It’s coming up on April, and the world is a very scary place right now. What better way to distract ourselves than to frighten everyone around us with horror stories?! Fimfiction doesn’t feature as many good, scary horror stories as ‘Slice of Life’ or ‘Comedy,’ and we here at the Barcast think it's time to change all that!

That’s right, we want YOU to write a genuinely scary horror story or two to help spooky up this difficult time. You can have your story featured prominently by the Barcast, and win fabulous prizes! 

What you’ll be judged on:
-Is it error-free?
How’s the grammar? Is it clean from punctuation and spelling errors? Are there tense-change problems? One or two issues isn’t so bad, but if you have errors every sentence, you’re going to get dinged.
-How is the flow and style of the story?
Is there good tension? Rising and falling action? Are the characters engaging? Is the plot well-paced and immersive? This can’t just be scary, it has to be a good story.
-Is it horror?
Is this really horror, or is it a comedy? Is it a drama? Is it a mystery? Themes from other genres are great, but it has to mostly be a horror story.
-Is it scary?
Scary varies from person to person. Even if it didn’t frighten the pants off me, I can still judge if it was, as a concept and in execution, a ‘scary’ story to the average person.

Comments, upvote/downvote ratio, and who wrote the story will not factor in. I will be judging alone, and I will not give favor if I accidentally see a name of someone I’m fond of. Being in the feature box will also not play into judging.

Each of these categories will be judged out of 5, that being the highest possible. Each category will be weighted the same, then averaged into a master score. The highest master score wins. In case of a tie, I will tap other Barcasters to read the stories and judge who should win. If you want to know your final score after the contest has ended, as well as any comments I might have, please send me a PM. Rest assured, I will not post scores/comments for the stories publicly so as to protect the feelings of the writers. The top 3 and one honorable mention will be listed and touted in a post here. All submitted stories will be prominently featured with links as well.
So, what can you win? Check out these spooky prizes!

* 1st. Place: $30, a reading of your story by me and other Barcasters, 5 full size pony horror art prints by Rainb0wdashie
** 2nd Place: $15, 3 random full size pony horror prints by Rainb0wdashie
*** 3rd Place: $5, 2 random full size pony horror prints by Rainb0wdashie

There aren’t many rules, but you MUST follow them if you want to do well in this contest. People who break these rules will be disqualified from judging.

RULES:
1. The story must be under 5,000 words! It can be merely 1,000 words too. It must be a complete story, not a chapter to begin a longer work.
2. Two entries maximum per person.
3. It must be HORROR. It can be spooky, psychological, paranormal, thrilling, any genre of horror at all. Just make sure it rightfully has that “Horror” tag! Stories may be ‘Mature.’
4. It must be a NEW story. Only stories written and published between 3/23/2020 and 4/23/2020 will be considered.
5. Your story must mention in the description that it is for the Halloween in April Horror Contest with the Barcast, AND link to the group or this contest post.
6. The story must be placed in the “Halloween in April Horror Contest” folder in this group to be considered.
7. Hosts of the Barcast show may enter stories if they wish, but are disqualified from winning or placing.
8. You must follow all Fimfic site rules entirely. No stories listed off-site will be considered.

THIS CONTEST WILL END ON APRIL 23rd AT 11:59PM PST! Winners will be announced APRIL 30th!

Horror is an incredibly subjective thing, especially when it comes to being scary. I assure you that I will be doing my best to judge objectively as possible, not on whether it scares ME, but on whether others/people in general would find it scary. (If you were trying to just scare ME, this would be a rather specific and difficult contest…) BUT, as far as how to be scary for this specific contest, I’ve included some tips in a post below to help you along and give you more clear expectations.

That’s all there is to it, gang. I look forward to all your thrills, chills, and this spooky good time! Good luck everyone,  feel free to ask any questions below. And happy (April) Halloween!

-anonpencil

HORROR WRITING TIPS:

-Torture porn is not scary.
Look, gore sometimes goes hand-in-hand with horror. Including some blood and guts in your horror story isn’t necessarily bad. But just writing lots and lots of gore or a pony being tortured to death isn’t going to be frightening. It’s just going to be gross and exhausting.

-Make sure you stick the landing.
Everyone knows that the easiest way to ruin a horror story is to mess up the ending. If something was scary before, a bad ending that ruins the tension and offers no payoff can destroy that sense of scary. So, don’t make it all just a dream. Don’t give it a ‘it was just a prank the whole time!’ ending. Don’t end with a cliffhanger we’re NEVER going to get an answer to. Wrap up your story by the end, and don’t use cliché tricks to do it.

-Don’t be afraid to rely on classics.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. I’m not going to ding a story just because it uses ghosts, eldritch beings, zombies, or vampires. It’s okay to tell an old-fashioned campfire tale ghost story, as long as you find ways to make it engrossing and scary.

-Don’t stray into B-Horror.
That being said, if you’re going to write about the classic tropes and themes, be very aware of not becoming a B-horror story. These are known as bad, contrived, or hokey horror that are so terrible they become good or hilarious. Let me be clear: I LOVE B-horror. But if it goes in that direction, it stops being scary.

-Serious things need to be given serious weight.
If you’re going to write about serious and dark themes like rape, miscarriage, abuse, etc. be CAREFUL. It’s so easy to use these as cheap tricks to make the reader uncomfortable or upset. But if you do it just to get a reaction rather than tying it into the story well, it’s going to come across exactly that way: Cheap. Heavy topics need to be treated with the weight they warrant

-Try to use things that attack the very nature of being human.
If you’re having trouble figuring out how to be scary, think of things that frighten most humans. Imagine basic themes of death, Isolation, rejection, failure, losing control, being helpless, being trapped, pain, the unknown. You can grow from there and pretty it up or adapt it with other horror tropes and a more riveting story. It’s just all about playing with our base nature as human beings. Don’t be scared of getting psychological. ;)

-Don’t use the Coronavirus.
Yes, we’re all dealing with this right now, and it’s very scary. But if we end up with, say, 15 stories about being quarantined from a horrifying virus, it’s going to make it less scary to read a bunch of them. If you’re going to do some kind of a contagion story, get really creative with it. And don’t call it some form of “Coronavirus.”

-Don’t rewrite a horror movie.
If you just write a pony version of The Ring… it’s not going to do well. I don’t mind people using themes or characters from horror movies and stories, but it has to be something new. If it’s pretty much identical to a horror movie and it’s obvious, I’m going to detract points. Don’t plagiarize, this has to be your own original work.

GOOD LUCK!

Oooooh... One of my favorite genres that I haven't touched in ages.

You tempt me, anonpencil. You tempt me something fierce.

7178602

7178602
And I was just about to come in here and comment "this is tailor made for Paul Asaran" too! :D

I've been having a psychological horror in mind for months now, what better time to create it?

That moment when I have to finish a thesis, several other fanfics, and read several books a week for school, but a real dank contest pops up and I've got a few horror stories in my head:

My body is ready. My mind? We'll have to see.

7178641
7178658
It helps that I've been listening to the Rainbow Factory PMV all day (it puts a wicked smile on my face).

Anyway, I have an idea, and it's not like I'm able to work on my other projects right now. I shall see about getting into this one.

I highly doubt I have any sort of chance at winning this with my writing skills but it still seems like a neat thing to do. Plus its good practice and practice is always good.

7178539
Here is my contribution to the contest.

Hunted

Looks interesting. I'll think about it.

You A-HOLES!

WHY!?

I WAS SCROLLING AND THAT CRAP SCARED THE F*** OUT OF ME AND IT WAS LATE! GLAD I DIDN'T HAVE NIGHTMARE ABOUT THIS. I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY!

7178539
Oh, what the hell. If I don't do scary, I don't do scary. I need a good challenge writing-wise. Bring it.

7179048
Hi there, please read the rules. The contest has not started yet. Thank you.

7179242
Can I still post the story when the contest starts? I did make the story very close to when the contest would begin and I did make it very lovingly for the contest.

7179256
I'll let this one slide. But for others, let this be a warning. PLEASE READ ALL THE RULES or else you will be disqualified. When the story folder in this group opens on the 23rd, please be sure to put it there.

7179276
thank you, it means a lot for you to do this! Thanks again!

Question: Is this just Friendship is Magic or does it also include Equestria Girls and/or stories set in both worlds?

Contest deadlines are one of the few things that can break through my depression and get me writing, so I'll probably give it a shot. That said,

The story must be under 5,000 words!

damn is that short. I understand why, it would be unfair to make the judges read through a bunch of tomes, but that's some serious brevity. Then again, contest stories are known for their embrace of brevity, so I probably should have expected it.

7179946
You can absolutely work with equestria girls or FIM. Whichever, both, have fun with it as long as it's scary!
And yes, it being short is to help me actually be able to read through all the entries. Such is life, heh.

7178540
Thanks this is itself going to be helpful to allot of people also would psychological horror work well or are they harder to pull off then a normal horror that focuses on outside effect's and not internal truma and the slow degredation to the very edge before going over it

Also what if the purpose of the story was to leave the reader with no answer to what the character does not as a cliff hanger but just no answer leaving it to the reader to decide

7180028
You can do whatever you like here as long as it's horror and scary. These were just tips to help people along the way. (though I would suggest punctuation for sure! lol)

7180033
Sorry lol grammars not my strong suit but I am tempted to enter this I'm just trying to think how.

Though I might go for a first person psychological horror and a third person horror.

Also this is a strange one but what if a person's enteries was connected together is that allowed or does it full under the cannot be a multiple chapter rule.

7180033 Surely the prospect of reading a punctuation-less story would be the most horrifying concept of all!

OooOOOooo! Spooky!

7180040
Glad to see I have a stalker following me about lol hope you enter as well

Wait can we submit entries before the contest starts or do they only count as entered after it starts in 2days?

7180061
READ. RULES. PLEASE. Only stories submitted between the two dates listed will be considered. There is no folder ready yet either. Please, be patient.

7180081
Thanks sorry for the minor spam here just excited IL wait

the world is a very scary place right now

Can i write two stories but publish them on separate accounts? I'd make sure it's clear what the alternate story/account is, possibly even adding it to the long descriptions if necessary.

7180501
Sure. It's 2 stories per person, I don't mind which account you use. Let me know, though, I do understand if you have an account for more mature stories vs. tamer ones. I appreciate you being up front about it.

I am SO excited for this. Already working on something for it. It is 'based' on a kind of suspense horror short thing I watched on youtube awhile ago, but expanded upon to make it my own. Would you want to see the short first before I post, or would simply posting the short in the A/N as a 'based on so and so' kind of deal? (I know in the 'recommended tips' above it says to make it original or lose some points, and I'm okay with that as this is more so practice in writing something different for me and I'd be fine if I don't win. (Though winning would still be nice. ;P ) ) Seeing the short first would GREATLY ruin the ending of the story as well, it is one of those kinds of stories... but if you want to see it first I can link ya.

7181486
I can't tell ya what to write or not write. As long as it follows the rules, go for it, my personal preferences don't factor in.

7179048
You can add this story to the folder now. :)

7181709
Ok

I am very nervous. The ponies in my story are very much quarantined but not because of a virus. I am hoping my story I enter won't lose points because of that.

Whelp, here we go again.

I've got a little something in my pocket, maybe. Being stuck at home is rotten circumstances for a fresh rough draft, and I can't say how scary it'll be but yeah. Yeah, why not. Let's get this bread, fam.

i gotta get round to this soon

Also, don't know why my story I JUST finished and published today for the contest says it was published March 21st... Fimfic, what is up with that? o.o
(Oh wait nevermind I think. It says I published the 'chapter' March 21st, which is when I started and made the chapter, but the STORY was indeed published today so I hope I am in the good still.)

7190047
Yeah, you're fine.

7190701
Wooo good! Just wanted to make sure. :D

Suppose I wanna write a story that would fit this contest nicely, but then I also wanna have it submitted for another contest that's happening concurrently. Can I do that? There doesn't seem to be a rule about submitting for multiple contests at once, but I understand that an entry should be written and submitted with the contest in mind.

7195922
You're welcome to do whatever you'd like with the story, as long as you write it and submit it within the deadline! :)

So uh... This is awkward... but uh... I'm getting submissions tagged for this contest in my own annual horror writing contest.

You guys just do this on a whim? I don't remember seeing this weirdness last year...

Anyway, this explains the lack of entries. Hopefully I'll get a couple more in this past week. For those who were still looking for an event, Nightmare Night in April runs until the month ends.

7203210
Yes, we decided to do this on a whim last month as a way to entertain people during quarantine. Been planning on doing it for a while, but this just sounded like the right opportunity. So I contacted the mods, and set it up with them. I've told people that they are welcome to submit their stories wherever they want, not just to our contest, as it's their stories to do as they like with. If that bothers you or causes problems to your contest, my apologies. You are welcome to restrict people from also submitting to yours at the same time if you like, and I will 100% back you on it if that's the case. Submissions to us are now completely closed, so no one else should be writing new stories for our contest.

7203212
It doesn't "bother" me: I assumed it was a weird coincidence. I was just kinda confused as to why I was getting so few submissions and people were talking about it having ended early, and then linking this one.

If anypony is interested, here's the other write-off, which runs all month, and is annual.