Cynewulf Plays Dice With Your Heart--A Worldbuilding Fic CONTEST · 1:43am Dec 12th, 2017
Do you remember the first time you read a book or saw a movie/anime/show/play, and you felt a stab of something arresting, something beautiful, something horrifying, something... that wasn't connected exactly to the players upon the stage, or to the props they wielded, nor even to their quest, but to the world in which they walked?
Maybe you were watching The Fellowship of the Ring and as they came upon the Falls of Rauros you saw those two massive statues and something in you clicked. Maybe you read Pern and dreamt of riding dragons. Maybe you watched a show about magical horses and imagined what life might be like as a Changeling. You read Narnia and wondered what lay beyond the map. You read Harry Potter and pondered what magical life was like in the USA or Russia or China. You read Heinlein or Tolkien or a Frank Herbert, thought about the Fremen of Dune and the lore of Tamriel. Doesteovsky's St. Petersburg. Prachett's Ankh-Morpork.
Worldbuilding is hard to talk about. We all know what it looks like, mostly. We've all certainly seen it before. We've found worlds and cultures that delighted or mystified us, that pulled us in.
Worldbuilding is one of my all time favorite things. If you've been with me awhile, this will not surprise you. If you've been around, you've seen me time and time again call on a familiar, if largely oblique, mythos--the Song, Jannah, the West, the Field of Arbol, the Hymns of Gaia, High Canterlot, all of it--and if I succeed at anything it is in creating feelings about places. I hope.
So. It's contest time.
YOUR PROMPT: Write me a story between 2500-12,000 words centered around some bit of original worldbuilding. Do you want to write about Changelings in the hive and how they do romance? Do that. Do you want to write about how Dragons are actual extraplanar exiles? Sure, why not? (Oh that's a good one. Stole that from Donita K. Paul). Your story must be:
1.) 2500-12,000 words long
2.) complete by the deadline
3.) Involve either a canon character from the show or a very well-crafted OC
4.) Be any rating, but please avoid being edgy for the hell of it.
5.) Linked to me in a PM before the deadline. and by link I mean to a working FiMFic story page.
What are the prizes?
First place: $25 and 1-2 books sent to you by Cynewulf herself, with a personalized note. Also, a free commission.
Second Place: $15 and a book from Cynewulf herself with a note.
Third Place: $10 bucks OR a book from Cynewulf's library.
Judges: ME and that's about it so far, I'll update you if there's more.
DEADLINE: DECEMBER 30th at NOON CENTRAL TIME
Interested. Finals are next week, but I will do what I can.
If only I had any ideas. Hmm...
Curse you, other contests and the fact that I can't submit preexisting stories! Curse yooouuuu!
*rubs hooves together*
You would do this during Jinglemas...
4746537
ill jingle your mas
quickly, i need a time machine so i can not publish reaper!au and publish it for this
4746546
damn that would have been perfect
it can be a short fic in an established universe you have
hmmmm shit I really need to finish the skirts contest. this sounds like fun.
Hmmmmm
4746548 The temptation to write something Respite for this now is oh, so very tempting.
... sadly, I had an idea while getting a drink and I could probably do it within a week or two. I have a problem.
Noon in which time zone?
4746585
central time
LET'S DO THIS!
Tempting! I ... rather have a lot on my plate as is, but I miiiight just give this a go.
Just when I think I'm gonna take a break from ponyfic, they drag me back in ... :)
4746611
only if theres more NIGHTMARE MOON METAL
4746618
Well, shoot.
I don't suppose you'd settle for another installment of The Flash Sentry Papers?
Oh man. I've never actually written anything worth the word document it was typed up in, and certainly never showed anything off besides... but this sounds like a really interesting prompt. I mean, there's so many things that nobody writes about.
The reality of Breezies living in a completely self-sequestered space that exists completely apart from the rest of Equestria, and how that would affect their culture. Or Equestria's economy - what kind of economy would not only necessitate a rock farm of all things, but what are the specifics about how such a farm even works? Or the subject of Buffalo! Anything about them, literally anything at all. Comparatively, nobody ever writes anything about buffalo - Chief Thunderhooves doesn't even get a character tag! Even completely boring baseless background characters can get a background tag, but he doesn't get one.
So much to think about and mull over... hrm.
You've just described a huge chunk (roughly 70K words, give or take) of my second fic, but since you'd have to read through the first one, *then* the second, I suspect that takes it outside this contest's parameters!
(Great idea, btw)
I was like "Oh. Cool. A contest. World building. What a neat concept. I really like it. Although it would be hard to think of a cool idea that hasn't been---"
And then you hit me with an idea so hard, I can't not write it for this contest. It won't win, but I don't care
Sure, I'm into it.
I don't think this is possible for me, lol, whenever I try to write anything under 10k words it blows up to something that's at least 50k words long.
It's always about worldbuilding. The world is alive when I'm reading it. Great idea for a contest
4746780
Made me check. You win
exams are too damn soon
Will definitely be trying this. Been working on my world building skills lately.
Perhaps something about why the Crystal Empire is only a single city?
fuck i had other plans sorta kinda mostly
and i'm on hiatus
but
i'm in
except i'll still be on hiatus. sorta invisible.
i'll be
a
ghostwriter
sorrynotsorry
This is such a cool idea! I'm going to do my best for it. Question: does it have to be in the ponyverse or does eqg count?
4752922
EQG is totes fine