Scareuary 2024 - A January 2024 Horror Writing Challenge
COMING SOON - Scareuary 2024 Writing Challenge
January's coming up in just a handful of weeks, and I have a small writing event that I've wanted to run during the month of January for a couple of years now that I've never been able to find the time to kickstart. In fact, you might remember it from the inaugural issue of Scrittorio.
Well, this time, it's happening. So, buckle up, my writer friends, because Scareuary 2024 is coming soon, and it's going to be a lot of fun!
What is Scareuary?
For the month of January, I'm hosting a writing event which provides writers with the opportunity to get their spooky writing skills up front and center.
For seasoned writers who want a challenge, this event - and especially the Coppe's Webbe challenge - will get them thinking outside the box with unusual prompts. For new writers who want to dip their toes in the world of writing horror fiction, Scareuary offers a range of different approaches with a month-long focus to really get you started.
Choose the challenge which suits you best, and enjoy exploring its themes for the month of January.
It's a horror story-writing bonanza!
Scareuary Challenges
The Coppe's Webbe
We're talking webs - sticky, unbreakable webs. For this event, you're given a randomly generated word. This prompt will serve as the connection between all of the stories you write for this event.
Up to 4 stories in total, each using the given word in some significant way. You can also manipulate the given word in a creative way (for example, if your word is 'stick', you can use 'sticks and stones', or 'stick insect', etc.).
To up the challenge, words usually associated with horror, like skull, ghost, zombie, blood, etc., will not be included in the prompt list. Once you use the word in one way, you cannot use that aspect for any of the other Coppe's Webbe stories. For example, if your word is 'elephant' (see image above), once you write a story about a cursed elephant figurine or statue, you can't write another similar story about a cursed elephant-shaped figure or statue.
Best done weekly, so that you can write one story per week.
Access the random generator here to get your word and start weaving your web of horror!
The Unseen
Write one or more stories about the idea of the unseen. What lingers just beyond our field of vision? What hides in the crevices of our minds? What prowls the opaque black of the moonless night, or the ever-encroaching walls of the cavern? Tell us about those frightful things which are not seen - ever - not even when they're faced head-on.
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Lingering Fears
Write a story - or several stories - about the concept of scares which stay with you long after you've experienced them. Fears which lurk in the back of your mind and rear their ugly heads every now and again. Insidious thoughts which prick at the edges of your character's minds, cementing themselves into their habits, their beliefs, their very sanity... Fears that might be long forgotten, but alive and thriving in the folds of your brain all the same.
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Ghastly Reflections
Symmetry. As above, so below. Light and dark. Halves of a whole.
Write a horror story (or poem, if you prefer) on the theme of 'reflections', with bonus points if it is formatted to look like two symmetrical halves. Explore the duality of human nature - the two sides of evil, the balance between monster and man, the desire for vice and virtue.
What do you see when you look in the mirror?
Scareuary will be running from January 1, 2023 to January 31, 2023.
Use the #Scareuary and #Scareuary2024 tags on social media
to share your writing or post about your experience.
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