I will be compiling a list of frequently-asked questions in this thread. Please feel free to ask questions in here! I'll keep this post header updated as much as I can as new questions come in.

>> What is the Equestria Daily Outside Insight Summer Fanfic Contest?

Here's the announcement post on EqD, including the prompt, rules, prizes, and process. Or, just check the other sticky threads in this forum for that information.

>> Where do I submit my story to the contest?

Contest submissions closed at 11:59 PM CST, August 15. Thanks to everyone who entered!

>> How should I submit my story?

Do not send me your story as an email attachment. I have no way of getting it out to the rest of the internet from there and you will be sad.

Most entries will live here on FimFiction. N.B.! If this applies to you, make sure your story has been submitted to FimFiction itself! Stories here undergo a moderation process as a formality, but it's a necessary one if you want yours to appear on the front page. Then, you'll provide a link to your story on the submission form.

You may also link your story from other sites like FF.net, deviantArt, and so on. Or you can link to a Google Document containing your story if you wanna do things the S1/S2 way -- just make sure you unlock the document for public access.

>> So when you say "non-pony", can I write a story from the point-of-view of a--

TL;DR: You're probably overthinking this. I'm not interested in disqualifying your stories because I cleverly caught your viewpoint character out on a technicality. Most of you are fine asking yourselves "Is this character a pony?" and if your immediate answer's "no", you're good to go.

If you're still unsure, then please read the following closely.

The contest calls for stories written from non-pony perspectives or points of view. Granted, the line separating ponies from everything else can get pretty blurry, and struggles mightily the more you try to pin it down. So the decision is largely up to you. For the purposes of this contest, a character is not a pony (and therefore will be a valid point-of-view) if and only if you can demonstrate their failure to meet any of these three traits:

1. Ponies are sentient, equine creatures.
2. Ponies are raised and socialized among other ponies.
3. Ponies have the potential to gain (or already have) a permanent cutie mark.

Say you want to write from the perspective of a zebra. The evidence that they receive cutie marks is equivocal, so they could qualify as viewpoint characters by failing trait #3 if that's your stance on the matter.

This restriction only applies to whatever you're using for your point-of-view. Your story is allowed to contain as many ponies as you'd like as long as they aren't the point-of-view, since that's the whole idea behind this contest.

>> Can I have a pony serve as a point-of-view for a chapter or two?

No. The challenge here is presenting ponies through as non-pony a lens as you can possibly make. The same goes for switching the POV for just a couple of paragraphs or even a sentence or two -- which abuses the device nine times out of ten in normal writing alone, anyway. I promise you'll enjoy your story more if you can work with this restriction.

>> Does this mean I can't write using the first-person/third-person?

By way of example, a fic from a changeling's point-of-view, regardless of whether it's written in first-person, third-person, or even second-person will always comply with the prompt because changelings are not ponies (they fail the permanent cutie mark condition).

>> Are omniscient points-of-view allowed?

So long as they don't touch a pony's point-of-view, you're fine. As a caution, omniscient POV (or limited omniscient here, more precisely) seems simple to write, but it's tricky to pull off well if you jump between characters recklessly.

>> Can we use creatures we haven't seen in Equestria before?

Go for it! Equestria is as sinky a fantasy kitchen sink as they get, and this contest really seeks to plumb the depths of what canon materials haven't covered, or can't ever. Just make sure you follow the rules and exclude humans and crossover material.

>> I've sent in a story already. Can I revise and resubmit it, or submit a different story?

Yes to all of those, so long as you get them in before the deadline. If you're submitting a different story, remember that you are only allowed one entry in this contest: your older story will be removed from the group and the contest.

Okay, quick question.

When you say "a story about ponies", how much about the ponies do you mean by that? Do they have to be in every part of the story, or can we have some more leeway? Considering how lax you are about what the perspective character can be...

3465891 These questions really come in waves! Someone else asked me tonight what I meant when I challenged everyone to write "about ponies", too.

The answer to that question is: however much it takes you to show the impact ponies have on everyone else on the same planet as them. So you could either entrench your viewpoint character in the heart of Manehattan for the entire story, or you can have a pilgrim of the wastes stumble upon the silent ruins of a long-gone pony civilization. It's more than possible to write a story "about ponies" without including a single breathing member of the species, if that's what you want to chase after!

Okay, I know I'll probably get turned down on this one, but I just had to ask. By any chance could your story be from the POV of a pony character that has been turned into a different species, by either magical means, such as in it Aint Easy Being Breezies, or by natural mean such as in Bats, assuming hypothetically that they have been transformed long enough to give a viewpoint different than that of a pony, and have no way of being transformed back? I'm sorry, I was wracking my brain, trying to see if there was an obvious answer to that one, and figured I'd better ask.

3467487 Interesting. I would first off wonder why such a character, transformed long enough to develop a different mindset, would concern himself with ponies for the purposes of your story. Hope you'd answer that in your writing.

From your position, though -- it wouldn't be too hard to convince me that the character isn't a pony via the rules, especially if they've been turned into something non-equine. Otherwise, the character probably doesn't have a cutie mark and probably won't gain one (the trait's silent on what happens if a character once had a cutie mark, then lost it, and I'm fine with that).

Just to make sure, we're allowed to switch POV's between characters so long as both of them are non-ponies, right?

3469569 Yep!

One question, what if they had an equine feature, like say a Hippogriff, Can you use it?

Riddle me this, Batman.

It is clear enough that changelings are an acceptable medium with which to carry a story for this contest. My question is as such.

You and I both know that changelings are wont to assume the guises of others, predominantly ponies. Is a changeling-turned-pony exempt from the non-pony POV rule, provided that the audience is well aware that it is indeed a changeling behind the pony?

3469637 Would you say sphinxes are humans just because they have human features? Or harpies, mermaids, centaurs?
Now, would you say hippogriffs are ponies?

3469655 You tell me. Are changelings ponies?

3469695
I don't really think so.
It would be strange to ponies to look at a Hippogriff even he has a hind of a horse but has a head of an eagle. So no, not really.
I was just wandering that is allowed.

Are satires accepted? The rules say no parodies, but what if the story was written from the perspective of a non-pony character who can't stand all the various annoyances they see in pony culture and that's why they get themselves involved? Would it still be accepted?

...How strict is the 15,000 word limit? I know you don't want us writing this massive fanfic of course, but do we get any leeway

3463409 Can I have my main character a draconequus?

3470793 Well... He isn't a pony, is he?

3470810 No.....

3470831 Exactly. The only rule is no ponies.

3470833 Oh, alright. Thanks:)

3470563 Satire is tricky. Satire relies on exaggeration, distortion, and ridicule to discredit its subject matter in a humorous way. It's hard to say without having your story finished and in front of me, but the contest IS asking authors to write in good faith and be authentic in their portrayals of ponies. We're not here to Accentuate the Negative, if that helps.

A do-gooder fixing to roll up his sleeves and crusade to help the ponies become better citizens sounds fine. A highly cynical, holier-than-thou messiah complex arriving to the pony version of Idiocracy and being the only one who can save them from their mentally-evacuated ways wouldn't do as well.

3471606

What about a Well-Intentioned Extremist? If not, I have an idea about bats I can use, in which it's not so much about "ponies being bad" as it is about "ponies unintentionally doing annoying things and not realizing the impact it'd have on another species."

3472133 Unfortunately, I can't make a call on things just by looking at an article title from TV Tropes. I suppose that if you pressed me for an off-the-books answer, I'm looking for convincing portrayals of Equestria versus those that are merely entertaining.

I got hooked on this fandom because I finished watching Season 1 in four days, needed more poni, and the fics I read later that summer shocked me with their depth and sense of wonder. We didn't know so much about Equestria back then, and the books were open for the writing.

Four years down the road to where we are today: maybe you'll end up writing the story that convinces someone like me that there's something behind the ponies worth digging into.

Okay, then I think I'll go with the bat one. It's less of world-building and more of showing how ponies don't always interact harmoniously with the animals they share their habitat with. I've never seen an environmental-style fic before, so it might be more original that way.

can we start posting our stories now(as on fimfiction)? cuz submission isn't open, but it still would be a fresh new story for the contest

Legit question, can I write from the view of a Bat-Pony? I have no idea weather i can or not.

3476353 Oops, sorry for the late response. Go ahead and post those fics!

3482929 The evidence is stacked against you there. They're definitely sentient and equine, they're (presumably) raised around other (bat) ponies, and fandom consensus says they get cutie marks. Also, they're called bat ponies. Take another look at the FAQ -- there's more information up there that gets at this.

Would donkeys count? I'm leaning towards yes - no cutie marks - but official word would be nice.

3483383 Yep, donkeys are all right!

As far as the "official word" angle you mentioned goes, I'm trying to have as little as possible in that realm. Sure, if I see someone trying to use a character with "pony" in their species name, I might suggest they try writing something else unless they can argue, convincingly, that one of those three pony traits does not apply. Otherwise, I'm really not all that eager to pounce on someone because I found the 0.1% of their character that technically qualifies them as a pony if you look at it out of the side of your eye, squint, and offer sacrifices to Kali.

Yes, the POV is an important choice to make for writing these stories, but the spirit of this contest lies in demonstrating something about ponies. We only have this POV restriction as a leverage device. So long as your story heeds that spirit, it's unlikely to get into trouble.

3483573 As close to official as I can get

just out of curiosity, about how many people have entered so far

3485118 It looks like 4 stories have been submitted to the group. More will keep trickling in throughout the coming days though. Even though there looks to be a little less than 150 people who (might) have the intent of submitting a story, quite a few of them will forget, never get it written, or not meet the deadline.

if it walks on two legs and acts sorta like a human
but i treat it like a mythological character
is it a human?

wow, im asking alota questions

Uh.

So the limit is 7k not 15?

3486185 The limit is still 15K. Can you give me a link to the form you're trying to fill out, and where you found the link? The word count validates fine for this form (though I did update the validation error text you saw there).

3486312
That form that you linked gave me this:

3486364 That's very strange. Look up the instructions for doing a hard refresh in your browser and try resubmitting your entry, or try submitting using a different browser. Everything's working fine for me in Chrome.

3486425 Alright let me grab trusty ol IE. Don't put a virus up there on me

couch crusader can you answer my question? please?

3489888 Hard to tell without any further information. To be absurdly reductionist, all MLP characters are humans marinated in an alternative history and put into costumes with hooves or horns or wings. So it really depends on the role you're looking to fill with the character -- if they're there to get around the no humans in Equestria rule, then that's probably not going to work out. If they just happen to walk on two legs, though -- well, birds walk on two legs. That doesn't make 'em human, does it?

3492294 think of them being the main antagonist in a season finale. just a completely new creature (that theres only one of) that happens to walk on two legs. there aren't any other humans, so if you kinda look at the rules of what makes something a pony and changed them to what makes someone a human, then that would work, because it wasn't raised by humans
you could think of it as just having the form of a human but being its own species. like tIreck (yah, i have no idea if i spelled that right) in probably the only goat centaur thing in equestria.
you could also think of it as a greek god. an idea put to a human body that walks around and talks.
idk, ill probably try and give it some features that are distinctly inhuman just to be safe.

3492983 Sorry, that won't work.

3493862 waht wont work?
the changing what makes a pony rules to what makes a human?
or wat?

Would it be acceptable to submit a sequel to an existing story as a contest entry provided the prequel doesn't need to be read for the story to be enjoyed and understood?

3494177 Because everyone's confused enough about whether their viewpoint character is a pony or not, I'm just not allowing anything human in this contest, and that includes anything that looks like a human. Someone earlier asked me if they could go the Greek god route, and I had to turn them down as well. This probably isn't the answer you were hoping for, but I think it's worth not being ambiguous in this matter so you can move on and try something different with your entry.

3494615 You're technically writing a "new" story for this contest, but you flip a tiny switch in the reader's head the moment they see "Prequel reading optional" in your story description. That switch makes them ask "is this something I should have known about?" the whole time they're reading your sequel, which is never good for engagement. It's okay to want people to read your prequel first, so classifying it as optional reading does neither story a favor.

Granted, you probably have your own theories, places, and histories in Equestria by now and those elements are more than welcome to show up in your story even if they pop up in your earlier work -- I can't and won't expect anyone to invent a whole new Equestria for this contest. This is a subtle distinction from what I said above, true, but it's there.

TL;DR: Acceptable? I suppose. Recommended? Hardly.

3495196
That makes a lot of sense, actually. But the more I think about it, the more I realize the story I'm writing hardly counts as a sequel at all. I would call it more of an expansion of another story I wrote, but you wouldn't necessarily have to know that first story even exists for the one I'm writing to make sense.

It's strangely complicated, but I think it'll work out. I'll just refrain from mentioning the "prequel" at all when the story goes live, to avoid confusion. Thanks for the advice!

3483252
Sorry for late responce, Vacation no internet

And I still have no idea if it is a yes or no, I will have to check if the gaurds in Nightmare Night have Cutie Marks, but still on vacation(only posting this because i have a stomauc virous at a location that finnaly has free wi-fi, but only for a few hours more) so...... Uggg Bat-pony

Is there a limit to the number of winning stories, and how exactly are winning stories determined? Is it based on a score, do a majority of the judges have to deem it winning, are the top percentage of stories deemed to be winning, or is it something else entirely?

Right now, we've got ten artists donating prize art to the competition, as well as a smattering of other prizes I need to post up. Each winning story gets one piece of art at least, so for now we're giving out prizes for 1st through 10th place. The idea right now is that 1st place gets to choose which artist they want first, then 2nd place picks their artist, so on and so forth.

3516306
Ah, so ten winners (as of now). Cool cool.

3492294

To be absurdly reductionist, all MLP characters are humans marinated in an alternative history and put into costumes with hooves or horns or wings.

<3 u Couch