contest

UCA New Pulp Revival Writing Contest (presented by Doctor Satan)

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Doctor Satan presents the Creative Horror Network’s New Pulp Revival Writing Contest!  Indulge in the tales of yesteryear with our newest creative writing challenge and try your hand at the new pulp fiction renaissance.

RULES

  1. Write a short story in the vein of pulp fiction from the late 1800s to 1940.  Examples include but are not limited to:

  • Early British scifi e.g. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

  • Pirates/adventure on the high seas e.g. Strike the Black Flag by Jay Scotland

  • High fantasy e.g. Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard

  • Cosmic horror e.g. Dagon by H.P. Lovecraft

  • Early American scifi e.g. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  • Detective/Film Noir e.g. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammet

  • Traditional or Gothic Horror e.g. The Woman Who Stole a Ghost by Agatha Christie

  • Unhinged nonsense e.g. Doctor Satan by Paul Ernst

2. General guidelines:

  • Write as if you are being paid by the word.  The more description and “unnecessary” words, the better.  Brevity may be the sole of wit, but we’re not writing Shakespearian prose.

  • Pulp is characterized as/by overly descriptive or rich imagery; cartoonish or even outlandish characters (especially the villains); imaginative settings and story lines; and ridiculous-ass names.  Your story should take us on an adventure, be it fun or horrifying.

  • Do not feel pressured to make it horror or horror-adjacent.  Though that is more than welcome.

  • Do not use slurs.  Do not Include prejudicial, discriminatory, racist, or otherwise obviously offensive material as if you as the author were in support of it or otherwise condone it.  While such language is an unfortunate asset in a lot of pulp literature, it is not welcome here.

    • You may, however, address, explore, and otherwise criticize these themes in a constructive way.  Themes include: Racism, slavery, gender issues, socio-political issues, war, violence, classism, etc. 

  • Do not feel pressured to include romance, a damsel in distress, or anything related to intimacy.  Of course, you are not prevented from doing that either.  While this is also a facet of a lot of pulp literature, it is not required. 

3. Word limit: Minimum 2,000 - Maximum 5,500.

4. No generative AI or generative AI-assisted submissions.

5. Deadline to submit: August 15, 2024 by 11:59 PM.

HOW TO SUBMIT

  1. Please submit to creativehorrorwriting@outlook.com with the subject line “New Pulp Writing Contest: [story title - author name]”.

  2. Stories may be submitted as a Word doc, pdf, pasted into the body of the email, or as a Google Doc link. (Please make sure any Google docs have permissions open for anyone to view.) Make sure your name is nowhere in the actual document or story itself.

  3. Only one entry per contestant.  If you submit multiple entries, only the first entry will be considered. 

  4. By submitting your story you are also granting Creative Horror permission to possibly use it in future episodes and the non-exclusive right to be published in a free pulp-style webzine.  Authors otherwise retain the copyright to their works.

  5. Any late entries or entries outside the word limit will be disqualified.

  6. As always, feel free to reach out on the discord or to any one of the judges if you want to confirm that your idea fits within the rules.

PRIZES

  1. Three winners will be selected from the entries and awarded cash prizes via Paypal or Venmo.

  • 1st Place: $100

  • 2nd Place: $50

  • 3rd Place: $25

Winning stories will be read and discussed in a future episode of UCA. Winning stories and honorable mentions may also be featured in a free Pulp-style webzine.

Lost Cryptid Writing Challenge

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Some cryptids are so elusive that they even vanish in the midst of a writing challenge…

As an apology to those submitted an entry for Cryptid Writing Contest, but were lost due to technical issues, we are creating a new challenge: The Lost Cryptid Writing Contest. We will read all the lost stories and put them to our panel of judges. The winning story will story have the chance of being fully narrated with sound editing in a video on the Creative Horror Youtube page.

If you sent in an entry, but your story was not listed as one of the winners or read in the UCA episode, published on November 23, 2021, and you were not emailed about being disqualified, send your submitted story to our NEW email, Creativehorrorwriting@outlook.com, with an attached screenshot of the initial email with the time code to prove that it was sent to the previous email, midnightmarinara@gmail.com, before the original Cryptid Writing Contest deadline (we will take time zones into consideration, so please let us know the time zone from which it was sent in the email).

Once you sent your story, we will send an email back, letting you know we received it. You have until Tuesday, November 30th, 11:59PM PST to email your submitted story.

We will not accept any new submissions. Just as before, the subject line must contain: “Cryptid Writing Contest: Story Title - Author Name.” Stories may be submitted as a Word doc, pdf, pasted into the body of the email, or as a Google Doc link. (Please make sure any Google docs have permissions open for anyone to view). Make sure your name is nowhere in the actual document or story itself. By submitting your story you are also granting Creative Horror and UCA permission to possibly use it in future episodes. Any entries over the original 1500 word limit will be disqualified.

Thank you, and let’s get tracking!

Cryptid Creature Writing Challenge

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What’s lurking out there in the shadows, waiting to pounce? You tell us! We’ve joined forces with Animal Fact Files to present a new challenge: create a fresh cryptozoological wonder (or horror)!

Rules

  • Write a story about a cryptid of your own design. It can be inspired by other cryptids, but it must be unique enough to differentiate from known cryptids.

  • The goal is to create a believable cryptid that could have been spotted in real life, written about in newspapers, discussed on forums, etc.

  • Your story can be in any format: poem, article, research paper, etc.

  • Word limit: 1,500

  • Deadline: Sunday, July 4th, 2021, 11:59PM PST

HOW TO SUBMIT

  • Email completed stories to midnightmarinara@gmail.com.

  • The subject line must contain: “Cryptid Writing Contest: Story Title - Author Name”

  • Stories may be submitted as a Word doc, pdf, pasted into the body of the email, or as a Google Doc link. (Please make sure any Google docs have permissions open for anyone to view.) Make sure your name is nowhere in the actual document or story itself.

  • By submitting your story you are also granting Creative Horror and UCA permission to possibly use it in future episodes.

  • Only one entry per person. If you submit multiple entries, only the first entry will be considered.

  • Any late entries or entries over the word limit will be disqualified.

PRIZES

Three winners will be selected from the entries and awarded cash prizes via Paypal or Venmo.

  • 1st - $50

  • 2nd - $30

  • 3rd - $20

Winning stories will be read and discussed in a future episode of UCA. The first-place story may also have the chance of being fully narrated with sound editing in a video on the Creative Horror Youtube page.