Event overview | Review spreadsheet

Note for newcomers: While many participants choose to review others' entries, doing so is by no means required nor expected.

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.

The website is currently in the process of a significant UI redesign. While all functionality should be intact, some things might look a bit out of place.

Minifics? My specialty! Maybe I'll actually write some this time! Best of luck to all future competitors!

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The new design looks great.

Will the timeline view have the prompt submission and prompt voting windows added?

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Lovely new design, Roger. And I look forward to seeing how the changes work out.

I may or may not be in this time. My daughter's birthday party is on Saturday, but I might still have time to dash off a minific, depending on the prompt. I also don't know how much participation I'll be able to manage, because I'll be gearing up for BronyCon.

So I'm a big fat "Maybe" all around.

4566985 Ooh, I'm liking this new design.

4567031 My niece's 1st birthday party is also on Saturday, so I might have to sit this one out too. Then again, 750 words is easy to crank out late at night if necessary. Might not have the time to make it good though. Guess we'll see.

I submitted my prompt.

Ooo hey check out that new site design

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Come on, guys, what's really more important? Real life, or ponies?

I think you know the answer to that.

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I must say, I like the new design!

I look forwards to the twenty-fifth, and I have submitted my prompt.

Took a little bit to get used to the new format (I'm old and cranky) but it seems pretty good. I've pulled the pin on submitted my prompt and should be able to get something in this time. It might even be good. Hope springs eternal.

4567127 Squid!

Oooo. Nice new design. Now if you'll excuse me...

*double checks the deadline timezones of everything*

The new site looks nice so far.

This one might be a little tricky for me, as I happen to be getting married on August 1. But even if I don't have the time to do as much reading and reviewing as I would like, I'll try to get something written.

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Oh wow. That new website flair looks smart as Tartarus.

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Ah, but this is baby Trixie's birthday party, so I need to make a pony cake and wrap pony presents and make sure she has a proper Pinkie Pie party. It's actually competing ponies, and Trixie's pony experience is more important than mine.

Ooh, this new design is minty-fresh.

I'll be on travel, so I'm out. :/

/argh

... I'll just say it; I don't like the new design. Those blocky buttons ain't pretty. Also, I miss having the time visible along with the dates for the deadlines.

I like the new little logo-thingy though.

Anyway, I'm likely to participate this time around (thank Celestia for minifics ). Woop woop!

4567203 It beats both life and ponies.

Well, I have submitted my prompt.

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It makes the timeline a bit too crowded, and deciding the prompt is just a preliminary process before the event actually "starts". I don't really consider it a part of the event proper.

It's always a 48 hour voting window, so it's easy to figure out.

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All deadlines are in 24 hour multiples, so the time is the same for every point (barring cases involving daylight savings) and is indicated on the top.

Individual pages are going to have a countdown on them (e.g., "Fic Submission" will countdown to submissions opening, then to them closing).

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I...can't argue with that.
Damn you!

You should let baby Trixie write an entry. I'm sure her mind has untold perspectives on the world of Equestria. Put a keyboard in front of her and she could probably smash out 700 words faster than most of us!

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It sure does! And is pretty tasty, too.

4567182 "Honey, come to bed!"
"Just a minute, dear. I'm spellchecking my Writeoff entry."

Yeah, that's starting the wedding off on the wrong hoof. Err... Foot.

Interesting design. I think I can definitely join in on this one.

Hmm. I'm not over the moon with the uneven, blocky buttons, but I love the timeline. I think some of this may just be change aversion.

In any case, prompt is in. Good luck to everyone.

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Well, the actual writing is a week before the wedding, so it will probably be more like "Just a minute, dear. I need to finish writing a review for this story."

And besides, she writes fanfics for other fandoms, so she'll understand.

My pre-exam denial has finally switched to pre-exam panic. I might participate, but I'll definitely not review. Sorry everyone.

CONFLUENCE
PITTSBURGH'S PREMIER SF/F/H LITERARY CONFERENCE...AND MORE -- JULY 24-26, 2015

I'm afraid I'm not a fan of the new look & feel, especially the small fonts, square edges, and pastel colors. Nice functionality, though.

I like the new website design! It's more pleasant to look at than the previous one (for me at least). Thanks for putting the work into it!

As for the writers, I know it's a little bit early but good luck to all of you!

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Confluence is also this huge sign visible from the convention center Anthrocon uses. It is amusing because being surrounded by furries (bronies, etc.) can make you highly ill.

Somebody once told me.
The World Is Gonna Roll Me.

Have we fallen so far? Is the hour so late?
It's even worse when you realize that two people collaborated to make this happen to us all.

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Or one person with 2 accounts.

Hmm... Might not be able to make this one. My brother's wife is expecting pretty much any time within the next two weeks, and I'm helping watch over my niece when the time comes, and she's a right handful in the best of times.

Anyway, good luck to everyone!

Hoping to participate again. Minifics seem to work for me and my schedule just might work out. May lead to some awkward questions with my roommate if he notices (closet brony 3 years running and my new room is a lot more open to visitors than my previous residence). Eh, what the hay, might as well risk it. Now if only I could think of a prompt...

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Man, for some reason confluence made me think of influenza. I don't even know why. Maybe because confluence and influence look similar, and some people seem to like getting sick at cons...

My brain works in mysterious ways sometimes.

So was that a "I'm going to be busy this weekend"?

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For the next writeoff, I want us all to work together to submit an entire song as our prompts.

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For the next writeoff, I want us all to work together to submit an entire song as our prompts.

I nominate The Song That Never Ends

4566985 Well, I just joined a few days ago. And this will be my first contest. I am eager to see exactly how things work around here, and how well my writing improves. Also, I am extremely curious as to what the prompt will be.

My prompt is in.

For what that's worth.

I'll likely be participating as well. Night shift gives me time to write, even if I'd prefer sunlight some days.

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Clearly it should be Absolutely by Nine Days.

The Story of a Girl
Cried a River
Drowned the Whole World
Looked so Sad
In Photographs
I Absolutely Love Her
When She Smiles

Days in a Year
Woke up with Hope
Only Found Tears
So Insincere
Making Promises
Never for Real
Stand Waiting
Wearing Holes in the Soul
Days Disappear
Look in the Mirror
How Do You Choose

The Next Day
Never Fall
The Same Way
Never Run
Out of Things to Say

How Many Lovers
Put Up with This
Day after Day
Watching our Mouths
The Words that We Say
The Clothes or the Souls
The Souls that We Choose
How Do We Get There
Walking too Far
The Price

Obviously I split these up (and took liberties with soles/souls) but you know...

4568537 It is an influenza con. We trade cultures. I hear they'll have some Spanish 1918 there.

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Or Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Water of March":

This is Mark Murphy's performance of it:

The lyrics are here if anyone wants to look at 'em.

Mike

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Real Life Ponies!

More (sorta) seriously: Someone has clearly been playing FFX-2 recently.

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I kind of want to see "Word Disassociation."

4568146 The orders are randomized. Everybody sees a different prompt order.

I have never written a minific before. We'll see how this works out.

4569227 Really? 'Cause every time I've watched the prompt submission process I can refresh the page, and things get added to the bottom of it as new entries come in. Pretty sure the only logical way to produce that effect whilst giving everyone a different order for prompts would be literally reading the future. And as fancy as the new site design is, I don't think it's that fancy.

4568146 tbh I'm more disappointed in the rest of you us for not finishing the song