"The New Blood" BWG contest.

Reproduced from forum post here.

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At Bean’s Writing Group, we have always done our best to help authors, be they seasoned or novice, struggling or not, take their writing to the next level. But now we want to put the spotlight on the smaller, more recent authors – those who had joined way after the end of G4, and who might find normal contests daunting because of the competition of established, more experienced authors.

This is a chance for you guys to shine and show what the new generation can bring to the table!

For this contest, entries won't be confined to a specific set of characters, a genre, or any other narrow set of requirements. Instead, we will employ the system BWG is most known for: prompts.

There will be a single topic all writers must employ in some way. Additionally, there will be four known bonuses (see next section), which the writers might attempt to fulfill. The best three stories will earn the three podium rewards. Furthermore, for each bonus, the best story (from those that did not place elsewhere) will earn a reward of its own.

And what is "the best story"? Simply the most original and engaging one. Your creativity of your take on the prompt will determine your success, combined with the quality of your technique and overall impact. 

As far as the bonus goes, you will be judged for the quality of integration – that is, whether it’s tacked on or not – and the impact of the bonus compared to its absence. General story quality (as described above) will also play a role in the judgment, albeit a reduced one.

In the end, your writing will speak for itself – your notoriety and clout are meaningless.

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Participation requirements

To preserve the spirit and aims of the contest, there are some entry rules that must be followed in order to qualify:

• All stories must state in their long description their involvement in this contest, with a link to the group.

• All Stories must be submitted to the group's contest folder. The ones from non-eligible participants must be added to an alternative folder created for them.

• No entries published before the official start of the contest (1st July 12:01 AM PDT) or after the cutoff (31st July 11:59 PM PDT). But you can start writing as soon as this announcement is posted.

• Participant accounts must not have been created before 2020, as this contest is for newer members of the community. Participant accounts must also not have been created after this announcement was posted. This is to prevent older authors joining under an alternate account.

• Participant accounts must not have ever reached 100 or more followers before the announcement of the contest. 

• No alts, of any kind, created at any point in time.

Past and current members of BWG discord server may submit entries, as can any other writers excluded by the clauses above, and they will count towards the total number of participants. These entries should be submitted in this folder. However, they will not be eligible for any prizes as stated above to avoid a potential conflict of interest.

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General rules

These are the general rules, which may experience changes and revisions during the course of the contest if the need arises (although we do not expect they will). The rules are as follows:

1. Only one entry per participant.

2. Only entries submitted during the contest period. 

   1. If your entry is awaiting approval on the queue, you may notify the contest hosts as well as provide a password for the story in case it won't make it in time.
3. Maximum length of the story is 4444 words. Anything longer will be considered invalid as a submission. Stories must be at least 1000 words as imposed by the site.
4. Editors and proofreaders are allowed, including existing members of BWG.
5. No usage of machine learning algorithms is allowed, for writing, editing, brainstorming, or anything else outside the scope of regular spellchecking tools.
6. Collaboration and co-authorship is not allowed.
7. Allowed settings are: G4, Equestria Girls, G5.
8. OCs and AUs are allowed.
9. Stories can have any rating.

10. The following is not allowed::

    1. anon stories or self-inserts
    2. porn or fetish stories
    3. (explicit or not) incest, foalcon, non-con
    4. anthro
    5. crossovers
11. Each story can only attempt to fulfill two bonuses. If your story is contesting for a bonus, you must mention which bonus it is in your story's long description. This does not include the secret bonus.
12. One story can only win a single prize (podium, bonus, or secret bonus). If a story is eligible for multiple prizes, it will win the highest prize.
13. Any prize may be exchanged for “special prize” (see below). If the author does so, the monetary value will be distributed equally among all other winners.
14. Absolutely no alts are allowed, as this is not in the spirit of the contest.

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Judges

For impartiality sake, the judge pool will remain secret until the contest results are out, so as to prevent participants from potentially playing the judges' tastes and biases. Rest assured there will be up to 8 secret judges involved in the judging process.

Note: A minimum of 4 judges is guaranteed, accounting for cancellations and dropouts.

-Thesmokinguy (yours truly)

-Secret judge #1

-Secret judge #2

-Secret judge #3

-Secret judge #4

-Secret judge #5

-Secret judge #6

-Secret judge #7

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Prompt, bonuses, and rewards

Contest topic is: “A Secret Life”

List of bonuses:

1 "From the beginning, you know the end.."

2 "Include a bug."

3 “An unusual matchup.”

4 "The main character’s name and identity is never mentioned."

5 Secret bonus related to the group’s history.

The rewards scale with the total number of participants. All dollar amounts are in USD. The standard payment method will be paypal, but other alternatives can be entertained if need be. I personally will be responsible for handing out the rewards in a private manner. The prize list is as follows:

Additionally, every podium finalist will be posted on the main page of the group, and any eligible contestant who did not receive a prize can claim a 100-word mini-review of their story if they wish.

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Special prizes

Any winner can exchange their prize for one of the special prizes (until capacity lasts). If a win is thus forfeit, the money will be distributed equally among all other winners. The list of special prizes is as follows:

1 - Youtube reading of the submitted story, courtesy of TheLegendaryBillCipher.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_iFUISpI08ALO1DiwFbWHw

2 - Art piece based on the submitted story, courtesy of Short-tale.

3 - Cover art for any story, courtesy of Starcoder.

4 - Reading of the submitted story done by Bean.

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To sum up:

Contest topic is: “A Secret Life”

Start and end: 1st July 12:01 AM PDT - 31st July 11:59 PM PDT

List of bonuses:

1 "From the beginning, you know the end.."

2 "Include a bug."

3 “An unusual matchup.”

4 "The main character’s name and identity is never mentioned."

5 Secret bonus related to the group’s history.

https://www.fimfiction.net/group/215333/folder/80379/the-new-blood-contest

And that's about it! Any questions please ask in the comments section below or alternatively send me a PM here or via discord, whatever floats your boat.

We are excited to see how this goes, good luck!