Hello everybody! I just wanted to post this here. It's not a horror novel, although there are some horror elements to it. I'm just trying to get as many eyes on it as possible :)

https://a.co/d/8haOr13

Much like our last contest, I want to do something majorly different from our previous November Contests. Writing stories about Thanksgiving is getting a bit stale. Let’s do something fresh and exciting this time around! Gobble gobble! I’d like to play a little game. It’s called:

Modifiers!

If you’re any kind of gamer, you’ll understand this right off the bat. If you aren’t, no worries. I’ll be explaining below in simple terms how this is all going to work.

##THEME

Modifiers

For this contest, there will be no theme! Authors can write about whatever they want. Of course, within the subreddit rules. However, it wouldn’t be much of a contest if there wasn’t some added difficulty.

In this case, the difficulty of the story will also be the author’s choice, in the form of the following list of modifiers:

(1x) Old School SSS – Author can only use 250 words or less

(2x) Drabble Babble – Stories must be 100 words EXACT. Anything over or less will count solely toward the Old School SSS modifier

(2x) You Did It! – Story must be told from 2nd Person Point of View. For example, “You walk up to a tree and smack it in its lying face. It smacks you back with a branch. It hurts you a ton, but you don’t give a damn.”

(3x) Rhyme Time – Story must be told in the form of a Poem. It does not need to rhyme. Just freestyle it.

(2x) Stories within Stories – Story must be told in the form of vignettes. For example, an end of the world scenario told from the point of view of different characters.

(1x) Short & Literary – Titles must not exceed 5 words and cannot be clickbait or summarizing or overly descriptive. Yes, this is subjective, however, we all know clickbait when we see it.

(3x) Original Monster – Story must contain an original creature/monster. From the results of the Halloween contest, I’d say everyone deserves a second chance at this. Subjective as well, but that’s why it’s a 3x multiplier.

(1x) Genred – Stories must contain an additional genre besides horror. Fantasy, science fiction, romance, etc, are all on the table, but remember that horror comes first and foremost.

(1x) Keywords – The following words must appear in the story – Midnight, Titanium, Dove, Carnage, Crimson.

(1x) Celebrate! – Story must be holiday-themed. Simply mentioning it’s Valentine’s Day won’t cut it. You’ve gotta make the holiday central to the story.

(4x) Nice try, Rookie! – Story must be submitted on a Throwaway account. Throwaway accounts may not reveal any identifying information about the author. It is supposed to be anonymous to level the playing field for those who are not popular authors.

Authors may use as many modifiers as they like. Or none of the modifiers. Isn’t that interesting?

Well, there’s a catch.

If you noticed, there’s a 1X, 2X, 3X, or 4X next to each modifier. For each modifier used, the author will receive a multiplier. This multiplier will come from the additive total of modifiers used in their story. Once the multiplier is confirmed, it will then be used against the total amount of upvotes the story received resulting in a total amount of points the story will receive.

For example, I submit a story with 5 1x modifiers and this story receives 100 upvotes. The total number of points the story will receive is 500. Or if I write a story with 3 1x modifiers and the 4x modifier, and get 100 upvotes, it’ll be 700 points. If I don’t use any modifiers, and my story gets 1000 upvotes, my total points is 1000.

The author whose story scores the most points at the end of the contest will be declared the winner. As mentioned above, there are some modifiers up there which could be considered subjective. For example, original monsters, no clickbait, holiday, and genre. However, if you choose to use these modifiers, I suggest leaning heavily into them so there can be no question about it.

If you used the Drabble Babble modifier, you’ll automatically also get the Old School SSS modifier too for a total 3X modifier.

If there are any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. This is the first time I’m doing this type of contest, and I probably haven’t worked out all the kinks yet.

##RULES AND REGS

• All entries must adhere to the subreddit rules. Entries not meeting the guidelines will be disqualified and removed.

• To participate in the contest, a link to the story submission must be made to the /r/ShortScaryStoriesOOC thread for the November 2024 Contest Leave a comment with a link to the story, and that's all. If you have multiple submissions, please go back to your comment and add additional links. It's easier to organize this way.

• Authors must state the modifiers they’re using in the comment section of the story. This is super important so the point totals can be accurate, and I know what I’m looking for when reading through the story.

• If a modifier is selected and not featured in the story or doesn’t adequately satisfy the requirements, it will not be to calculate the point total.

• Multiple entries are allowed. Please remember the 24 Hour rule. Even if using a throwaway account, please wait 24 hours on the normal account.

• The story with the most points is the winner. The calculation is listed above. If there are any ties or if Reddit's vote fudging makes determining a placement too tricky, authors will split the placement, and the next highest upvoted story will take the subsequent placement until we have a full winner's circle.

• An additional winner will be selected as well. This will be a Moderator's Choice Award. This will be given to a story which might not have cracked the Top 5 in points (or maybe it did!), but shows excellence in creativity, originality, and writing. If there's a tie, it might be possible to have multiple winners on this one.

##Top Winner & Moderator Choice Prizes:

• $5 Amazon Digital Gift Card (donated by yours truly!)

• Customized SSS flair - We'll talk and come up with something cool for you.

Any questions or comments, please leave them below. If anyone has any suggestions on additional modifiers, please let them be known, and maybe we can include them in the contest.

The contest starts now and ends December 4th at 11:59 PM EST.

Submissions are simple.

Leave a comment with the link to your story and that’s it! For multiple submissions, please edit your comment to add another post.

Hey. You may know me. You may not. My most popular story has 4.3k upvotes, so you probably do.

Tonight, I was hit out of the blue with a truly harrowing message.

”You have been permanently banned from SSS”

Apparently, I “harassed another member of the sub to the point to where they felt uncomfortable.”

I didn’t even know I did that. I try to be kind and charming to every person I talk to on Reddit. I would never even think of consciously stalking or harassing someone.

I don’t even know who I harassed.

Since I can’t really post on SSS anymore, I needed to spread my message here. Hopefully they don’t ban me here for this.

To the person I harassed:

I’m sorry. I never intended to do anything like that.

To the mods:

Perhaps permanently banning me was a bit extreme? I didn’t even know I was doing it. And you’ve seen me. I would never even hurt a fly!

This sub means a lot to me. I made so many friends here. Made so many wonderful stories here. My self-esteem was practically birthed here.

I’m a member of this community, and a respected one, too.

Please consider turning my permanent ban into a temporary one. I love this sub, and even the idea of not even being able to share my creativity keeps me up at night.

Sure, there are other subs I could post to, but this one, It’s so integral to me.

I couldn’t even sleep after seeing that message.

I can do a 30 day, even a 60 day ban!

Please, just give me another chance.

I think it's awesome that sss is doing a contest this month. If I may be so bold... I was wondering if the mods could also possibly be talked into something else. I was wondering if perhaps as a Christmas present to some of the frequent writers, that the rule of no continuations could be lifted for the month of December. Still a five hundred word limit to each installment, but just allowing the authors to further explore some short ideas. As long as, of course, each installment has a scare in it. Just a thought. I completely understand if that's not possible.

I noticed that one of my recent posts on SSS wasn’t particularly popular (link, but I can also paste it into the comments if that's easier), and it would be great if someone could give me some insight.  I understand that the content, or plot, of the story isn’t for everyone, so I’m more concerned with whether I made any glaring mistakes with the more technical aspects of the story (e.g., spelling/grammar, disconnected story beats, etc.).  I’m not sure if I made some sort of writing faux paus, or accidentally posted fan-fiction, or something.  It can be hard for me to distance myself enough from a story to determine whether these kinds of issues exist, so I would appreciate some feedback.

Thanks,

Hi I’ve recently started writing SSS and most of the people who read it also love it same as I do but I always have troubles completing it. I usually end up having two or more alternative endings which makes it sort of hard for me to choose between them for I fear people might not like it

Hello!

I genuinely don't know who remembers me. I used to be a very frequent poster, posting body horror short stories. Its so great to see the sub doing so well. Kudos to all the new writers taking this sub to so many new places. It's so good to see so many stories doing so well. It's giving me a slight itch... Love this sub!

A small milestone for most, but one I'm proud of regardless. I came into this community just for S&G's trying my hand at writing. The support and feedback I've received has been nothing short of a blessing making my efforts feel very much worth every second glued to my computer screen.

I can't wait to see what the future holds. High hopes I'll be right back here announcing my 100th story someday. For now, I'm simply posting this to express my gratitude and share my Story Catalog with every story I've put out so far.

Thank you all.

Sincerely, Yokaisheru

Hello! I need true horror stories you have if you’re willing to share!! ( Your Reddit username can be included or excluded from the video (up to you!)) Anything you got, I would love to hear!

Email is - malmalmars12@gmail.com

i use them to indicate a new scene. now i can't do it or see spaces in any post, past or present.

i put four spaces (pressed enter 4 times) between this sentence and the above and below paragraphs, so can you see the gaps, or does this sentence look like it's right next to the paragraphs above and below?

are others having this problem? (i know they roll out new things for some people and not others). is there something we can still do so that spaces appear?

edit: i also don’t know if the spacing of my latest story, “burn this house” came out right. can someone who can see spaces please post a screenshot of it? i’d appreciate it

Submissions are simple.

Leave a comment with the link to your story and that’s it! For multiple submissions, please edit your comment to add another post.

Hello, all. I’ve seen a couple of times now when someone responds to one of my stories letting me know that they’ve shared it or included it on a video without actually asking me. (e.g., “This was a great story! I wanted to let you know that I’ve included it on my compilation here!”) Obviously informing isn’t the same as trying to hide it, but it also isn’t the same as asking. Have others seen this? What have they done about it? Does it break sub rules? Just looking for some insight, thanks!

Am I crazy to think that this subreddit is entering a new era? I have been posting here for a while, but the number of people reading and the number of upvotes has kind of gone crazy lately.

Now, let me explain this in a way that is very tangible.

The top three posts of the year have all been submitted in the last two weeks.

Now, as somebody who previous held that title, I can say that it took a LONG time to achieve. But suddenly stories are going huge and quickly!

Does anyone else feel like there are more readers than ever? This is an exciting time to write on this subreddit. I don't know if you all feel this, but it feels like every author is one good story away from being the top of the year! And that is awesome! We have readers people! Now is the time to write!

I don't know if I needed to even post this here, but honestly I'm just really damn excited. It has never felt better to post on SSS. I am so excited for the future of this subreddit, and I cannot wait to read and post more stories than ever. Is anybody else feeling the same? I just want to know that I'm not crazy.

For those of you who have heard of me, I'm pleased to announce that I've published a collection of my short-stories. Every story has been reviewed and in many cases edited. The paperback is over 600 pages in size and contains around 200 stories.

It's taken months to get to this point as you can imagine.

Anyways, you can get it here if you fancy it.

https://a.co/d/asWCkRi

Must admit that I don't post or keep up with SSS as regularly as I used to, but having a glance recently the most popular ones seem to be ones with AITA-like titles, content and comments. Personally, I'm not a big fan but each to their own - I'm a bit old-fashioned when it comes to titles myself. I think a title should be at least partly memorable.

Are readers/writers drawn to stories if they have a particular kind of title over others?

Hey everyone! Not sure how many of you have come across my stories, but I started posting regularly on SSS about two months ago. It's been a lot of fun interacting with the community. Between reading stories and chatting with other writers I feel like I've gotten significantly better at creating stories. Thank you to everyone who has helped with my journey.

I was writing a story every day and posting one every other day. I just recently hit 50 stories. It's a big milestone for me, so I'm taking this as an opportunity to take a break from writing and work on my editing skills. My plan is to edit and compile the stories into a small collection which I'll publish. I think it'll be nice to revisit some of my stories with fresh eyes and be able to finally share the ones that were over 500 words and couldn't be trimmed down.

I noticed that a lot of other folks on SSS have self-published short story collections. Does anyone have advice for a first-timer? What would you do differently if you were publishing for the first time again?

Once more, thank you to everyone who has been so supportive over these couple months. I don't know how long of a break I'll be taking, but I'm planning to check in and read some stories even if I'm not posting. Anyways, thanks for reading and happy writing!

I personally go by whether the upvotes/downvotes score is high enough to my liking in the moment. How do you guys decide- by the title of the story, by the author, or some other method?

A little milestone for the tiny short story app I launched a while ago. If anyone here has used it, I’d love to know what features you’d like to see. If you haven’t checked out it yet, it’s a great place to post your work and get some more exposure.

The tape recorder sat like a dormant relic on Juniper's cluttered desk. Dust motes danced lazily in the sunlight that filtered through the half-drawn blinds. With hesitant fingers, she pressed play, the old cassette whirring to life with a mechanical hum that seemed to echo through the quiet room.

At first, there was only static, crackling like distant footsteps in an abandoned house. Then, voices emerged, faint and muffled as if speaking from another realm. Juniper leaned in, straining to decipher the words. They were unintelligible, mere whispers in a language that felt both ancient and forbidden.

As the tape progressed, the voices grew clearer, and with them, a sense of dread tightened around Juniper's chest. She recognized snippets of phrases, fragments that hinted at rituals and incantations similar to the kind she witnessed in the Yukon. There were names spoken in reverence, names that belonged to entities not meant to be invoked by mortal tongues.

Amidst the disembodied sounds was hushed breathing, barely audible over the tape's aging mechanisms...

That's all for now. Will post more later.

Below is a paragraph from the short story I'm working on. I'm curious if the mood, atmosphere, and perspective are evident from this paragraph alone, without any context about the story. Also, feel free to critique it—both good and bad.

Here it is:

"Emma stood in the dim living room, staring at the window that shouldn’t be. Its glass was a perfect void, a black hole set into the wall of their New England home. It wasn’t just darkness—it was an absence, a nothingness that pulled at her soul. She could feel it whispering, promising power and freedom, urging her to act, to break the mundane bonds of her life. The voices from the void were insistent, their seductive murmurs wrapping around her mind like tendrils, planting thoughts of betrayal and violence."

Alone at night, she hummed a tune, only to shiver as the melody echoed back, disembodied in the darkness.

Hello all,

At one point I was a consistent contributor to Nosleep and Short Scary Stories under various usernames. But over time it lost its appeal and I got out of it. I've been lucky enough to have a few of my stories narrated on the Nosleep Podcast and one on Chilling Tales, but I recently decided to take my best and throw them together in a collection.

The Clown in the Church and Other Spooky Tales, a collection of my r/NoSleep and r/ShortScaryStories is now available in print and eBook on Amazon! Go to https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6NKVFRD to pick up your copy! If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can enjoy the book for free!

Leave an honest review thank you again.

🥁🥁🥁 Hi all, I’ve been posting about a new short story app I’ve been working on. Today is the day: I would like to invite everyone here to the iOS test flight app. If you don’t know what this means, it’s a way to have people try out an app before it’s launched on the App Store.

Here is the link to get the app: https://testflight.apple.com/join/KSF7zdMM

Please share feedback and let me know what you think. Right now I’m working on an easy way to import your stories. Cheers 🥂

Edit: it’s finally live on the App Store!

Here’s the link to download: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kestrel-stories/id6499554155

I posted a while ago that I was building a new short story app. Things are moving along well. My question for all of you is: what are some must have features you need to see in a short story app?

I absolutely love r/ShortScaryStories simplicity, like no “covers” or anything like that, just title and story. I want to keep things this way.

Also if there is anyone interested in becoming a beta tester for this app, please let me know and I can have you using it today.

Hey guys! I’m starting a YouTube channel where I want to tell real scary stories found on the internet and from actual people lol. Like the title says I’m looking for personal stories that people wouldn’t mind being shared. I’ve always had an interest in personal testimonies of truly unanswerable things and would love to start my channel off with some crazy ones! Thanks. If possible I’d love for as much detail as possible!

If you aren't aware of what's been happening behind the scenes at /r/ShortScaryStories, I suggest checking out my previous post. Don't worry, I'll wait. You're finished? Good! Now, for the update!

First, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who reached out or left a comment on my previous post. This outpouring of positivity gave me the necessary kick in the ass to not let this situation end as it did. I wasn't sure if I wanted to even put up a fight. After all, I wasn't confident anything could be done. But seeing all those nice comments helped me realize I didn't want to go down without making an honest attempt at fighting back.

Unfortunately, this has been a negative trait of mine all my life. I get easily dejected, disheartened, and lose confidence in myself. I assume the outcome of everything will turn out badly, and psyche myself out into accepting defeat.

Like I said, seeing all those positive comments made me feel as if I was letting down a lot of people, even though none of it was my fault. While my confidence about getting the situation resolved wasn't high, I realized I had nothing to lose in reaching out to Admin.

What's the worst that could happen? If they say there's nothing to be done, then I'm in the same boat as I was previously, and I'd have left the subreddit. But at least I could have said I tried everything, and then go about moving on.

However, the outcome wasn't the negative one I expected. Today, I received some excellent news from Admin. Our previously rogue moderator is no longer a part of the team. Admin has removed them, and restored full permissions to both /u/simbathesavage8 and I. We're going to work at getting the top moderator spot on the subreddit so we don't have to worry about this happening again. Plus, the top moderator now is also inactive. But that's behind the scenes work to be done.

Since this all started with /u/ForgottenWell getting their story removed and having the entire comment section removed, my first action as a fully restored moderator is to re-approve the story post and restoring all the removed comments back to the post. There are still some comments which remain removed, mostly AutoMod posts, and a non-constructive criticism.

So, we're back at the helm again, and ready to get back to business.

I am currently designing a collaborative short story collection for university. The collection is based around the rooms of a between reality hotel called "The Beaumont Hill Hotel". I am seeking submission which will be displayed on a website. I do not in anyway profit or own the stories featured and credit will be provided. Any interest would be massively helpful.

The general outline for stories is as follows:

Set within the mysterious Beaumont Hill Hotel, “A place between places” where broken people who have slipped through reality come to rest. There are 50 rooms which each contain a short story. Style can vary as long as the story can contain itself to one room and meets the genre of horror. Non mandatory use of a staff note to contextualise your story No more than 500 words Rooms require a status: Habitable rooms mean the events have already transpired and the room is free to be rented out Dubious rooms may still possess a threat to willing occupants yet are still deemed safe enough to be occupied, at a slightly decreased price point Sealed rooms have an active or growing threat within them and have become too dangerous to be provided to guests however further study is to be conducted Condemned rooms contain an active and spreading presence which poses a genuine threat to the entire hotel, the room will be destroyed and later refurbished.

I would be massively appreciative to any submissions.

I don't know quite why I like scary stories featuring animals so much. I'm not an "animal" person per se, we have a cat. I don't pet her non-stop and kiss her , but I do understand what she is thinking and saying, and she speaks through me to my children. They love that, although they are also mildly creeped out by it.

I think, more than the animals themselves, the way they are "intruders" into our organized man-made world, little aliens with different prompts and motives and ideologies, mingling and mixing with us. Our paths cross. The cats, the crows, the mice, the rats, the dogs, the racoons- watching us, coming up to us and then backing away. The strange, the wonderful and the scary can happen in those encounters.

Animals are a firm favourite of human storytelling of course- Aesop's fables and old myths and legends, Disney, Donald Duck and Scooby . We have always been fascinated by the animals among us and around us, and how we can use them to tell our tales even better, make them shine and sparkle.

Anyway, the point is, I love scary animal stories, and if you do too, check out the sub of the same name and if you have short scary stories featuring animals, you are welcome to post there.