SHORT STORY WRITERS CONTEST -- February 2023 -- FREE YOUR IMAGINATION --FYI2023

This is an Official ATS Short Story Writers Contest!

It is open to ALL members of ATS.

This area is a safe place for our 'mighty fine creative minds' to gather. If you'd like to participate, know that the Terms and Conditions of your membership are strongly enforced. You are not in the Mud-Pit. Profanity, Political baiting, Personal attacks, are not allowed or welcomed at all. Want to talk about something else? Then go to the other forums here at ATS. We only discuss the stories in here written by YOU, the membership.

By submitting a Short Story in an Official ATS Contest, you agree to the following;

Your Entry Has to be Original Fiction & posted in it's own thread HERE in the Short Stories forum,. Then in this contest thread, create a post with a link to your story. If you need any help with Spelling or Grammar-checking, Word-Counting, and more please visit; Writer Tools; Spell Check and More

Your Story Should be written and edited with paragraphs. We have noticed that stories copy & pasted from 'mobile devices' might lose their formatting. Please review how it looks on the ATS Thread and add the proper editing (as you have only about 20 minutes to make edits/corrections). This is a contest, no one wants to read a solid block of words.

A.I. Technology can not be used in the stories creation. Only ATS members are allowed to participate in the Contest.

You may enter more than once, but you can only win one prize.

"The END" needs to be at the bottom of your story, it wont add to the word-count.

You will be awarded "Writer" Status if you win 1st or 2nd in the non-writer category, please add in your stories title 'non-writer'.

The contest will run from NOW to Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Any submissions after that date will be disqualified. A period of ONE WEEK after the closing of the contest will be provided for reading & voting.

Contest Winners get to choose the next Contest Theme. This contest theme is courtesy of our last winner 727Sky, and is entitled: FREE YOUR IMAGINATION -- FYI2023. Anything within the writer's imagination is welcomed (within the T&C's of course).

RULES OF ENTRY (are simple)

* Entries must be original fiction. ATS members cannot be characters.
* The Contest is for Humans only: No AI submissions.
* Entries MUST include -FYI2023- in your Stories title. ( e.g. Wedded Bliss -FYI2023- non-writer )
* This is a 'SHORT STORY' Contest. Stories that run past the OP are accepted but no points given for additional posts.
* You need to post a link to your story here in this contest thread so others know that you made up an entry.
* You must stay within the Terms and Conditions (please read)

WINNERS and SCORING

ATS "Writer" status, prizes as follows:
1st -- 5 Applause, and gets to choose the next contest theme (Repeat winners can choose to pass to another for the theme of a future contest).
2nd -- 3 Applause
3rd -- 1 Applause

non-writer will receive the following:
1st Place -- 3 Applause & Writer Status
2nd Place -- 2 Applause & Writer Status
3rd Place -- 1 Applause

How the Contestants get points to win all depends on you! You can give FLAGS to your favorite story and add STARS to your favorite stories opening post.

We then tally up the scores of 'Flags' (worth 2 points each). And 'Stars' in the opening post (worth 1 point each)

And that's it! Got a question? We're happy to try and answer anything about the
contests/rules etc. But ENJOY this new contest, GOOD LUCK, HAPPY READING and HAVE FUN!

Note: New OP contest format, image selection and artwork thanks to JohnnyAnonymous.

Looking forward to reading what you whip out...

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe
www.abovetopsecret.com... "The never ending war" a continuation from
PAD 2022 Support Cruisers destroyed..

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

I blame Matt Henderson for this abomination of a story.


www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Story time! Story Time! Story Time!


Thanks and everybody: welcome back! Looking forward to you 'au naturel' with your beautiful imagination showing.


I also made you a little something


Enjoy & looking forward to yours,
sincerely
Cleo

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

This might help with the integrity of the entries

a reply to: 19Bones79

Thank you!!!

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Nobody puts baby in the corner.

Here is my entry:

The Last Entry

Entry: Inside the gates

Thx for the opportunity and good luck.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

You'll have to start somewhere...

the wheels of life

It's great to see the membership jump into the Contest Fire right from the start!

Cool. I enjoyed the short stories published in ye olde Omni magazine very much, and these remind me of them. What's the word count again?

Entry:

Tess Discovers A New, Warm, Brown Dwarf FYI2023.

Status: Writer

originally posted by: BeNotAfraid

Cool. I enjoyed the short stories published in ye olde Omni magazine very much, and these remind me of them. What's the word count again?

No Word Count on this Contest (or others unless specifically suggested).

Typically the Contest is judged on a One Post-Page (which has approximately 9,000-10,000 characters). Anything more than a one page post does not add or exclude any points or bonuses. But since it's a "Short Story" Contest we have found that most can work/write within those parameters.


We look forward to your upcoming story.
Johnny

PS... I used to love OMNI articles myself.


**ETA**

Just for reference, I used our current Contest Theme Creator's (727Sky) first page post of his story (FYI 2023) The never ending War and used a word counter. It came out to be 1367 words, 7381 characters.

Pop on A Sunny Day

Almost forgot to post a link.

What's missing from the current Contest? YOU

a reply to: JohnnyAnonymous

Just a little FYI I concocted another one...

the elevator

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

FYI 2023 You can not fix Stupid www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

www.abovetopsecret.com... FYI Future Space Warfare (FYI2023)