With the largest and most varied set of writing panels and events of any MLP fan convention - boasting 12 writing panels and events during our 2013 convention alone - Everfree Northwest is fast becoming a literary hub on the convention circuit. Already EFNW 2014 is shaping up to be just as exciting if not more so for both writers and readers, with more panels and events currently in development than ever!

Thus is it my pleasure to announce Everfree Northwest’s first pre-con writing contest! The second in our series of contests, this time we’re looking to showcase the amazing writing talents of the My Little Pony community.

The contest shall be run through the Everfree Northwest FIMFiction group, moderated by the Everfree Northwest FIMFiction account.

Theme:
Show an established My Little Pony villain (e.g. Chrysalis, Sombra, Gilda, Diamond Tiara, etc.) or rival (e.g. Trixie, Lightning Dust, etc.) either being redeemed or showing them in a positive light. This reflects Everfree Northwest’s 2014 convention theme “Villains, Rivals… Friends?”

How to enter:
Publish your story to FIMFiction or as a Google Doc and send a link to either the Everfree Northwest contest email at contest@everfreenw.com or by sending a personal message to the Everfree Northwest FIMFiction account. Please include your name (actual and/or fanon) and the name of your contest entry in your submission message.

Prizes:
1st - Inclusion of full story in convention conbook, printed compilation book composed of the three winning contest entries with art from the Everfree Northwest Design team, 1st place sew-on patch, messenger bag, and EFNW 2012 con exclusive Fluttershy foil card.
2nd - Inclusion of a brief story description in the convention conbook, printed compilation book composed of the three winning contest entries with art from the Everfree Northwest Design team, 2nd place sew-on patch, and messenger bag.
3rd - Inclusion of a brief story description in the convention conbook, printed compilation book composed of the three winning contest entries with art from the Everfree Northwest Design team, 3rd place sew-on patch
Community Choice - Community Choice patch

Word Limit:
1000-3000 words

Duration:
The Everfree Northwest writing contest will accept entries from 12:00am PST on February 7th until 11:59 pm PST on March 2nd. Contest winners will be announced after a period of 2-4 weeks.

Judging:
A panel of Everfree Northwest judges from the writing events team, with guest judge Pen Stroke (author of such stories as Past Sins), will review and rate each story. Ratings will be compiled and averaged to determine winners. During the judging process the community will be invited to vote on their favorite story with a poll, the victor of which will win the Community Choice award.

Contest Rules:
1) All entries must adhere to a PG rating. Submissions using elements that could reasonably be considered above a PG rating, including but not limited to adult activity, intense violence, drug use, or material that violates the rights of a third party, will be ineligible for the contest. If you are unsure if your story meets these guidelines and wish to ask, please contact us at contest@everfreenw.com
2) Submissions must follow the contest theme in some manner and be relevant to the convention’s My Little Pony theme. Any entries that do not meet these requirements will be ineligible.
3) Stories must be an original work by the author and have not been released prior to the start of the contest. Entries, once finished, can immediately be published.
4) Contestants may submit a maximum of two (2) stories for consideration. If more than two (2) stories are submitted, the submitter will be asked to select which entries they wish to enter into the contest. If the submitter cannot be reached in time for judging, the two (2) most recent entries will be used.
5) Contestants may only win once. If both entries are up for prizes, the contestant will win the higher of the two prizes. For example, if an author wins both first (1st) and third (3rd) place, they will receive the first (1st) place prize and the fourth (4th) place runner-up will receive the third (3rd) place prize.
6) Winners will be selected based on prose, creativity, originality, use of theme, and grammar.
7) Submissions must be send either to the Everfree Northwest contest email at contest@everfreenw.com or sent as a private message to the Everfree Northwest FIMFiction account.
8) Any interpretation and application of rules from Everfree Northwest’s panel of judges and its ruling on contest winners are final.
9) Submitters retain all proper ownership of their submissions. By entering the contest the author agrees to allow Everfree Northwest to share their stories on our website, social media, conbook, and/or for use in promotions.
10) Everfree Northwest will cover shipping of contest prizes within the United States. International shipping will not be covered.

As always, keep up-to-date on the latest Everfree Northwest news by visiting our website, viewing our FIMFiction account and group, liking us on Facebook, and following us on Twitter and tumblr.

I am buckin' excited about this. My rough draft is already written, it just needs some going over now.

I've got a question. I wrote this up in LibreOffice, which says it's 2998 words. I had to edit it pretty dang hard to get it down to that too. But now that I've put up a copy here on FimFic it says it's 3100. Does that mean it's going to be ineligible? I'm really not sure I can trim another hundred words off of it.

2809786 Hi SPark,
I'm Xepher, part of your friendly, neighborhood EFNW writing staff. *waves* I've run into the same problem myself. No two programs/sites count words exactly the same it seems. I'm discussing some details with the other staff on how to answer your question, and I imagine we'll have either a highly technical, or very hoofwavium answer for you shortly. Thanks for your patience!

2809786

My recommendation is to see if someone can help you edit it, because that always helps in general. Then see if they can recommend how to get it down. You have time so don't feel like you have to be the first to submit it. Quality over bragging rights.

Anyway the reason we have the restriction is for publications purposes. As such I will talk with them about this discrepancy. But I am guessing that the 3k limit is for actual word count and that Fimfiction is off, thus you're story should be fine.

I won't submit it until I'm sure it's right, and I am getting editing help. But it is already pretty bare bones. A full redemption arc is hard to do, all the way from villain to friend, in so little space! I could cut it down if I cut out all the descriptions, but then it would be a pretty bad read, which wouln't help.

2809786 2815395 2815852
I should add to this a direct confirmation that FIMFiction (in the vast majority of cases) overcounts. The 23,812 words of my latest story (as counted by Scrivener) show up in FIMFiction as 25,882, which is an almost 8% overage!

Here's proof it's FIMFiction miscounting. Most egregiously, words with an apostrophe (like "here's") count as 2 instead of 1 here. There are some cases (like the numbers "2" and "1") where it undercounts, though, so be cautious!

I have managed to trim it just a little bit more. I'm getting some more editing done, and I'll be updating it here after that, so I'll see if it counts under 3k here.

It's still over 3k here. I'm not sure what else I can do. It's getting to the point where I worry about the cutting messing up the story if I try to trim it any more.

2840521 I feel your pain, I know it's hard to trim things when you already have a "working" story.

2815852 Piquo, did you ever hear back from publications on this? If they've got a technical definition (or specific program) we should be using for "word count" it might be good to know what that is, as there are quite a few different methods out there for it.

2840521
2875617

Is it over 3k on fimfiction but 3k or under on more legitimate counting programs.

2875700 That's exactly what it is. It's under 3k on every other program I've loaded it into, but it's over 3k here on FimFic.

I am so doing this! In fact, I can probably knock it out in a few days.

2880028 As long as on other platforms such as Microsoft Word or other word counting methods it's under 3000, then there shouldn't be an issue. And I don't think there would be much issue with a fic that's slightly over 3000 works, as long as it's close. A story that's 3,075 words is likely workable, a story that's 3, 750 would not. So attempt to keep the word count below 3000 but if it's only a few words over that should likely not be a problem.

2886560 Wonderful! I'm giving it a final editing pass, and I should have it up soon. Thanks!

2886560

I hope this isn't totally out of line to ask, but I need a bit of a sanity check here.

Word 2007 reports my story at 2,939 words.
FimFic reports it as 3,148

I seriously have no idea where the extra words are coming from, but based on previous comments here, would this word count be acceptable/reasonable? If not, I will be happy to try and trim some more, but to echo what SPark said, there's little left to cut from my story as well.

Thanks!

2966672

That would be Fimfiction calculating additional words. You'll be fine, even if you were a tiny bit over.

2967247

Awesome! Thank you very much for the confirmation.

2967317

2967673

FimFic counted mine as 3,358. But really, mine's around 2,980-ish (according to MS Word). I understand the situation here but I am completely afraid that i would not make it...

2999685
A known issue, you're good.

Wow, we've had an amazing 75 entries into EFNW's writing contest! Thank you everyone for your support and drive.

We're currently in our first round of judging and should start our second and final round by next week.