Welcome to Contest #4 fellow CNS group-mates! (And yes, I am trying to make “CNS” a thing.)

Usually, this is the part where Manaphy congratulates the winner of the last contest in this new post, but since I’m running the contest and I won the last one… and it's awkward to congratulate one's self... umm…

Here’s the link to Troubles Over Hot Chocolate, now move on!

Let me clear the air real fast, running this contest has nothing to do with my winning of the last contest. Me and Manaphy had already discussed this way back in November. Victory was just an added bonus, and I hope you enjoyed reading all the contest entries if you participated.

That aside, I want to welcome you to what I’d like to call a... *drum roll*

CHALLENGE PROMPT! (Caps lock for emphasis.)

Mostly because when I run a contest, I strive to ensure it is a growing experience for your writers as well. And as an added incentive, there will be a prize. Not an exceedingly large one, but a prize none-the-less. So without further ado:

Contest #4: Challenge Prompt - Making the Most out of the Mundane
(Submissions open between January 25, 2015 – March 9, 2015)

The first advice any author should take to heart when starting out is to write what you know. What better way of exploring that idea than making something out of what you would do on any given day? If it is mundane and everyday to you, let's see what you can do to make a story out of it!

Stories happen every day that you don't think about since they don't involve so romantic encounter or world-ending catastrophe, but just because it is something routine to you doesn't make it any less interesting. At the dinner table, someone is going to ask you how your day was, and you can choose to respond with "good", no answer, or actually tell them what happened, aka: a story. Use that knowledge of what goes on in your own world and adapt it to the world of your favorite unused MLP character.

Using one of the characters needing something else written about them, write a story about something you find mundane in day-to-day life that you are familiar with: going to school, grocery shopping, listening to music, reading a book, commuting to work, etc. The idea here is to write a story that focuses on that activity and make the event itself an interesting or engaging read.

- How can you make something like Colgate organizing her bathroom an immersive experience?
- Is there something about that street Jet Set trots down daily on her way to work that's worthy of a story of its own?
- Holly Dash being lost when deciding between two cantaloupes at the market isn't the end of the world, but is it a fun read?

Keep it simple, maybe even stupid simple, and bring the idea to life with something you do that is so rote to you that you may not think about it anymore with your story.

For followers of my fiction, if this idea sounds fairly familiar, that’s because I wrote something following the same vein of the contest as well. After I asked Manaphy about it, I did the mundane writing challenge myself when I was wrote A Peach is Worth a Thousand Problems. Now, that isn’t just shameless plug. If you have any questions on any of the rules below and I don’t get back to you quickly, you can refer to the story and see if it answers your question. Now onto the nitty gritty details of submissions.

Submission Rules
1) Your central character must be a “Character That Needs More Stories” about them. You may use any character that has a folder in the CNS stories tab. If you want to use a character that isn’t there, ask Manaphy, myself, or another admin and we’ll see if the character fits the qualifications. Here's a helpful pony list from MLP Wiki. Careful, it takes a while to load.
2) Your story must focus on a mundane aspect of life. Look to your own day-to-day life experiences for inspiration and think about how to make it an interesting read with ponies.
3) The story must be between 1,000 and 6,000 words. You don’t have a lot of time to write and voters don’t have a lot of time to read.
4) It must be a stand-alone work. It can be a sequel or prequel to a different story as long as it can be understood, but it cannot be a chapter of a longer work.
5) Due to the nature of the prize, you may not submit a preexisting work. Any submissions that have a “First Published” date before “25 Jan 2015” or after “9 Mar 2015” will not be accepted.
6) Maximum rating for any submission is Teen. Winning-verse Cloudkicker might have a unique norm for herself, but let's keep the finer details of her explicit exploits to a minimum.
7) Finally, like previous contests, once you’ve submitted a story, you are not allowed to vote.

Starting now, that gives you a month and a half to get something written, proofed, and published for the contest. Now, as for the prize, aside from Manaphy and I featuring it in a blog post on our user pages, I am happy to announce that the winner shall receive…

It’s all shiny and orange and blue and stuff. I wouldn’t be mailing it to you, rather you’d be getting the code to add you’re iTunes account, but still! You can buy an SD volume of MLP episodes or be well on your way of buying an HD volume. Also, if that’s not something you’d like, there’s still music, books, movies, etc to browse.

So make sure you get to writing and get those in the Contest Submissions folder by March 9th. Good luck to everyone/everypony/everything! Enjoy the experience and challenge of making the most out of the mundane!

4009962

(And yes, I am trying to make “CNS” a thing.)

Shouldn't that be CtNMS?

4009962
Are we free to use any official BG pony, even if he or she doesn't have a folder (I see a distinct lack of Silver Spanner or Ambrosia folders, just sayin').

4009983
Try saying CtNMS out loud. It doesn't exactly roll of the tongue. I was going with CMNS, but that was hard as well. CMS is close to CMC so I went with CNS. It might not be as catchy as Explosion Wednesday, but that's not a thing for certain yet.

4010005
My personal rules for okaying a character is if he or she has a photographic presence in the show, IE a screenshot of them in an episode. MLP Wiki is good at keeping all those in line, so throw me a picture of them with a link to that site and I'm right as rain usually.

4010008 Point taken.

4009962
This sounds like an interesting prompt. I probably won't have anything, but I wish everyone who enters the best of luck.
4010005
You're more than welcome to use them if you want even though they don't have their own folder.
The only background ponies that wouldn't fit with the prompt and the group by extension would be extremely popular ones like Derpy, Vinyl Scratch, etc.

4009962
Oh, this will be perfect. I have the best idea ever and with Babs Seed as an availebal character, I'll fit perfectly. Inviormental insperation and everything I need I can get from my own school.

4010016
That's kind of what I figured, but I just wanted to make sure.

4010016
Well that's unfortunate... I was hoping to see a submission from you.

4010024
Going along with what I said before as well as Manaphy, it's free game as long as they aren't an OC. Me not recognizing either name you mentioned helps as well.

Speaking of OC's, at first it's an odd thing to say considering fan interpretations of background ponies might as well be OC's, but I'm also not keen on reading about the lifestyles of Mary Sue the Alicorn.

4009962 I might (keyword: might) be able to figure something out figure something out for this prompt, but I wouldn't count on it.

Out of curiosity, would a supermodel doing a typical for her photo shoot count as mundane?

Mundane? Well, lemme just plop down a three thousand fic about how much a character hates math class and I'm good to go!

Kidding, kidding. I'm going to go...even mundaner.

4010145
I think that might work, given such an event would be mundane for a model.
4010173
Yeah, math class can be quite a pain, that's for sure.

Anyway, good luck to both of you as well as everyone else who has already replied if you decide to enter.

This response reminded me a rule that I forgot to post! New rule 6!

6) Maximum rating for any submission is Teen. Winning-verse Cloudkicker might have a unique norm for herself, but let's keep the finer details of her explicit exploits to a minimum.

4010145
The object of the prompt, and exercise by extension, is to make something out of the overlooked. My gut reaction says no, but then again I'm not sure how familiar you are with photo shoots yourself. It's an everyday occurrence for Fleur considering it's her job, so if you can keep it in that line of thought, you won't be breaking any rules in my book. Go right ahead!

To anyone else coming across this here's some food for thought. Simply because the character in question has a career or lifestyle outside the norm doesn't mean it isn't mundane to them. As long as the event isn't something outside the norm for him or her, you should be fine. Think of it like this:

An Astronaut is an extraordinary job, but field training and life on the base would be the day-to-day. Therefore, writing about an Astronaut's base life would be acceptable, especially if it was written by a military veteran considering they could pull it off easier from their real life experience.

However, In the same vein, an Astronaut finally blasting off into space to go to Saturn would be part of his job, but not mundane. This would be an unacceptable entry.

Right. Right. There have been three contests here now, all of which I've intended to enter and none of which I actually have entered. This ends now. I love the prompt, the choice of characters is wide, the length is ideal for me... and I might even have an idea that isn't completely idiotic. Which, for me, is a bonus.

4010348 I hope that you'll be able to enter this time, and good luck if you do decide to enter.

4009962 Congrats on that!

Huh... I'm no good with slice of life, but I'll see what I can come up with.

Does it still count as mundane if it's mundane for the character in an alternate universe?

4010459
Yes it does, see my reply to a similar question above (4010197)

And feel free to start the topics with that character for the Characters That Need Workshops Thread Repository. Now that is a #shamelessplug right there!

4010485 Oki, thank you! And when does this end?

I checked... and I wanted to read about Junebug... but it lead me to Apple Brown Betty!

4010519
Submission deadline is March 9th. Also, per your last question. Try to stay away from war-torn AU's. The mundane in those places is still rather extraordinary such as killed 500 zombies a day.

And thanks for catching that error! That's what happens when you start making a ton of links after midnight.

4010617 'Kay, thanks. That mean no Sky-verse rebel ponies?

Well, considering that I'm nocturnal... not for me. Sometime around three in the afternoon, though, I'd do it then.

You can have that sky-verse since I knew from the question that's what you were referring to, but don't use the excuse of "war being seen as mundane." The point of the prompt it going through something you're familiar with in your life and making it interesting, not exemplifying the horror that is atrocities becoming everyday. Sorry to any servicemen reading this by the way if something like this did occur to you as the rule 2 calls to life experience for inspiration.

To use a cliche, try sticking to 1st world problems.

4009962 I'll try to get you more contenders by promoting this contest on my user page.

4010980
As Regocomics said, you can use the AU, but focus on taking something you're familiar with in your life and make a story out of that. Anyway, good luck if you decide to enter, and I hope you have fun.
4011990
Good luck if you do decide to enter. I hope you have fun.
Also, welcome to the group!

4012333 Not gonna use the AU, but I have an idea. Thank you!

4012417 You're welcome!

4009962

As my story have started to develop, I got a question, because I'm afraid the story is going outside the promt.
My story is about Babs Seed going through a normal day at her more or less crappy school, but also focus very much on how she think about her dreams and hopes and how she want her future to be like as she make her way through the day. Does that still fit within the boundaries of the promt?

4023130
It's kind of vague the way you're describing it, but you should be fine. You're focusing on coping with school life right? I don't see why not if that's the case. As long as you don't start out in the school setting and then suddenly aliens invade calling your group to be extraordinary heroes of planet Zubulon or something, you should be right as rain. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me a link and I can give it a quick read, but it should be fine.

Did you read the fiction I linked in the prompt? Though that story's focus is on the happenings of a couple's grocery trip, a lot still happens. The point is to take something everyday and make the most out of it. Something completely absurd might happen in the middle of class or they might have the first awkward talk of sex ed. Refer to the astronaut example above if you're still confused. Hopefully it helps!

4029918
Okay thanks, I think I got my answer. And yes, I'm writing about school life, since that's the most mundane thing there is for me.

4030148
Good luck! Don't hesitate to ask if you have anymore questions regarding the prompt.

4030722
Thanks

Funny. I recently wrote a story featuring a background pony going about their daily grind… but I don't think it's mundane enough for this contest

I'm through the 1,000-word barrier now, so I'm definitely going to be entering one of these at last! Well, unless I get carried away and it ends up being too long... but I doubt that will happen. It's a Fancy Pants story, incidentally. Obviously his mundane isn't quite the same as other ponies' mundane, but suffice it to say that what he's doing here is something he's probably done dozens of times and something that isn't the most exciting part of his life. So I think it's within the spirit of the rules.

Fairly close to the halfway point writers. Hope you submissions are coming along swimmingly!

4092899 Mine's just about done as far as writing is concerned; it's on to editing and proofreading now. Just under 2.5K words in the end. Really looking forward to reading all the other entries.

4094685 That's awesome! I'm excited to read your story when it is ready.

4009962

Hi,just posted my story Seeds can't fly , which I wrote for this contest, but I'm afraid it's too far fetched at the end. Can you give it a short once over to see if I'm too far out? I'd love to participate with it, but I don't think it fit...

4009962

So make sure you get to writing and get those in the Contest Submissions folder by March 9th.

Only just noticed this, but that folder isn't currently set to allow us to submit to it!

4103329

It was open, but it was only open to contributors. Whoopsies! It's fixed now.

4104056 Thanks very much -- and... submitted!

As I said earlier, my entry is a Fancy Pants story. I think hosting a small dinner party must be something FP does dozens of times a year, plus I only write about the preparations, not the event itself, so I'm pretty sure that qualifies as mundane for a pony like him.

Only one week left for submissions folks. Get those mundane tales in!

Closing day today... anyone else entering? I'd love to see some more entries for this contest!

4153187
I've entered with my story Seeds can't fly. This, which I knew already when I started writing, ended up being more of a personal 'thank you' to my current school, than a competition entry, at least to me. I still hope you enjoy it as mich as I do, though!

Only a few hours left to get your submissions in folks!