CONTEST: Depth in Innocence · 4:27am Feb 2nd, 2020
A trend on this site (and fiction in general) that I’ve noticed is that people tend to seek the more nitty-gritty, the darker, the more “mature” types of art and expression; quite antithetical to the show that brought us all together. I myself am quite guilty of this more often than not, and I think perhaps it’s time to encourage a change.
So here’s the challenge to all of you who want an interesting story: write an E-rated story. But I don’t want just any E-rated story—I want an E-rated story with immense emotional depth that can pack a punch. The challenge is, in a way, to prove that you don’t need gore, sex, excessive violence, crude humor, or anything of the sort to leave an impact on the reader. The show was able to leave an imprint on us, after all—perhaps it’s time we gave back a bit.
PRIZES:
FIRST PLACE: $50 USD.
SECOND PLACE: $30 USD.
THIRD PLACE: $20 USD.
Bonus Awards:
MOST INTERESTING WORLD: Feature in the League of Sweetie Belles
GREAT BUT NOT VERY DEEP: 1k words written by GM of anything non-M-rated.
RULES:
1) Must be E-rated. This is the entire point of the contest.
2) Stories must follow all site rules.
3) For those authors like me out there who like to write entire books in a week, you have an absolute limit of 100k words. I expect no one to hit this.
4) Story must be complete by the end of the contest. And no, “complete, but it has an unfinished sequel” doesn’t count. It must stand on its own.
5) You can publish your story (or even parts of it) whenever you want.
6) Anything that can fit in E-rating is allowed. Though, fair warning, I’m not likely to enjoy simple Romance.
7) Don’t be unpleasant. I reserve the right to disqualify anyone by this rule. (Though do be very unpleasant in your story, just because we’re E doesn’t mean we can’t torment our characters.)
TIMELINE:
Applications open the moment this post goes live! Sign up by commenting below, sending me a PM, or telling me directly via discord.
May 1 2020: Sign-ups close. I reserve the right to move this closer if I get a flood of applicants.
July 1 2020: Final deadline! All stories must be completed and submitted by this point!
Submit here: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/214801/depth-in-innocence-contest
Yes I’m giving everyone a long time so if people want to wait until summer vacation or something, they can.
JUDGING/AWARDING:
I (GM) plan to judge everything myself. But if I get a ton of entries I may ask for some help in the matter. Everything will be based on my personal opinion, but I’m not going to be looking for the story I enjoy the most. The story that wins will be the one that manages to convey the deepest message, something that would have seemed impossible to convey in an E-rated manner.
Hint: it probably won’t be romance.
Those stories that convey the deepest messages get the money-earning awards. The bonus awards are just for stories I find interesting or enjoy but may not quite hit the mark of what the prompt was looking for.
Stories can be short or long. I recommend somewhere in the middle so readers can get attached to characters and learn about them, but I’m open to entire novels being dumped on my doorstep (within reason) and 1k word snips.
Money awards will be sent through Paypal in USD. The League of Sweetie Belles award will likely just be a single chapter within the fic itself. I will contact whoever wins the 1k words from me directly when the time comes.
MISC QUESTIONS:
Does it have to be kid-focused?
Absolutely not! You just have to be E-rated; you can still tell a dark story, or a complex story no kid would ever understand. In a way, I am asking you all to tell an adult story without resorting to quick, easy, “adult” tropes.
Can I submit two stories?
No. I don’t want to be flooded.
Can my story be a sequel to another story?
Yes, though it should stand on its own. You can even write in one of my settings, since some of you are familiar with that, but the story must need no context to appreciate.
Can I rewrite a T or M fic?
Absolutely! In fact, I encourage it, it serves the point of this whole contest! Just be sure to send me the link to both so I can make sure the changes were substantial enough to warrant this. And that they were both your stories. No rewriting another author’s story into a lower rating unless you can show me you have explicit permission from them.
Why the really long deadlines?
I want to give people time to flesh out their stories if they’re longer, and to give people the option to wait for a summer vacation or something to open up should they want. Also summer will (hopefully) give me plenty of time to read them all.
Can I spread this contest around?
Yes, please do. Delicious publicity and more stories is better for everyone.
-GM, master of depth.
I'll enter! This is a formal sign up.
It may sound a bit silly, but you could give us an example of history rating E.
I’d like to sign up as well! I’m sure I can write something rated E, the challenge for me will be making it impactful. I’m curious to see if I can pull it off
5196195
What exactly do you mean? Do you mean retelling real-world history in a watered-down way?
-GM, master of ?
5196206
Sorry, I asked you if you could give me an example of a Classification E story. Therefore, an example of my example would be that you want a story like this: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/255147/of-teacups-saddles-and-horseshoes
5196211
An E-rated story is any story that merits the E fimfiction rating. Every story has a rating in fimfiction - E, T, or M. M and T are characterized by the "red" tags such as "sex" "gore" "profanity" etc. If your story has none of these red tags, it is probably an E-rated story.
See site rules for probably more in-depth and helpful information on this particular topic.
-GM, master of inklings.
5196215
Thanks!! 😁
Welp, I’ll tentatively sign up for this. Hopefully I won’t forget...
I’m in.
I'm in! I would. however, I'd like to also request a more specific description of what isn't allowed. Are we meant to hold to the standards the show did, where all violence has to be indirect or is it more like Power Rangers where as long as no one gets 'hurt' hurt we can do whatever we like?
i’ll not enter, i will however say my Birthday is the 26th of July, :D but ye, nice idea, :)
5196248
You can go a bit beyond the show, the E-rating is fimfictions E-rating. You can handle heavy topics and show a bit more than the show itself, but nothing that would require a T-rating be slapped on the story.
So yeah, power rangers is probably good. (and we've even had a few broken bones in MLP so it's actually fine to get injured, within reason of course.)
((also, the show, indirect? ...Having a hard time seeing that Tirek fight as 'indirect'.))
-GM, master of pain.
Intriguing. I'll have to see if I can think of anything. The generous deadline certainly gives me plenty of time.
Might as well throw my hat in. It may remain empty, but it will be there.
Last night I was thinking I wasn't going to enter, but now I suddenly have three or four ideas. I'll probably try to start writing all of them out and submit the one I find most interesting.
This is a formal sign up
Edit: I forgot to ask the first time but are we allowed to use established settings that multiple people write in? Examples would include the lunaverse and oversaturation
5196321
Yes, as long as the story itself can stand completely on its own.
-GM, master of settings.
I am so super into this. Sign me up!
Screw it, why not. Sign me up GM!
Hmm, I think the story I'm working on will end up being E-rated, and I certainly hope it'll have depth when it's done, so count me in.
en.meming.world/images/en/thumb/a/a1/You_Son_of_a_Bitch%2C_I%E2%80%99m_In_%28Morty%29.jpg/300px-You_Son_of_a_Bitch%2C_I%E2%80%99m_In_%28Morty%29.jpg
Count me in.
Hmmm, is ponies-on-Earth okay?
In other words: [human] tag?
5196350
Yes, it's fine!
-GM, master of fines.
I'm in! Put me in coach!
Even if I can’t produce a story for this, I m super excited to see where this goes
Thank you! I'm sick and tired of trying to find a good story that doesn't have clop
If I can come up with something, I'll let you know.
5196284
Would a rewrite of a story that's already on the site be acceptable? It'd be a sizable overhaul.
5196716
Yes! In fact, that's answered in the "Questions" tab above:
-GM, master of rings.
This is perfect! Will a Luna remorse story work?
5197518
Sure, so long as it stays E.
-GM, master of serioso.
5197519
Thank you. I actually said this was perfect, because yesterday I wrote at least 800 words to a story I had just thought of, that works for this contest!
You know, there is a think piece I was on the fence about writing, but I suppose with money and interest I might as well. Pencil me in, if you would.
This is dope. I dunno quite what I'll write yet, but there's a whole host of ideas sparking off now.
5196215
I tend to find clever ways to abuse the rating system here.
That said, if I join the contest I'll challenge myself to see just how clean I can make it.
Hmm... interesting.
So, odd question I know, but does it have to have been written specifically for this contest? Because I actually have a story I'm working on (in the editing phase of) that is... kind of in this ballpark. It's hardly an oceanic trench of themes, complexity and subtle meanings (hence, even if it were accepted, I would not for an attosecond expect it to win anything, it'd more be submitted for the heck of it than anything else), but it is meant to be a kind of deep exploration of a certain character (or, at least, one aspect of them), so it might qualify.
Honestly, I'm not sure I will even if it is allowed, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.
5197533
I'm allowing lots of other stories that have been STARTED before this contest, but nothing that's already finished. If you do most of the work after signing up, it's all good.
-GM, master of rice.
5197534
Entirely fair, appreciate you letting me know. Like I said, I figured I may as well ask.
If I think of a good idea in the (extensive) meantime, I'll post another comment. Otherwise, I'll just publish the story on its own and hope those who read it, such as they are, enjoy it and find it interesting.
While I'm not likely to enter, I do have an old line about how "mature content" rarely contains any maturity. This contest takes the opposite route to the same basic realization.
Please sign me up.
Are Equestria Girls stories allowed?
5198165
Sure!
-GM, master of !
Hmm, I am currently occupied for the foreseeable future, but if I manage to make time, I'll see about a short little something.
Hmm, maybe this will be my impetus to finally figure out that Nightmare Moon sidequel to Time. Just to be super clear, it's fine if it's a "sequel"/connected to another work as long as it can be read on its own with no background, right? And do we need to reserve slots via commenting here or is this just to get a general sense of how many people are entering?
5198261
Do reserve slots by commenting/messaging me. There is an initial deadline for sign-ups in the timeline for a reason.
And yes, a "sequel" can work so long as it's completely standalone and can be read without context. If a story SAYS it's a sequel to another, I'll be a harsher judge of it.
-GM, master of 1001001.
5198266
All right, consider my slot reserved, then. I'll probably link it as a sequel so FiMFic will direct people back and forth, but it's just for similar themes, no actual continuity. It's too bad FiMFic doesn't have AO3's functionality, but whatever, we work with what we've got.
Might it be possible to get a bit of elaboration on what you're meaning by "deep" in this context? That's one of those words that I'm never really confident I'm understanding correctly.
Still, sign me up either way, please. I don't know if I'll actually be able to write a deep story, but it would certainly behoove me to try.
5198320
the issue with asking for clarification is because I used the word "deep" BECAUSE it could mean a lot of things. This is an immensely wide prompt. The following things all qualify as deep, but by are no means an exhaustive list:
This sort of thing, but this is by no means an exhaustive list.
-GM, master of blinks.
5198332
Alright, gotcha and thanks. Even just knowing that it could mean a whole range of different things is still helpful, since at least that removes the worry that it does only mean one of those options and I'm writing the wrong one.
Sign me up!
I'd like to sign up, thank you!