This is the official thread for the Nightmare Night in April story contest.

As part of my annual "Halloween in April" festivities, I've decided to do one of these contest things that are so popular around the site right now. My hope is to create a fun event to promote Horror as a genre.

NOTE: The contest part is just for added fun. I don't need every submission to be top quality, and encourage people to write these for fun.

Rules...

Stories that you submit must meet the following criteria for contest-consideration...

• Must be Horror - If it doesn't have the Horror tag, or SHOULDN'T have the horror tag, it's done.
• Somewhere between 1,000 to 15,000 words long - If it's a few words high or low, that's fine, but nothing novel-length please.
• NOT part of an ongoing series - I don't want to feel like I should read prequels for context. It's fine if you just mark it as a "spiritual sequel" or intend to do more later, but don't have something that builds off of a previous fan work. (the show is fine)
  --- NOTE: People have asked if they can do a story set in a pre-existing alternate universe. That's fine too, as long as you can explain the relevant information quickly at the beginning, and don't rely on reader-investment built from a previous story.
• Readable in the sense of Spelling, Grammar, and Organization. (I'm not slogging through borderline-unreadable assortments of notes)
• Complete story by the deadline of April 25 - No ending on cliffhangers or with a clearly incomplete concept.

As it's a bit late for me to be starting an "April" contest, I will be open to submissions from earlier in 2019, as long as they meet the criteria, however, stories actually written for this event will receive preferential treatment in the running.

Judging Criteria...

Stories will be judged based on how they hold up as a horror story, which is a bit abstract of a measure. Here's a quick guide of what to expect.

• General Quality of Writing - If it's just well written, then that's gonna help.
• Tension - A good horror story keeps the reader on the edge of their seat, in one way or another.
• Characterization - Flat, stupid characters who keep doing things they obviously shouldn't should be avoided.
• Originality - The point is to create original horror stories. If you can't do something new, at least do a big enough twist on something old that it feels original.
• Believability - Obviously, most of these won't be realistic, but a good horror story makes you forget realism.
• Lingering Feels - A good Horror Story should leave you with that lingering sense of morbid curiosity, dread, or satisfaction.
• Philosophical Interest - Same as above: good horror makes us ask uncomfortable questions about our world.
• The horrificness of the central premise - This is the meat of original horror: gimme something that really seems awful when I think about it.

Stories will be divided into categories for judging, seeing as this is a very broad genre. I will wait until the deadline to announce exactly what those categories are, but theoretically they will be relatively equal.

How this Ends...

The deadline is the morning of April 25th. I will close the folder on that date. Stories MUST be marked complete by that day or they will be disqualified. As I'm announcing this over a week into April, I will be accepting stories published earlier in 2019, however, I strongly encourage you to write stories in April, and will be giving preferential treatment stories published in April.

Whether judging is complete or not, I will make a big announcement on April 30th, including an overview of what was submitted and a list of the front-runners, if not the winners. The prize will probably be internet-cookies, but I'll be looking into giving the winners something more interesting.

Need Help?

Remember that I have a set of blogs with writing advice, and I'll try to update it a few times this month. If you want advice, that's a good place to go. You can also ask in this thread.

"NOT part of an ongoing series - I don't want to feel like I should read prequels for context. It's fine if you just mark it as a "spiritual sequel" or intend to do more later, but don't have something that builds off of a previous fan work. (the show is fine)"

There goes my FIO ideas. Shit. maybe a retool...

6821588
FiO is fine. I meant more like, if it is an installment in an ongoing series I can't just look up the concept of. One would expect that I would know what FiO is. Same with Displaced.

6821285
Will this contest be accepting comedic horrors?

Ok I’mma write something scary but interesting no promises about cliffhangers😉👌

• Characterization - Flat, stupid characters who keep doing things they obviously shouldn't should be avoided.

Sensibility? In this genre?

6821825
Definitely. Technically, you don't even need to write a full-on Horror Story, just a Halloween appropriate story.
6821949
As long as it's not a "stay tuned for the next chapter!" type cliffhanger.
6822166
You know, those horror stories were the main characters do something stupid just to put them in a situation where they can get killed or whatever. People who act dumber than people I know are annoying element in pop-scary-stories, and are just bad writing in general.

Got it!

Ooooh this sounds fun! Never written true horror (that is more up one of my pre-readers alley) but I'm willing to give it a shot! There is this one short I saw not too long ago that gave me a fun idea for this. So will see what I can do. * cackles *

6821285
Nice, sounds fun and with only a week or so to do it... well I am up to the challenge.

6821285

I have a story ready. It's not a long read, or an epic read, but I figured I'd give it a try. Thing is, I don't want it to be tied to my account or make another account just for this. Is there any way I can post a story and enter the contest without tying the story to my account so that everyone knows I wrote it?

6826139
I'm not sure why you'd want to do that, but I suppose I could set something up with you...

6823896
You have a little under 10 days. :V
That, and it's not like I'm going to be scrutinizing them on the 25th itself, so if you edit them a bit after I close the folder, that's fine: I just want to see them all complete by then.

6821285 Wow, this looks so cool. Sadly, I don't think I can come up with a clever idea and have it ready by the assigned deadline. Well, best of luck to those who participate and now that I am a member here, hopefully I will be able to participate in the future if a contest like this shows up again.

Hi,
I wrote Celestia's Darkest Secret (3,600 words / 3 chapters) a month ago and due to positive comments received have been working on a sequel (~8,800 words / 10 chapters), which should be ready by your deadline. I am concerned that either the original or the sequel (or both) may fall foul of your "NOT part of an ongoing series" rule.
Please would you advise whether I may submit both, or only one, and if so which one?
Thanks, and good luck with the competition!

6830678
I'll let you submit both, seeing as the first one one is only a month ago, and it's short. I just didn't want people to give me things that make me feel I have a lot to read...

Thanks - I hope you'll like them!

6821285
Is there any rule against posting my entry as part of a pre-existing short story compendium?

6835263
You're gonna have to find a way to specify which story you're asking me to consider, if you do that, assuming you're trying to get one in as a contest entry. At that point, you may as well post it as its own story entry, or just submit it and don't worry about the contest stuff...

6835714
Couldn't I just put the compendium in the folder then PM you saying "Hey, this specific story is the entry"?

6835757
I suppose that would work. You could also put a note on the chapter itself.

6835844
Or both, just to be safe.

It won’t let meh add da story so here wut do u think is it okay?
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/436653/1/scp-containment-is-magic/chapter-1

Today is the Last Day to submit!
Remember that it can take up to an hour, or a few hours if it's your first story, for a story to actually be posted on the website. Theoretically, if you are still waiting for your story to be added tonight, you will have time tomorrow to do so. If you don't, just leave a message here before the deadline so I know to add your story before I close the folder.

I'm going to leave the folder open for another couple hours, then I'm going to start sorting. I hope you guys have gotten your entries in!

I forgot to close the folder before I headed into the shop, so now y'all have until I get home tonight. XD

Just noticed Regidar and MagnetBolt are competing in this one. Nice to see some big influencers got drawn in.

Durn. Missed by a day. Oh well. Still a group.

Competition Update Posted Here

6839172
I am happy too!

6839191
You wanna submit it right now anyway? It's just for fun, and the deadline was more so I had time to actually judge them before the month ended...

6839261 Will there be another contest like this in the future?

6839262
Possibly. I might do another one in October, and maybe another one in April again. If you mean a general one, I might do another one outside of that. It's a good way to populate the site with more stories of a kind you haven't seen enough of.

Lots of people do these though, so if you keep your eyes open, you'll probably find one.

6839261
Nah, that's okay. I don't have anything ready anyways.

Just out of curiosity, did we ever get some type of finalization to all this? Haven't heard anything about it in a while.

6876085
The entries were so interesting and varied that I couldn't even begin to sort them, so everypony won. :V