Competition » Cozy Glow Short Story Contest · 1:15am Aug 3rd, 2020
The time has come to celebrate our favorite filly! The Cozy Glow group is delighted to host its first short story contest. Cash prizes in the form of amazon gift codes will be awarded to the top finishers. In addition, the first place entry will receive a work of visual art depicting a (SFW) scene of the author’s choice. Why not enter and express your devotion to the true Empress of Friendship?
Guidelines
All stories must:
-Adhere to the site rules
-Be between 5k and 10k words in length
-Contain Cozy Glow as a central character
-Not endorse or feature any specific sexual theme beyond the existing categories and tags on Fimfiction
-Be written in English
-Be written between 8/2/2020 12:00 AM and 9/2/2020 12:00 AM EDT. Post up to three entries in this folder. Stories may be sequels, but must be able to be read without knowledge of prior works.
Otherwise, there are no restrictions on content or maturity level. Stories will be assigned points based on the following:
-Narrative flow and cohesiveness – does it all work together as an organic whole?
-Quality of spelling and grammar – typos and copy/paste errors can ruin the most carefully engineered mood.
-Emotional impact – make the reader feel it.
-Relevance to the MLP universe – is there a connection to the characters, lore, and storyline portrayed in the show?
-Originality – take an old premise and add a new spin, or venture into the unknown.
-Style – speak to the reader in your own unique voice.
-X-factor – how sharp are the teeth?
Prizes
Monetary prize amounts will vary depending on the number of entries. Winners are guaranteed the following:
1st place: An amazon gift code worth at least $25, an artist’s rendering of a SFW scene from the story (author’s choice), posting with link to story on the Cozy Glow group front page, and brief review.
2nd place: an amazon gift code worth at least $15, posting with link to story on the Cozy Glow group front page, and brief review.
3rd place: an amazon gift code worth at least $10, posting with link to story on the Cozy Glow group front page, and brief review.
Runner-up: posting with link to story on the Cozy Glow group front page and brief review.
Tips
-“Quality of spelling and grammar” does not necessarily mean perfect alignment with accepted standards. Being incorrect can be effective when it’s intentional.
-An engaging opening paragraph is crucial to a story’s success.
-It’s A-OK to have characters behave out-of-character: you just have to show how and why they change from canon.
-Another pair of eyes can work wonders. Seek out editors and pre-readers to point out your blind spots (we all have them).
-Stories will be judged solely on their perceived merit. View and follower counts will not be factors.
Prompts
Use one of these prompts as a general starting point (or combine them if you can). The prompt does not have to appear within the story.
Slice of Life/Adventure
-That pack of study buddies is off adventuring again. Time to get some real schoolwork done.
-A one-on-one leadership lesson with Headmare Twilight would be a great way to learn about the power of friendship.
-What were those ponies thinking? The cage bars aren’t even narrow enough to hold me in here!
Sad/dark
-He showed her how to harvest the skulls, after she’d finished playing.
-They’d set her free. They’d told her she deserved another chance. She didn’t know what being reformed meant, though, in a world where the heroes crushed the wrong-doers with overwhelming force.
-After weeks of studying at the School of Friendship, Cozy made her first friend. The best part was that she could talk to her anytime. All she had to do was find a mirror.
-That weird foal was being so extra specially nice to her. Rejecting the pathetic loser was going to be just the best!
-Cozy’s got a secret! Whether or not it’s hers is for her to know and you to find out.
Choose-your-own genre
-Cutie mark yesterday, cute-ceneara today!
-Now that Twilight and her friends were out of the picture, all she had to do was destroy Tirek and Chrysalis.
About the judges
It’s always helpful to know the preferences of the judges when entering a contest. Here are some pointers to put your story over the top:
-the dobermans: prefers philosophical subtley, subtext, sad/tragic endings, deep characterization, irony and in-universe lore.
-anonymous judge(s): prefers psychological/emotional themes, comedy/horror/slice-of-life, character introspection, twist/emotional endings.
If you have any questions, please PM the group admin. Good luck!
Aight, looks like I have another contest to enter. Can't wait to submit last minute again.
Alright! My first contest!
I would if I could think of something worth trying for a story. But I can't, but I'm curious to see what comes from the contest.
As for the Empress of Friendship horseapples, I'll let Twilight say it best.
Uhm... I'm confused by the limits on the maturity levels, given we *have* tags for all sorts of things?
Oh this is perfect! 🤩 I have a friend who’s a struggling cozy glow VA with no work :/ so I wrote such a story to try and hire her ^^’ kind of got back burner :/ but now I have drive to get it finished 😊
This could be fun, hope to have time to do it
5327774
Is there any other time?
5327821
I would assume they simply mean tag and apply a rating appropriately. Though I agree, that is an odd and confusing way to put that rule.
:golly:
5327873
Isn't that sweet?
I’d officially enter, but I’m to much of an idiot to get it done on time.
So I’ll just do my best, I guess.
"Favorite" might be stretching it.
OwO
This is relevant to my interests.
Sounds like fun. Maybe I’ll take a poke at it. But 5 to 10k? That’s quite long, yes? There are many writers whose style truly shines in shorter works, between 2 and 4k, and it doesn’t make them any less impactful. A longer text doesn’t make for better writing, or a better story, right? Or am I alone here? 😗
just as a side joke, here in Germany we use a different formation for dates... so when I have read the rules, it seemed like you only have 24 hours to write a at least 5K story :D ... but then I thought "Wait... February is long over..." and remembered that day and month in Murica are in a different order :D
[golly intensifies]
Just double-checking because I'm dumb and don't fully understand the rules; do we have to use the prompts, or are they just suggestions? The word choice has me a mite mixed up.
True Empress of Friendship? HA! More like true Empress of Insanity, Failure, and Badly Written Villians! XD!
Looking at those judge preferences I haven't got a chance in hell, but hey. Can't say no to a contest!
5328006 Then this is a chance for those writers to challenge themselves a bit and break out of their comfort zones.
5328006
Yes!!! Most of my stuff is 1k to 3k, and my longer stories don't make me happy to write. I wish the minimum was lower.
5328036
Yeah, MM/DD/YYYY and DD/MM/YYYY can be pretty ambiguous about which they are.
Personally, I prefer YYYY-MM-DD (or failing that, YYYY/MM/DD), and preferably with the leading 0s for values below 10.
Then again, I also prefer setting all my things to 24-hour format, again with the leading 0 before 10:00 if possible (though a lot of things that have a 24-hour mode don't give an option to have the leading 0, and in some cases are physically incapable of displaying it even).
Can the minimum word count plleeeeeaaassseee be lowered? 5,000 is very high for something that's supposed to be a short story, and many authors work best with shorter stories. Maybe make it like 3,000 to 10,000?
As someone who doesn't know a ton about Cozy, I'd like to enter this contest, but I really don't know enough about her to write a story THAT long. I've never written a one-shot that long before I don't think, and certainly not about a character I'm not super invested in.
I like this guy's thinking.
Hello! Here are some attempts to address your questions/comments:
5327821
5327852
The note about sexual content is taken from the rules for site-posting contests. I could be wrong, but I interpreted it as a deterrent against material that has not been reviewed by the staff and given a tag.
5327925
You can do it!
5328006
You're absolutely right - there are plenty of examples of successful shorter works, and length certainly does not equate to quality. For this contest, however, a fuller narrative arc is desired. Please be assured that a 5k word story will have the same chances as a longer one.
5328036
Right you are. I don't think I can do anything about the site post, but I'll change the dates to an unambiguous format on the group announcement.
5328081
Your story must be based on one or more of the prompts, and belong to the indicated genre, but beyond that you can go in any direction you wish.
5328249
No worries. We'll do our best to be as objective as possible.
5328351
I'd put it to a vote, but I don't think the site post can be changed at this point. As for being unfamiliar with Cozy, a facts list is available in the Cozy Glow group forum for assistance. There are numerous discussions about her in the forum as well.
5328543
I'd just like to say, Fimfiction doesn't have any rules against posting NSFW stories that are not reviewed by moderators. As long as you tag it properly, it's fine. You just can't post NSFW images.
Quick update: Dezmo has generously volunteered to add to the prize pool! They will increase 1st place by $75, second place by $50 and third place by $25. Paypal only. Please contact them for further inquiries.
5328543
No I cannot!
Crossovers? Yea/nea?
5328543
Ah, gotcha - I think it might be to stall the folks who figured out how to make custom tags or something.
5328543
Okay for clarification do the prompts have to be adhered to or not? Also do you define "staying in character" when most of Seasons 8 through 9 is just one really big, really long character assassination?
5328006
Not alone there. A lot of writers in this day and age are going to find it hard to write so much about a single subject for so long, but that is just how things go sometimes.
Hmmm. This sounds interesting, and I think I already have an idea for a story. I just might give this a shot.
5328823
Crossovers are acceptable as long as they address the prompts.
5329016
Entries must use one or more of the prompts as starting points. For example, if you lean toward slice of life/adventure stories, you would choose one of the prompts in that category and write your story around it. Mixing them is also allowed (say, if you wanted to write a dark adventure story, you could combine prompts from those two categories).
As for staying in character, I'd say try to do your best in terms of what has remained consistent. If season 1 Twilight is the real Twilight for you, all you need to do is show why she's drawing from that part of her personality rather than the imperious Headmare. If that makes sense.
Gosh. I did not at all interpret the original post as saying that entrants were required to follow one of those prompts. I took them as just optional suggestions. If we're required to write one of those ten stories then I'm somewhat less interested. The most flexible one (about secrets) seems to come with the requirement to also make your story Sad/Dark.
5329335
Okay thanks for answering. Sorry if I sounded antagonistic in my last post, it's just when it comes to MLP, what people consider to be "in character" tends to be all over the place.
So say I have a story where Cozy genuinely befriends someone (as much as someone like her can). I assume that premise is right out?
Also I assume any stories I post will have to adhere to cannon, so basing a story around a comedic hypothetical will also not be allowed?
I don't have a story, but I just want to add that when I see that collage of Cozy, I imagined Grogar leading Tirek off to some workstation in a cave with a plaque that says "Don't forget, you're here forever" and Tirek covers up the plaque with images of Cozy.
(Cozy is basically Maggie Simpson, right?)
5329607
No problem at all.
Not necessarily. Maybe the pony likes her so much that they find a way to win her over, despite her attempts to reject them (just as an example). Or maybe her view of friendship is so off that she honestly thinks hurting and controlling them is what she's supposed to do.
Your entry can definitely be a comedy , but it also has to fall under one of the other categories (unless it's choose your own genre, in which case anything goes).
5330027
I was under the impression that choose your own genre required a prompt as well? Was I wrong?
I don't think that's going to work for my story then. Doesn't really fit with what I wanted to do with her.
Regardless it's nice to know where the limitations are. I do have a glimmer of a idea as to how to possibly work with these rules, but by nature of the guidelines and the prompts, I may have to go into satire territory to make it work, and I am not sure how that will go.
Maybe I'll get to it, maybe not, but it will most likely depend on whether or not I can stomach the character changes I'll have to make to get it to work, and whether or not I find the changes to be too OOC or not.
Either way, you've been most helpful explaining the rules and processes behind the contest, so thank you for your patience.
This sounds like fun.
The story needs to be only one chapter or can be with multiple chapters with the whole story having less than 10k words.
5337861
It can be multiple chapters, but yes, the total length must be less than 10k. Also, all chapters must be submitted by the deadline.
Mashing genres together be like:
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/bokunoheroacademia/images/d/d4/Tamaki_Amajiki_Hero_Costume_Anime_Action.png/revision/latest?cb=20190910025154
5'000 words minimum seems a bit steep, don'cha think?
Did I miss the deadline? I can't seem to add my story to the folder.
5347253
Nevermind! I just realized I never joined the group.
From the Cozy Glow Group contest announcement thread: