Halloween Horror Contest

Well, here we are; it’s the middle of September. This means colder weather, changing leaves, football, and all that other "fall stuff" we know and love is now upon us. It also means that in less than a month and a half, Halloween will arrive. Now, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so I would like to do something fun for everyone. Therefore, I am hosting a writing contest! This isn't a staff-run event, but rather a cool, unofficial contest to celebrate the season. And don't worry, I'll get resourceful to make sure it's worth everyone's effort to participate! With all the preamble out of the way, here it is:

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The 2012 Halloween Horror Contest

“Are you afraid yet? You should be.”

The word ‘horror’ elicits many images in the mind. One might see a dilapidated house on a gloomy night, windows glaring like sunken eyes and horrible things lurking within. Perhaps there appears a leafless forest, gnarled trees casting shadows under a full moon. One may see vampires, werewolves, and zombies; another imagines masked killers with bloody knives. Do you picture dark witchcraft or science gone wrong? Great inhuman elder gods or a dead brother's shade?

What is horror, then? The dictionary defines the word as “a painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay.” Horror as a genre is not all about scary things jumping out of cupboards to shout “abooglywoo!” and spook you. Instead, it is defined by a specific aesthetic style and the quest to both portray and elicit the myriad of emotions that define it. Let me say this again because it bears repeating. Horror fiction need not be ‘scary’ in the blatant or traditional sense. Horror can also disturb the psyche or build an unshakable, subtle sense of dread. The aesthetics of a horror story serve to heighten the sense that ‘something is not quite right.’

The 2012 Althanas Horror Contest seeks the best works of horror fiction that our talented members can produce. It doesn't require blood or gore, spooky ghosts, or anything of that nature for the story -- though I will certainly not discourage those types of themes and ideas. We want stories that frighten and disturb on a variety of levels and in a variety of ways. In short, tap into your darkest imagination. Look into the abyss until the abyss looks back.

The Rules

1.) All entries must be short stories between 2,000 and 6,000 words in length.

2.) All entries must be within the Horror genre as defined above.

3: Please use a professional literary format (IE: use all the same font and color, though italics and bold are fine).

4.) One entry per member. In addition, the entries need not relate to Althanas or your character(s) in any way unless you want them to.

5.) Christoph (that's me) will judge these entries using the Althanas Rubric. I welcome mature questions and comments regarding the results, but all rulings are final.

6.) All entries must be posted in this thread by, you guessed it, October 31st (11:59 PM EST).

7.) I will reveal the results within two weeks of the contest's end. First and second place will receive 1,000 GP and 500 GP respectively, funded by me. Furthermore, the winner gets to request a boon from me -- this can involve writing a quest or battle with you, reviewing a piece of writing, or something else of that nature within reason (I give good foot rubs). Finally, if the staff authorizes it, I would like to see all participants receive some amount of EXP, with a scaled bonus for the top three. So, go find the nearest friendly staff member and pester them about it! :D

I look forward to your entries. Good luck!

*squee*

*scampers off to start thinking of horrory things*

Oh!!! THIS is going to be fun, count me in! I'm already working on part of it and may you be warned: it MAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYY get a little to bloody and such, but I'm itching to get to get my thinking cap on and get some excitment stiring! *Squees*

I might include myself in this. I really don't know what to write about though...

Is it ok if we write multiple ones? Or does it have to be only one entry? ... I'm thinking of doing several stories that would equal that length.

I'd like to keep it as one entry per member (IE: no entering under different accounts). *adds that to the rules*

Edit: I misunderstood your question slightly. If you wanted to write a few connected short stories strongly bound together as a single entry, that might be okay. It's not as easy to do well as it sounds though, so tread carefully.

In the same entry (in other words, the same post) can you have multiple shorter horror stories to equal the up to 6000 word minimum?

IF they are strongly linked together in such a way that they feel like the same entry, rather than a series of disjointed stories, then yes.

Just a reminder: everyone has until October 31st! So, still plenty of time, but not TOO much time. :D

The deadline is less than two weeks away. Best of luck to anyone working on an entry. I look forward to reading them.