: I may write for some of the prompts, but as the judge I am not allowed to win.
2. Winner selects the next month's prompt. This must conform to the other rules and not be the same as, or very close to, a prompt that has been used before. I have the right of veto, though I hope I won't need to use it.
3. New month, new prompt-setter. I want a wide range of people to have the chance to select prompts, so you can't win twice running. Yes, this is a little bit artificial, but for this particular contest I think it's justified. (This rule was suggested by Pascoite.)

Timescale

The calendar may change slightly on occasion, for example around holiday periods, but in general:

First day of month: Contest thread posted, submissions open
You may edit your submission at any time during this period.
21st of month, 11:59pm UTC: Submissions close, judging begins
From this point, anyone may request or offer feedback. See above for feedback rules.
28th of month, 11:59pm UTC: I will announce the winner by this point.
This may change in exceptional circumstances, but I'll try hard to let people know in advance if it does.
Last day of month: Deadline for winner to choose next prompt

Everyone is welcome!

You do not have to be a literary genius. Judging will place more emphasis on imagination and originality than on technical perfection. Sure, if your submission is completely illegible, you're not going to win. But an otherwise brilliant piece won't lose its chance just because of a typo or two.

5836168 I think I will give this a try. Might help me stretch my writing muscles!!

5863608 Welcome! I hope you have fun!

5863680 Thnx! I will!!

Wow. Wow. I was worried I'd miss the submission window b/c I expected it would be only open for a few hours.

Doesn't twenty-one days to write a single 150-word story seem a little... excessive?

But, okay!

5883075 The very relaxed schedule is deliberate. One of the things I'm hoping to do here is to attract people who aren't the sort of ponyfic obsessives you and I some people here are. Many of them only sign in from time to time, so might easily miss a contest with a short window. Also, short-window contests aren't equally accessible for people in all time zones -- there have been a number of US-based contests that this UK-based writer has had to pass on for just that reason!

Will it work? Who knows? The April contest thread is now open, so we'll soon see!

5836168 I'll sound extremely stupid asking this, but I'll ask anyways. Honestly, I haven't done anything based on a prompt. How do prompts work? I know what they mean, you base a story off of their meaning. But what is the meaning of the prompt? Is it what it literally means, a metaphor, or whatever you think it means? I just want to make sure I know what it is, before I actually do something with it and do it wrong.

5883667 Not a stupid question at all! You can interpret the prompt in whatever way you wish, within the rules of course. Literal or metaphorical approaches are both okay. As long as your fic is inspired by the specific prompt, it's a valid entry.

5883702 Alright, thanks!

5836168 So, when a contest starts, I just write the 150 words and place them in comments of the forum post or do I make it my own fanfic?

5885169 Post it in the comments -- here's the thread for the current contest.

5885258 Cool. Thanks for letting me know.

5885270 No worries. I just had a look, and you did it exactly right. Oh, and don't be surprised if nobody answers the question you asked at the end there! Feedback in contests like these usually waits until the contest has closed.

Can I comment others' entries?

5901982 I'd prefer feedback to be left until after the contest closes (21st April). It's not an absolute rule, given that this is a non-prize contest, but I want to avoid people having long in-thread discussions and making it harder to find the actual entries!

5836168

I know that the contest ends in about... Some amount of hours. But I have time. And a question. For the word count, do you use FiMFiction's word counter, which counts things like 'a', 'an' and all things similar? Or another word counter, which doesn't count all that stuff?

5915146 Every word counts, so yes that includes "a" and "I". However, words with apostrophes like "don't" are one word, not two as they are with Fimf's weird word counter. I'm not going to be ultra-strict about this, so if you accidentally end up with 151 words that won't disqualify you. Just try to stay inside 150.

5915191 Alrighty, thank youz. Off to write something short.

5836168
As this group is finding its groove, I suggest you take a look at Thirty Minute Ponies. While it is long since vacated like some Appalachian mining town, during its run it had a rather approachable format and little barrier to entry or generally get involved. Comparing and contrasting its modus operandi with what is being put in place here may be useful.

In short: regulars would post weekly prompts which were intended to have stories written (in thirty minutes or less, on the honour system) which could be submitted (usually as comments to the thread) during that week--this was rather flexible, though. It was standard but not required for the prompter to provide a 'flavor' story with the prompt, as well as respond directly to each story submitted--sometimes with critique, sometimes not. Submissions were usually made as a reply to the first post (prompt and flavor) of the thread, as this made tracking submissions as they came in easier, compared to general comments; replies to stories were similarly replies-to.

I miss these microfiction-style prompts, even if this is far more strict than what I've done before; 150 words is very limiting, which is interesting. Keeping submissions to one per user per prompt makes a great deal of sense, at least to start. I am rather happy to see something like this spring to life again.

5915950 Thanks! I am indeed familiar with TMP, though I don't think I ever got round to entering it while it was active, something I do rather regret. I have been known to use its prompts for inspiration, though!

I think one thing you mention that I'll certainly swipe for next month is asking that submissions are replies to the initial post. I don't intend to tighten up at all on the timescale, though -- the relaxed format was chosen because I hoped to attract people who don't spend every living breathing second much time on Fimfiction. Looking at the entries so far, it seems to have worked, so I'm content with it at this point. There won't be a time limit (even an honour-based one) for submission-writing, either, for much the same reason. Whether you want to take 15 minutes or three weeks crafting an entry, that's fine by me. Finally, the non-prize nature of the contest is also deliberate, since it means I can make small allowances if I feel the need without feeling bad about it. (See my previous reply about word count.)

The 150-word count has a (very mildly) interesting background. Flashfic contests I've entered in the past have generally had an even tighter 100-word limit. However, a poster on UK of Equestria ran a monthly contest for a while that used the 150-word limit, and I became quite the convert. It still meant you had to be pretty focused, but I felt it allowed a little more creativity. So I don't see any reason to change it for the moment. What I don't want to do is to have (say) a one-off 700-word contest and then discover that's morphed into the main event!

Finally, since you mention critique: I don't intend to review every piece entered, though I'll certainly mention why I chose the winner and maybe pick out one or two other entries that caught my eye. This is not the Writeoff, for any number of mostly very obvious reasons, and I certainly wouldn't want it to become so. (It will always stay pony, incidentally. None of your weird "original fiction" here! ) I'm glad people have complied with my preference for them to refrain from commenting in-thread before the closing date, but I honestly don't know how things will go from there on in. This is one aspect that may get tweaked in the months ahead.

And yeah, I'm happy that it seems to be working out reasonably well so far. It's the first writing contest I've ever organised, I think, certainly as far as ponyfic is concerned. I thought about doing so for a bit back in 2013, but I never got round to it for one reason and another. Maybe it'll wither and die, maybe it won't. It's one of those "I don't want to say I didn't at least give it a go" things.

Hmm. It's a good job I don't need to keep to 150 words here!

5836168
Since I've added the flashfics I've done so far to a collection, when I do new Flashfic entries, is there any official timeframe before I should post new ones in my collection? Should I wait until the results are announced, for example?

--Sweetie Belle

5964172
I don't see a problem with doing it whenever you want to, even as soon as you publish if you like. Since the judging here doesn't include any popular vote element, there's no risk that it might influence the result.

5836168
I just had an idea for a question pop up a little while ago:

Can the "prompt selector" add an optional bonus challenge on top of the prompt they choose? For an example, let's say the chosen prompt is "Bookworm" and the bonus challenge would be to avoid using Twilight Sparkle or Moondancer.

Would that be an idea worth considering for this group, or would it not really fit the purpose here?

6000870
I don't really see any reason not to allow that. I wouldn't want to take it into account when judging, but as a purely fun thing I'd have no objection. If any issues arise I might have to make a ruling, but for now I think that can be left up to the prompt selector.

6001092

I wouldn't want to take it into account when judging, but as a purely fun thing I'd have no objection.

That's precisely the intent I had in mind.

Minor rules update: I have changed Rule 7 ("No crossovers") to be clear that Rainbow Roadtrip-inspired content is permitted. Given I'd mentioned Equestria Girls and the 2017 movie, it seemed silly to have that one omission! ("Best Gift Ever" is officially considered an episode of the main FiM series, so is eligible automatically.)

5883075
I think the old joke is that editing the story down to 150 words can take a while.

7366166
I come back from the dead, the deaaaaaaaad!

Seriously, you're replying to 2017!TrickQuestion. That poor bitch has no idea what's in store here in 2020. You should probably just let her enjoy the next couple of years before we plunge into this nightmare world of disharmony and pain.

(I haven't participated in a long time because (and this is nopony's fault but my own) I never got any positive feedback, what little feedback I received wasn't actionable to improve my story, Logan never liked anything I wrote, and with my mood problems it was very discouraging. I still write 150-word flashfics on rare occasion, and I am very appreciative to Logan for providing this service which was great practice while I was able to do it.)

(I might come back someday, though. Just can't predict that now.)

7366286

Logan never liked anything I wrote

For what it's worth, that is not actually the case. I can't remember specifics now, but I certainly enjoyed plenty of what you wrote; I can remember that you had near misses on a couple of occasions. There is an element of sheer luck in terms of who wins, especially when I'm the judge! I hope you still enjoy your writing, and the door will always be open here if you do ever want to come back.

7382520
Thank you.

It isn't you, it's me. I'm a little mental and it often stops me from doing the sorts of things I want to. I'll be back someday. I always publish the stories I write in your contest over here, so I'm very grateful that your contest has inspired some work from me that I'm fond enough of to share with others.

7489621
You are actually breaking site rules if you try to put in gibberish for a second chapter to pad it out.

What most of us do is post our entry in the contest thread for that month, and then once we've written enough 150 word stories that they total up to more than a thousand words, we publish a story marked as an anthology, with each chapter being a separate flashfic, like this:

ESweetie Belle's Short Stories

• MLP: FiM
• Anthology

A small collection of drabbles, flash fics, and short stories.

• Celestia
• Other
• Main 6
• CMCs
• Flash Sentry

SweetAI Belle · 4.7k words  ·  33  3 · 765 views

--Sweetie Belle

When’s the next one?

Btw, Sasquatch is technically an animal.

7489902

Oh, whoops.. I didn’t actually do it though. I posted my flashfic somewhere else!

7503561
That works. Keep in mind anthologies, though, since if you keep participating, you'll have enough for one eventually. Or you could write a few more stories for it outside of the contest. Not everything in my anthology came from the Flashfic contest.

New contests are usually the first of every month. The theme is picked by the winner of the previous month, though, so if you watch the current months thread, you'll end up with an idea of what the theme is going to be ahead of time...

--Sweetie Belle

7503671

Thx for the tip SweetAI Belle!

150 as in 150k or as in 150 hundred?

7508999

Just 150 words :P

7508999
Merely one-hundred and fifty words, nowhere near any thousand at all. Here's a simple way to think of these Flashfics: They're "bite-size" little fics that you can read in a flash.

Upvote this comment if you want to see G5 flash fiction.

Downvote this comment if you want things to stay as they are (only G4 allowed).

7723083
I'm keeping an eye on this comment, and how the up/down scores go. I have not voted myself and will not do so. FWIW my current leaning is that G5 will be allowed in due course, perhaps from the start of 2023. However, I am open to suggestions in either direction.

It is less likely, though not absolutely impossible, that pre-G4 gens may be allowed too. Again, thoughts welcome on this.

I'm new to this group, but I'll voice my objection to allowing anything except G4. There are hundreds of members here, and fewer than ten votes on the issue. I have another good reason: The maximum word count naturally places a dependence on context for each story. Allowing more than G4 erodes that context.

I do have a suggestion of compromise, however: Have a separate monthly thread for every other generation, or separate monthly threads for every other generation.

How does this contest work regarding AUs? I can see "G4 only" and "No crossovers" but nothing explicitly for or against Alt Universes.

7772005
First up, thanks for your comment. Hopefully it's obvious, but I'll be clear that I was *not* the person who downvoted it. Anyway, it's a reasonable position. However, I'm not sure it's much more sustainable than saying in 2014 or so that EQG/Sunset Shimmer content should be prohibited for the same reason. If G5 had only just appeared I'd be more inclined to agree, but it's over a year now since the movie came out. That said, allowing G5 is an experiment. If it doesn't work then so be it and we'll return to G4 alone.

7773000
They're not banned, providing that readers don't need familiarity with anything beyond canon. I'd probably put AU in the same "permitted but discouraged" category as fics based on the comics. I'm not likely to pick as a winner a fic that doesn't give some context to why all the characters are squirrels or whatever. If you can do that and tell a story in 150 words, then that's impressive though!

7773012
Ta, I'd like to use these prompts to expand on my 'Twilight as a Diamond Dog' story and its surrounding universe so that's useful.

7773016
As long as there's no need for me to have read your story first, then yes that would be within the rules.

7773903
Highly unlikely , the closest you'll get is "Twilights a Diamond Dog, anatomy is different yo"

I have made the appropriate changes to the rules so that the January 2023 contest onwards will allow G4 and G5 content. If this proves to cause too many problems, we will return to G4-only. However, I hope it will work out all right.

5836168

One entry per person. That's per person, not per account.

Does this ban collabs?
(If, for example, I and another person co-wrote a single entry?)

Added: Or what if a writer shows an entry to another person and gets even relatively generic feedback on the story? Should the writer say they did that? Is it hard to say if even a little (or a lot?) feedback is too much?

7508999
Written in less than a month.