Collaborative Creative Writing Community

These are wonderful ideas. SM is doing some great things, giving writers the opportunity for more exposure.
Bravo!

Thanks theblackhand! I'm glad you like it and I can't wait to read your submission.

I am slightly confused by the second contest because the stories that we have to mash are pretty old and already have a few chapters mashed on already. Should we just ignore the already mashed chapters? Besides for that I really love this and I will try to enter both projects. Thank You Honeygloom.

Hi Rocklee! Some of the stories are old because the StoryMash team wanted to pick some of our personal faves, not necessarily high ranking or new chapters. And yes, ignore the chapters already posted. I hope you do enter both contests!
Honey-

Any 'MASH' chapters posted as chapter twos prior to the launch of this project as still eligible chapter twos. Writers wishing to add to those storylines may do so the week of July 28-Aug 3 when Chapter 3's are due.

Two questions.

1.If I understood correctly, the story written by me has to be handled till the 20th of August. Since it is a horror story, there is no censorship - am I correct.

2.The second part. I can write one chapter added to each story between the dates provided by you. Correct ?

This is all.

Cheers.

Hi Q-
#1- I’m not sure what you mean by “handled”, but after the 20th your story, if chosen will go into the anthology, and if not, well it’s yours you can use it as you see fit. As for the second part of #1, you are correct. No censorship!!!
#2- You can write 18 chapter 2s on the 3rd storyline, but then you can’t contribute again on that storyline, you’d have to move on to another one. Does that make sense? We want to make sure that each storyline showcases 6 different authors.

Ok, so there is one month to write and submit the story.

What are the criteria upon which the story is going to be judged?

Who is going to be the judge(s) ?

Cheers.

One more : if I post something here and also send it to you, then is it still eligible ?

Cheers.

Yes! Anything posted on StoryMash, as long as it is a complete story (not just a chapter)is eligible.

Judges are Katrina, Ethan, Jesse, and I. Our criteria are going to be more strict since this is for publishing. We will be looking for (mostly) correct grammar, spelling, everything that would normally go along with a published piece. Do the best you can to turn in something polished and ready to publish. But the most important thing is that we want something different. We all love vampires for example, but the standard angst ridden Anne Rice type vampire is not what we’re looking for. Stretch your imagination and try something new and fresh. As far as what type of scary story… anything goes. It can be dark comedy, sci-fi, even romance if you can make that scary. Whatever you want, as long as we are compelled to read it during the day with the lights on:)

Can you guarantee the - obvious at the surface - principle of impartiality ? Personally, I find it hard to believe that someone who is biased against me will be a good judge. What say you.

Cheers.

That’s a fair question. The StoryMash team wants this anthology to be successful and the only way that will happen is if we pick the best stories. Who writes the stories is not a factor in the success of the site or the anthology. For any of the judges to let personal feelings get in the way of putting together something remarkable and marketable would be just plain stupid. But if you really are worried, I can tell you that Jesse and I don’t have access to personal information (I’m not sure about Katrina, I’d have to check). If you wanted to email your submission under your real name, we would never know it’s you.

I, also, don't have access to your StoryMash user information unless you give it to me in an email. :)

Hi quetzacoatl~
I’m with honeygloom on this one. Best submissions will be included regardless of who submits them. If our old buddy aptriplett shows up with a masterpiece then they are in. It’s not a popularity contest. The goal is to publish the best possible work of short stories in the horror genre. We aim for success.
On a personal note, if you go back and read my comments on your work I think you will find that I am in fact a fan of yours. I appreciate your unique creativity. The only real criticism I’ve ever offered is that I thought you lacked focus, which you confirmed by advising that you were just testing ideas. I’ve since refrained from commenting on your chapters as you indicated you were not interested in Constructive Criticism. However that certainly will not bias my opinion of your work. Because I enjoy reading your stuff I was hoping you would submit something for this. I believe your fresh voice and style are exactly what a project like this needs. I really hope you’re up for the challenge.

Hello,

I understand where you're coming from - but it is also reasonable to realize the site like this one is going to have some ''strange'' people around.

What I mean is this. I did not say I was not interested in comments . I have observed a pattern, being repeated over and over again, in various comments,whether they are positive or negative per se. This patten is valid and I do adhere to it because it does correspond with my perception as well. I did improve a lot, from my perspective, this is why this site is a good investment for me,so to speak. This common pattern is the same, regardless of the comment. Everyone tests everyone else, I meant it to be just a small portion indicating how would people react. Nothing personal,really. Besides, I will not continue my testing routines..I already know what I wanted to know. I also gotta be honest when I say that I never understood the degree of exhilaration/infuriation exhibited by some individuals when reading the works of others/their own?..it is good, I guess, but even if I did that - I have to be honest again - I would be lying. So I don't do it. I don't praise someone because it'd be akin to hypocrisy.

I am surprised that you are my fan...it is just weird to me because based on the interview you are in your thirties I'd imagine..then I am younger an d never worked around books. I just never really called myself a ''fan'' of anyone because, in my view, fans are very ephemeral...if you are a fan of yourself, it is the only certainty one can get I think. Internally, that is. Nonetheless, it is good to know as you do not seem to be a person who makes stuff up just to make people feel better. Also, you do have some writing experience from what I can tell..which means I can define what is your standard of reasoning.

I am writing something for the project, yes...it is actually akin to exploring your own psyche and can be rather disturbing.

Cheers.

I am indeed a fan quetzacoatl, despite my decrepit old age of 38. Love it or despise it, your art never fails to perplex, intrigue or move me in some way. I enjoy the risks you take and I think you have a unique style of yarning that one day could be legendary. Hopefully not just in your own mind. (comic relief)
I like to think of myself as an old dog that will forever strive to learn new tricks.
And I get your point…I was a fan of Michael Jackson growing up. Now, if I hear ‘Thriller’ or ‘Beat it’ I get mildly nauseous.
On the other hand, I am also a fan of Poe, Dickens, Bradbury, The Detroit Tigers, Beautiful women, anything scented Vanilla, French Fries, gray goose martinis, (extra dirty), and the Sex Pistols.
Do you not write with an expectation of eliciting certain feelings from people?
I think that people respond as they do to the written word because, simply stated, they are passionate about it. Passion translates easily into exhilaration/infuriation. I for one love that about people.
Now get to work and blow us away with your submission. please.

Does it matter whether the story is in PDF/Word format ?

Cheers.

Needs to be in word format, because if it's chosen there might be editing to do.

Me again. Circa 2000 words - this is measured by word standards , right ? I've noticed a discrepancy between this site and word count in Microsoft Word. To which one does one adhere ?

The word count should be based on Word, or whichever word processor you use.

How can the word count be different between different programs? A program won't add or delete words randomly so the number of words should be the same....If not, then theres a problem with one of the programs.

Actually, there can be and is a difference. Some programs count everything seperated from the rest of the piece by a space even if it's just a dash or star, some even count hyphenated words as two, some actually count how many real words are there, and I suspect some may use the old publisher's criteria of not counting 'a', 'an' or 'the'.

What's the monetary incentive for us to take part in this project?

One cent.

The initial incentive is to be published. Once the stories to be included are selected then payments/royalties will be discussed between SM and the authors. Then a contract will be drafted and signed.

Please tell me if I understand this correctly...for the first contest, it's to be a full and complete horror story, correct?

Correct! One complete story ready to be published.

Ooo! This sounds like fun - and I was batting around an idea for a horror story just this weekend! I haven't abandoned the other contest, I just couldn't get anywhere with my chapter 3 attempt, but didn't want to read anyone else's until I'd written mine, so I got nothing written or read. Hmm, scare the crap out of everybody in less than 2,000 words, huh? I betcha I can do that.

I'm glad you're excited! You still have a few chapters left for the Ten Commandments contest too, no reason you can't do both:)

Question. Can you enter more then one short story in the contest?

I'm going to have to double check on that one.

OK! The answer to this one is YES! Write and submit until your fingers bleed from typing if you need to.

Some of you need to realize, this isn't really a 'contest'. It's a project. There is no certainty you will get any money at all, even if your story is included. This is different from the 'contests', so lets call these 'projects'. That way, nobody gets confused. I plan on submitting a story as soon as possible.

"SOOOO, that's why you all have to write the best story you can write so we can sell copies and make some scratch!"

Can a 2400-word story be accepted ? I wouldn't wanna truncate it to be honest...

Well, there is nothing to stop you from submitting a story longer than the rules specify. However, I must caution you; we aren't playing favorites in the story selection process and stories not adhering to the 2000 word limit will not be chosen for the anthology.

So basically what you are saying is if I submit it , then it is pointless because it is going to be rejected outright. Then this means no to more than 2000 words.

Is 2027 satisfactory or is it not...

Nm..its got less than 2000 now.

Sweet! Send it on in.

Hey, y'all, I've published a first draft of a story for the H.A.C. I'd really appreciate any comments to help me edit and polish it. I'll take (but not necessarily use) any suggestions, including pointing out grammar or spelling errors.

Hey Silver,
How do I find it?
Chloe

Hi, Chloe. The first draft is published under my name (Silver) and the title 'Belovéd Daughter'. You probably know this, but if you click on someone's name, it will bring up thier profile page with the last 10 comments they have made, followed by a list of all published chapters.

Wait a minute, you've already read and commented on that one. So far that's the only one I've got written with H.A.C. in mind.

Hi everyone,
Are the short stories submitted available to read on the site or do we have to wait for the book(lol)?

How could we have a horror anthology without any suspense? You’ll have to wait for the book;)

Haha! Thanks! I thought so! I'm working on one but don't know if its "horror" enough (lol) My threshold for terror is pretty low so I wondered if I should submit it or if I was completely barking up the wrong tree...woof...woof. Thanks!
Chloe

Chloe, I'd love to read and comment on your work-in-progress. If you don't want to post it here for comments yet, you can always email me at gorgolo_chick@yahoo.com.

Thanks Silver- That would be great! it's still too early to make sense to anyone but me (lol). I don't mind if anyone reads it- could we post a drafts to get feedback or is it very hush-hush!
Chloe

Of course you are allowed to post and get feedback:) You can submit as many stories as you want to so if you think one isn't scary enough you can always submit another.

Terror isn't necessary. Creepy works, dark comedy; something that makes your skin crawl, but doesn't make you want to pee your pants is good too.

If the authors are willing to publish them here (as I have done mine) then we can read them ahead of getting the book.

Just to clarify, what does "one chapter per storyline" mean for a story with multiple storylines? (e.g. 3 chapter twos, 5 chapter threes...) If someone submits an alternate chapter 2 which becomes a dead-end, can they continue after someone else's chapter 2 with a chapter 3?

One suggestion I have for future competitions is "thread voting." Writers could nominate story threads for voting (chloe's chapter1, dogdeity's chapter2, honeygloom's chapter 5, ..." High thread votes could be devided between subchapters.
This would give additional incentive to making a small but useful contribution to a "good" thread rather than creating a beautiful but disjoint chapters.

Threads could also have blank chapters (1,2,3,6,8...) One strategy for this would be to allocate (1/(# thread chapters+1)) of the total thread vote to the highest scoring chapter which fills each blank.

Sorry, this is hard to explain, so let me know if I'm not helping. You can write 13 chapter 2s on Harvest if you like, but then you can't contribute to Harvest again. The reason is that we want to make sure there are 6 different authors involved in whichever storyline goes into the anthology.
I like the idea about thread voting. I'll have to bring that up to the team and see what we can do for next time:)Thanks!!

I am still slightly confused. It says the first chapter is already done. So does that mean the first chapters for all the stories are done or just for Sound Machine??? Would you mind clearing up the second contest objective slightly more?

Also if the first chapter is done be it for the first story or all of them how do we know which one it is and how to continue?

There are 6 first chapters. As I said, you can write 27 chapter 2s on Blood Doner, for example, but then you can't contribute to Blood Doner again; you'd have to pick a different story. You won't know which storyline to write on and that's part of the fun. Not only do you have to write a great chapter, but you have to read and pick the best storyline/thread to add too. So your best bet for getting published is to write something for all six first chapters. I hope that makes sense, if it doesn't... keep the questions coming:)

Goodness gracious me - a horror anthology... can I play?

As if you even need to ask!

It's a shame that even such a project has its invisible barriers imposed by the minds that be. The market is unforgiving I guess. I will make a proposal then : If you know of any good self-termination sites, let me know.

You will have less competition to worry about. Oh. Sorry . You do not even think that. You are all too advanced . Pardon my faux paux, then.

Viva Le Difference !

Ah, nevermind it all... but the bias on this site is just a reflection of the human interpretation of ''life'' out there so what am I expecting. Miracles. Heh.

I'm sorry Q, but what do you mean by invisible boundaries? I'm not sure I understand.

Ah, I see it sorry, that four letter word “bias” well, no one needs to ask to submit a story. I’m positive about that, I double checked the rules.

How's the 20th of August event going to look like ?

There isn't an event really. Once all the submissions are in we'll read through them and pick the best. The selected stories will then be published in an anthology.

Q, you can always feel free to email me directly with concerns if you'd like at melissa@storymash.com.

All I need to know is when are we going to know the results.

Cheers.

Also, did you get my submission.

Cheers.

Don't know, I didn't get anything from an email address containing quetzacoatl and since I don't have access to your personal info, I don't know what your real name is. However, you do bring up a good point by asking that question. I'll get reply emails sent to everyone who sent us submissions.
Thanks!

Yes so send the response e-mail. If I get it, this means you have received it. Correct ?

It'd be good if you did it/e-mail sending/ ASAP. Tempus fugit.

Cheers.

Sometime after the 20th, depending on how many submissions we get.

So you choose someone's work. Then what happens ? Explain please. I'm not sure I got that correctly.

Once the stories for the anthology are chosen, details will be discussed with those authors.

Is it possible to change my nickname..it is not exactly the one I want even though I am stuck with it now. I also have a second account that was not deleted.

Hmm... That, my friend, is a question for Katrina. She's the resident Guru:)

I have a question and didn't know where to blog it. it says on my profile i've been paid a couple of bucks. Where does it go? i do have a paypal account I supplied. it's no big deal but I can have an extra latte this week! YAY! Thanks!
Chloe

I don't use a paypal account for mine, so I'm not sure how it would work for you. But you can always email Katrina with questions.

Um I have another question. For the mashing project...you need 6 different authors right? So for Victor's Memoirs of A Blue Chaos God.... Victor wrote the second chapter...I found it to be a pretty good chapter so...is the chapter still allowed to be part of the project. And is it too late to contribute for the third chapter since its 10:39...lol I just got a sudden crave to write and found some interesting chapter 2's to mash!

Hi Rocklee, sorry to take so long to answer your question. It looks like you already posted your chapter, which is awesome, thanks:) The deadlines are more like guidelines. We do want to see these stories through to the end so we wanted to give some deadlines, but they’re flexible so add to whatever story strikes your fancy. Mashing the chapters written by the original authors does not disqualify you either, just so you know. I hope I answered your question, let me know if I didn’t.
Thanks!
Honey

hey honeygloom, I really want to mash some of the chapters in the horror story collaboration, but as I'm reading through, many do not have third chapters posted and the deadline has already passed. So, first question; is it okay to post a third chapter when the deadline has passed? Also, are the highest rated follow up chapters the ones that we are 'supposed' to mash, or just mash anything, anywhere, anytime on the collaboration project page and you guys will all work it out in the end? Sorry for the silly questions, I just couldn't be sure where to mash and when. Horror is my genre so I'm pretty stoked about the project. Thanks for whatever help/answers you can provide. Foo

The deadlines were more to keep people moving. But posting after the deadline doesn't disqualify you, so post whenever. The best storyline will be chosen at the end. It may be the highest rated and it may not. Ratings won't be a determining factor. I say trust your instincts and pick the chapter you think is best. I'm looking forward to reading your chapter(s):)

been awhile since I've done anything on this site... just too bad Nut's Hell was too long... would have loved to see it in print... but anyway... I'll be popping in and out on ya... gonna try to start getting caught up with things...

Welcome back man! Glad to see you've rejoined our ranks!

I'm totally bummed I didn't make the cut but oh well there are still some great stories listed.

The stories on the projects page aren't the ones for the short story publications if that's what you mean. So you still have a chance:)

Honeygloom..is this the project you commented to me about awhile back? I tried to email you guys but it wouldn't go through...

I'll definitely submit a story!

you can send it to projects@storymash.com or melissa@storymash and I'll forward it to the other judges. I haven't heard of anyone else having that problem so try it again and then let me know if it doesn't work. I'm excited to see what you have;)

I just want to add that trying to pare a story down to 2000 words is hard. I hadn't realized how hard. I feel like I'm sacrificing so much of the mood.

I've seen plenty of good ones at 2000 words so I know it's possible. Challenge is good right? It makes us stronger writers:)

It can be done. It just seems like murder to cut something by a third.

You could always write a different story though, if you don't want to chop up the one you have. There's still plenty of time to whip up something new... just a thought, I know editing can be painful;)