Win 6.66 SBD and More! Halloween In Spring: Horror Fiction Contest

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Alright then, Steemit. This place has been good to me my first two months. I’ll give a little back. Contest time.

I love horror. I love the concept itself. I love the philosophy of it. I love the feeling of my hairs standing up on the back of my neck, of taking a quick glance around my room to check for ghouls. So, Steemit. Show me whatcha got.

Contest Rules

UPDATE

1. Write a short horror story.Original content, made for this contest. Not older posts.
2. One person, one entry.
3. Link your post in the comments below.
4. Word Count: 1000-3000. A little under, a little over, that’s okay. Whatever is necessary to make the story complete.
5. Upvote this contest post. (Resteeming this post would be cool too, but isn’t mandatory.)
6. Use #horror as a tag. Currently, there’s not much on Steemit. Let’s change that.
7. Link this post at the end of your story.
8. One picture. If your writing can’t convey images without you depending on pictures, than it’s probably bad writing.
9. No Vampires or Ghosts. Unless there’s something unique about them. But really, just try to be more original, please.
10. Contest begins Sunday, April 22nd
11. Contest finishes 14 days after the post. Sunday, May 6th 0:00 (Yes, 14 days. This gives you plenty of time to write)
12. If you want me to offer my critique of the post, please put "critique" at the end of your post.

The Pot

First place gets: 6.66 SBD
Second place gets: 4 SBD
Third place gets 2 SBD

I know it's not much. Depending on the payout of this post, I might be able to offer you more. I’d like to, but I’m no whale. Really, that’ll be up to the Steemit community.

That’s it, really. Good luck to all participants and thanks ahead of time.

Below are some writing tips.

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What Is Horror?

“Origin of the comic. If one considers that for some hundred thousand years man was an animal susceptible to fright in the highest degree, and that anything sudden or unexpected meant that he was ready to do battle, perhaps to die; indeed, that even later in social relations, all security rested on the expected, on tradition in meaning and activity; then one cannot be surprised that at every sudden, unexpected word or deed, if it comes without danger or harm, man is released and experiences instead the opposite of fright. The cringing creature, trembling in fear, springs up, expands wide: man laughs. This transition from momentary fear to short-lived exuberance is called the comic. Conversely, in the phenomenon of the tragic, man quickly goes from great, enduring exuberance to great fear; however, since among mortals great enduring exuberance is much less common than the occasion for fear, there is much more of the comic than of the tragic in the world; man laughs much more often than he is devastated.” -Nietzsche

Horror doesn’t have to be just vampires or ghosts. It doesn’t have to be slaughterpunk or gore or spooky jump-at-you-boo unexpected twists.

Horror, at its base, challenges the reader’s assumptions about the world. It shakes the reader through shaking the character. The ghost or the supernatural entity or the fantastic, these are plot tools. They’re a means of telling the story.

See Ligotti or Borges or Bolagno or Lovecraft for examples of what I mean.

I’m looking for short stories that use the supernatural or horrific in an exciting way to keep the reader engaged, the force the character to make a decision, to push the plot forward.

What is a story?

A story has a beginning, middle and end. A story has characters. A story has conflict, which drives the plot. The character has a to make a decision of some kind, has to put something on the line, to reach a lesson. A story is the unravelling of a truth. By the end of the story, that truth is revealed. When the reader learns the truth (what the story IS), the story is finished.

Writing Tips

1. Use a powerful hook for an opening line. Engage the reader.
2. The reader should know exactly what the story is about by the first few sentences, if not the first sentence.
3. The unexamined life is not worth living. The unexceptional story is not worth reading. Don’t write about mundane things.
4. Adverbs suck. Usually. Use strong verbs instead.
5. Try using http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ This is a free tool. You can see all the adverbs and passive voice in your work, and eliminate them.
6. If the sentence or paragraph doesn’t propel the plot forward, the reader doesn’t need to know it. Remember, you as the writer should know EVERYTHING about the story and characters. But the story itself is just a small window into that world. It doesn’t have to be the entire world itself.
7. Characters should exist in a time and place and perform actions, or have actions performed on them. Point being, stories require movement of events and places. Not just descriptions. Not just flowery language. Not just images.
8. When describing things, try to be as sparse as possible. The reader creates the image in their own heads. “She sat on a bed” vs “she sat on an iron bed” vs “she sulked on an iron bed” vs “she sat on a bed that was made of iron, approximately two meters by four meters in length, covered in red velvet blankets and silk pillows shaped like hearts”
9. Don't start with a person not remembering where they are. Don’t end with ‘it was all a dream’.
10. Or, fuck all these tips and do what you think the story needs.