New Year's 2k18 Competition: A Two-Faced Charade · 11:41pm Jan 1st, 2018
Hello one and all!
If you're reading this, it's because you either follow me or one of your friends told you about this competition...You made a poor life decision either way.
Anyhow, let's get down to business!
For the longest time, like two years at least, I've been wanting to host a contest. I wanted to be able to breath life into a subject of writing I enjoyed and see what all you talented people could bring to the table. But the question was always this: What kind of competition should it be?
There are a lot of different contests that float around this site: shipping, world-building, comedy, sad, cuddling... the whole shebang. What could I do to bring something new to the table? What's something that I like that I'd enjoy seeing other people write about?
Well, after a couple years and a bunch of thought, I do believe I've figured it out.
A TWO-FACED CHARADE
Cheating.
It sucks, let's be honest. It tears apart relationships, creates deep-rooted feelings of distrust and can destroy someone's self-esteem for a very long time. Questions arise: Why wasn't I good enough? What did I do wrong?...
Why would they do that to me?
And that, my friends, is the question I want you to answer for. Yes, this is a competition about cheating. But not just cheating, sympathetic cheating. i want to read stories that explore infidelity through the eyes of the cheater. Stories that don't just tell me how terrible it is, but help me see why a character would ever cheat in the first place. Excitement? Depression? Lust? A longing for something more? It's your decision, and I wanna read about it. Does that make sense?
Anyhow, to put in easy to read terms, here are the exact contest rules and guidelines:
A Two-Faced Charade Rules and Guidelines
1. The story must tackle the subject of cheating from a sympathetic point of view. Just telling us that it's a bad thing won't work. I wanna see why it's happening, and I wanna be able to feel for the character committing the act.
2. All entries must be a minimum of 2k words, and a maximum of 15k words. No more, no less.
3. M-Rated stories will be allowed, but the "porn" tag will not be permitted. If it's an engaging story that has a sex scene or two in it, go for it. If it's 3k words of Big Mac sucking off Shining Armour, you need not apply.
4. All entries must be new. Any story originally published before January 1st, 2018 will be deleted.
The contest will start today and run until the dawn of midnight on February 28th. That's two full months to make this work if you're entering.
So, pretty simple right?
Anyhow, as far as judging goes, there are three judges at the moment confirmed, and more may be added should the need arise. If I need a new one, I'll go find one. It's important to me that the contest judging not take more than a week after it ends, so that's what I'm going to try and make happen.
Who are these judges you might ask? For now, they include me, my good friend Tidal and my other good friend ChappedPenguinLips. We all bring some diverse tastes and experience to the table, so there will be a variety of viewpoints going around when judging the entries.
But, of course, the moment we've all been waiting for... PRIZES!
For all the preaching I've been doing so far, I'm going to assume you all are expecting a pretty good prize pool. And guess what, you won't be dissapointed:
1st Place
$200 (via Paypal)
2nd Place
$50 (via Paypal)
3rd Place
A basic background two character art commission courtesy of KairiPancakes and a $10 dollar Amazon Credit.
Pretty great, right?
When you're ready to submit, there is a group for it right here: CONTEST GROUP.
Anywho, there's not much else to say now except GET WRITING! I can't wait to see what you all bring to the table. Oh, and tell your friends!
Also, if you have any questions, drop a comment below or send me a PM and I'll answer it.
Peace out,
-Famous
Oh yeah. If any of you have any trouble coming up with ideas, just listen to this (or any other 2000's emo/punk artist):
Sounds cool. Good luck with the contest!!
I love your stories!!
Interesting. I already have an idea, but I'm not the best at writing drama. For $200 though I'll probably try.
4764969
We wanna read all kinds of ideas and submissions. Go for it!
for $200?
Hell, I can give it a try.
Just gotta write the deadline down in a place I can see it so I'm reminded 'hey you need to do this'.
4764976
You see, thinking outside the box is always a good thing.
4764982
*checks rules*
I don't see anything specifically against breaking the 4th wall.
4764945
With the other end of the scale being
4764982
Hopefully I actually follow though: I already have a sort of idea!
Cant wait to read some of these
How is it that every time I want to write something for you, it has to be about depressing relationships?
Also, does it have to be about Cadence and Shining Armor?
4765016
Any couple will do.
4765018
Awesome. This should be fun.
While I cannot possibly enter (Married for twelve years, that prompt is just impossible for me), I'd like to make one tiny suggestion.
Make the due date Valentine's Day.
4765036
So, I thought about that very hard, actually. But it just seemed better to run it through the end of the month. Thanks for the input, though.
4765038
No worries. It was more for entertainment value than actual advice.
This might be my first ever contest that involves a prize. I'll see what I can do.
Bless your heart, Famous.
4765070
Do it! I'd love to see your brand of story in here.
4765070
Yay SpitFlame! Cant wait to see what you do!
Discord cheats on Celestia with George Clooney’s Bat Nipples because they have a point.
*drops mic*
Man I have a fic that fits this prompt so well... lmao I wish I didn’t write it till now. Ah well back to bat nipples.
4765077
What? No Tidal harassment? I'm shocked and dismayed.
Ooh. Sadly, I probably will not be participating, because my writing sucks. But I will be following it pretty closely. And who knows, maybe I'll write something because of it.
4765081
Who knows, man? You might end up writing something that just blows us away. It's always worth a shot.
4765081
Yeah I entered Everfree northwest and wrote a story I thought was pretty average. It ended up getting 3rd place. Always worth a shot
4765077
My favorite story already
Count me in. Only bad thing is that I will not use spike for this one (I'm sorry my Lord, for I have committed sin)
I hope to see a lot of interesting things from this contest.
I'm not sure if you noticed, but there's an extra bracket, [ , going with the second place prize.
I might throw something into the ring.
I can't promise that I'll enter, considering how little time I have for writing and how slowly I actually do it, but I think I'll throw my hat in the ring for this one. Heck, if I manage it, that'll make the first time I've ever successfully entered a contest.
I'm down. I'm assuming AU is within limits? Just to cover my bases.
If it was cheating at a game, I'd rev up the creative engines right away. But, dang, if this were Inkmaster you're asking for a finale full-body piece right here. I mean...
If you want to do it right, you first have to portray the regular relationship. That takes some time and effort. Then you need to introduce the third party, then the cheating happens, then we're getting into conflict and resolution.
What if it's little kid crushes? Would something along the lines of "Tender Taps starts dancing with Scootaloo instead of Apple Bloom" be eligible, too? Purely out of curiosity
I don't know if I should be excited or upset that i
I came up.with my idea so easily.
4765311
Absolutely! The reason it's so difficult is because I wanted to see what creative things people came up with.
4765305
Yes sir, AU is fine.
4765399
But it absolutely, positively has to involve romantic relationships, right? We can't cheese our way into it by having someone switch bakers or tailors or teachers after being so loyal for so long? It can't be a fan's betrayal or customer loyalty?
Just trying to cover my donkey here in case an idea does pop up.
It totally did already, shamefully so.
4765420
Yeah, romantic feelings are required. But feel free to run with that.
JEsus christ
why? why so many contests.
I'll try my hand at this one... but MAN. this one will be tough
4765433
Well, you're great at writing deeper, darker stuff, so I know you'll do great!
I dunno. Maybe I'll enter, but I still have to decide. I also have school soon...
Hmm... I might join in if I have the time. Hopefully soon enough, but we'll see ^^
Question. Are entrants allowed to one story only? Because I have several ideas I might want to explore...
4767655
One story only at this time, yeah.
Just curious, how do you feel about crossovers?
4769585
They can be interesting!
Let's see if I can at least get an honorable mention.
What about 10k words of story that builds up to 3k words of Big Mac sucking off Shining Armor?
4777098
That'll work.
As with all the contests on this site, I'll promote yours on my profile in an attempt to get you more contenders. Good luck!
4778282
Thanks bro! The more, the merrier!