Horror Writing Contests - or How to Scare People and Win Prizes for It

by Grace Tierney

"Let us help you to find the perfect writing contest to enter and leave you free to do what you're good at, writing your entry."

Do you love scary movies? Does your bookcase groan under the weight of the collected works of Stephen King? Do you think you can make readers jump at the sight of their own shadow or begin to wonder if ghosts, vampires, and werewolves really exist? Then at this spooky time of year you need to be considering horror writing contests.

Horror writing contests have been around longer than most. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1816 for a horror-writing contest suggested by Byron and her novel remains one of the greatest horror stories ever written. Younger writers should also be encouraged to be ghoulish by her story as she was only 19 years old at the time.

Where do you start in your search to create spine-chilling supernatural stories? A good place to begin is the site for The Horror Writers Association. It's an international group that offers plenty of advice on the art and business of writing horror ( www.horror.org/writetips.htm ). The Salem Witch Trials page will educate you on that period ( www.salemwitchtrials.com/ ) and the origins of Halloween are explained at holidays.net ( www.holidays.net/halloween/story.htm ).

You might need some more inspiration however, so try out the investigations of the

International Ghost Hunters Society ( www.ghostweb.com ). If your vision of horror is tapping into people's fears as Hitchcock did in 'The Birds' then you should review this terrifying list of phobias ( www.pho b ialist.com ), but be prepared to avoid graphophobia and scriptophobia.

I've gathered an evil dozen horror contests below, you can write something as short as 500 words of flesh-creeping, right up to a novel-length work or even a screenplay to make 'The Blair Witch Project' look like a walk in the park. Now get your Dracula cloak on, practise your scary laugh, seize your pen (dipped in red ink I assume), and get writing.

You will find my regular round-up of contest deadlines for the month at the bottom of this page, I found more than usual this month, so enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

PS. Before you reach for your dictionary, graphophobia is the fear of writing and scriptophobia is the fear of writing in public.

All contests are annual unless otherwise noted and all are open to international writers

Dark Tales Flash Competition
http://www.darktales.co.uk
November 1, monthly

American Accolades Screenwriting Competition
http://americanaccolades.com/contest_rules.htm
November 14

Dark Tales Short Story Competition
http://www.darktales.co.uk
November 16, quarterly

Quantum Barbarian of the Year Writing Contest
http://www.quantumbarbarian.com/contest1.html
January 31

DreamVault
http://www.dreampassage.co m /contest.html
March 1

SpecficWorld Writing Contest
http://www.specficworld.com/cont e st.html
March 3

The All Destiny Short Story Contest
Supernatural or horror short fiction
http://www.alldesti n y.com/comp2004.htm
March 31

Keep it Coming Short Story Contest
http://www.keepitcoming.net
May 1

PlaneTree Ghosts and Ghouls
http://www.planetreecompetitions.c o .uk/index.html
May 31

Abilene Writers Guild Contest (horror novel)
http://www.abilenewritersguild.org/#con t est
August 8

DarkKrypt Halloween Short Story Contest
http://www.darkkrypt.com/darkkrypthallow e en2003.htm
August 28

The Dome's annual Halloween Short Story contest
(includes a section for younger writers and for flash fiction in this genre)
http://groups.msn.com/ThePleasureDomeahomeforwriters/general.msnw?action=get
_message&mview=0&ID_Message=73039&LastModified=
4675440385796666697&all_topics=1
October 19

Coming Soon to the Writing Contest Department

Forthcoming features will focus on contests for young writers, seasonally themed contests, personal essays, plays, screenplays, haiku, quirky contests, non-fiction writing, no-fee contests, humor writing, short story contests, travel writing, writing for children, speculative fiction, contests with unusual prizes, and mystery writing contests.

I'm always looking for new contest types to research so if you're looking for one, just drop me a line. I'd also love to hear from you if you win a contest you read about here or if you have a contest to suggest for inclusion. Please note that I will only include contests that are open to writers anywhere in the world as our readers are geographically dispersed.

Contest Deadlines from November 11 to December 10

November 10
Automotive Poetry Contest
poetry related to cars
http://www.toweautomuseum.org/html/p7.html

November 10
The Roanoke Review's Fiction Contest
short fiction
http://www.roanoke.edu/roanokereview/

November 14
American Accolades Screenwriting Competition
screenplay in one of five genres; drama, thriller/horror, comedy, sci-fi/action/adventure, and other
http://americanaccolades.com/contest_rules.htm

November 15
Park Publications Open Short Story Competition
short fiction
http://www.parkpublications.co.uk/writingcompetion.htm

November 15
The Countryside Tales Magazine Winter Poetry Competition
seasonal poetry
http://www.parkpublications.co.uk/writingcompetion.htm

November 15
The Coast Poetry Award
Poetry
http://www.wmich.edu/thirdcoast/Third-Coast-Poetry-Award-2005.htm

November 15
Grizzly Bookz Flash Fiction Contest
flash fiction
http://www.grizzlybookz.com/contests.html

November 17
New Millenium Awards
fiction, poetry, and non-fiction
http://www.mach2.com/books/NewMillenniumWritings/awards.html

November 19
Mildred and Albert Panowski Playwriting Award
plays
http://www.nmu.edu/theatre/award2.html

November 20
Night Train's Richard Yate's Short Story Award Competition
short fiction
http://www.nighttrainmagazine.com/pdfs/yates_announcement_2004.pdf

November 30
KT Short Story Contest
short fiction
http://www.writingaustralia.com/comp.html

November 30
Fish Short Story Contest
short fiction
http://www.fishpublishing.com/

November 30
Real Writers Short Story Awards
short fiction
www.real-writers.com

November 30
Daphne du Maurier Short Fiction Competition
short fiction (including a category for younger writers)
http://www.restormel.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=8620

November 30
NWU-G Poetry Competition
poetry
http://home.earthlink.net/~nwu_local7/contest_guidelines.htm

November 30
True Life Story Contest
creative non-fiction
http://www.truelifestorycontest.com/

November 30
First Reader Essay Contest
personal essay
http://www3.telus.net/345/ljp/BLcontest.html

November 30
Lough Prize for Poetry
poetry
Email: ploughpoems@tesco.net

November 30
Soul-Making Literary Competition
Poetry, short fiction, creative non-fiction, novel excerpt, prose poem, flash fiction, song lyrics
http://www.soulmakingcontest.us/

November 30
The Subway Chronicles
personal essay about New York subway system
http://www.thesubwaychronicles.com

November 30
Ohio State University Journal - Short Fiction Prize
short fiction
http://www.ohiostatepress.org/

November 30
Praire Fire Writing Competition
poetry, short fiction, and creative non-fiction
http://www.prairiefire.mb.ca/contests.html

December 1
Scr(i)pt Magazine Contest
script
http://www.scriptmag.com

December 1
Keep it Short, Short!
flash fiction that is food related
www.food-writing.com

December 1
The Phoebe Winter Fiction Contest
short fiction
http://www.gmu.edu/pubs/phoebe/main.html

December 1
Dorset Prize
poetry collection
https://www.tupelopress.org/indexssl.shtml

December 1
Columbus State University International Playwriting Competition
play
http://p197.ezboard.com/fabsolutewritefrm54.showMessage?topicID=9.topic

December 1
The Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition
flash fiction
http://www.writersdigest.com/contests/short_story.asp

December 1
Flume Press Chapbook Competition
short fiction and/or a collection of flash fiction
http://www.csuchico.edu/engl/flumepress/#contest

December 1
Award Winning Short Fiction that was Never Published
short fiction
http://www.deathlings.com/contests.html

December 1
The Mona Schreiber Prize for Humorous Fiction and Non-Fiction
humor, comedic essays, articles, short stories, poetry, shopping lists and other forms
http://home.pcmagic.net/brashcyber/mona.htm or www.brashcyber.com

December 5
Christmas Short Story Contest
seasonal short fiction
http://www.keepitcoming.net/christmas-contest.html

December 10
Ruth Stone Prize in Poetry
poetry
http://www.tui.edu/hungermtn/poetry.asp

Grace Tierney is a freelance writer who lives in Ireland. When she's not researching writing contests, she enjoys gluttony, reading, gardening, and travel. Her short stories have been published in the US and UK, and her non-fiction has been published in Ireland, the UK, America, and Australia. She is a staff writer with Writer Online and Netsurfer Digest . Grace may be contacted via www.gracetierney.com