Horror story challenge proposal

Academia Nut · Post by **Academia Nut** » 2007-10-08 01:32am

Having hit my yearly October writing-blahs, I find myself slamming my head into a rather unpleasant bit of writer's block, along with suffering a general bout of mild ennui.

So I feel that perhaps in order to recharge my batteries a breath of fresh air is required. Looking over at my calendar, I note that there is still the majority of the month left, so I feel why not make a suggestion to the other authors out there that we have a horror fic contest, with the results posted on Halloween.

Unfortunately, I am stumped on anything more than that. I have no idea what sort of structure might be appropriate. So I throw this concept to the wolves and wind, in the hopes that others will be intrigued by this concept and offer suggestions.

Thoughts?

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2007-10-08 02:24am

How about crossing traditional Halloween monsters with a scifi or fantasy universe? Vampires on Trek, or Zombies on B5.

The Doctor's right out, because they've already done vampires, werewolves, animated corpses, and mummies.

Academia Nut · Post by **Academia Nut** » 2007-10-08 01:03pm

Hmmm... definitely an interesting proposal, and one that has merit. Perhaps an expansion though, whereby the crossover can go either way? As in monsters can go either way so long as they are not 'native' to the setting, and the overall tone is scary (or at least Halloweeny I suppose). So you could have genestealers in Sunnydale, but not zombies on Necromunda because 40k already has Nurgle plague-zombies. Jason Voorheese on the Enterprise-D would probably be some sort of Halloween side story for the UPF guys.

But come now people, don't be shy, if you have an idea, post it. This thread was meant for brainstorming.

Zixinus · Post by **Zixinus** » 2007-10-08 02:12pm

Does the story have to be a fanfic or can it future an original plot?

Sidewinder · Post by **Sidewinder** » 2007-10-08 03:34pm

CaptainChewbacca wrote:How about crossing traditional Halloween monsters with a scifi or fantasy universe? Vampires on Trek, or Zombies on B5.

I can picture werewolves being the result of a genetic engineering experiment, and possibly used by the Dominion as a replacement for the Jem'Hadar-- or maybe the Founders can clone the Reavers from 'Blade II'.

As for 'Star Wars'... I imagine the Blood Angels and Space Wolves can fill the role of vampires and werewolves in the 'Star Wars' galaxy, e.g., a Space Marine ship exits the Warp to find itself in the Galactic Empire, Vader makes first contact and proposes an alliance with the Space Marines, and the Space Marines fight the Rebel Alliance in support of their agreement with Vader. If that doesn't seem right for the "good guys" of 'Warhammer 40,000', replace the Space Marines with a group of Chaos Space Marines.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2007-10-08 03:48pm

Zixinus wrote:Does the story have to be a fanfic or can it future an original plot?

I think fanfic would be more in the spirit of SDN, but its not my thread. Also, we should probably try and set a word/page limit.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2007-10-08 03:59pm

I fully endorse the idea and I would have a preference for it being a cross over fic of some kind to honor how this forum got started. If you guys decide to do this I would make it an official Sticky Topic for the month of October.

Satori · Post by **Satori** » 2007-10-08 05:31pm

Do you want horror elements, or a horror theme? I've seen Pokemon fanfics that were written as horror and did a pretty swell Job of it at that. On the gripping hand, you have stories with Zombies and vampires and werewolves and whatnot that are comedies.

I'm actually considering writing a BtVS/WH40K fic, set on the WH side.

Academia Nut · Post by **Academia Nut** » 2007-10-09 12:30am

I think, in the spirit of the site, we should have a first rule of all submissions for the purposes of the challenge should be crossovers. As to length, well, I personally feel that it should be as long as you can write it in the remaining three weeks, but that's just me. If anyone else thinks that there should be some minimums or maximums, go right ahead and suggest them and we can discuss what is fair.

As to horror vs horror elements, that's a bit trickier. While not strictly opposed to horror elements being used for the purposes of comedy, I'm not sure if that would make things clear for "judging" (if we were to do such things afterwards). Of course, Halloween is not exactly and entirely serious holiday, so it would not be out of character to have a humorous slant to some of the stories. I say just straight horror, but if there are a number of people who were to chime up and say that they wanted to do stories that were to play with the horror tropes in a lighthearted manner, then I would not stand in their way.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2007-10-09 12:33pm

I think that it might do well to have a 'scariest' sub-category for folks who want to try it, and then a 'best overall'.

Of course, we don't have prizes, so I don't know if having different categories is really necessary. Getting some good artist to donate nice 'sig banners' might be a good prize.

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2007-10-09 12:58pm

For scary shit, you can't beat 40k. Have a Genestealer infested Space Hulk come out of the Wormhole by DS9 or some shit.

Teleros · Post by **Teleros** » 2007-10-09 01:36pm

Shroom Man 777 wrote:For scary shit, you can't beat 40k. Have a Genestealer infested Space Hulk come out of the Wormhole by DS9 or some shit.

Surely the C'Tan / Necrons would be better? Genestealers are great for causing carnage and can be scary, but I think the star-gods would work better, if only because they're more adaptable. I can just see the Deceiver getting into the whole Hallowe'en spirit for kicks; the Nightbringer is the literal Grim Reaper, and I don't think I need to say anything more about the actual Necrons and their Tomb Spyder & Scarab minions

.

Academia Nut · Post by **Academia Nut** » 2007-10-09 10:40pm

The Necrons have a tie with Chaos for most "Halloweeny" of the 40k groups (undead and demons, respectively), the only problem is that they are considered near overwhelming in their own universe, so unless you plan on wiping out the protagonists or having some sort of deus ex ending then it can be tricky to get good balance with the 'crons. Not that its impossible, its just that there are other, "fairer" opponents in 40k. A single Necron Warrior vs. Buffy would end: "And they all died. From being disassembled on an atomic level. And gangrene."

And yeah, I figured "prizes" would just be the pride of winning "Scariest Story" or "Best Story". People would post links to their stories in this thread and then after Halloween there would perhaps be a few quick polls in testing that would go away in a few days where we pick the best in their categories. So far I see the categories:

*Best Story
*Scariest Story
*Possibly funniest story?
*Goriest story?
*Story with the best "WTF?" moment?

Other than the first two which are pretty obvious, can anyone else think of any good category ideas?

More discussion on rules, is there any objection to having no limit on size, other than time and quality? On another vein, should we have a "One Entry per person" rule, or allow as many entries as can be completed?

And finally, to contribute to the brainstorming atmosphere I originally envisioned this thread would help create, I present an amusing crossover idea that would have to be played a little less than straight, but would probably be amusing in the hands of a skilled author:

Ashley J. "Ash" Williams vs. the Nightbringer. A fair fight, don't you think? I suppose someone could do an Ash vs. Freddy vs. Jason story since we'll never see it on the silver screen.

Satori · Post by **Satori** » 2007-10-18 09:58pm

Academia Nut wrote:The Necrons have a tie with Chaos for most "Halloweeny" of the 40k groups (undead and demons, respectively), the only problem is that they are considered near overwhelming in their own universe, so unless you plan on wiping out the protagonists or having some sort of deus ex ending then it can be tricky to get good balance with the 'crons. Not that its impossible, its just that there are other, "fairer" opponents in 40k. A single Necron Warrior vs. Buffy would end: "And they all died. From being disassembled on an atomic level. And gangrene."

So, WH40K/Dahakverse then?

The BTVS/WH idea I had involved the BTVS character's memories being imprinted on certain WH40k characters, due to that Halloween incident.

The Willow-analogue was pretty scary. High level psyker, not quite sane, works machines spirits better than the admech can. She relies on the Xander-analogue guardsman to keep her grounded and coherent.