Cafe Doom's Fourth Annual Writing Competition Rules and info

[mollie]

Okay, I'm dim. What do you mean by dark? I'm working on a psychological horror, on a dark but not stormy night.  New to this genre, but excited about it.  Will check out other forums. Thanks. M

[rsmccoy]

Okay, I'm dim. What do you mean by dark? I'm working on a psychological horror, on a dark but not stormy night.  New to this genre, but excited about it.  Will check out other forums. Thanks. M

Horror is a broad spectrum. So broad that many people use it interchangeably with Dark Fiction. There are different shades and intensities, and what we are looking for is the the darker shades. That doesn't mean splatter punk, nor does it have to be visceral, but it should linger on a the person that reads the story. Check out the latest copy of Necrotic Tissue (it's free) for a good sample (IMHO).

[mollie]

Thanks, I read the latest Necrotic Tissue issue (gotta love saying that). Some of the flash didn't seem so dark. Guess it's subjective. Will continue to explore, but I think I"m on the right path for the comp.

[SharonBell]

To give everyone pause: I still remember last year's winner: Mis en Place in technicolor detail. It was an incredible read. If it's anywhere in the CD archives, I urge you to read it. 

[Ed]

Time flies, Sharon - Mise-en-place was the winner two years ago You can find it here: http://www.cafedoom.com/forum/index.php?topic=680.0

Dark, to me, means disturbing in some way. The difference between dark and horror is that horror should provoke feelings of horror, shock, awe in the reader, IMO.

[SharonBell]

There goes my brain, dribbling out again! 

[rsmccoy]

I'll give you that, we do try to lighten the mood with the 100 word and even some of the larger pieces. Bottom line is that what will win is great writing with a great premise.

[Sallyq]

There goes my brain, dribbling out again!

Now that's a good line to start a horror story with, Sharon.

[Craig Herbertson]

I've managed to finish the story - usual trepidation that it will make people laugh rather than horrify them.

I'm now on to trying to submit the thing but I don't quite know how to submit it in the format required. I save a word document as a text file and it comes out looking rather silly. Any tips on the easiest way to do this? I can for example save as 'plain text' and then add the BB code stuff for example

[Ed]

Usually, if you're using MS Word, or Open Office, you can choose an option to save it as .rtf format, but plain text would be fine as well. And yes, if you're using italics or bold anywhere, I'm afraid you'll have to insert BB code for that, otherwise you'll lose it when it's posted on the forum. What you could do to save time is hit the reply button on any thread, paste your story into the box, and then highlight words you want italicised, hit the button, which will insert the BB code, then when you've finished you can copy and paste the whole thing back into your word processing software. It's a bit of a pain in the arse, I know, and I'm sorry about that. The thing is, .rtf and .txt files are unable to carry a virus, whereas .doc and others can and do, so I can't take the risk of opening an attachment and getting zapped. I hope you understand

[Craig Herbertson]

Of course I understand . (I think I have a virus on the old computer at the moment)

Thanks for taking the time to help. I'll try what you say and see if it gets past the idiot test.

You'll probably get something incomprehensible as a mail now but we'll get there

[Craig Herbertson]

It just occured to me - how will I know if you received the story and its in the correct format or the competition?

[Ed]

It looks OK to me, Craig, but if you want to check for yourself there's a preview button that you can use before you post

[Ed]

Only six entries so far - I hope we get a few more before the end of the month.

[elay2433]

I'm hoping I'll have something to enter. Having a hard time cranking them out lately. I hoped to enter this comp., a story for the Dark Jesters comp. and I still need to write my story for Borderlands boot camp which is also due at the end of the month. I spent three hours last night attempting to outline a story only to throw everything out before I went to bed.

I bet you'll get a flood of entries towards the end of the month.