The theme for July-August 2025 Contest by @J.Logan is "Non-conformity" I feel like if Bob was here he could give us a comic with a rebellious teenaged Lizard. Ironically, you must still conform to our rules below. The Rules -We would like you to try to keep your story between 500 and 2000 words. I am requiring that entries do not exceed 2400 words. This is counting title, poems, quotes, any add-ons. If I get a submission that exceeds 2400 words, I will trim it till it meets the limit, and you may not like what words I choose to cut. Even prepositions are not safe... -Your name must appear nowhere with the story. There is no point in having an anonymous competition based on skill if we know whose entry is whose. -You must send your story via private message to Scalenex before midnight O' one (12:01 AM, US Central time) on August 2nd 2025 -The story must be new. No dragging up a story you wrote months or years ago. -No plagiarism. This means no stealing a story verbatim. You are free to use characters or settings from other works including other writer's fluff pieces and past short story contest entries. -It bothers me that I have to say this but it's current year, so no AI writing. -The story must involve Lizardmen (or Seraphon or Salamanders or Saurian Ancients or Rangos), at least a little. -The story must stick roughly within the theme, at least a little. -No comics or illustrations. This is a short story contest. Visuals are limited to fonts and text colors. -Only one entry allowed per person. Once again, the winner of this contest has the honor of choosing the next contest theme if they so choose. If you want to talk about the theme or your eagerness to write or read something. Please do so below!
My initial thought is that the stories would deal with characters who conform or don't, creating conflict. Lizardmen and Seraphon society is big on conformity and a even a small bit of individuality can be viewed as a threat, but sometimes lizards with individuality end up saving the day. Of course, the theme of conformity/nonconformity comes up in the other WHF and AoS factions a lot. I would say at least 10% of all short stories in this contest's run deal with conformity in some form. But the thought recently occurred to me that a story can qualify for the theme by breaking the literary norms of a short story. That's pretty common. In general, votes-wise, nonconventional story formats tend to be in the middle of the pack, neither getting the most votes nor the least votes. Getting the middle of the pack might work as a baseline if you had the @NIGHTBRINGER seal of approval to carry you over the finish line. I don't know if giving Nightbringer what he wants would be a form of conformity or a form of non-conformity. A case can be made either way.
*Claps hands together and starts the menacing rubbing* Yees... Non-conformity, a theme near and dear to me. Today, I shall be perusing my mind through my library of ideas for one best suited for the task, and tomorrow? Tomorrow I shall commence with the writing? And the day after!? Why, I shall rule the world! BWAHAHAHAHAHA! *cough* I'm pretty sure that would be conforming to his whims and desires for Dawi-Zhaar to be the main stars of this forum. So by saying no, I am not conforming... but then it gets tricky, because if everybody else does the same, does that mean we happen to be conforming to a cultural desire to object to Dawi-Zhaar? It's like a paradox! What came first, the chicken or the egg? I say neither, I dispute this notion and refuse to conform to the idea that either was the start of the circle, but instead what came first was THE BIG BANG! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! In seriousness... got a few ideas, need to juggle them in my head to determine which ones are most likely to be actual short stories when written and which ones would inevitably end up as a "prologue of something larger". Maybe... Hmm, maybe not... But that one... Mayhaps...
It all depends on the perspective from which one views it. Inclusion of the mighty Chaos Dwarfs: would be conformity to the NIGHTBRINGER's ideals... ...but, the NIGHTBRINGER is the forum's equivalent of an agent of chaos. Chaos = non-conformity. So conformity to NIGHTBRINGER's ideals is conformity to non-conformity, and hence non-conformity. most people (despite the awesome win rate) do not include Chaos Dwarfs in their stories. So stories without Chaos Dwarf inclusion would be the short story norm. Therefore, including them would be a deviation from said norm, ergo... non-conformity. since the short story contests typically have somewhere around 3-6 contestants, and typically only have a single winner; winning is in some way non-conformity. Due to the fact that Chaos Dwarf stories nearly always win, including them in a short story results in the non-conformity of being the singular winner from amongst a field of losing entries. Might... as in the sun might rise tomorrow. It's almost a certainty. For the couple of years that I've followed these contests, I've only ever seen a Chaos Dwarf story lose twice. We can discount one of those as it was to another story that also included the Chaos Dwarfs (which was the only instance of ever of having multiple CD stories in a single contest). So against non-Chaos Dwarf content, the Chaos Dwarfs have only failed to win once. Scientifically speaking, the egg came first.
But conformity to non-conformity is still in itself conforming to that. When everybody conforms to non-conformity, does that then make conforming to the previously established standard itself a form of non-conformity, for you are not following the conformity... So... by not conforming to Dawi-Zhaar inclusion in my work but somebody else conforming to their inclusion, and yet if I still win, then I am being not then being non-conforming to historical precedent? Dang it... that word is starting to lose meaning XD
In (unlikely) large enough numbers, I'd agree. Once my viewpoint becomes the norm, conforming to it can no longer be defined as non-conformity. My previous equation of conformity X non-conformity = non-conformity would become conformity X conformity = conformity. That is of course only if my viewpoint remains static. I am Chaos. Yes, in that scenario, IF you managed to pull off the massive upset, that would be a clear case of non-conformity. However, that is a colossally big IF. For that to occur, three things are required: you can't include CD content in your story (this one is easy and fully in your control) someone else must include CD content in their story. this is the big one, you must somehow defeat a CD story with a non-CD story... Spoiler
I figured this out when I was ten. Dinosaurs predate chickens. Some/most/all dinosaurs came from eggs.
Mwahahaha! I've got it! I have two ideas. One of them I have more of a preference for, but I can't be certain whether I'll do it justice, so fortunately for me, depending on how well it turns out (or doesn't as the case may be) I have a backup plan! On the morrow, I shall commence with the writing of a non-conforming story the likes of which you've never before seen conforming to the written word!
In the same logic will writing a story about a different theme, thuss not confirming to the given theme, be confirming to the given theme? Grrr, !mrahil
I suppose it would. For it to work, the chosen theme would have to be conformity... which in turn would be non-conforming to the contest theme of non-conformity. In which case, any and all themes would be fair game... if you write a story featuring non-conformity, you meet the specified theme requirements if you write a story featuring conformity, you don't meet the specified theme requirements, however that in and of itself is non-conformity to the theme, so you meet the specified theme requirements I guess that's it, we've broken the contest. Either that, or we are just playing semantic word games at this point.
Hey, @NIGHTBRINGER, you could non-conform to your own rule and actually write an entry in this contest. It would be thematically appropriate. I'm sure you are pleased at the chaos that this prompt has garnered. And it wasn't even an intention. Tzeentch must have had a hand in this.