Hi,

New here so I'm not sure if I can do this let me know and I'll delete this thread but I would like to make a suggestion for a sort of challenge where writers have to come up with a story based off this image of Pinkie Pie: http://pre11.deviantart.net/5592/th/pre/i/2016/114/9/0/damn_belt_by_kingtoby19-da01fq4.png

Please let me know if this is right if not then please delete this thread.

5192932 Well, who knows what kind of ideas Roger might use in the future of the Writeoff?

Right now, though, that isn't how the Writeoff events work — story prompts are strictly word-based. Prompt suggestions go through a voting process before the start of each Writeoff event to determine which one will be used by all of the contestants. At the moment, images aren't a part of that process.

5193086 Oh I see, do I delete this thread?

5193096 Only if you really want to, but there's no need that I see, really.

We have done a few events like this in the past. The way they worked was that a text prompt came out, and artists had three days to make a picture based on it. Then authors had three days to pick one (or more) of the pictures and use them as inspiration for a story. It was interesting for a change, and it's different from what you're suggesting because the picture was supposed to have a thematic tie to the prompt, and that's why they tended not to work. Your inspiration from a picture might have nothing to do with the original prompt, which led to arguments about whether it should, and in fear of being called out on lack of relevance, authors tended to keep it close to the prompt as well, which meant that you could basically come up with a story idea off the prompt alone, then pick the art which suited it best.

Anyway, basing it off the picture alone wouldn't have those problems, but what it does is really steer everyone toward particular characters or situations that are in the picture. It might work better if, like before, you had a choice of several pictures, but with no prompt this time. Or if the pictures were of something generic, like a landscape scene with no characters in it, or some kind of object. Those tended to get used the most, as they allowed the most freedom.

The art events we did before (expand the title bar at the top to see links for the art side of the event, though it doesn't show which art was used for which story) were Sweet Music, Deal with the Devil, and My First New Years Alone.

5193174 Very cool. I had no idea those rounds were done with images - it was a year or two before I joined. I wouldn't mind seeing this happen again, though in the end it would essentially be like having several prompts at once to chose from.

By the way, even though they're not linked in the Fic Results, you can see the images chosen for each story by checking out the Fic Gallery and following on the image link for each story.