INTRODUCTION:

"Welcome to the Dreadful Tales of the Unnatural Podcast! A podcast where we take your own personal stories of run-ins with the weird, the bizarre, and the unnatural, and create dramatic retellings with virtual audio! Want your story to make it on our show? Just submit the craziest thing that has ever happened to you that cannot be explained by the natural, and we just might make your tale into the next episode!"

PROMPT:

Pretend that you are submitting a story to a podcast detailing a terrifying, potentially supernatural event that has happened to you. This will be fiction of course (unless you really do have something that happened to you in real life that can't be explained). You will be writing your story in the first person perspective. The first-place winner will have their story transformed into a 3d binaural audio story by me. Their story will also be the official first episode of a horror anthology podcast that I am planning to start after the contest has finished. Yeah, you read that right. This time, there will be a real reward for placing first. The winner will be determined by who writes the creepiest story that follows all of the rules that will be listed below. Please try to keep your word limit within the 1,000 to 2,000-word range. You will not be disqualified if you accidentally go over this. The suggestion is simply there to keep my sanity because anything over 2,000 words would make production time very long, and anything under 1,000 words would be a fairly short episode.

RULES:

1.As always with my contests, anything sexual is strictly prohibitedand will not be tolerated. Anyone submitting something with sexual content will be disqualified and will have their entry removed.

2.In regards to posting a warning at the top of your story, I have gone ahead and set the rating for this contest as rated-R. This means you will nothave to provide a warning for your story as I've already figured that mature content will probably exist due to the theme being horror. There is only ONE exception to this rule. If your story GRAPHICALLYdescribes in detailgore or the dismemberment of limbs, then and only then, will I require a warning at the top of your story.

3.Be civil with your comments on other people's work. Don't bash other writers, and I don't want to see any bickering. If you want to provide a critique of someone's work, be respectful and constructive. Tell them something good about their story instead of just listing what's wrong. Those who do not follow this rule will have their comments removed.

4.Let's talk about cursing. I realize that in the real world people will curse a lot when faced with something that either scares them or makes them angry. I get that. I truly do. With that being said, I personally do not like to curse. I rarely, if ever, write curse words in my own writing. I'm saying this because I will be the one narrating your story if it is picked as the winner, and I do not want to say any curse words during the recording phase. I know that sounds strange, but that's how I am (I'm a dad in case you didn't know). I don't mind words like "damn", "hell", or even "ass", but I refuse to say the "F-word", "GD", anything relating to private parts, and the word used for "poop". If your writing has any of these words, I won'tdisqualify you, but if you're picked as the winner, I will be editing your story to remove these words. Just keep that in mind.

5.Once again, my contest will run for a month. Please, please, please use this time wisely. Do your research and proofread your work. If your story is riddled with writing errors and inaccurate information, then your chances of winning are less likely. I will be working with the winner to edit their story so that it will be polished before recording starts. I do not want to waste a lot of time on this as I will be wanting to get started on production as soon as possible once the contest ends. I understand that this sounds a bit strict, but production time can take up to a couple of months depending on the length of the story.

6.Avoid cliches if you can. I'm sorry, but little girls saying "come play with me", pyscho-killers, zombies, vampires, and werewolves are really just not that scary to me and have been way overdone. Now, if you can find a fascinating, unique and original way of depicting them, then that's different. Just try to dig a little deeper and be creative.

If you need some inspiration, I highly recommend checking out "The Magnus Archives" by Rusty Quill Podcasts. You can find the series on YouTube. Want to know which episodes creeped me out the most so that you know what gets my blood to chill? I'll list what I consider to be the three most creepy episodes from them.

Episode 01: Anglerfish

Episode 15: Lost John's Cave

Episode 86: Tucked In

Last of all, have fun! This is a chance for you to get some extra exposure as the winner's episode will be featured on YouTube. I will be sure to credit the winner in the video and provide a link for people to find you either on Penana or any other social media you wish for me to plug.

One final note. If, for whatever reason, you do win and don'twant me to turn your story into an audio production, then just let me know and I will choose the next place winner as the one I produce.

This is a contest where you can write based on the theme - 'horror'. Interesting, right? So what're you waiting for?

Start writing your work based on this theme. There is no word limit. It can be too short or too long. The work can be in any form [facts, essay, passage, poem, short story, flash fiction, sudden fiction, novel/series, novella].

The judging criteria will be only based on the relevance to the given theme and the level of horrible and interesting.

Good luck writers!!! I am eagerly waiting to look forward your submissions.

Note: the cover picture is not related to the theme. You can write based on the given cover picture, but it is not a compulsion.

Prompt:

I want you to tell me an exciting tale through radio chatter only. Write your story as if you were transcribing a recorded audio log of a radio conversation. Don't feel limited to just police or military radio chatter, although those are more than welcome. It can be EMS, fire fighter, secret service, security, aircraft, boat, hiker, or even trucker conversations. Be unique and creative! No word limits. The winner will be determined by who writes the most authentic-sounding and exciting story. More details, rules, and an example below.

Description:

So, I think this is going to be a fun one. I came up with the idea for this contest while performing research on a current chapter I'm writing. I needed to know how to write proper radio chatter for police officers, and one of the ways I researched this was by actually listening to an hour long recording of a radio conversation over a police scanner. I was surprised by how engaged I was with it. It was strangely interesting and I was able to follow the series of events quite well. That's when I decided that this would make a very unique, but entertaining way to tell a story. That's what I want from you guys and gals.

How to Write Your Story:

Like I said in the prompt, I want you to write your story as if you were actually transcribing a recorded audio log. If you're unfamiliar with how to write in the style of an audio transcript, this site (https://www.w3.org/WAI/media/av/transcribing/) is a great resource for tips on how to do it. To help, I will also write below an example of the formatting I'm looking for.

Example:

Officer Martin: (gunshots in background)Adam-230 to Dispatch. I have shots fired on 51st Street and Lincoln [unintelligible]. Requesting backup.

Dispatch: Copy Adam-230. Shots fired at 51st Street and Lincoln Drive. All available units to respond to scene.

Officer Douglas: Adam-235, copy. In route.

Officer Michaels: Adam-237, copy as well. In route.

Rules:

- In regards to using 10-codes, I realize that this may be very tempting to some of you to incorporate. Keep in mind, however, if you decide to go this route, that not all readers will know what the 10-codes mean. Another issue comes from the fact that 10-codes can mean different things depending on the country, state, profession, and department. If you decide to use 10-codes, please make sure that the context of the dialogue properly informs the reader of what's actuallybeing said.

- Remember that in most instances (regarding official professions), use of personal names is prohibited over radios for safety reasons. Instead, most people have assigned call signs. The great news is that there really isn't any wrong way to come up with a call sign as the method of determining one also changes based on country, state, profession, and department. If you need a little help, in a lot of cases, call signs are a mixture of letters and numbers that represent the person's assigned location, shift, rank, job, or badge number (depending on profession). Try not to get too bogged down by this.

- If your character needs to spell something, remember that they would probably use the NATO Phonetic Alphabet. Don't know the NATO Phonetic Alphabet? No problem! Here's a site that provides it: https://www.worldometers.info/languages/nato-phonetic-alphabet/

- Sexual content is strictly prohibitedand will be removed.

- I realize cursing will probably be a thing some of you will want to include. Try not to go overboard with it. Instead, try to use it more for accentuating impactful moments. If there is a lot of harsh language, you mustprovide a warning at the top of your story to respect other readers.

- Violence - or explanations of violence - is allowed, but you mustalso provide a warning at the top of your story if it is graphic in nature. Once again, this is to respect readers who may not want to read that kind of content.

- Be civilwith your comments on other writer's works. No arguing. Critiques are always welcome, but remember to be constructive and also provide positive feedback in addition to your proposed corrections. Those who violate this rule, will have their comments removed.

- Try to proofread your work before submitting. Remember that this is a chance to showcase your writing ability. This contest will run for a month, which should give you plenty of time to polish your writing.

- Lastly, have fun! :)

I am going to give you a few words and pieces of information. All you have to do is write anything, anything,I don't care if it is a short passage, a poem, or a short story, as long as whatever you write, has the words and ideas I have listed, you're good. One thing, word count has to be above 100.

Your prompts -

👉 A little girl named Adeline

👉 Ghost

👉 Swing

👉 A Black Rose

👉 Garden

👉 Midnight

If you are going to include anything violent or anything that might be triggering to readers, please make sure to put up warnings. Thank you and Good Luck! Hope you enjoy participating!

- Hale ;)

- Image Prompt

- Fantasy genre

- Poem / Short story (Please do not make it too long) Your choice

- Do not involve anything sexual

- Nothing too violent

- Prefer if you won't make it a romance but you can do it if you want to

- Watch out for your spellings and grammar

- Only one entry is accepted by each participant

- You have four weeks to upload and edit your entry

- Make sure that your entry is related to the image

- Enjoy​​​​​​​

Just be creative and make it scary

Press Shift+Enter for multiple line breaks.

I want you to write a short story where I feel emotionally connected and attached to the main character. Listen, I want you to put me on the biggest emotional rollercoaster of my life. Make me cry of tears of joy or sadness, your pick. Make me smash my laptop out of anger. Make me throw it out the window because the character made a stupid decision- MAKE IT HAPPEN PEOPLE

Please keep it under 1000 words!~

Keep it PG-13, nothing sexual or incredibly gory

Tip: Try and make it a little relatable! :3

GOOD LUCK CADETS

You have been an immortal for a couple of centuries now. Today, you're enjoying a drink a nearby cafe when someone approaches you and says, "Hey, remember me? Peru, 1821?"

You look baffled before realization dons on you.

What happened back in 1821? What's happened up until now?

This story can be written in first of third person. Write an exciting story with no more 5000 words. Two entries are permitted if the second follows after the first.

Note: You may not win two places in this contest

​​​​​​​Good luck, everyone!