Group-Sponsored BATS’ Original Creepypasta Contest

Details

BATS and the judges want to read up to 2,000 words of original themed Creepypasta.

Member Adam E Watcher explains, “What’s creepypasta?”

The Wikipedia definition of creepypasta is:

Creepypastas are horror-related legends that have been shared around the Internet. Creepypasta has since become a catch-all term for any horror content posted onto the Internet. These Internet entries are often brief, user-generated, paranormal stories intended to scare readers. They include gruesome tales of murder, suicide, and otherworldly occurrences. The subject matter of creepypasta varies widely and can include topics such as ghosts, murder, zombies, and haunted television shows and video games. Creepypastas range in length from a single paragraph to lengthy, multi-part series that can span multiple media types.

And while this is accurate to an extent, it does not capture the stylistic nuances of this peculiar subgenre.

Creepypastas are an attack on human nature. Furthermore, creepypastas focus on the present; the horrors of the far past or the apocalypse of the future are not creepypasta material. In other words, Lovecraft and his nightmare-inducing Elder Gods who one day will arrive to enslave humanity, while technically part of the weird fiction genre, are undoubtedly horror. However, it doesn’t affect the average Joe today, so it’s not creepypasta.

Conversely, let’s talk about an excellent example of a creepypasta series: _9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9’s “The Interface Series” which, while expanding on both the past and the future, still centers on the mysterious Flesh Interfaces and how they threaten the everyday lives of the average individual. By threatening as boogeymen from just outside our reach, these flesh interfaces and the forces behind them demonstrate sensational qualities worthy of creepypasta. Sensationalism is another necessary element: the tall, faceless man who stalks children; the ghostly woman who asks about her beauty; the demon-summoning puzzle that skins people; these supernatural elements exist to shatter everyday logic—and simultaneously plunge the character and the reader into a world of menageries.

One can think of Stephen King as the master of the creepypasta. Granted, his work is professionally published through major houses. But without a doubt a grand portion of his body of work, especially his short stories, fulfill all of these conditions. Clive Barker also comes to mind. In literary circles these two names don’t hold the same weight as James Joyce or Charlotte Brontë, which brings us to another element of the creepypasta: creepypastas are for us Hoi Polloi. Creepypastas are not “High Culture” and thus, they should usually not hold much literary merit. Mind, it can be done, but it’s much more difficult than usual. On average, creepypastas deal with popular culture and mass culture: video games, internet videos, social media, and things that are popular. An example of this would be a mythos about deleted episodes due to their crudeness, or cursed video games meant to send the player’s soul to an unfathomably terrible fate.

Besides The Interface Series, these are some other good examples of creepypasta for the aspiring writer:

• https://the-scp.foundation/

• https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/diuucz/my_sugar_daddy_asks_me_for_weird_favors/

• https://www.creepypasta.com/ben-drowned/

• https://www.creepypasta.com/squidwards-suicide/

Prize money for this contest is provided by the Scribophile Writing Contest Prize Fund.

Winning entries

Winners have been announced! Log in to see them.

Prizes

Rules

• Entries must be received by August 9, 2022, 11:59 pm UTC.

• Entries must be no shorter than 1,500 words and no longer than 2,000 words, per Scribophile’s count.

• Entries must be original themed creepypasta, no retelling.

• Multiple entries are not allowed.

• Fiction only, please.

• No poetry or novel chapters.

• Work must have Public visibility on Scribophile until winners are announced.

• If you have placed in a contest in the past with a piece, you may not resubmit that piece to this contest.

• You may post your work, receive critiques, and edit until the deadline.

Submission guidelines

• To enter the contest, post your work on Scribophile and check the box that says “Enter this work into the Group-Sponsored BATS’ Original Creepypasta Contest.”

• Entry is free, but you’ll need karma points to post your work. You can earn karma points by writing critiques of other member’s work.