• Writer's Training Grounds: "Appleoosa's Most Wanted"


    Hey fanfic authors and readers of Equestria Daily!  I bet you were starting to think we weren't gonna do the Writer's Training Grounds this season, when in reality we were just too lazy to start it for a month busy trying to modify out submission form to make it work properly to help the event run smoothly.

    If you're new, and don't remember the Writer's Training Grounds, it's a weekly short story writing event we do after each new episode.  Authors write a fanfic based on one of several prompts, leading to a healthy dose of episode-related fanfiction that all gets compiled in a post here a week later.  Regardless of if you're a seasoned writer or are just now thinking of trying your hand at fanfiction, you're welcome in this event.  The more participation, the better!

    If you wanted to write a fic based on the first few episodes of season 5, don't worry!  We're going to go back during the break weeks and run events for the episodes we slacked off during were unable to properly run the event for when they first aired.

    Get your prompts, and the usual fic submission copypasta, below the break.

    Prompt 1: Troubleshoes has ruined more than a few rodeos.  Write a story involving one (or more) of the rodeos Troubleshoes visited before Appleoosa, and how it went.

    Prompt 2: Disappointed that they weren't allowed to compete, the Cutie Mark Crusaders decide to make a rodeo of their own.

    Prompt 3: Braeburn tells the (wildly exaggerated) story of how he hurt his leg. 

    The Writer's Training Grounds is a weekly writing exercise in which authors of all skill levels are invited to craft a story based on the prompts provided above. Responses to these prompts are posted directly on Equestria Daily in a weekly compilation post that bypasses the pre-reading process. Authors are then highly encouraged to read comment on, and promote each others' stories -- if you've ever prepared a copy-paste comment for an episode followup, consider doing the same for a fellow WTG participant!

    If you have any prompt ideas for next week's WTG, feel free to chuck them over to fanfiction@equestriadaily.com with the subject line "WTG Prompt Idea" or something similar. We just might use it that week and give you credit!

    Da Rulez:
    • Keep the content appropriate as defined by our submission guidelines.
    • Keep it between 1,000 - 7,000 words. >Greentexts and doorstoppers should apply elsewhere!
    • Keep it to two genres maximum. For the roundup, fics will be grouped by their primary genre.

    When you finish working on your fic, use this form to submit it to the Training Grounds. However, we will require much of the same information as if you were submitting a regular fic as follows, and this document explains what these requirements are.

    1. Story title
    2. Author name
    3. Story description (~1 paragraph maximum)
    4. Word count
    5. Genre tags (2 tags maximum)
    6. Character tags (3 tags maximum)
    7. Story URL (must be hosted on FimFiction, GDocs, dA, etc.)
    8. Email address

    The deadline for submission is >>>Friday, May 8, by 11:59 EST<<< 

    As always, please continue to leave us feedback with what works well for these events, what's not working well, your general satisfaction with these, etc. etc. and so on. Now get writing!