THE BASICS
Until DECEMBER 31, 2019, we're accepting YOUR original horror or just plain bizarre, unearthly fiction. As long as they're your own original content, you can submit as many as you like, in any format, any style!
EVERYTHING COUNTS. While there are purists out there with their strict definitions of "creepypasta," we use the term more for the catchy title than anything else. We don't care if your story is written like a blog post, like a diary, like song lyrics or an entire novella, nor does it matter whether you tell your story in the form of text, audio, video, artwork or any combination thereof!
THE ONLY RULE is that your uncanny tale must be entirely your own, and shouldn't be something you've already published or posted on the web before!
SOME STORIES WILL BE POSTED EARLY! As we receive submissions, we'll be sharing some interesting and inspirational entries throughout November and December, moreso than previous years!
THERE WILL BE WINNERS! It's incredibly difficult for me to pick favorites, but I'll run submissions through a super-secret panel of judges to help me narrow them down. A selection of people will win a free t-shirt with any artwork of mine that they'd like!
HOW TO SUBMIT:
IF FOR WHATEVER REASON YOU CANNOT USE THE FORM, such as browser issues or a non-text entry submission, you can send direct to bogleech@hotmail.com!
IF YOU SUBMIT, LEAVE A COMMENT - since I'm no longer using my email inbox as the main submission method, you'll need to comment on this page if you want confirmation that your story was received!
ADDITIONAL HELP AND TIPS
NO EXPERIENCE? NO PROBLEM! Many of the greatest online horror tales, such as Candle Cove, even include deliberately unrefined grammar and spelling for a more realistic feel. Even if that's not what you're going for, it's the story that really counts; don't stress over whether you can write like a "pro" or not! Many of our winners have been first-time writers!
GO FOR WEIRD! Everyone's seen zombies, demons, serial killers, poltergeist hauntings, slendermen, cursed video games, evil lost episodes and tentacled cthulhus out the wazoo by now, so try to find subject matter you either haven't seen before or can give an unusual new spin!
INSPIRATION IS EVERYWHERE. Read up on real-world parasites, deep-sea organisms and rare diseases. Think back to the odd things that inexplicably scared you as a child. Recall your most abstract nightmares. Pick something out of the room and try to imagine what unnatural thing it could do to creep you out. We've had amazing entries about inflatable Christmas decorations, pop-eyed goldfish, papercraft and cornfields. Anything can become monstrous!
SUBTLETY IS YOUR FRIEND! Elements of the mysterious and unknown are what make many horror scenarios work so well. We don't always need to hear about the grisly murders and demonic cults behind a monster, and oftentimes it only weighs down a story with details that spoil the fun!
A QUICK WORD ON CONTENT
Each year, people turn to previous entries as an example of just how graphic their entry can be, and someone always pushes that limit just a little bit farther. Unfortunately, bogleech.com relies on google ads to pay for hosting, and the site's content attracts a lot of readers under eighteen years old. For both of these reasons, sexual content should be used sparingly and err on the side of subtlety when compared to past entries. If you're not sure, you can always run your story by me personally via e-mail, or just try to avoid anything but dirtier than your pals over at the SCP foundation. Speaking of which:
RECOMMENDED READING:
BROWSE THE EXISTING STORIES! There's no better way to get in the right spooky mindset! Don't just look at the "winners" and "runners up"...dozens of my top favorites still couldn't make those for reasons of sheer time and space!
CANDLE COVE - One of the internet's most beloved horror stories for a good reason. It's strange, it's original, and it leaves the reader scratching their head in the best possible way.
THE SCP FOUNDATION - an online fiction phenomenon packed with nightmare entities, abstract artifacts, preposterous oddities and things that virtually (or in same cases very literally) defy description.
I'M A SEARCH AND RESCUE OFFICER - a smash hit over on nosleep that only recently wrapped up with its final entry!
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER - a classic I'm now hosting on-site, The Yellow Wallpaper turns something very mundane into something very unsettling and has inspired authors for generations!
THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES - I'm late to this party - it's been going since 2017 and now wrapping up! - but the Magnus Archives are a podcast telling some phenomenally unsettling, creative tales featuring every kind of horror you can name, and then some.
MORE HALLOWEEN FEATURES:
comments powered by Disqus