We are so excited to share the challenge for our March 2023 drabble event: Short and Spuffy! Big thanks to Grief Counseling for coining the event name voted upon by our Facebook community. Another thank you to VioletMoon for inspiring the idea of an all drabble event!

So, without further ado, the guidelines:

For the first 30 days of March, a new prompt will be posted every morning (by 9am site time) in a centralized Sunnydale Press news post. These prompts will be short, sweet, and open-ended.

For example: “Rolling pins.”

You'll write a drabble inspired by the prompt. Feel free to take it in any direction you want. You do not have to use the words from the prompt in the drabble.

Maybe you’ll write a sexy snippet with Spike and Buffy baking things with chocolate, or maybe you’ll write a tidbit about Buffy whacking Spike over the head with Willow’s rolling pin after Something Blue, or maybe rolling pins will be a metaphor for Buffy’s regret about making such a bad baking metaphor as she misses Spike.

The word goal for each drabble is exactly 100 words. This is inspired by the long-running Live Journal community, open_on_sunday, which for many years featured a weekly challenge to write 100-word Jossverse drabbles.

You can choose to post the drabble at any point during the month of March, so it does not have to be the day of the prompt. We are all busy! March 31 will serve as a catch-up day with no new prompt.

Now for the awards!

You can earn awards in two ways: by writing and commenting. You will accumulate more awards the more drabbles and comments you write.

For comments:
15-39 Comments = The Comment Hero Award
40-69 Comments = The Comment Champion Award
70-99 Comments = The Comment Slayer Award

If you write 100+ comments, you earn the ultimate grand prize! The Naked Buffy Award.

For writers:
1-9 Drabbles = The Drabble Hero Award
10-19 Drabbles = The Drabble Champion Award
20-29 Drabbles = The Drabble Slayer Award

For completing all drabble prompts, you will earn the highly coveted Naked Spike Award!

So, in total, there are 8 shiny awards up for grabs for this event!

Here’s a sneak peek of just one:

Your drabbles do not need to connect narratively (unless you want them to!), but please organize your drabbles for the event into one story and post each drabble as a new chapter. This will just make it easier for us to find them all when we are doling out awards at the end.

Feel free to post on Discord in the event channel if you're in need of a banner for this event.

And lastly, as always, don’t forget to check the event box when you post!

We look forward to coming together to make March less dreary. Happy drabbling, everybody!!