(2023 Sep 18) Note: This old forum post was originally a deadline reminder, but has been repurposed to contain the text of the original contest announcement from the blog post as part of my archive standardization.

Welcome!

Hello friends!

I sure have been doing a lot of contests lately, haven't I? But one thing I noticed that keeps happening is that some writers get really into a story idea that spills out into fifteen, twenty, or even twenty-five kilowords, and then it is a struggle to get it all done in time. Even writers of medium-length stories sometimes end up panickedly rushing to the deadline! As someone who has been there for every contest I've entered in myself, I felt for each and every one of you.

So let's do something a bit more chill this time! How about a contest only for short stories? And not just short stories, but the kind that are so short that they cannot be even a single word shorter and still be publishable on FimFiction? That's right! This contest, running until 2022 May 2629, is only for stories that are exactly a thousand (1000) words long.

Of course, stories that are exactly a thousand (1000) words long can be in very different genres trying to do very different things, which makes them difficult to compare. So I looked through the list of stories on FimFiction that are exactly a thousand (1000) words long and came up with five categories, which covered most of the kinds of stories people write at that length. You will be submitting your entries to one or more categories, and we will be choosing winners for each category separately.

Categories!

Angst

Description: More sad/heavy than happy/light
Common tags: Drama, Sad, Tragedy
Examples:

EA Thousand Words of Noise

• MLP: FiM
• Sad
• Slice of Life

Twilight didn’t know what to say. How easy it sounded, to just not think about things that hurt, but thoughts were all she had. Thoughts were the only thing that were hers, for better or worse.

• Twilight
• Spike
• Luna
• Main 6

Monochromatic · 1000 words  ·  439  10 · 4.8k views

EA Thousand Words

• MLP: FiM
• Romance
• Sad
• Slice of Life

Sweet Biscuit loves a mare, and she won't let her forget.

• Other

Silver Mint · 1000 words  ·  38  1 · 427 views

Tcoward

• MLP: FiM
• Sad

I am a coward. I am a wimp. She was everything, and I am nothing.

• Suicide / Self Harm
• Rainbow Dash

applejackofalltrades · 1000 words  ·  53  6 · 1.4k views

Fluff

Description: More happy/light than sad/heavy
Common tags: Romance, Slice of Life, Comedy
Examples:

EInsomniMac

• MLP: FiM
• Romance

Sleepless nights take their toll on the big red stallion as he continues to worry on the ramifications of having a royal consort...

• Luna
• Big Mac

Noir de Plume · 1000 words  ·  112  1 · 2.6k views

EFantasy

• MLP: FiM
• Random
• Slice of Life

Scootaloo dreams of worlds beyond what we know. Are we all but a fantasy?

• Scootaloo

Glimglam · 1000 words  ·  43  0 · 1.2k views

ETime And Again

• MLP: FiM
• Romance
• Slice of Life

Minuette plans to tell Twilight her feelings, but with a twist.

• Twilight
• Minuette

Jhoira · 1000 words  ·  125  3 · 2k views

Grim

Description: The unsettling, grim, dark, and grimdark.
Common tags: Dark, Horror
Examples:

TBake Until Golden

• MLP: FiM
• Horror
• Slice of Life

Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Lulamoon bake muffins inside the palace kitchen.

• Trixie
• Starlight Glimmer

shortskirtsandexplosions · 1000 words  ·  197  2 · 3.2k views

TThe Scream

• MLP: FiM
• Dark
• Random

Death wasn't part of Twilight's plans for the weekend. Twilight was part of Death's plans for the weekend. Neither had foreseen someone else arranging a compromise.

• Death
• Twilight

Equimorto · 1000 words  ·  327  22 · 4.4k views

THeaven Help Us

• MLP: FiM
• Dark

Let the fires bathe us.

• Luna
• Other

The Red Parade · 1000 words  ·  18  5 · 324 views

Humo(u)r

Description: Funny stuff!
Common tags: Comedy, Random
Examples:

EPasses, Please

• MLP: FiM
• Comedy

Twilight and Spike attempt to enter a building, but are unexpectedly blocked by the unapologetic forces of pedantic bureaucracy.

• Twilight
• Spike
• Other

TheDriderPony · 1000 words  ·  117  2 · 1.5k views

ELesson Learned

• MLP: FiM
• Comedy

Cadence gives Flurry some magic lessons. This may doom Equestria.

• Cadance
• Flurry Heart

The Sleepless Beholder · 1000 words  ·  61  5 · 1.1k views

Experimental

Description: Let's see some weird, downright bizarre stuff.
Common tags: Slice of Life, Other
Examples:

EFence Post

• MLP: FiM
• Slice of Life

A fence post contemplates her existence.

• Other

Admiral Biscuit · 1000 words  ·  117  3 · 1.5k views

EPie of a Category 19 Storm

• MLP: FiM
• Random

Pinkie Pie romps through 19 different categories of short story in search of a satisfactory hayburger.

• Pinkie

Super Trampoline · 1000 words  ·  58  2 · 1.1k views

Prizes!

Note that all prize amounts will be sent by PayPal. If you are unable to receive money by PayPal, I, Bicyclette, will try my very best to arrange an alternative that works for you, but please be aware that it may not work out.

Thanks to me, Bicyclette, we have a total prize pool of $335!

In each category, two prizes will be awarded:

• Best: $40
• Runner-up: $15

In addition, each judge will bestow a Judge Prize of $15 on any entry of their choosing.

Judges!

I am very excited about each of these wonderful people who did me the honor of agreeing to judge this contest with me. Including myself, here is the full list:

• Bicyclette
• FanOfMostEverything
• Petrichord
• applezombi

Please keep in mind that while judges can encourage authors to enter and be excited that they are, they are not allowed to preread, edit, or brainstorm 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.

Community!

The group A Thousand Words has been created to both host the contest and collect stories that are exactly a thousand (1000) words long. Please join the group to have contest updates in your feed as well as to submit your entry into the category subfolders of the contest folder, which is an official requirement.

Rules!

1. The story must be exactly a thousand (1000) words long as seen on its card or longdesc. It does not matter if the word counter in Google Docs, Scrivener, or even the FimFic editor says a thousand (1000) words, all that matters is what the website says!
2. The gratuitous use of non-words, weird formatting, or other trickery to get a story to exactly a thousand (1000) words is not allowed, and we will be checking. The exception to this are Experimental and Humo(u)r fics. In those, feel free to use whatever non-words, weird formatting, or other trickery you please!
3. T-rated and E-rated stories may be of any rating or content. M-rated stories may be disqualified, so authors are encouraged to clear the content with a judge ahead of time to make sure this does not happen. No pornography, erotica, or mindless gorefests.
4. Stories based on Equestria Girls, Pony Life, the My Little Pony comics, and MLP:ANG (G5) are allowed.
5. AUs, crossovers, sequels, and side stories are allowed as long as they can be understood without having read their source material.
6. The deadline is 2000 2629/05/2022 UTC-4:00 (8:00PM of May 2629, 2022, ET). Stories must be published and completed, and placed in the appropriate subfolders of A Thousand Words Contest Submissions folder by this time in order to qualify. There will be no extensions or exceptions.
7. The one exception to the above is if a fic is stuck in the moderation queue (because you are a new writer, for example), or the auto-queue. In this case, you must PM me, Bicyclette, with the contents of the fic before the contest deadline in order to qualify (a fic password, or link to a public Google Docs, or the text of the story itself). If you are cutting it close to the deadline, do this just in case, as otherwise any stories that fail to be published by the deadline will be disqualified!
8. You may edit a published fic all the way up to the deadline time, at which point a copy will be saved locally. It is disqualifying to make any changes to the content after the deadline, unless they are the most minor of formatting and spelling changes, and even those will be frowned upon. Even after the deadline, feel free to make changes to the shortdesc, longdesc, chapter titles, cover, and fic title, though the last should be done sparingly.
9. Authors may submit a fic into multiple categories, but they may only submit one entry into each category. This means that authors may submit anywhere between one and five fics, if they desire.
10. Co-authors are not allowed.
11. If you feel like your idea, despite technically meeting all these rules, might go against what we might reasonably expect from a good-faith entry, or if you have any questions or want to clarify anything, please don't be afraid to discuss it with me, Bicyclette! The last thing we want is for you to spend a lot of time working on an entry and then have it not qualify at the end. We understand there will always be corner cases to consider.
12. For legal and job reasons of myself, any submission under the same account as fics that would be illegal to publish in the nation of Australia (a certain subset of pornographic material) are disqualified. This is the only requirement based on factors outside of the actual submission itself.

Other Contests

If this contest is not enough for you, try:

• My Maud Contest, ending 2022 Mar 31
• RockstarRaccoon's Operation: Crackfic Storm - 2022, ending on 2022 Apr 01
• Reactception's March 2022 Sunset Shimmer x Villain Contest: "Second Chances", ending on 2022 Apr 08

That's it!

Good luck!

Original post title:

THREE DAYS REMAINING

Original post text:

remember that the deadline is 2022 May 29 20:00 (8PM) ET

your story must be published with the text of the story in its final form by the deadline (covers, descriptions, et cetera, are free to be changed after the deadline).

since the site only publishes two fics in the queue every ten minutes, it is possible that you might submit to the auto-queue before the deadline and still have it be published after. so if it looks like you are cutting it close, please PM me the text of your story before the deadline to prevent disqualification.