Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone.

---

At 12/8/12 10:33 PM, starwarsjunkie wrote: This should be fun! Hardest parts gonna be choosing an art piece!

Yeah XD

Luck to everyone?

---

So we just write an entry revolving around an art piece rather then a Christmas/Winter theme?

---

Thanks for the answers and stuff.

Not to sound conceded or anything, but does the winning script writer win a prize as well? You didn't answer that :P

---

So, we give ideas to the Animators and Game Designers? Oh god, brainstorming...

Let's say I wrote the script of the winning movie/game. Do I win a prize?

---

Friends, maybe? Other stuff.

But I've been mostly been chilling with the Audiophiles of the Audio Portal. So...what does it matter? :D

---

Congrats to the winners.

Anyways, about that December writing contest, can you give a heads up on the theme so I can plan ahead? :P

---

At 11/5/12 08:21 PM, DeftAndEvil wrote: 12. Roxxar: "Untitled"

Again, I will give him the benefit of the doubt regarding the word count as to why this story was so haphazard. The three main problems are narrative structure, presentation, and plot. You have to give reasons for the plot to continue. You have the MacGuffin, I guess (cop+case) but there was no exposition or development. Then again, you have to deal with characterization and conflict, but again, I will give the benefit of the doubt. Also, the part when that guy's chest exploded was so crazy! If you could have made it significant, that would have been sweet.

Yeah, I was gonna make a big plot twist at the end(which I've obviously failed to do) with all the victims, but it didn't fit into my misunderstood 7000 character count so it got jacked up. BAD.

With all this experience and opinions now, I feel I can make a better story. Thanks.

---

At 11/4/12 02:06 PM, 4urentertainment wrote: Untitled by Roxxar

Despite out what you think about your story, it actually isn't that bad at all.

I felt the part where the officer's heart exploded..and a diary popped out, to be a bit surreal and wasn't really done well. Like, no one even cared that someone died, and he just read the diary and didn't look twice at his partner's corpse.

And I don't think I really got the symbolism at the end. But overall, I felt your story was well written, and if you hadn't gotten confused about the word limit, perhaps you would have created something even more impressive.

Well, that's what I'm thinking. I pretty rushed through it. Wrote it in 2 days, cuz I was procrastinating. THEN, I accidentally threw it in the trash(I have a Notes section in my browser) and I lost it. THEN I rewrote it all AGAIN. Rushed, all in technically 1 day.

Still hoping I can do better next year. Or something D:

---

At 11/3/12 09:16 PM, Deathcon7 wrote: Living Diary by Roxxar

The story is being told as if it were a movie or TV show.

But let's flash back to 2 days ago.

That is the offending line I'm basing this analysis on. This is symptomatic of an ill perspective on the differences between visual and written media. I'm a visual writer, but I understand that I have to translate this into a written form that has rules. The quote breaks the fourth wall and it seems neither you nor the narrator realize this. This comes down to technique.

Also, you need to carefully consider what's happening in your story. The main character seemed so underwhelmed by what was happening. For example, he's mentally disgusted for a paragraph seeing a victim beaten faceless, but he spends five words reacting to witnessing a coronary explosion.

I recommend reading more and studying the craft. Structure would be a good starting place.

Yeah...I needed more work. A LOT more work. I just wrote it down for some opinions. But y'know...procrastination and confused reading(7000 words, not characters) got the worst of me...

That definitely wasn't my best work. Quite possibly one of my worst :( But...experience is needed before getting anywhere, right? I hope I can get my hands on a horror novel and make a better(MUCH better) one next year :|

---

At 11/3/12 11:13 AM, starwarsjunkie wrote: Living Diary by Roxxar

This story was very confusing. It changes settings without telling the reader and it's not really clear who is being referred to. For example he says a cop is puking and then he says he turned him around. At first I thought he was turning the cop around, but then realized he meant the corpse. Be sure to be very clear on what you want to say. Some of the reactions also seem a bit off. He finds a beaten in face to be horrifying but has almost no reaction to a man's chest mysteriously exploding. There are many parts which don't seem to have significance, like the fact that there are no street signs. Since its so short, you have to make sure that everything you put into it has a purpose. Lastly, I fear there is some confusion: The limit was 7,000 words, not characters.

I know. I need to read the limits better :P

I hope I can write a better one next year...or something. I procrastinated on reading so many stories(I have my sources, but its not CreepyPasta) that I lost track on the contest. Thanks for your review though. I wasn't prepared and I just needed some experience. Y'know...I'm not the best at writing horror stuff.

---

At 11/1/12 02:02 AM, Roxxar wrote:

At 11/1/12 01:33 AM, EKublai wrote: DeftandEvil, I'd still like to read yours :D.

Looks like we have 12 entries. and about 23k words. This will be quite a bit to read.

Also, to RapeMuffin, Roxxar, Starwarsjunkie, and Depes7448, do you still want to keep your stories untitled?

Oh crap, I forgot to write a title.

Alright, I got my title. Name it "Living Diary"

Cheesy.

---

At 11/1/12 01:33 AM, EKublai wrote: DeftandEvil, I'd still like to read yours :D.

Looks like we have 12 entries. and about 23k words. This will be quite a bit to read.

Also, to RapeMuffin, Roxxar, Starwarsjunkie, and Depes7448, do you still want to keep your stories untitled?

Oh crap, I forgot to write a title.

---

At 10/31/12 10:31 PM, Deathcon7 wrote: No worries you did it right. Dropbox is how I get my files between my office and home. No sync, no access from home.

It works out this way. I can put polish on it and try to submit it somewhere :)

Oh, thank goodness. Thought I messed up on posting. Thanks for...reassuring me. :P

---

At 10/31/12 08:35 PM, Deathcon7 wrote:

At 10/31/12 08:09 PM, Roxxar wrote: I posted my story. Can you guys give me opinions or something? I need some experience, whether my story was horror or not(it didn't feel horror to me)

Never uploaded my file to dropbox... -___-

Procrastination has destroyed me. I'll have to post it late.

LOL. Umm...what is dropbox?

---

I posted my story. Can you guys give me opinions or something? I need some experience, whether my story was horror or not(it didn't feel horror to me)

---

I'm just writing this for experience and/or opinions. I'm pretty sure it's lame. 6443/7000 characters were used.

I was scared--no. That wasn't the right word. I was terrified. Stricken with absolute fright, I was paralyzed on the spot in the corner of my room. The closet door, it was moving. Shaking.

But let's flash back to 2 days ago.

Some back-story: I lost my family to a storm. And I couldn't remember what my son said to me before he died.
I was a detective of the police department in my community. A well-known detective, too. As usual, there was a stereotypical case: a murder.

Our squad was sent to the scene. A police officer came up to me and reported something that made me suspicious. "Detective, there isn't a street sign to be found since 23rd."

I thought to my self, "23rd? That's the street before the old abandoned warehouse."

I had decided to say something after thoughtfully pondering. "Just something convenient."
He looked at me, trying to reassure my suspicion.

As usual, I and 3 other detectives decided to enter the house, while the police were still taping the place as 'dangerous'. Nothing. Upstairs, downstairs, basement, kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, nothing seemed suspicious. But the attic had something that proved the murder to be true. A decaying corpse, lying on the floor. One of the new detectives threw up through a window, but I had taken a picture of it.

I turned him around, and saw a paper, literally stapled to this person's face. I had taken the paper off, looked down, and saw something that made me mentally sick. This guy's face was beaten in. There literally was no face whatsoever. It seemed his face had become oblivion.

The paper read in grotesque and crude writing, "Secret door under sofa carpet."

I told the others who were trying to look for prints or any clues, "I'm heading down to the living room, once again."

A detective told me, "Bring a cop."

I nodded solemnly and went down the stairs. I stepped out the front door and yelled for one cop to follow. He reluctantly agreed, took a pistol and flashlight and followed.

I asked for him to help me lift the couch. He did, and we moved it out of the way successfully. I had seen the carpet and lifted it. When I did so, I had seen a small, worn down, rusty hatch. I lifted it, and saw an endless plight of stairs leading down to the basement. Ice cold wind blew in our faces, giving us a feel of depression or death.

We stepped down, each stair, one-by-one, each feeling like one step further from Earth. We couldn't see a thing after 5 steps down. The cop turned on his flashlight. The eerie light only glowed for a few feet, but then vanished back into the wicked oblivion of this basement.

*Crreeeeaaakkk...Crrreeeeaaaakkk....*

We reached the bottom. Each step burned through our shoes and felt like ice. Black ice. Each step made our hearts beat faster. They felt like they were going to explode. "ARGH!"

I looked around and turned around to ask him what that sound was. "Hey, do you kn-" What happened almost made me burst.

The cop. His heart literally DID explode. His chest looked like it was turned inside-out. And in it, was a diary of some sort.

"Someone is messing with us," I thought aloud. I picked it up, and flipped through the pages. Every page said something that was confusing.

It told of a story of a boy being lost due to the boy's creature he found. It had seemed the boy was going through a lot due to this creature. But the boy didn't let go if this creature. And it ended with something that made me cry.
In crude writing, it said in small letters in the back of the diary, "I care for you. Which means you must care for me?"

I put it in my bag and left the building. When I exited the building, I told the others that I had to check some evidence.

It was the next day when it all happened. In my spare time, I carefully looked through the pages, trying to investigate each page carefully. Each page told a story of the boy and his creature. But when I had finished reading the last page and phrase again, something sliced my soul like a sword through butter...no. Not even butter. Simply air. It felt like it swung through my soul like air. Then, that phrase kept repeating itself in my mind. In what is supposed to be a haven, it invaded my mind like nothing. "I care for you."

I felt sick to my bone. My face was turning pale. I was feeling nauseous and gross. I asked to go home early. They sheriff said yes, and I charged to my car. I couldn't stop thinking, "I care for you."

I got home, and immediately took a shower. It usually calms my mind...but it didn't. Everything made me think of it more for some reason. "I care for you." I finished my shower and dried myself off. I had looked through the mirror and for less then a split second, saw what seemed to be a boy and a demonic creature. "I care for YOU."

I ran off into my bedroom and shut my entire body under my covers of my bed. The phrase couldn't stop repeating itself.
I had lost all sleep that day.

The next day, I didn't even go to work. I barely ate my breakfast, but that phrase would ALWAYS repeat itself. When I finished, I went to my room until I felt something sting. My back. It felt like something slashed at it. I looked into the bathroom mirror and saw a large cut on it. It wasn't deep, but it was very large. I hid in my room and sat in the corner of my room. Something told me to do that, even if it wouldn't do anything.

I was too scared--no. That wasn't the right word. I was terrified. Stricken with absolute fright, I was paralyzed on the spot in the corner of my room. The closet door, it was moving. Shaking. It opened slowly. Out came something that made me cry.

Oh, the grotesque, black claws. The gleaming red eyes and terrifying yellow fangs. Dripping with its poisonous liquids and blood. Then, it snarled. It pierced my perspective of life perfectly. I froze completely. No movement whatsoever.

Out came a boy, holding a little doll. His head was down and his clothes were torn. He looked up with his soulless face and opened his mouth. "I care for you."

I soon found the monster's face. Oh, the horror. But when I soon looked at it, I saw something that triggered something in me. The beast. The creature. Something told me it wasn't a creature. And the boy...he seemed...familiar.

But before I could think of anything else, the monster touched me with its claw. And it hit me. Family.

"Do I care?" I asked.

"I care for you."

---

At 10/27/12 04:29 AM, 4urentertainment wrote: The best experience you can get is by actually trying to write something and getting feedback on it. I have a friend whom I keep asking to write a story, and he always says he's not good enough yet and is afraid he'd look really bad compared to all the other writers. But the trick is you'll never get good if you just keep waiting until you get better, because you won't improve until you write and so on.

This is what Newgrounds is all about. The inspirational thing about Newgrounds is that you could go visit a famous artist's profile and just see how bad their stuff looked when they were first starting out, and how it slowly became better and better. Like, I just came across Monkokio's profile, who is now making frikking awesome games on PS3 with thatgamecompany.

Well, ima try then.

How many characters? 7000? Or words? 1000?

Anyways, I'll try to write one. Pretty sure I won't win any prizes, but I'll get SOME experience...maybe.

---

Alright, I'm going to drop out of this contest and wait another year. I need to read some stories for experience.

---

Wait, is there a writing contest for every month/holiday/event?

If so, if there is another October writing contest NEXT year, will it be horror still?

---

At 10/11/12 11:28 PM, starwarsjunkie wrote:

I think, for the purpose of this contest, you should try and make a self contained story. If you decide to expand upon it further at a later time that's great. However, you are limited to only one entry for this contest, so when you post your story, that should be all of it.

oh...okay. hmm. thanks.

---

At 10/11/12 12:30 AM, starwarsjunkie wrote:

At 10/10/12 07:29 PM, Roxxar wrote: what if our story were to be quite long, and we needed to post seperate parts? or can we not do that in the contest?

It's okay to split it up if you have to, just don't go over the word limit.

well, sure. but i mean, like...a saga...or something. like, say you leave your contest story with a cliffhanger...and you want to continue it in the contest thread. would the seperate parts count as well, or will they all just be counted as one big lump post?

or did you mean that?

---

what if our story were to be quite long, and we needed to post seperate parts? or can we not do that in the contest?

---

At 10/4/12 10:05 AM, 4urentertainment wrote:

I agree here. My idea of an ideal horror story is one that physically makes me cringe and makes my heart actually beat faster. Or, another form of horror is one I read of Stephan King, where the story was so grim that I had to stop reading and go outside because it was seriously affecting my mental well-being.

holy cow. what was the book?

and thanks for the answers, DeftAndEvil :)

---

i be working on one.

but a question(s):
1) should it be real or fake? or both?
2) what if 7000 words cannot contain the story?
3) by horror, you mean, Slenderman, or spiders?