The contest has come to a close, and Honeyfeed is overjoyed to have been part of a celebration for a monumental achievement - ONE BILLION PLAYS of YOASOBI's enchanting song, "Into The Night." A heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated in our collaboration writing contest!
In the spirit of celebration, writers channeled their creative energies to craft spin-off stories inspired by "Into The Night" and the original novel "An Invitation from Thanatos." It was a unique opportunity to dive deeper into the world created by Mayo Hoshino and YOASOBI, opening doors for writers to explore endless possibilities in their careers.
Read the short story "An Invitation from Thanatos" and watch the video "Into The Night" (JP Original/ENG) by YOASOBI and write a spin-off story based on those two things. Both the original story and the music video are the prompts for this contest.
Entries must be a complete flash fiction of one chapter written with a minimum of 760 words and a maximum of 1,500 words in the English language.
Each writer can submit a maximum of two novels to this contest. Each story must be posted separately as a new novel on Honeyfeed. Although submitting more than one novel may increase the chances of winning, only one novel per author will be considered as a finalist.
Vote by clicking on the button on the bottom right.
YOASOBI is a Japanese artist duo that turns novels into music, consisting of composer Ayase and vocalist ikura. Their first song, titled "Into The Night" (JP Original / ENG) released in November 2019 and in 2020, won first place on the Billboard Japan general song chart "HOT100". "Into The Night" is a song inspired by the Japanese web novel "An Invitation from Thanatos" written by Mayo Hoshino. YOASOBI is famous for their motto "novels into music" successfully launching their career by adapting songs from monogatary.com. Thanks to their unique combination of literature and music, the duo has gone viral, fascinating fans across the world with the stories within their lyrics and their captivating animated videos. YOASOBI's presence is strong in the anime community, being the music behind the anime series "BEASTARS" and their most recent anisong hit "Idol" in the series "Oshi no Ko".
Make sure you have thoroughly read the short story "An Invitation from Thanatos" and carefully watched the video "Into The Night" by YOASOBI. After you have a clear idea of what to write as a spin-off story based on those two things, log into your Honeyfeed account and click on "Create Novel".
1. Start by entering your novel's title and synopsis. Then, select "all_audiences" as the maturity rating for your novel.
2. As you choose your genres, be sure that they match the general image that "An Invitation from Thanatos" and "Into The Night" give off.
3. Click the checkbox located next to "Submit this novel to YOASOBI x Honeyfeed Writing Contest"
4. Write your entire story and submit it. Remember that your novel can only contain one chapter, meaning that all of the story must be told and reach a conclusion within just one chapter.
After your story is published, make sure your novel appears under the newly published novels for the YOASOBI x Honeyfeed Writing Contest section on Honeyfeed's home page.
After successfully following and completing these steps, your novel will now be participating in the YOASOBI x Honeyfeed Writing Contest. Good luck!
- Your novel must be written in English.
- Only new novels created for this contest will be eligible to go through the judging process.
- Your novel must be marked as "Completed" on the Honeyfeed site before November 5, 2023, meaning it should have a satisfactory conclusion by this date.
- You are not allowed to make any changes or additions to your novel after November 5. However, minor edits to the Author's Note, such as including artist credit, or updating your novel cover are acceptable.
- Spin-offs, fanfics or plagiarism of other copyrighted material other than from "An Invitation from Thanatos" story and "Into The Night" music video by YOASOBI is not allowed.
- Your novel entry cannot contain any content that has been copyrighted, including settings, worlds, characters, designs, plot points, or story elements, that were "taken from" or "inspired by" other authors' previous work.
- Your novel must be exclusive to Honeyfeed during the contest period.
- Your novel must be suitable for ages 17+, and it should be set to the "All audience" setting in Honeyfeed. No NSFW content is allowed.
- To be eligible as a contest winner your novel must contain minimum of 760 words and a maximum of 1,500 words total.
- Your novel must contain a novel cover on Honeyfeed.
- You must be 18 years old on or before December 20, 2023, to participate in the contest.
Judges will be using the following criteria to select novels as finalists. Skipping on complying with any of the details in the eligibility checklist and judging criteria will automatically disqualify your novel from the contest.
- The novel has a cover image and it's properly credited to the artist or the AI tool used in the image description.
- The novel has an appealing synopsis.
- The novel has the appropriate genre labels that describe the story.
- The author makes an effort to connect with the reader community and promote themselves in the correct promo spaces.
- The public reacts well to the novel. (Positive comments, returning comments.)
- The author replies to comments in a timely manner.
- The author complied with Honeyfeed Site's and/or Honeyfeed's Discord Community Guidelines & left a positive impression.
Want more public engagement? Use your social media accounts to promote yourself (e.g. create promo videos and posts) or join Honeyfeed's Discord and interact with our community.
- The novel has good English grammar & syntax.
- The novel has good character development and story progression.
- The novel properly met the contest objective.
- The story is easy to follow, and fun to read.
- The story's plot is resolved within 760 to 1,500 words.
All novel entries submitted to the contest will be read, debated, and voted on by our judging committee. Our judges will go through all the entries and choose the top 10 finalists. The judges will vote between November 6 to November 19, 2023. Some judges may be recruited as jury members during the public voting phase.
If you're interested in being a judge, you can apply starting from October 8, 2023. There are limited spots available in the judging committee.
Once the finalists have been selected, a jury of experienced readers will evaluate the novels and provide valuable feedback. The jury's feedback will be combined with the public vote to determine the three contest winners.
The voting process will take place from November 20 to December 20 , 2023 on the Honeyfeed website.
The winners of the YOASOBI x Honeyfeed contest will be announced on December 26, 2023. The grand prize winner will be determined by the YOASOBI team at a later date. YOASOBI team reserves the right to not guarantee a grand prize winner.
- People who join our judging committee can not participate in this contest as writers.
- All applicants must be over the age of 18.
- Applicants must have access to Google Drive (having a Google/Gmail account).
- Applicants must have time to get on a computer, tablet, or smartphone to read novels and write feedback.
- Applicants must have time to regularly check your email inbox.
- People accepted as judges must be open to reading at least 10k words weekly.
- Those who apply to become a judge must have a Discord account and access to the Honeyfeed Discord server.
- People accepted as judges must attend the debate to choose the contest finalists. Debates will happen only via Discord.
Q 1I am not 18 years of age but I have permission from my parents to enter the contest. Can I participate?
ANo. There are no exceptions to the age requirement even if you have permission from a legal guardian. A legal ID will be required from the winner.
Q 2After the contest is over on December 26, 2023, can I publish my novel outside of Honeyfeed?
AIf you are not the winner of the contest, you are free to do whatever you want with the novel on Honeyfeed or other websites.
No purchase necessary to enter or win.
BY ENTERING OR OTHERWISE PARTICIPATING IN THIS WRITING CONTEST, ALL ENTRANTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS AGREE TO ABIDE BY THESE OFFICIAL WRITING CONTEST RULES, WHICH ARE FINAL AND BINDING ON ALL MATTERS PERTAINING TO THIS CONTEST.
- 1. Sponsors. This writing contest is sponsored by qdopp, Inc. d/b/a Honeyfeed (They may sometimes be referred to herein as "Sponsors"). The contest is void in whole or in part where prohibited by law.
- 2. Eligibility. The contest is open to individuals who are at least 18 years old and have registered accounts with Honeyfeed. The sponsors reserve the right at any time to require proof of age and eligibility to participate in the contest. Failure to provide such proof or insufficient proof may result in disqualification from the contest in Sponsors' sole discretion. All information requested by and supplied to Sponsors for the purpose of the contest must be truthful, complete, accurate and in no way misleading. Sponsors reserve the right, in their sole discretion, to disqualify any entrant from the contest should such an entrant at any stage supply unsatisfactory, untruthful, incomplete, inaccurate or misleading information.
- 3. Contest Period. The period for entering the contest begins October 8, 2023 and will continue until November 5, 2023.
- 4. How to Enter the Contest. There is no purchase necessary to enter the writing contest. To enter this contest, review and follow the Official YOASOBI x Honeyfeed Writing Contest Page (the "Official Writing Contest Rules"), and complete the following steps during the contest period:
(a) Read the short story "An Invitation from Thanatos" and watch the video "Into The Night" by YOASOBI.
(b) Go to honeyfeed.fm and log into your Honeyfeed account or, if you don't already have one, sign up for a Honeyfeed account and log in.
(c) Once logged in at Honeyfeed, click "Create Your Novel" on the top menu bar, and then the "Create Novel" button on the My Novels page.
(d) Fill in your novel's title, synopsis and set your novel's genre(s). Please note that to participate in this contest, the maturity rating of your novel must be "all_audiences".
(e) Before saving and continuing, make sure to check in the checkbox located next to "Submit this novel to the YOASOBI x Honeyfeed Writing Contest"
(f) Write your entire novel in one chapter and submit it. Notice that the minimum word requirement is set to 760 words and a maximum of 1,500 words in the English language.
(g) After submitting your first chapter, please make sure your novel appears under the newly published novels for the YOASOBI x Honeyfeed Writing Contest section in Honeyfeed.
(h) Make sure your novel submissions comply with the "Eligibility Checklist" and with the "Contest Objective" as well as with the contest rules.
(i) After successfully following these steps, your novel will now be submitted for participation in the YOASOBI x Honeyfeed Writing Contest.
(j) Every author is allowed to post a maximum of two contest entries per person.
(k) Contest submissions can not be a collaboration with other writers or creative editors.
Sponsors assume no responsibility for late submissions or submission failures due to technological or other issues.
You should also follow any other instructions presented to you at the time of entry or submission.
- 5. Novel Submission Rules. Any novel you submit through this writing contest must comply with the following rules:
・Novels must be written in English only. Novels written in other languages will not be considered and will be removed from the Honeyfeed site.
・Novels must follow the contest objective to be eligible to enter.
・Completed novels must contain a minimum 760 words and may contain up to a maximum of 1,500 words.
・Novels must be set to "Completed" on the Honeyfeed site before the entry period ends. This means your story must come to a conclusion on or before November 5, 2023.
・Note that changing the status of the novel or editing the novel to add content after November 5, 2023 will result in disqualification.
・Spin-offs, fanfics or plagiarism of other copyrighted material other than from "An Invitation from Thanatos" story and "Into The Night" music video by YOASOBI is not allowed. Any novel you submit must be entirely your own original work created for this contest and posted only to Honeyfeed for the duration of the contest.
・Novels must be suitable for ages 17+ and be set to the "All audience" setting in Honeyfeed. No gore, heavy ecchi or soft porn is allowed. Your novel can not contain minors, or characters that look like/reference minors or under the age of 18 in erotic situations.
・Original novels that are already licensed by a literary agency and/or publisher, or are being self-published and sold on Amazon and other similar sites, are not eligible to participate in the contest.
・Users are not allowed to use Honeyfeed sites or social media as a way to continuously persuade other users to read, like, comment or vote for their novel or any other user's novel (shilling, spamming). Self promoting on your own profile is allowed.
・Please review the Judging Criteria as well.
Contest Objective
Read the short story "An Invitation from Thanatos" and watch the video "Into The Night" by YOASOBI and write a spin-off story based on those two things. Both the original story and the music video are the prompts for this contest.
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For any novel submission, you must not submit any content that contains any elements that violate a third party's copyrights, trademark rights, privacy rights or any other rights. Your novel submission and any other content you submit must comply with Honeyfeed's Terms of Service.
By submitting any novel or other content as part of this contest, you represent, warrant and agree that: (a) you are in compliance with these Official Writing Contest Rules and with Honeyfeed's Terms of Service; (b) your novel(s) and any other content does not infringe or violate any third party rights; and (c) the novel(s) and any other content does not violate any law.
- 6. Contest Prizes. Prizes are available for participants who are publicly announced as winners by Honeyfeed. There will be 3 winners total for this contest. The prizes that are available to be won for this contest are the following:
Prize item description: Winning prize for YOASOBI x Honeyfeed Writing Contest
Estimated value: $3,000 ($1,000 x 3)
No. of items available to win: 3
Other restrictions: N/A
One of the three winning authors may also be selected for an additional grand prize given by the YOASOBI team. YOASOBI team will receive a Japanese translation of the three winning stories from this contest and may, in its sole discretion, decide to give a grand prize to one of the winners. There is no guarantee that a winning author will be selected for the grand prize from the YOASOBI team.
To receive a prize, you will be required to provide a legal picture ID, your full legal name, your full mailing address and your bank information in order to transfer the prize money.
- 7. Judging Criteria, Selection of Winners and Odds of Winning. Sponsors will review the novel entries for this contest and, once the entry period ends, the novel entries will be narrowed down to a total of 10 finalists before moving on to the public voting phase. To narrow the novel entries down to a total of 10, the judges will use the following criteria:
Presentation & Public Engagement
The novel has a cover image and it's properly credited to the artist or the AI tool used in the image description.
The novel has an appealing synopsis.
The novel has the appropriate genre labels that describe the story.
The author makes an effort to connect with the reader community and promote themselves in the correct promo spaces.
The public reacts well to the novel. (Positive comments, returning comments.)
The author replies to comments in a timely manner.
The author complied with Honeyfeed Site's and/or Honeyfeed's Discord Community Guidelines & left a positive impression.
Writing & Storytelling
The novel has good English grammar & syntax.
The novel has good character development and story progression.
The novel properly met the contest objective.
The story is easy to follow, and fun to read.
The story's plot is resolved within 760 to 1,500 words.
After the novel entries are narrowed down to 10 by the sponsor's judges, the public voting phase will begin as follows:
Public voting for finals will be from November 20 to December 20 , 2023. During this period, the 10 judge-selected novels will be posted to a special voting Google form inside the Honeyfeed website and Honeyfeed Android and iOS app.
The winners will be announced on December 26, 2023.
Odds of Winning: The odds of your novel being selected and included with the 10 novels selected by the judges are dependent upon the number of eligible submissions received by Sponsors, the above-referenced criteria and the judges' opinions. During the voting phase, a number of people assigned as 'Jury' will review and rate the overall content of your completed submission. The odds of your novel being selected in the public voting phase depends on the number of votes received in this phase as well as the review and feedback of the Jury.
Sponsors may communicate with potential winners at the email address registered with the potential winners' Honeyfeed accounts with further information and any additional requirements to accept the prizes. If a potential winner cannot be contacted within 48 hours, fails to respond to any attempted contact, is in any way not in compliance with these Official Writing Contest Rules, or declines to, does not or cannot accept the prize to be awarded, such potential winner will be disqualified and his/her entry and submission will be declared null and void.
- 8. Release. By entering this writing contest, you release Sponsors and their affiliates, employees, officers, directors, managers and agents from any liability whatsoever, and waive any and all causes of action, related to any claims, costs, injuries, losses or damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with this contest or transmission, failed transmission or acceptance of any prize (including, without limitation, claims, costs, injuries, losses and damages related to personal injuries, death, damage to or destruction of property, rights of publicity or privacy, defamation or portrayal in a false light, whether intentional or unintentional), whether under a theory of contract, tort (including negligence), warranty or any other theory.
- 9. Sponsors' Reservation of Rights. Sponsors reserve the right, in their sole discretion, to terminate, cancel, suspend and/or revise the contest for any or no reason. Sponsors reserve the right in their sole discretion to disqualify any individual in violation of these Official Writing Contest Rules or if Sponsors discover such individual to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the contest or acting in an unlawful or disruptive manner. Sponsors' failure to enforce any term or provision of these Official Writing Contest Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that term or provision.
- 10. Novel Rights. Ownership rights of any spin-off novels will be kept to their authors. However, given that the spin-off novels are derived from the short story "An Invitation from Thanatos" and the song / music video "Into The Night," if the authors wish to explore alternative uses such as adaptation into a comic series, commercialization, or the production of an anime adaptation, YOASOBI team requests that the authors provide advance notification through qdopp.Inc., before commencing such endeavors. In this way, any potential rights-related matters can be collaboratively discussed and decided upon when such a situation arises.
- 11. Privacy. Information collected from you in connection with this contest will be used by Sponsors for their administration of the contest, including to verify your eligibility and notify potential winners and to fulfill prizes.
- 12. Contact Information. Please direct any questions or comments regarding the writing contest to Honeyfeed's contact form or in Honeyfeed's Discord using the appropriate contest assistance channel.