Writing Contest! - The Discovery, or, The Young Six Take FiMFiction · 12:03pm Nov 29th, 2019
YOU GUYS YOU GUYS YOU GUYS
I have the most exciting news. Are you ready for this?
Oh, come on. I haven’t even told you what it is yet. You’ll like it! I promise.
It’s about you six.
But First, Check Out This Sweet Poster
That’s more like it.
That’s right, me and a few friends are hosting a young six writing contest, because the young six are great, and those who write about them are frankly not getting paid enough.
Speaking of which:
Prizes
FIRST PLACE – $165 USD
SECOND PLACE – $105 USD
THIRD PLACE – $55 USD
If you are interested in donating some money to the pot, please feel free to get in touch!
Alright, enough about money. Let’s talk business:
The Rules
1. Your story must feature at least one of the young six in a prominent role. See the FAQ for expansion on this.
2. The writing prompt for this contest is The Discovery. Interpret this however you wish. Genre, characters, etc., are all up to you.
3. 2,000 - 12,000 words.
4. The deadline for submissions is Sunday February 9th @ 11:59 PM EST.
5. Entries must be posted to FiMFiction before the deadline passes. If your story is stuck in the queue when the deadline passes, PM a judge and they will sort it out.
6. Once your story is live, please add it to the folder in this group.
The Judges
Miller Minus is a handsome, smart, cartoonishly self-destructive young man and occasional writer of young six stories. You may remember him as the guy who is talking to you right now.
Semillon is one of FiMFiction’s most prolific young six authors, and was recently voted planet earth’s cutest face (have you seen it). It is said he could charm the pants off a nudist.
Bachiavellian is a passionate MLP and original fiction writer, and local won’t-stop-being-such-an-amazing-writer extraordinaire. When he’s not writing or reviewing fiction, you can usually find him having existential crises.
Aragon is an author who needs no introduction but will definitely be scanning this blog post to see what I say about him. Imagine the look on his face when I don’t say anything.
ALL SUBMITTED STORIES are entitled to a minimum of ONE in-depth review from one of the judges.
Review requests must be sent via PM to one of the judges, and reviews will be sent out once the winners have been announced.
Fully Anticipated Questions (FAQs)
What do you mean by “At least one of the young six must feature in a prominent role”?
I’m not going to be able to nail this down 100%. Most stories will be easily sorted into “does feature a young six character in a prominent role” and “does not”, but I don’t want to restrict the more creative interpretations of this rule.
Does the young six character have to be the perspective character? No. Do they have to be the most important character? Not at all. But they should be important.
Here’s two examples to help define the rule:
Story 1: Applejack starts a non-profit organization in Griffonstone to build better houses for less-fortunate griffons (working title: Aviaries for Assholes). But she doesn’t know where Griffonstone is, so she asks Gallus for directions, and then never talks to him again. This story does not feature Gallus in a prominent role.
Story 2: Twilight Sparkle has developed a crush on Ocellus so debilitatingly strong that she begins to stalk the poor changeling in secret for weeks on end. This story does feature Ocellus in a prominent role, even if she never finds out that the Ruler of Equestria has the hots for her.
If you’re still unsure about your idea, then you can send me a PM with your idea and I’ll let you know.
What is the content rating?
Teen rating maximum. Bachiavellian is far too young for extreme gore and violence, while graphic sexual content will excite Aragon too much and then we’ll never get him to concentrate.
Can I ask others for help prereading, proofreading, or editing my story?
Of course! Just not any of the judges.
How many entries can I submit?
As many as you like, but keep in mind that only one cash prize is allowed per author.
How will I collect my cash money prize?
Prizes will be sent via PayPal. That is, unless the winner has a better idea. I dunno. I’m not married to it.
I am not caught up on the show and don’t know anything about the young six, but I still want to participate. What can I do?
Here is your homework:
Season 8
Important Episodes: 01, 02, 14, 15, 22, 25, 26.
Less Important Episodes: 09.
Smolder Only Episodes: 11, 24.
Season 9
Important Episodes: 03, 07, 15.
Less Important Episodes: 11, 20, 24, 25, 26.
Smolder Only Episodes: 09.
Godspeed.
That was literally all possible questions. You actually managed to guess them all. Holy shit.
Alright, so that probably wasn’t all your questions. But if you have any more, feel free to leave them down below, or in a PM to me on FiMFiction or Discord (Miller Minus#6572).
That’s all!
Good luck, have fun, and happy storytelling!
M-
I’d like to thank the artists who made this blog post possible despite having no knowledge that they did so.
They are, in order:
-Whoever animates the show,
-Whoever draws the comics,
-Winterwithers, and
-feekteev.
You piece of shit. I feel so called out.
I'm guessing you are the creator of this website. Also, I'm almost certain that poster is the cover to one of the IDW comics featuring the Young Six. Unfortunately, I do not have PayPal, so I cannot participate.
This made the blog worth reading. :D
Well, THIS is exciting!
5161921
Don't worry about not having PayPal. If you win one of the prizes, I'm sure we can work something out.
I'm not the creator of the Writeoff, just someone who really likes the system.
And you're correct about the poster! It is from the comic.
5161932
Really?
From the way you were talking, it certainly seemed that way.
I thought I'd seen it from somewhere before.
i.imgflip.com/2i8vxe.jpg
To be clear: does it have to be a story written from scratch explicitly for the contest, or can it still be a story you already happened to be working at the time but hadn't yet posted, so long as it meets the other requirements?
I ask, because sometimes contests are particular about this, and I have a fic or two that might fit the other requirements (gotta double check on that).
Objection. I am a nudist, so I can verify that nudists don't wear anything that could be charmed off (unless I can't resist wearing one of my pony shirts, but no one can charm that off me). Not very charming, needs more training.
I don't think I will have time to participate in this with my other projects, but I keep an eye on it just in case.
5161949
Yes, the story needs to be from scratch. But that's only the words; the idea can be from any time.
Hell, I once had the first ~500 words of a story written before an event started, but I threw it away and started it from scratch once the writing period began. You have options!
I am so excited!
Man, and after I wrote a story in October that would have fit the prompt well.
Well, time to do it again!
Oh, you poor unfortunate souls.
Your saving grace from keeping me from writing too many entries is the 2,000 word minimum. Not going to stop me from trying though.
5161984
Please don't make me have to add a super trampoline-shaped asterisk next to one of the rules... I will do it if it means protecting the judges from too much reviewing
HELL YEAH MILLER
5161992
HELL YEAH PEAR
5161991
Minimum word counts are my kryptonite, so I think you’ll be safe.
So... Odd question... Can I enter a story I'm working on from another project? One that has other writers giving a large amount of input?
Hell yeah boi
5162031
Like I said to Scyphi up there, the story should be started from scratch, even if the idea or some old drafts existed beforehand.
By "other writers giving a large amount of input", do you mean they're providing more than just prereading, proofing or editing? Like a collaborative entry? Then I would say no, it should be your own story. Not sure if that's what you mean though.
5162035
Nevermind: I didn't realize Semillon was a judge. He's on the writing staff for The Magic Continues, so...
5 weeks? I'm not sure if that's enough time to procrastinate. Give me a day.
I like money AND the Student Six.
Hopefully my entry for this ends up existing more than my Imposing Sovereigns II entry did.
I wanna write for this but I fucking suck at writing
5163552
A wise man once told me that "The best words you will ever write are hiding behind crappy words that you haven't written yet. You just gotta get those out of the way." Which is really just another way of saying practice, practice, practice.
It would be cool to see you submit to the contest, and if you do, you're guaranteed some feedback from one of the judges. But if you don't, no sweat. Just keep practicing and you'll get better.
Thanks for your comment and good luck with your whole thang.
5162357
If it's any consolation, I can't guarantee that my entry for this contest will exist. We'll see if inspiration strikes and time permits, especially with Jinglemas competing for the timeslot.
That said, I'm certainly excited to see what comes of this.
How much flexibility would we have in writing stuff that doesn't align with canon?
I mean, the example of Twilight crushing on Ocellus does give a pretty good measure of how far we can take things, but what about stuff that directly contradicts the show? Like, if future Gallus becomes an accountant instead of a Royal Guard? Or if Sandbar gets shipped with someone other than Yona?
Asking because I want to be sure if I need to watch the episodes again to refresh my memory of ancillary details.
5162357
Actually this to a stunning degree.
I did write something for Imposing Sovereigns but then realized it was complete junk and deleted it.
Another contest, another chance.
5164676
Oh, yeah, I still need to finish my entry to your contest.
5164760
I think the examples you've given are just fine. People switch jobs and significant others all the time.
Also, to build on this question, alternate universe/timeline stories are also allowed. But anyone who wants to go this route should keep in mind that their entry won't have a description or any cover art while in the writeoff, so it's a good idea to make it clear what's been tinkered with early on in the story!
Oh, I'd love to participate in this, but between editing stories and working on my own thing I just don't have the time. But I can do my part to promote this as best as possible through my group.
Any thoughts on how I could do that?
I think this is a great contest idea. Thanks for putting it together, and best of luck to the entrants.
5170921
Thanks, TQ! Good to see you around
If I submit a story on writeoff, is it permanent? Or can I submit again over it if I want to make changes?
5172685
You can make any edits you like up to the deadline. Then it gets locked in.
And once the contest is over you can take it down.
Okay, so I'm looking at the Writeoff submission page, and since I've never used it before, I've got a few questions.
The title. It is not mandatory to use 'The Discovery' as the title, right? We can use whatever story title we want, presumably so long as it doesn't reveal who the author is?
The Author field has 'Anonymous' in the dropdown menu. I'm guessing this is mandatory to avoid disqualification.
After hitting 'Submit', is the story immediately visible to other users/judges, or does Writeoff have a separate publish function like Fimfic? Also, will published stories be kept hidden until the submission deadline is over?
5178368
Yes and yes.
Nope. The "Anonymous" option is for if you never want anyone to know you wrote your story. If you put "Anonymous" then your authorship will never be revealed. It'll be attributed to the Anonymous account when the contest is over. If you put your name, then the system will reveal that you wrote your story when the contest is over. This is the option most people will pick.
It's up to you which you'd like to go with, but if you put "Anonymous" then unfortunately you won't be eligible for the cash prize (since there will be no way to prove what you wrote!)
Submitted stories will all become available in the gallery when the submission deadline passes. Until then, only I can see them.
Any other questions, please let me know. Ciao!
5178444
Ooh, okay. Close one. Glad I asked about it, then.
Are crossover stories allowed too? (Example: MLP/Disney) Or is must it only involve the MLP Universe?
5181904
Crossovers are allowed, but keep in mind that they're a dangerous game. If you pick something that the judges don't have familiarity with then you might not do so hot in the judging.
Thanks for your comment!
5181907
Okay, good to know.
Much obliged
Got a story in the works that can probably be cut down to a T rating. Should be fun getting into the more drama side of things. Any chance of another contest, this time with the Student Six Clop as an option?
5182024
Great to hear!
Not from me
5161926
I second this comment
Question: on the new rule about having to PM a judge to get a review, does that mean whichever judge you happen to PM that request to will be the one who writes the review?
I ask simply because I'm not particular about who does it at all, and don't want to just pick one at random and effectively have that one judge do it when any of the three would've been just as fine for me. Don't want to feel like I'm signalling out any particular judge to do it, y'know?
I haven't actually PMed anyone about it yet, FYI, as I'm still debating whether or not I'm that interested in the review to ask for one. I mean, it'd be nice, but it's not totally mandatory for me too, so...
5185789
It will be random, but you can send any of us a PM to sign up for a review.
So I'm guessing stories involving fetishes are out?
5194566
You could technically get away with it if it's rated teen, but based on the fact that mature stories aren't allowed, and that the judges are offering story feedback... this probably isn't the most appropriate place for it, don't you think?
It's been a while since I had to do this, can someone please remind me how one submits a story to a particular group? Is it some part of the submission process?
5194669
First, submit the story for posting on fimfiction. Then, once it's live, join the group by clicking the join button, then click stories, pick the contest group folder, and then add a story.