I must confess that I am excited. All us Judges are, and we hope all of you are too, because I had a doozy this morning and we prefer to take that as a good sign. This will mark our first contest since the group overhaul, and like everything else we will tackle it with a dedicated attitude. As your Judges we aim to provide our members with the best experience we can manage.

What's that you say? Alright... But only because you asked. We have two prompts for you to choose from this month:

Prompt #1: Taverns can be considered the premiere starting place for many an adventure and/or story. Many interesting yet less epic things also happen in a bar (Bar fights, sob stories, freeloaders, gambling, true love, alcohol, you could go on.) Write a story where the setting is in an Equestrian tavern. It can be populated by OC's or the main six, but the key here is to really get the feeling of the place out in your writing. Focus on honing your skills at exposition.

Prompt #2: Being a newcomer or tourist in an unfamiliar city can be quite an experience. New sights, sounds, and customs all contribute to the appeal of travel. On the flipside, it can also be a nerve racking and unpleasant experience to be a stranger in a strange land. Choose either Canterlot or The Crystal Empire. Write a story about a non-native's experience in that particular city. Reasoning behind your character's being there is up to you, but again the objective is to put the feeling of the setting into your writing. Focus on honing your skills at exposition.

Do you see what we are doing? This is the School for New Writers. That means that each contest the Judges will ask you to work on mastering a particular part of your writers skill set. For May, the Focus of the Month is...

Of course, that is not to say that you should focus on it to the exclusion of all else. A balanced story is a far better achievement. Just make it a goal to do better at that skill as you write. That's all we ask, and all we are looking for as your Judges.

This May we are following all the rules laid out in the official SFNW contest rules. If you've read it already, check it again. I may have updated them since then. If you have any questions regarding rules and/or the prompts, post them here. We will answer your questions.

1) When submitting your story, please submit it to BeauZoe (that's me), following the prescribed method. I'm handling all story submissions. A PM will be sent back to you confirming your submission.

THE DEADLINE FOR STORY SUBMISSION IS...

interesting. I might do one, probably on the second prompt.

I'm new to this site, could you please explain this more in depth?

933027 I will be doing one on the first prompt, after I re-read the contest rules.

Am I allowed to have drunken ponies??

933494
Sure I can.
Which part did you have in mind?

933538
What do you think? I say, let there be pie! And drunken ponies! and Jack Sparrow! Or, you know, you could go for a more serious approach. I'm good either way.

933812 lol. Alright thanks!!

I've looked at this thread around four times and every time I always think it says "Activity NSFW" and I'm like, "nah, I don't do cl- oh. Wait. Never mind, I want in."

935837
Hmm... perhaps a thread name change is in order. Should be fixed now.

Love it but I don't know about the password part.

937820 Well... you're quite right. Some of the rules seem to be there just to be rules (What was I thinking?) Lemme see if I can fix this. Here's the redone rules (should only effect you during submission of your entry... so carry on everybody. These now supersede the rules posted in the rules thread.)

Entry Rules:
~ The story must be no more than Teen rated. No clop or graphic gore is allowed.
~ Your story must follow all special rules which are posted in the contest thread itself. Every regular rule for posting on Fimfiction also applies to our contests.
~ Your story needs to conform to one of the prompts given in the contest thread.
~ An entry must not, at any time prior to the contest, have been submitted to Fimfiction, period. You may post the story during the time of the contest. However, your stories reception on Fimfiction will have no baring on judging.
~ An entry must be a Fimfiction story. We don't accept Google doc links. (Fimfiction doesn't except stories which are just Gdoc links, so why should we?) You can write and edit in any medium you want, but the actual entry must be on Fimfiction.
~ Editing of stories that have already been sent in is allowed. Simply remember that if you make changes after the contest deadline then it is likely that judging has begun, and there is no guarantee that your changes will be seen.
~ For time-constraint reasons, an entry should be no more than 5000 words long. We may accept a little overflow... but not much. It is also allowed to have stories which are significantly shorter, but they will be judged with the longer ones, by the same rules. If your story turns out to have significantly more than the allowed word count, we will judge only the starting chapters, up to the point where it exceeds the count.

If your entry fails one of the requirements above, your story will be disqualified, and you will receive a PM telling you why. The entry may be resubmitted if the PM states that you are allowed to do so. Be sure to fix the points which caused the disqualification.

Submission Rules:

Every entry must be submitted by PM to the Judge stated to be accepting submissions. The PM must say SFNW Contest Submission- Month of contest in the subject line, and contain in its message a HYPERLINK to the entry in question, the username of the author, and the title of the story.

Mass reply time, so that people might now of the change in rules. 933027>>933293>>933494>>933538>>935837 Thank you for listening to this brief announcement everybody.

939194 Oh. Now that I re-read I can't enter anyway

939219
Not sure what you mean.

939229 My entry would go against some of the entry rules and I would be disqualified.

How strictly are we expected to follow these prompts? Would any deviation that captures the essence of the idea be acceptable?

954473
Yes it can. Both prompts will be graded the same way, so there's no reason you can't use both in varying degrees.

950311
There are plenty of areas in the prompt which leave decisions to the Authors, and/or are ambiguous enough to allow an Author to add their own details. The specifics we do have are going to stay the way they are.
However, I will stipulate that "Tavern" was pretty vague, so I'll clarify it by saying it means anything with a bar/barkeeper in it. (Good Example: Pony Joe's)
I hope that answers your question.

As to prompt #1, can it be set in a more nightclub-like place instead of a tavern? Also, how much violence is acceptable? I was thinking about doing a bar shootout type thing but I want to confirm that it would be okay as long as the violence isn't described in too much detail.

971484
If it's got a bartender then yes, nightclub type establishments are viable to use. And as long as it's teen rated you'll be fine. No extreme inappropriate behavior, and no bloody gore. (Alcohol's fine... bring on the vodka!)

972442
Alright, thanks. I've decided to abandon that idea anyway but I have a new idea that brings another possible problem to light. I know clop isn't allowed, but how about implied sex/fade to black and double entendre? I think it should be fine but i'm not sure.

974716
Depends on how close you get to the actual whoopie part. Walking out the door heading home to do some stuff is fine, but if it gets to the bed (or wherever) you're pushing it.

974746
Well the type of thing I was thinking of was,

"..And then I walked in and she was right on top 'a-" [Cut]

That's pretty close. Artificially distancing the act from the narrative would work, for instance, having him walk in, then walk out with a blush, or it not actually happening within the bounds of the story and simply being told second-hand.

In the end though, I'd say use your own judgement. If its well crafted, and you manage to skirt around the subject, you might even gain a few tenth's of points on your score.

You've got the right idea. We'll be flexible with what you give us.

974792

Perfect, I was planing it as being told second hand anyway. Thanks.