Summary

Coach Tony's Prompt of the Month is a writing challenge focused on incorporating horse stall mats into stories, with specific rules and rewards for engagement and creativity.

Abstract

The Smillew Prompt of the Month, rebranded as Coach Tony's Prompt of the Month, is an inventive writing challenge issued to Medium writers. Participants are tasked with creating stories that include a character named Tony, the use of horse stall mats in at least two different settings, and a scenario where something unsanitary contaminates one of the mats. Points are awarded for adherence to the rules, engagement on the platform, and for creativity, with additional bonuses for characters named Buster and for comments from notable Medium figures. The challenge aims to celebrate the quirky nature of Medium's content and offers various rewards, including charitable donations, postcards, and increased visibility for the writers' work.

Opinions

Coach Tony finds horse stall mats to be a beneficial but challenging addition to home gyms due to their difficulty to clean.
The article by Coach Tony is described as surprisingly interesting and contains graphic images that some readers might find off-putting.
The challenge embraces the peculiarity of Medium's platform, suggesting that the site's content has become even more unusual with this prompt.
The inclusion of a point system, including "Engagement Points" and "Smillew Read Rate Adjustment," indicates a belief in the motivating power of gamification for writers.
The challenge's structure, with its various rules and bonuses, is designed to encourage interaction and community building among Medium writers.
The rebranding of the prompt to include Coach Tony's name suggests an attempt to leverage his popularity for increased participation and visibility.

Neigh

Coach Tony’s Prompt of the Month: Horse Stall Mats

Get off your high horse (stall mats)

**This fine horse approves of this challenge** — by Luisa Peter on Unsplash

A few days ago, Coach Tony wrote a surprisingly interesting article about horse stall mats:

How I’m feeling about horse stall mats for home gyms.

Somehow, this is what I need to get off my chest. (Write what you want to write)

coachtony.medium.com

If you don’t feel like reading the whole thing. Here’s the summary.

Horse stall mats can be used as gym mats or yoga mats with — according to Coach Tony — some benefits. The problem (same source) is that they’re hard to clean. Warning! The article contains graphic pictures of sweat (?), lubricant (for bike chains), and some other stuff we don’t know (beard hair — according to some readers).

I already thought Medium was weird, but it just got weirder.

To celebrate the weirdness, I’m organizing the Smillew Prompt of the Month, but I’m calling it Coach Tony’s Prompt of the Month cause he’s slightly more famous than me, and it will sell better.

Here are the rules

One of your characters should be called Tony (doesn’t have to be a coach, but you gain extra points if it’s the case).
Include at least two (2) horse stall mats in the story in two (2) different places.
Something gross should explode/fall on (at least) one of the horse stall mats and make it (them) very dirty.

Points

70 if you tag me.
30 if Tony is a coach in your story.
30 if one of your characters is called Buster.
140 bonus points if one of your horse stall mats is in a pizzeria.
10 points per comment
1 point per clap

Now is the interesting part. The total of the previous points is called Engagement Points.

You can get a Tony Bonus or a Buster Bonus if one of them comments on your story. IF BOTH OF THEM comment on your piece, you get the SUPER BOOST.

There’s also something called the Smillew Read Rate Adjustment, which depends on my patience and how much of your story I read.

We can then easily calculate the final number of points with the following formula. You might have seen it somewhere before.

Original was slightly adapted by author.

Deadline

Last day of September, 11:59 PM, your local time.

Genre, Publication, Formatting

Feel free. (You’re welcome to publish in The Pub — of course)

Participants

All Medium writers welcome.

Tag Wall

Small tag wall taken from the Short and Weird writers list: Ryan Klemek, Marsha Adams, May More 💜 Tales, Ann James, Raine Lore, Ginger Bangs, Debdutta Pal, Clara, Robert Gowty, Nikolaos Skordilis, Mark Suroviec, M.Ed., Santa Claus, Alex Praytor, Uzi Landsmann, Carlo Zeno, Christine D Richardson. And, bonus, Philip Ogley, Natasha MH, and Sieran Lane.

Feel free to share this beautiful challenge with your friends.

Multiple entries?

Yes.

What’s to win?

Fame
Fun
Followers
Fourth place: I pay $11 to the charity of your choice.
Free stuff — including claps, highlights, free memberships to my Top Hat Seminar, and a few links to your stories at the end of my stories.
Ninth place: I will send you a postcard.
More free stuff.

Good luck to all, and enjoy!

PS: Tony Stubblebine, Buster Benson, and all Medium staff are welcome to participate but cannot benefit from the Tony Bonus or the Buster Bonus. Sorry, folks.