I will admit this week's contest had me ready to give up on doing any more weekly Challenges. I wrote a post to help me deal with what I was feeling. If you have not read it, you might want to.

Over four years ago, I came to this blockchain knowing nothing. I am old by internet standards, and it takes me many tries to learn new things. In private, I learn and grow as a writer, artist, and person to this day.

I was lucky, and the Freewriters gave me a safe place to learn. I was surrounded by people that encouraged a storyteller to learn to write and not give up. I will forever be thankful for this.

I had friends new to the blockchain making tons of money per post. They felt sorry for me when seeing my 1.00 payout posts. I told them that if they were my friend, they would stop feeling sorry for me. I was getting payouts on my posts in the right ballpark for what I was writing. I didn't feel sorry for myself. I was having a blast learning.

Hive is filled with nonfiction. There is nothing wrong with this.

I like reading fiction, and it was tough to find on Hive and in my feed. The first week I posted the challenge was a test of many things. I was surprised and happy with everything I read and saw that first week. I kept the challenge going because people liked it and had asked. Thank you all for that!

Many contests on Hive end up with the same people winning. There is nothing wrong with that, but I wanted to give everyone a chance, that dream, of winning.

I am not too fond of rules in general because rules tend to shove you in a box, so you do not explore what is beyond that box, I have tried to come up with rules that will still give everyone the freedom to explore writing in a safe environment. Plus, most importantly, still, have fun!

You can use words, art, music, or all of the above to tell us about your Leprechaun.

One entry per person

Entries must be at least 250 words long.

Formatting:

Your post must be formatted for ease of reading.
Line breaks between paragraphs are very helpful to a reader.

Proof Reading:

Read your own story before you post it on the blockchain.

You could run your story through the free version of Grammarly or any program that checks for misspelled words.

Be Original:

Do not steal another person's story; move bits and pieces around, and call it your own.

Entries must be posted on Hive with the tag #snookschallenge6

Entries must be posted before Saturday at noon CST/Saturday at 6 PM UTC.

Please link your post in the comments below this post.

The prizes will now be 3HBD for three qualifying stories.

I will be picking the winners.
If there is only one entry, they will receive 3HBD.

I think the new rules above are fair. I think they should give all of us the freedom to write anything we can think of and still have fun. If you have questions or concerns, please let me know in the comments. I am sorry I had to add rules.

Let us move on to the fun stuff!

Winners of the Zombie Challenge:

3HBD goes to @itsostylish! She doesn't care for zombies yet tried and never gave up. Her story was a joy to read.

3HBD goes to @ismaelgranados! He shows a great tutorial on making his art, plus we get an incredible story in Spanish and English!

3HBD goes to @germangenius! While I might not agree with everything he wrote, he took the subject to a new level. His formatting and story flowed perfectly.

Congratulations to this week's Winners!

I am sorry for the long post this week. I felt you all deserved to know why things were changing. Once again, if you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments and I will try and answer them.

P.S. @TheHive I did not pick this week's subject 😹