Collaborative Creative Writing Community

I love the way you said check this project's vital signs.(lol)

Horror is not a genre I write in often (not so say I'm not trying to come up with more stories). I surely do hope you folks intend to do a sf/f anthology if this one is a success?

Although they may not be for publishing, we have at least a million other ideas for fun prjects... Sci-fi/fantasy included:)

Greetings all~
There has been a good deal of confusion surrounding the second part of this first project.
I am going to attempt to clear it up. Wish me luck…
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There were six chapter 1’s selected.

1- Andy Williams and the Boys of Company B by mandycrum
2- The Sound Machine by visigoth71
3- Harvest by theeighthvowel
4- Dark Stalkers (Chronicles of Ashley) by sidscifi
5- Blood Donor by nashvillebecker
6- Memoir Blues of a Chaos God by VictorMensa

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As a writer, between the dates of July 20 – Aug 3 you can MASH as many chapter 2’s as you want.
You could MASH 5 chapter 2s to just Blood Donor.
Or you could MASH a chapter 2 to each of the six chapter 1’s.
Or you could MASH 15 chapter 2’s to HARVEST and then one chapter 2 to each of the other first chapters we selected.
HOWEVER MANY YOU WANT! The more you MASH, the more storylines will be created, he better chance you have of getting published.
Okay….A ‘storyline’ is one particular branch from one of the Chapter 1’s.
So ‘Harvest’ at last count had eleven separate storylines. (Eleven different writers MASHed a chapter 2.)
Let’s take SM member nayrj84 for example: They created a chapter 2 titled ‘Bounty.’ That is now a distinct storyline and nayrj82 may not contribute another chapter to the ‘Bounty’storyline. However, nayrj82 can contribute a chapter 3 to every one of the other 10 HARVEST storylines that have been created by other users.
Crystal clear now I’m sure.
The best storyline will be included in the anthology publication.
So as the blog says…add a chapter to all of them!
Hope this helps~

Dude, I think you've been pretty clear with it all along. Don't worry too much if some of us manage to over-think it and confuse ourselves. It'll all come out in the wash (hopefully).

I'm quite happy the word limit has been loosened, even if just a bit. The first pass I made at the story clocked in at 2,600 or so, and I've whittled it down to like, 2,024. But I may be able to add a couple lines back in now, that I think are important...thanks!

This is truly just a comment and is not meant in any way as critical of SM or of any of our wonderful writers. Most worthwhile contests and especially all magazines are quite strict about the wordcount limits they set.

Added to that, I'm starting to see that it really helps to be forced to trim things down to within a certain limit. You have to be pretty brutal with your work to properly tighten it up so it hits hard and holds the reader.

Okay, at least I need that extra push. Not everybody does.

I think you are right Silver. Within reason. And, I'm still going to try to cut out the words... :-)

Man, horror is not easy to write!

It’s a saturated market so it’s definitely not easy to write something that hasn’t been done before or even to put a new twist on an old story. You are an amazing writer though Silver, you’ll be fine:) Check out fearnet.com for some inspiration. But you can think of any normal day to day activity, tweak it a little, and make it scary. Like brushing your teeth for example. You’re in the bathroom, staring listlessly into the mirror, it’s boring, but you have to do it. Suddenly you feel a crack, you can hear it too, it’s inside your head. A tooth falls out, there’s blood everywhere, you’re a little edgy about the whole business, but you remain calm. You start to rinse your mouth out, get some cotton to stop the bleeding, go to your fridge to find the card with your dentist’s number tacked under the little Curious George magnet. On the way there, you stub your toe, and it just breaks off. Hmm… ok, now things are getting more serious. But why? Voodoo maybe? Maybe you left a lover and now they’re tearing you apart like you tore them apart. Who knows, but it all started with brushing your teeth. A good horror story can start with a simple image too and you just build from there. What if one day you opened up your favorite book, and huh… two eyes were staring back at you? The story doesn’t literally have to have anything to do with those eyes, but the image could be haunting a guilty conscience. A lot of good horror stories are built around an image or a phrase. “A boy’s best friend is his mother” ya know? (Psycho, for the Hitchcock virgins). I liked the story you posted on SM, with the mother and daughter in the hospital. Subtly sinister, it was great, I thought you did a really good job. Remember you can submit as many as you want so even if you aren’t comfortable with your first one, send it on in and write something else. Ohh! Check out the Machinist for a horror movie with an artsy side to it, might be something you’d like.
Honey-

Thanks, honey, that is some really helpful stuff. I appreciate you took the time, and I'm blushing dayglow over the compliment! I've gotten some great editing suggestions and will be submitting the mother/daughter story shortly. I'm also reworking an oddball zombie story I wrote into my novel one year during NaNoWriMo when I got blocked on my storyline, so I had my protagonist find an old manuscript and start reading it. Got about 3,000 added wordcount out of it, but it can easily be edited down (being NaNo, of course it needs editing!).

I also hit Borders (where I practically live - they have Seattles Best Coffee!) and found a good 2007 Horror Short Story Anthology. I like to check out what is currently popular - even if I may decide not to write it.

I have the beginning of what I hope may become my horror story submission. Please read and let me know what you think. It's called, "They're Coming".