The Halloween 2024 Official Contest Support Thread!

[Rustyoznail]

September is here and that means it's Spring here. For you lot up north, it's Autumn (or Fall).

That can mean only one thing - it's time to start cranking out that Halloween story that you've been dying to tell! Let's kick off Autumn 2024 in the northern climes with a new support thread -

Halloween (Oct 31)




Themes: scary stuff, costumes, Halloween traditions (trick-or-treating, etc.), etc.

You can begin submitting on (or before): October 2

The last day to submit is October 23

Winners Will Be Announced: October 30

The author must copy and paste the phrase "HALLOWEEN 2024" to the "Notes to Admin" field of the submission (without the quotation marks).

And please add the tag "HALLOWEEN 2024" (without the quotation marks)

Read Laurel's notice of the start of the contest sticky at the top of the Authors' Hangout (when it magically appears), before submitting and follow the instructions in that thread. I will keep an eye out for that information and update this page as soon as I see it (or as soon as someone points it out to me).

This thread is to SUPPORT and ENCOURAGE authors to enter stories in the 2024 Halloween Contest. For you new writers, this thread is a great place to meet your fellow authors and share ideas, tips, and tricks of the trade.

As the recently departed Ogg always told us, there is an advantage to entering stories in one of Literotica's themed contests. Apart from the possibility of winning, your story gets far more exposure and attention than it would normally do.

Some of that attention might be unwelcome, some abusive, but this thread is a good place to vent after getting that kind of attention. Some of that attention could be appreciative and helpful and this thread is a great place to come and share those accolades.

It's that time! Bring out your masks, candies, and creepy accessories, and prepare to put a spell on your readership.

Oh, and as an added bonus - Season 5 of The Amorous Goods Anthology is running at the same time, which will give you even more exposure!

 

[Fatdog25]

Working on one for this one.

 

[Voboy]

Cool. I've got one I finished awhile ago; I've been holding off, but I'll take another spin through it and see what I think.

 

[MyBareTorso]

Woo hoo! Even though Halloween has only recently become more of a "thing" in Australia, I really enjoy the vibe, and have had a lot of fun writing for this contest for the past couple of years. Got a pretty simple story idea for this, and will hopefully have it done by the deadline. Thanks to my fellow countryman @Rustyoznail for running the support thread.

 

[OffNSFW]

I've already got a few pages written for this. A bisexual chef falls for a gay server in his restaurant, who--as it turns out--has a full life that doesn't necessarily have room in it for some old dude. Chaos ensues, cum happens, there is a timely Halloween hookup, etc. The working title is "My Boyfriend's Boyfriend."

 

[Rustyoznail]

I've got an idea for an Amorous Goods cross over. A guy takes revenge on his nasty step sister using a cursed object he steals from the Amorous Goods store.

Being a step relationship and non-con, the I/T category is probably the right spot, but the readers will probably hate it.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Glad to see this. The story I started last year is done.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

I'm about 10K words into mine so I'm hoping to have it done prior to the deadline. While I prefer to read and write stories with happy endings, this one is practically begging to be something different.

 

[Wineandcheese]

Started mine right after I finished the Summer Lovin’ story. I’m 10K words into it, so it’s the longest story I’ve written so far. it isn’t quite done yet, and there’s still lots of polishing and editing to do, but I’m confident I’ll have it ready for Day One.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Out of morbid (appropriate!) curiosity, how well do you guys think a dark and bleak and disturbing story would do? I mean, it's bleak. I'm guessing pretty poorly. There's some erotic content and descriptions, but lots of regret, a handful of suicides, a couple of other deaths, a woman self-mutilates... I've checked with a couple of other authors/beta readers to see if it's too much, but I've been urged to continue and maybe even dig deeper. I'm actually expecting some people to click out of the story -- or maybe just go right to the bottom of the last page to express their displeasure, but I'm about 90% sure that I'm still going to publish it. I may be surprised. So, traditionally, how do scary stories fare in this contest? Or should I just write a sex romp/wacky mix-up at a costume party and actually try to get a decent rating?

 

[gordo12]

Out of morbid (appropriate!) curiosity, how well do you guys think a dark and bleak and disturbing story would do? I mean, it's bleak. I'm guessing pretty poorly. There's some erotic content and descriptions, but lots of regret, a handful of suicides, a couple of other deaths, a woman self-mutilates... I've checked with a couple of other authors/beta readers to see if it's too much, but I've been urged to continue and maybe even dig deeper. I'm actually expecting some people to click out of the story -- or maybe just go right to the bottom of the last page to express their displeasure, but I'm about 90% sure that I'm still going to publish it. I may be surprised. So, traditionally, how do scary stories fare in this contest? Or should I just write a sex romp/wacky mix-up at a costume party and actually try to get a decent rating?

LOL, I wrote a dark story for Valentine and got told it belonged in horror and to publish it for Halloween, so yours should do just fine!

 

[SamBomb]

Back in July/August I worked on a story so much, had one chapter left and then realized it was with witches, curses, magic, and ended at a halloween costume party...

So, I delayed it for this. Will finish by October 2nd, I hope!

 

[Bassytian]

I had an idea come to me the other day at work for a story that I will be entering. I largely have the entire thing written already but I will be revising it many times and will hopefully enter it on Day One. This time, I will be using entirely new characters instead of using ones from my main story like I did for Summer Lovin.

It is an erotic horror story but I wouldn't call it "bone chilling". It will be more disturbing and eerie and really kind of sad in a way. I would not want to end up like the main character, I hope no one ever does.

 

[RetroFan]

I'm hopefully on track to amaze the IT readers with some themes that don't come up very often with my Halloween story about a haunted guest house, which includes a gay male couple having a threesome with their adopted 18-year-old daughter. Who knows, I might even be able to make the IT crowd laugh this time, although that might be a goal too unrealistic to reach.

 

[Agent0069]

Erotic Horror is the genre that gives me the most trouble. I can't even begin to consider what to write here.

Women are scary enough as they are, what more there is to imagine? Giant women? Many women? "Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a woman"?

 

[MelissaBaby]

A word of advice to newcomers to the Halloween contest. There is a segment of readers in Erotic Horror who do not regard stories about ghosts or aliens as belonging in that category. You will be likely to score a bit higher if such stories are submitted to NonHuman.

 

[RetroFan]

A word of advice to newcomers to the Halloween contest. There is a segment of readers in Erotic Horror who do not regard stories about ghosts or aliens as belonging in that category. You will be likely to score a bit higher if such stories are submitted to NonHuman.

I always thought the difference between Non Human on one side and Erotic Horror and Science Fiction/Fantasy on the other was that in the Non Human stories there was sexual activity between humans and monsters, ghosts, aliens, vampires, werewolves, demons and the like, while in Erotic Horror and Sci-Fi Fantasy these themes were in the story but the only sex is between human characters, the other worldly entities are not directly involved in anything sexual. Although I could be mistaken, and the line between these types of stories by nature can blur.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I always thought the difference between Non Human on one side and Erotic Horror and Science Fiction/Fantasy on the other was that in the Non Human stories there was sexual activity between humans and monsters, ghosts, aliens, vampires, werewolves, demons and the like, while in Erotic Horror and Sci-Fi Fantasy these themes were in the story but the only sex is between human characters, the other worldly entities are not directly involved in anything sexual. Although I could be mistaken, and the line between these types of stories by nature can blur.

That may be so, I am not that well versed in the genre. But I have submitted ghost stories in Erotic Horror twice, and received the critique that they're more appropriate elsewhere both times.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Erotic Horror is the genre that gives me the most trouble. I can't even begin to consider what to write here.

Women are scary enough as they are, what more there is to imagine? Giant women? Many women? "Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a woman"?

 

[Duleigh]

That may be so, I am not that well versed in the genre. But I have submitted ghost stories in Erotic Horror twice, and received the critique that they're more appropriate elsewhere both times.

I've never had any trouble with it, but it's not a real popular category. They're looking for terrifying and a ghost story can be more sympathetic than terrifying.

 

[Melody_Lightdraft2]

A word of advice to newcomers to the Halloween contest. There is a segment of readers in Erotic Horror who do not regard stories about ghosts or aliens as belonging in that category. You will be likely to score a bit higher if such stories are submitted to NonHuman.

But centaurs, and centaurides are half human?

 

[FreyaGersemi]

They're looking for terrifying

What is "terrifying"? Ghouls and werewolves and and gore and whatnot? Or disturbing psychological torture and things like that?

 

[lovecraft68]

It's so strange to see a contest thread start and KeithD not being one of the first posts talking about how he already has one, two, or more ready to go.

Not a great sign.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have an idea for one, a LW story, but not sure if I'll get to it. I'm trying to finish a longish taboo piece for sale, and with everything going on with my wife these days, time is limited.

 

[lovecraft68]

That may be so, I am not that well versed in the genre. But I have submitted ghost stories in Erotic Horror twice, and received the critique that they're more appropriate elsewhere both times.

From what I can tell the category is dominated by badly portrayed succubus stories, vampires, and less subtle horror than ghosts, and I think the readers lean more towards the H than the E in the category title. I had two long ones that did very well when I posted them in 2014/2016 and both were violent and gory.