- Invitation Status
- Posting Speed
- 1-3 posts per week
- One post per week
- Slow As Molasses
- Writing Levels
- Intermediate
- Adept
- Advanced
- Prestige
- Douche
- Adaptable
- Preferred Character Gender
- Male
- Female
- Primarily Prefer Female
- Genres
- Fantasy, Magical, Romance, Dystopian, Religious, Post-Apocalyptic, Zombies (but the plot has to consist of more than just mindlessly murdering the undead), Steampunk
Welcome back to FFS (short for Flash Fiction Selections), a challenge of brevity in storytelling!
As both refresher and introduction, Flash Fiction Selections focuses on short works containing no more than 750 words to tell a complete story. Once the submission period ends, a panel of judges will deliberate to select a set of Finalists—and perhaps even a Grand Finalist—with a focus on cohesiveness, engagement, originality, and polish. Each will then be published in the FFS Hall of Fame and receive a special ribbon to flaunt underneath their username.
Now without further ado we announce the third theme! For June, the theme shall be:
Dreams of Glory.
We all have aspirations; some grand, some humble. We challenge you to bring dreams and aspirations to life in your stories! To help you along, the judges have provided you with five prompts. Choose one and use it in your work. You may change it a little, but it has to be recognizable.
- I came; I saw; I conquered.
- Just as the sun set, so too did her ambitions soar.
- Don't fly too close to the sun.
- Our wildest dreams are just that: pure fantasy.
- Best not to wake the Sleeping King.
With that out of the way, be sure to read the guidelines and rules! For returning participants, please note that there has been a change in the judging panel since the previous iteration.
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Two weeks are provided to complete the challenge, effective immediately. The deadline for submissions is the end of the day June 15th; as soon as the date rolls over into June 16th, entries are closed and late entries will not be accepted. Date rollover is based on the site's local time (North American Central/GMT-6). Send your entry via a single Inbox Conversation to all current FFS judges: @Turtle of Doom , @Nemopedia, @Eru, and @Holmishire.
Once submitted, the entries will pass through our panel of judges, who will review and nominate entries based on the quality of the storytelling, the narrative, and the editing. Following this, the panel will make a joint selection of the top entries to be awarded the title of Finalist. Each Finalist will receive a spot in the FFS Hall of Fame, as well as a shiny ribbon under their username!
In each iteration of FFS, there is a chance for one entry of exceptional quality to be awarded the title of Grand Finalist [spoili] (Due to its prestigious nature, a Grand Finalist may not always be awarded each iteration of FFS—so those who seek to ascend to the top of the top had better come prepared to work hard for it!)[/spoili] -
- Entries must be completed and submitted to the judges prior to the stated deadline.
- Entries must be between 100 and 750 words in length.
- Entries must be written in prose, however, snippets of poetry or script may be included within entries so long as they are not the focus of the entry.
- Entries may contain sexual content, so long as none of the participants are under the age of thirteen.
- Entries written to harass, demean, or criticize Iwaku members and other persons living will be rejected.
- Entries must be written expressly for this iteration of the contest. Any entry found to be plagiarized from other works or written prior to the opening of the submission period will be disqualified, and the entrant may be banned from this and other future official contests at the judges' discretion.
- Entries may contain elements from other works, such as settings, events, themes, and characters, so long as they are sufficiently developed beyond the confines of their original representations. Settings, characters, events, and themes previously established by the entrant may also be used.
- When using previously established elements in an entry, please keep in mind that the judges will only consider what is included in the story. Foreknowledge from other works or previous iterations of the contest should not be relied upon.
- Collaborative entries are not permitted. However, help from outsiders and fellow Iwaku members (excepting judges) in the form of feedback and editing is encouraged.
- Please distribute drafts in private messages if posted on Iwaku. If seeking help offsite, ensure that authorship can be clearly linked back to Iwaku to prevent false accusations of plagiarism.
- Only one entry per entrant, per iteration of the contest.
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- Send completed entry in a single private conversation to all current contest managers with a subject-line that makes it clear that it is a FFS entry, as well as which iteration of FFS it has been written for.
- For example: FFS #3: (insert entry title here).
- At any time prior to the submission deadline, an entry may be edited or replaced in the same private conversation as the initial submission. Please bump the conversation informing the judges of this change to ensure it isn't missed when the discussion thread is created.
- Please note whether the entry is to be kept anonymous. Anonymous entries will not be credited with the author's username in either the discussion thread or the Hall of Fame. Entrants may revoke their anonymity at any time; to make it official, please ping one of the judges.
- When a preference is not stated, entries will default to being credited.
- Please note if the entry is to be closed to public reviews. Closed entries will not be open to reviews from non-judges. Additionally, while all entries will be reviewed by the judges, entrants may opt to have these reviews posted publicly, privately, or not at all.
- When a preference is not stated, entries will default to being open to public reviews from both judges and non-judges.
- If the entry contains sexually explicit content, it must be marked as such in the subject-line of the private conversation submission.
- Send completed entry in a single private conversation to all current contest managers with a subject-line that makes it clear that it is a FFS entry, as well as which iteration of FFS it has been written for.
