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Trial of Terror - A Horror One-shot Contest

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FloatingFlames

Lovable Narcissist
Approved by Dragonfree

Excuse the horrible title :p. Anyways, this was an idea that came up in a discussion with Burnt Flower, and since we haven't had a one-shot contest in quite a long while, I thought it was a good time to create a new one. This is a horror one-shot contest, meaning that the fic must have enough suspensful, horror elements to be classified in the aforementioned genre.

There will be four judges: myself, Burnt Flower, Scrap, and Sike Saner. The guidelines are relatively simple and are as follows:

- Your entry must be AT LEAST 2-3 pages in Microsoft Word. That's the minimum, feel free to write until you feel you've thoroughly covered your topic.

- DO NOT include any rape scenes.

- Good grammar and spelling are REQUIRED, of course. If we take a glance at it and it's painfully obvious that no effort was put into it (i.e it's a wall of incoherent text, riddled with obvious errors and typos, etc.), we will disregard it and go on to the next entry.

- Put some effort into your work. The fic must evoke the imagination as Scrap put it. Don't have a bland, boring cliché-filled fic. We will still read through it of course, but this is just a tip.

- Must pertain to the horror genre (as stated above).

The above guidelines may or may not change over time.

That's basically it. As you can see, this contest is pretty user friendly since judges cannot participate. So with some well-known horror authors out of the picture, hopefully some of you will feel more at ease and more comfortable entering.

HOW TO ENTER:

Follow the above guidelines and PM your entry to me. I will divide the entries among the four of us and we will decide the order in which to rank them. Then we will post them here. HOWEVER, if it appeals to you, you are welcome to post your entries in this thread and we will gather them from here, although sending them via PM would be more convenient. The deadline to submit your entries will be December 31st, but that date may change.

And that's it! Feel free to discuss the contest or ask questions here. I encourage everyone who is even slightly interested to enter, and remember, it doesn't have to be a gruesome, bloody story to qualify for horror. Keep that in mind.
 
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I

IceKing

Sexorific!
You should have made this title make it seem like its more of a contest. And I will definetely be entering, can we send multiple submissions? I know I suck at horror, but it will be good writing practice.
 
R

Ryano Ra

Verdant Vitality
Agreed. I thought this was another Horror one-shot you were previewing.

I'll try and enter with a piece that I've been working on for quite a sum of time (or at least gathering ideas for), since I don't write horror well, but it'll be fun and good practice nevertheless. I just can't wait for an action contest or a fantasy contest to come alive; like IceKing asked, can we have multiple submissions? Because I would like to write more than one piece of horror work.
 
F

FloatingFlames

Lovable Narcissist
You should have made this title make it seem like its more of a contest. And I will definetely be entering, can we send multiple submissions? I know I suck at horror, but it will be good writing practice.
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Sorry IceKing, one entry to be fair. Send the one you think is the best of the two. And yeah, I PMed Dragonfree about the title, so hopefully it'll be changed.
 
Dragonfree

Dragonfree

Just me
Sorry I didn't change it earlier; I was leaving so I hurried to change it, and accidentally changed the moderator notes instead of the thread title. v.v I changed it now.
 
O

Ouallada

Guest
Actually, I do think this is a good idea, and would be better with other genres included. Perhaps I will get another one going some other time. Also, I do not see why a person cannot send in more than a single entry. More quality should always be a welcome headache for you all.
 
F

FusionSonicX

It's Lil' Kim, ho!
Cool. I love the horror genre so much, even those sucky B-movie slashers like "Do You Wanna Know A Secret?". Anyway, I will be writing a horror story to enter in the next few days and get it to you guys as soon as possible. You go you!
 
F

FloatingFlames

Lovable Narcissist
I do not see why a person cannot send in more than a single entry
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I don't want the contest to become unbalanced. It IS a contest, after all. If someone enters two or more entries and they're both top quality, the judges' decisions may cause two entries by the same contestant to be in the final four, and that would be unfair. I realize that the person worked extra hard to write and enter two, but I want everyone to have an even shot at this.
 
R

Ryano Ra

Verdant Vitality
Seems fair enough, I guess. However, I have a question. What if the story is two Genres, one of them being Horror? For example, I am writing a Horror/Fantasy one-shot known as Blades of Massacre (which will be my entry) which is a kingdom fanfiction, having both fantasy and horror elements. Would that qualify, or does the story necessarily have to be all horror, meaning the single Genre being of horror?
 
F

FloatingFlames

Lovable Narcissist
It can be a combination of genres, as long as it's apparent that one of those genres is horror, Syra.
 
R

Ryano Ra

Verdant Vitality
Oh, goodie. ^^ That was what I needed to know so I can begin brainstorming about what horror elements will exist in there. I have a strange feeling that this will be an enchanting contest. o.o
 
Negrek

Negrek

Lost but Seeking
Wow, I didn't know what this thread was about until the title changed. I suppose I'll enter, though horror isn't really something I'm accustomed to writing.

However, a quick suggestion for the judging part of it: why don't you have third-party person (non-judge) in charge of collecting all of the submissions, then have them remove the names from the submissions and give them numbers before sending them to judges? That way judges wouldn't know whose work they were reading. They would just send back their grading for the work along with the number, and the other person would match it up with the correct author in order to determine the winner.
 
B

billy5772

SENIOR
I wanna be the third party! That was a great idea, Negrek.
 
K

Kiyohime

Well-Known Member
That's an excellent idea, Negrek! Though, even with the names removed I KNOW I'd recongize Serpent Syra's writing from a mile away....I used to beta his work. XD But still, your idea is fabulous.

Also, I'd like to add, not only will the winners be listed, but we will also list EVERYONE who entered, and under each of their names, describe what we loved best and what they need to improve on, making this contest a good chance for people to see how they can improve their writing. ^^
 
F

FloatingFlames

Lovable Narcissist
However, a quick suggestion for the judging part of it: why don't you have third-party person (non-judge) in charge of collecting all of the submissions, then have them remove the names from the submissions and give them numbers before sending them to judges? That way judges wouldn't know whose work they were reading. They would just send back their grading for the work along with the number, and the other person would match it up with the correct author in order to determine the winner.
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Funny you should bring that up actually, because a contestant PMed me a couple days ago requesting to have her name removed from her entry so that the judges wouldn't be biased in their decision. She brought up and good point so I decided I would remove the names from all entries that were submitted. However, I hadn't thought of the entries being sent to an objective person, but that might be just the thing to do...
 
R

Ryano Ra

Verdant Vitality
Scrap said:
That's an excellent idea, Negrek! Though, even with the names removed I KNOW I'd recongize Serpent Syra's writing from a mile away....I used to beta his work. XD But still, your idea is fabulous.

Also, I'd like to add, not only will the winners be listed, but we will also list EVERYONE who entered, and under each of their names, describe what we loved best and what they need to improve on, making this contest a good chance for people to see how they can improve their writing. ^^
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Oh, darnit. I thought I'd actually make you guys wonder if somebody else wrote it besides myself. ;_; *cries while spinning in a corner* The bewilderment of red and white spinning cycles! Meewwwrrr Reeemmmm Meerr.

Negrek's idea is a very great one, and the judges should take it into deep consideration. It seems more exciting and unfolding as the petals blooms and...okay, returning to the topic, it's just exciting. ^^ I plan of practicing my horror skills, since I will be bringing out a chaptered horror fanfiction sometime Late Winter/Spring/Summer of 2006. ^^ Anyways, good luck to all of the winners, for I plan to give a good match, even if I lose the competition. And remember, you guys, this contest is to compete, but to have fun with and improving horror writing. Let's not make this blossom into a brewing argument, yes? ^^
 
S

Shadowcat

Guest
I'll try my best at this, 'cause I don' do well in horror.

Anyway, tra la la! I'll be sending in my entry as soon as I finish it. But, I'm working on my current chaptered fic. And I think the number idea is great, but then, we would know who wrote it, as somebody might claimed it as his or her work of fic, but it may be a lie. So, how do you solve that?
 
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