Event overview

Please refrain from saying anything that might compromise your anonymity. Doing so is grounds for disqualification. It's recommended you do dummy reviews of your own stories should it otherwise be easy to deduce which you wrote.

A 24 hour contest... That's considerably shorter...

I get the feeling someone wants to write about skeletons

3682094

3682139 That's like the time when the skeleton couldn't get on the roller coaster because he had no guts.

3682186

O-oh.

Oh. :B

3682186
3682349
I guess you made him lose his tongue.

Though it might be a good idea to put this exchange six feet under before we give someone a bone to pick about turning this thread into a graveyard of skeleton jokes

It begins again...

contest? Did I catch it on time this time?

3685125
Yup! You even have a few hours left to submit prompts!

Is there any chance the cutoff could be moved back by 30 minutes or so? I just want a little more of a buffer because my Saturday work schedules are crazy and I want to ensure I'll have the time to write up at least one piece of silliness

3681172
It is a minific competition, meaning that the stories are only 750 words long.

Not that that stops some of us from submitting multiple entries.

3686488
It's definitely doable on the new duration. It's just a little surprising that it got cut by 1/2 (1 opposed to 2 days).

3686616

Based on the archive, all of the minific (400-750 word count) events have been a 24 hour writing period.

3686802
Actually, way back in the way back, I'm pretty sure minifics were also 72 hours, or at least 48. The 24-hour restriction seems to have come with the Fimfic group. At least, as far as I can recall, which isn't worth much. :B

3686803

That's what I get for only looking at the last three for verification.

3682493

I'm in the mood for some spooky fics so I might throw those skeleton prompts a bone.

3686802
It was at least 48 hours for the past few minific contest because I knew I had time from Saturday to Monday to finish my minific entries (basically Saturday 2am to Monday 2am). The current shorter duration of the minific seem to have retroactively applied to all previous minific contests.

3686912
Man, I have a worse memory than I remember remembering. It does seem a little too much of a cut in comparison then, so I guess we'll see how it works out.

3686912

IDK about any before the Famous Last Words ones, but I know that one was 24hrs. Are you sure it wasn't Sunday at 2am to Monday at 2am, and you just mistook it for saturday because you hadn't gone to bed Saturday night?

3687104
I was pretty sure because I spent the entire Saturday brainstorming ideas on the prompt (or attempt anyway, what with all the distractions) and wrote my entry close to the deadline on Sunday night (I'm 12 hours ahead of Eastern Time). I couldn't have start brainstorming unless the prompt was out. And I even saw a few entries submitted on Saturday during the Long Way Home contest, which I missed by about 5 mins.

Maybe Roger can settle the confusion?

Oh boy. My last minific competition turned out... poorly.

Well, I'll wait and see what prompt wins. This may turn out better than I'm expecting. May.

3687362

It couldn't turn out worse than mine usually are.

*holds his 0th place ribbon*

3687136
Minific contests, the first of which was What Lies Beneath in Sep. 2012, have always had 24 hours of writing time. The only thing that changed since then was the word limit from 300–600 to 400–750 for The Price of a Dream in Oct. 2012. (Well, the prompt selection process also changed since Lonely Happiness in Dec. 2013, but that was across the board.)

3688373
Hmm, guess my memory's faulty then.

Well, I voted.

I could have sworn Famous Last Words got extended, but maybe my memory is faulty.

3689443
Don't listen to the voices in your head! Don't trust their lies!

Am I imagining things, or is prompt voting usually 24 hours too? O.o Why is everyone so mixed-up about this contest?

3688373
>Lonely Happiness
Worst prompt ever, rip in peace.

This is the voting round where I proportionally voted in less prompts. Just 25 (out of 78) this time.

In unrelated news, I started to brainstorm (again) for the prompts I find more likely, got enthused with one particular idea, and wrote a highly condensed outline that, by itself, would already be big enough to fit the event — which means that, as Celestia is my witness, there is no chance of the finished story ever fitting in the word limit of this event

Well, I still have a number of other ideas, and I can always do my wikiwalk/brainstorming mix to find more

3690305 Dude, two of my best stories came from that prompt.

3692474
And we did get Diamond Tiara Kills Bad OCs out of that one. Guess we're just better writers than it was a bad prompt. :V (It was still a shitty prompt.)

3681032 RogerDodger,

I applaud what you've done to put these write-offs together. The software is great; making it open-source is great; the ranking system is well-thought-out; the free web-hosting is generous.

But I am tired of the short writing deadlines. That encourages what fanfic writers already do too much, which is dive into a story without thinking it over first. We are wasting our time reading and critiquing unfinished stories. Writing isn't a track & field event. Making it a race doesn't make writing more exciting. It makes it into a game, like something you'd do at a convention for entertainment.

There's nothing wrong with making a game out of writing, but that isn't what I want. I would much prefer a longer writing period.

I'm probably just in a bad mood, but I was looking forward to this when I heard there was another write-off. Then I came here and saw the 24-hour time limit, and all my excitement turned into dread of yet another weekend spend on an awful death-march to produce a crappy first draft that nobody would understand. I just don't want to do this anymore. Some people can write quickly. I can't.

Thank you, anonymous 19th voter, for sparing us from unending skeleton puns. (I'm sure there will be lots of them anyway.)

3693170

CURSES! My plan for a skeleton-themed writeoff has failed!

I will have my revenge, just as soon as I figure out how to tie in "skeletons" with "just over the horizon" in 400-750 words.

> Just Over the Horizon

Really guys? Really?

…

if it wouldn't shatter my anonymity I would so totally write a story about my recent divorce right now

Yikes, my best prompt tied for 9th? I need to devise better ones.

And earlier today, as I was waiting for the food I had ordered for my colleagues to be done, I was scribbling something to the Just Over the Horizon prompt. What are the chances?

3693170
Well, a 19th voter and a coin toss. We had a 50% chance of being stuck with a skeleton prompt (though that specific one was among the 25 prompts I voted for )

3693188
Makes me wonder if I should make one about skeletons in the closet over the horizon just to make people think it's from you

Welp... shit. There goes my idea for suddenly changing the prize support to various bones, which would have been obtained legally, I should add.

Might've sent an Albertasaurus femur...

3693189
*stares angrily*
I only voted for that prompt because I was thinking of you. And as a joke. Didn't think it would actually win.

How does one horror from "Over the Horizon"? :V

3693170

You're such a nobody.

You should eat more cause you're no skins and all bones.

I'm horrible at this.

I find myself tempted to write a Magic: the Gathering crossover. Of course, I rarely don't find myself tempted to write a Magic: the Gathering crossover, but this is especially appropriate.

I'll just have to find a different horizon...

3693375

How does one horror from "Over the Horizon"? :V

By finding that just over the horizon, figuratively speaking, lies something out of a horror story?

3693408
Do eet. Just do eeeeeeeet. Almost everything with Kruphix in it's name has good support effects, which leads to wild crazy things happening.

Like, over the horizon levels of crazy.

Would super rate such a fic. Totally no bias on my part. Really.

3693170
*Throws a skinny Thestral colt at PP*

3693189
Ooh, uhh... I was actually going to be clever and write a story about you, but now that you've reminded me that was a thing, I think it'd be in poor taste. ._.;

3693193
I thought the second-place prompt had 18 votes to the winner's 19. :B

3693393
See this is exactly what I'm talking about.

3693375 3693477
For the record, that "Really?" was meant to be bemused. Stupid Internet, flattening tone.

I hereby give permission for anyone to interpret "horizon" in the prompt as a reference to me. I think it's safe to say that something so meta would die a horrible flaming death in the voting, and the fun factor of it is a lot less if people expect it to be coming (so this post probably guarantees it's not going to happen), but if you do write such a story it won't hurt my feelings.

So this is the first time I've entered since the April minific writeoff. Feels good to be doing this again.

3693189
3693477
You're monsters.

And I am too for laughing.

Well, two ideas so far. Time to get a-writing, I suppose.

And no, the ideas are totally unrelated to Horizon.

Man, that "Just Over the Horizon" is killing me. It totally changes the thrust of the phrase.

*goes back to brainstorming*

You realize, of course, that now someone's going to have to write something with horizon in it. (However that works.) And it can't be horizon, because horizon, and it can't be me, because I said it.

It's not "beyond the horizon", grar!

Well, two stories in the can, neither of which has anything to do with card games or our resident not-a-changeling. I'd hold off on submitting them a bit longer, but with a 24-hour submission period, I don't think it's make a difference. We'll see how this goes...