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Dalek Saxon
Group Admin

Contest 3: Change

You've all been excited for it, you've all been anticipating it, you've all been waiting for it... It's here. The official start of the 3rd Flutterdash Writing Contest begins right now. It's been a long time since the last contest and for that one we barely got two entries. So let's try and do better this time around! Let's do it!

The Prompt

The prompt for this contest, as suggested by Sage_Element, shall be "Change." What this means in relation to the story is up to you. Whether it being a physical change between them, a relationship change like if they break up, or an emotional change of some degree. It's all up to you, so get creative as possible.

The Rules

0) Submitted entries are to feature the Fluttershy x Rainbow Dash pairing in either a romantic or a platonic relationship. This can be in any form you wish so Anthro, Humanized, Equestria girls, Alternate Universe, etc. are all fine so long as it features the paring.
1) Submitted entries are to be greater than 1,750 words in length, but can be as long as you want.
2) Submitted entries are to have no greater than a T rating.
2a) That means no explicit descriptions of anything more “heated” than passionate kissing.
3) No content that would require the entry to be tagged “gore” will be permitted.
4) Multi-Chapter stories must be marked complete before the contest deadline.
5) Each contestant may only have one entry.
6) Entries must have been written for the contest, within the contest period. No stories made before September 9th can be added.
7) None of the contest judges may have been involved in the writing, editing or pre-reading of your entry. Asking for help from others though is encouraged.

Submitting

A subfolder for Contest 3 has been created within the main folder "Writing Contests" called "Writing Contest 3: Change" and has been made public for anyone to submit stories into. If you submit your entry anywhere else it will not be judged for the contest, so be sure to submit it to that folder. After the deadline though it shall be locked off and no other entries shall be accepted. The story shall then be reviewed and judged accordingly so long as it fits within the rules as stated above.

The Deadline

The final deadline to submit a story is Monday, October 3rd at 11:59 P.M. Central Time. As soon as it hits 12:00 A.M. Central Time and it is Tuesday, October 4th the contest folder will be locked off and you won't be able to submit your story. So be sure to submit your entry before then. An extension to the deadline can be made if the judges deem necessary and we shall notify you if it does happen and how long the extension will be.

Judging

The judging period will happen after the specified deadline and the winner shall be announced Monday, October 24th at an unspecified time.

The Judges selected as of now are as follows: Sage_Element, Titanium Dragon, and Dalek Saxon.

They will review the stories and be looking for overall plot quality, writing ability, prose, and handling of the characters, They will then give each story a rating based on a five point rating scale and whichever one has the highest overall rating based on an average from the three ratings will be the winner.

A public vote later may be held after the official judging is over and will be done by a straw poll. We'll go into this later after the contestl

Prizes

- $60 dollar reward from Sage_Element. (Need clarification from him if it's going to be through paypal, giftcard, or some other means.)

- Reviews posted on Titanium Dragon's blog if so desired.

- Front page posting as the contest winner for an unspecified amount of time.

Tips

General guidance or advice I'd like to give before you get started.

1) Don't procrastinate - I know that life can be a pain, either through work or school, but if you genuinely want to participate in the contest, don't push it off. The time window isn't that that big and before you know it you'll find yourself with only 2 days left and then lose all your will to enter or turn in something that could've been better had you put more time into it.

2) Check your work - Try to be as thorough as possible with your story to have as few grammar or spelling mistakes as possible. No one's perfect, but try really hard and even get outside assistance if necessary to make sure your story is as grammatically correct as possible.

3) Ask for Help - Even though the judges will be unable to help you write or even look over your story, that doesn't mean you're all alone. Ask for help from as many people as possible, there exists groups on this site that can help you for this kind of thing.

4) Be Creative - The prompt is vague and open which means you can approach it from any angle you wish. Try to think outside the box and create something truly creative that will hook people.

5) Have Fun - Don't feel like you have to do this or that you just want to do this for the prize. If you're writing for the contest and you're not enjoying yourself, then don't do it,. Have fun and try to enjoy writing something that other people will read and enjoy themselves.

Good Luck!

That's it, if you have any questions regarding the contest please feel free to ask them here in the thread or PM one of the judges. In any case the contest starts now and I eagerly await to see any and all entries submitted to the contest!

~ Dalek Saxon

Ooh, I think I have just the story idea for that. I'll need time to bang it out though.

Doubt #3 · Sep 10th, 2016 · · 1 ·

Change

I can't think of a more catch-all prompt. I mean, isn't change essentially the cornerstone of any work of fiction?

Titanium Dragon
Group Admin

5479192
The first FlutterDash contest's prompt was Conflict. We got a bunch of entries there.

The second one was far too specific, and we only got two entries - one of which came in after the contest deadline.

So we decided to go with an open-ended prompt again this time which can be interpreted in a wide variety of ways.

Sage of the Leaf
Group Admin

I am excited by the potential

5478920

Okay, I'm stoked about this. I doubt I'll be able to do it in less then 10K words, though. Sorry judges! :fluttershyouch:

Getting out all those words by October shouldn't be a problem though. I was in a rut with my other projects anyway.

5478920 So, I have a question. I think I know what I'm gonna do for the contest, but I anticipate one of my chapters to be rather bloody. My question is, can I add it after the contest is over, or should I dedicate another fic to it, or should I leave it out entirely to abide by the rules?

Titanium Dragon
Group Admin

5482087
If a scene is integral to a story, you can't exactly leave it out and expect your story to work.

If it isn't integral to a story, why does it exist in the first place?

Also, what do you mean by "rather bloody"? What are we talking about here?

Feel free to PM me the answers if you don't want to answer publicly, I'll share them with the other folks running the contest.

5482545 Strictly speaking, the scene isn't integral to the story, and by this I mean that I could leave it out and you'd still understand the story as a whole just fine. However, the purpose of the scene is to flesh out the characters and add depth to the story. It's sort of like around-the-campfire dinner scenes in fantasy novels; they could be removed without affecting the plot, but the stories would be lesser without them because the characters' interactions cause the reader to grow more invested in them.

So what I'm saying is, I believe my story will be less powerful without this chapter, but it can still work without it. But I know that I'll have to leave it out for the purposes of the contest (and hope that it's still strong enough to have a chance without it), but I still want to maintain my integrity as an artist, hence my question.

Titanium Dragon
Group Admin

5482583
It is up to you how you want to handle it, but we'll be judging the entries based on what is in them when we read them during the judging period. If you want to modify the story after the judging period is over, or put up the scene as a separate story or whatever, that's up to you.

If you feel that the story will be severely harmed by the lack of that scene, you might want to consider writing a different story for the contest. But ultimately, it is up to you what you want to do, and how important you feel it is to the story as a whole.

Titanium Dragon
Group Admin

Well, we already have one person who has posted the first chapter of their story in the contest folder. Hopefully we'll see many more! :yay:

Sage of the Leaf
Group Admin

Well I've decided I'll partake in this nifty little contest we've got going on here, or attempt to at least. Every one-shot I've written thus far has been abandoned, but I feel like I actually have direction with this one so maybe it'll actually see the light of day. Though whether or not that'll happen before the deadline is yet to be seen.

Titanium Dragon
Group Admin

5487465
I hope it does!

I made an account just to participate in the contest. I've already started writing my idea, and it's been a fun experience so far. I hope I can have it done before the deadline.

Titanium Dragon
Group Admin

5507432
I hope so too!

Sage of the Leaf
Group Admin

5507432
Do nothing but write. Who needs a life.

Titanium Dragon
Group Admin

Yay! Saw another entry today!

Keep 'em coming, folks.

I wrote my entry a few days ago. Hope the judge's will find it a good one.

Oh neat. A contest. I like these.

Right, mine is in. It's not the greatest thing ever written - it's not even the greatest thing I've ever written - but it was done in time for the deadline. I can now stop worrying about that, and resume worrying about everything else in my life. :pinkiecrazy:

Dalek Saxon
Group Admin

5523305

but it was done in time for the deadline.

Is it done? Because when I briefly glanced over it (I didn't read it yet as I'm holding off until the deadline to fully read all the entries for the judging process) it said it was 'Incomplete.' If it's a oneshot please mark it as 'complete' because if you don't we're going to assume it's a multi-chapter story that's incomplete and in accordance with rule 4, it won't be judged. If it's really not done yet and you are going to post more please remember that it must be marked 'complete' by the deadline.

Thank you~

D'oh! Thanks for pointing that out. It's marked complete now.

I am going to finish this damned story. Only 4000 or so words to go.

Ok, ok, seems like an interesting competition. Boy, I'm gonna have to get cracking on it though, don't wanna miss out on a contest like this. Especially seeing as it'll be the first one I do. Or, at least, my first 'Group' contest.

I'll have it completed and posted ASAP today.

Also, how do I post it to the contest folder (once it is completed and published)?

5530175 Go to https://www.fimfiction.net/group/393/folder/54245/1/writing-contest-3-change
There should be a button labeled "Add Story." Click that, and then select the story

A subfolder for Contest 3 has been created within the main folder "Writing Contests" called "Writing Contest 3: Change" and has been made public for anyone to submit stories into. If you submit your entry anywhere else it will not be judged for the contest, so be sure to submit it to that folder. After the deadline though it shall be locked off and no other entries shall be accepted. The story shall then be reviewed and judged accordingly so long as it fits within the rules as stated above.

5530483 Ok, thanks for telling me.

Sage of the Leaf
Group Admin

It's almost over:raritydespair:

There look to be a good number of entries this time. Enough to make the group mods happy and the judges busy.

Sage of the Leaf
Group Admin

5533178
I'm nervous-cited :pinkiecrazy:

I've completed my first chapter. Just got to finish my second chapter, then I can submit my story. I'm really nervous here... :unsuresweetie:

I thought up this story 12 hours ago, and I'm trying to submit it, but it still needs to be approved. O.O

Dalek Saxon
Group Admin

5533934
5534109

If your stories are done and are in the approval process before the deadline tonight we'll accept them if they don't go up before the deadline hits. You just need to link us with the stories here in this thread, in the soon-to-be "Contest Now Closed" Thread, or in a PM to one of the judges.

Thank you and good luck!

5534230 I'm not sure if it'll work this way, but I've copied the link to the story and I'll paste it here. If it gets approved, the link should work, right? And if it doesn't get approved in time, it'll just remain as a broken link. Am I correct about this? Story below.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/348715/she-changed-my-world

Dalek Saxon
Group Admin

5534246

It works, and now that I've seen it and confirmed everything it's been accepted into the contest, so you don't have to worry about if it gets approved in time or not.

Thank you for your submission to the contest.

5534251 Awesome, thanks. :D I didn't think I'd be doing this at first, and didn't intentionally think of a story. But last night when I got the 24 hour notice, it just popped in there! ^_^ I was like, "Dude, I love this story idea" and had to write it. Took about 4 hours. Didn't have time for an editor and I couldn't find a picture that works, but the story's the important part anyway, right? xDDD Also, can other people read stories that haven't been approved yet? Is that a thing that happens?

Dalek Saxon
Group Admin

5534253

Yes, if people click on that link they can read the story, but I wouldn't worry about it since it will get approved eventually and then people can see it on the site and read it for themselves. What matters is that I, or one of the other judges, see it now so we could add it to the contest before the deadline. Also, since if you have free time and since the deadline isn't here yet, I recommend editing your story as much as possible to make it as nice as possible before us judges come in and take a look at it.

Thank you and I look forward to reading it for the contest.

5534230 Ok, fair enough. I've got my story waiting approval now.

But, what if I'm not at my computer when the story is approved? What do I do then? The story is called "Embarrassing Things Happen Sometimes...", so yeah. Just in case I'm not around. Heh heh. :twilightsheepish:

Dalek Saxon
Group Admin

5534262

Copy the link to your story and post it here, in the upcoming "Contest Now Closed" thread, or in a PM to one of the judges so we can look at it, confirm it, and officially add it to the contest despite it not being approved yet.

Thank you.

5534262 Copy the link from your story page and post it in a comment here like I did. They can still read it if it's not approved yet, and they can add it to the contest without it being in the folder.

5534270 Embarrassing Things Happen Sometimes... - Here we go, here's my story. Sorry if it isn't that good, I did try my best.

5534291 You've got a password on it which makes it inaccessible. You'll have to take the password off so they can check out your story. Also, you should link Dalek Saxon in your comment instead of me. He's the judge, I'm just here for the contest.

5534304 Ok. Right, I've removed the password. Does it work now?

Dalek Saxon
Group Admin

5534291

Alright, I've seen it and confirmed everything so it's now officially apart of the contest even if it doesn't get approved in time.

Thank you for your submission to the contest.

5534321 Ok, you're welcome.

I'm really excited about this contest: I can't wait to see which of these amazing stories gets awarded 1st place!

EDIT: Woah woah woah, Fluttershy's Secret!? That's my unfinished story which I'm currently working on now! Why on earth did that get added in!? Must of done it by accident.....

EDIT 2: I've now removed Fluttershy's Secret from the folder. How the hay did I manage to do that? So yeah, it's "Embarrassing Things Happen Sometimes...", not "Fluttershy's Secret".

Titanium Dragon
Group Admin

5534109
PM me a link to the story and you'll be fine.

Dalek Saxon
Group Admin

5534414

He already linked his story in the thread on the first page and I've already confirmed and accepted it.

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