Writing Contest

Size Riot was a quarterly flash fiction writing contest. Each event had a theme: January was Cruel, April was Gentle, and the topics for July and October were nominated and voted on by writers and readers. There were no prizes, though stories could be voted by readers as fulfilling certain categories. Eventually this structure was replaced by readers commenting on what these stories did well, guiding readers to write meaningful reviews of submitted work. This helped to alleviate the pressure of a “competition” and reinforce the idea of it as a supportive workshop. Seeing the roster of finished stories and hearing the excitement of the writers over social media was what increased participation.

The purpose of the contest was to invite writers to challenge themselves. Aborigen, who fancied himself a Gentle writer/reader, challenged Nyx to a “cruel-off.” Nyx was adept at sensational, frightening stories in which giantesses exulted in her power over weaker beings. Other writers thought this sounded fun, and soon a list of participants was drawn up, forming CruelJan17: a cruelty-themed contest in January 2017. This became a quarterly event in which writers had one month to create an entirely new work of Size Fantasy of 2,000 words or less, readers had one month to review all entries, and everyone had one month to calm down and prepare for the next round.

For the first year-and-a-half, there were around a dozen entries for each contest. Momentum picked up with WritersOct18, in which the writers (and not the readers) chose the topic: Big Couples. Signing up for a contest did not require completion, and if participants found themselves overwhelmed by life circumstances, they could quietly drop out. Generally, more than two-thirds of participants stuck with the contest each round and saw it through to the end. For example, for the most popular contest of the series, CruelJan19, 44 people signed up to join and 35 people completed a new story. The most dropouts were for the second-most popular contest, GentleApril19, where 47 people signed up and 30 people finished the contest, leaving 17 withdrawals.

There were several stipulations, and these posed problems for the continuation of the contest. If a writer submitted a story, they had to review all other stories; as time went on, some writers chose not to reciprocate for various reasons.

Stories involving underage characters and incest were forbidden; some writers continually sought ways around this.

The fundamental idea of the contest was to become a stronger writer by attempting unfamiliar topics; many writers, however, would not participate until their favored topic came up, focused on “winning” the “competition” aspect rather than developing and exploring themselves as a writer.

The good times could not last forever. The growing popularity of the contest had two consequences. One was the increase of time and labor required to manage the contest. The other was that it attracted a new group of people who saw it as a way to boost their own visibility, rather than to develop writing skills in a community. This group tried to dictate to Aborigen how to run the contest, then worked to blackball him from his community. Frustrated, hurt, and tired, Aborigen shuttered the project.

The writers who did participate fully in the contest speak of it with fondness. They appreciated the motivation to regularly produce new material, and they were excited to acquire new skills and develop proficiency in their craft. Many participants were especially thrilled to finally receive substantial reviews and feedback on their work. Some experienced authors volunteered to mentor beginning writers. To this day, Taedis reliably calls out Size Riot as a positive influence, both for the community it fostered and the encouragement to continually develop new stories. Scidram, an established novelist, was pleasantly surprised by the challenge of switching to short story format and became excited at the new skills he had to develop for this.

Aborigen has offered to teach anyone else how to start up and manage a similar writing contest. Understandably, there have been no takers. Were anyone to attempt such a contest, they would do well to stand by their own rules, inviting malcontents to start their own contest. If it were possible to delegate work, they should do so among a limited number of trusted friends. They should at least establish one or two people to bounce ideas off or to provide emotional support, rather than attempting this huge undertaking and going up against the masses alone.