Guess who's back?

It's us! About a year ago, we had an site contest for stories about stallions (species-neutral term) kissing other stallions (species-neutral term). And it was a great success! We received so many amazing stories that, winner or not, all contributed to the wonderful experience of reading them.

So of course we're doing it again this year!

The contest begins once you, whoever you are, reads this post, and lasts until 2022 Dec 11. You have until then to write and publish a story centered on a male/male ship. The story does not have to be a romance, or a happy one, as long as we can see the dynamics and chemistry that the stallions have or have once had!

Prizes!

Separate from any prizes, for every entry in the contest, $5 will be donated to OutRight International, an organization aiming to eradicate the persecution, inequality and violence lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) people face around the world.

Note that all prize amounts will be sent by PayPal. If you are unable or unwilling to receive money by PayPal, please contact me, Bicyclette, to try to arrange an alternative. (In the past they have included donations to mutually agreed-upon charities, and money being sent to other writers.)

The base prize pool will be $250, tentatively split this way:

• First Place: $100
• Second Place: $65
• Third Place: $40
• Judge Prizes: $15 (x3)

However, this is just the minimum! Depending on the turnout, more prize money and prizes will likely be added.

And in recognition of the special reaction M/M stories tend to receive on this site, every comment downvote on anything related to the contest (stories, posts) will add $1 to the prize pool, as well as donate an additional $1 to OutRight International.

Judges!

Here we are!

• Bicyclette
• daOtterGuy
• mushroompone

Please keep in mind that judges are not allowed to preread, edit, or discuss any entries with the author before the contest results are released! In addition, judges are asked to withhold commenting on entries until after the release of contest results.

Rules!

1. All entries must have their main/primary ship be an M/M pairing (or M/M/M polyship, or M/M/M love triangle, or what have you).
2. Stories can be of any rating or content, though we ask you to stay away from extreme content (fetishes, extreme gore, etc.) and porn without plot.
3. R63 of canon female characters, AUs, crossovers, and OCs are all allowed. But judges are not guaranteed to know anything outside of G4 and G5 canon material, so please keep this in mind!
4. Stories must be published and complete between 2022 Oct 09 8PM ET and 2022 Dec 11 7PM EST to qualify.
5. Authors may submit as many stories as they wish, though each author may only win one prize.
6. There is a hard cap of 50kw total between all entries by a single author. However, we officially encourage quality over quantity!
7. Submissions will be collected in the M/M Shipping Contest 2022 Submissions folder. Feel free to join the group and place it in yourself!
8. If you have any questions about the contest not covered in this post, please feel free to PM me, Bicyclette.
9. As I, Bicyclette, must interact with all entrants, please keep in mind my DNI policy.

That's it!

Please make sure to join the group if you are interested, since any updates to the contest, as well as the eventual results, will be posted there.

And if you crave more contests to enter, here are some that are currently running as of this writing:

• Nailah's SPOOK Contest, ending 2022 Oct 31.
• Reactception's Sunset Shimmer x Villains Unseen Contest, ending 2022 Nov 10.
• Nitro Indigo's Choices: A Species Change Contest ending 2022 Nov 30.

Best of luck, and good shipping!

7750411
Gasp! My boys! Top-center!

Thank you Otter and Bike for making this collage happen!!

1. Stories can be of any rating or content, though we ask you to stay away from extreme content (fetishes, extreme gore, etc.) and porn without plot.

So if it's clop with a storyline, that is okay?

7750497
Yes, just so long as there is a plot to go with the plot. And of course nothing too extreme, feel free to run it by us through PM though if need be.

7750524
Will keep that in mind, thank you!

I'm not expecting to get anywhere close to wining, but will definitely enter again and look forward to reading the other entries!
Thanks for doing this again!

Ah, sorry. My previous comment was meant as a joke but I realize it didn't read like one.
I'm a gay author who loves M/M fluff and hate that it's automatically overwhelmingly downvoted on this site so the way that the judges are prepared for that had me rolling on the floor laughing. "Your hate only makes us stronger..."
I definitely won't be downvoting entries for this one and am very excited to read the entries!

7750844
really excited to see you back for this!
7750945
hehehe exactly

7754165
Aw, thanks!

thowing my hat in the game

7750411
Question: It doesn't say anything concrete in the rules about co-authoring a story. Is that allowed?

Hey. Just finished my entry story, but the folder for the 2022 contest doesn't allow stories to be added. Which explains the two entries in the Intended folder. Is this on purpose?

7762422
Right, I put my intended entry in the Intended folder so that it's at least somewhere. Hope to see more entries over the next month!

I think I shall engage with a contest for the first time. Expect buggos.

Also, 7754165 any word on the submission confusion yet? This year's folder can't be added to.

7760049
hi, i would say that co-writing is allowed, but for contest purposes the account that the story is posted under will be treated as the "entrant"
7762422
hi, that is fixed now, sorry about that!
7765745
looking forward to it!

7765888
Alright, thanks! And glad to see that the issue about uploading is finished, just in time for me to publish my pieces!

7765745
An entry for this contest by you with yet more diabetes-inducing Changeling wonderfulness?!
Ooh, yes please! SO looking forward to it!

7765888
NP, glad it was able to be worked out! Many thanks!

I have a quick question. Do the stallions have to be stallions or can they be colts?

I have my characters picked out but I'm having trouble deciding how old they need to be for the story. Can they be school age?