Summary

The website content outlines a weekly writing challenge for October, inviting writers to craft a horror story suitable for a campfire setting, with the potential for inclusion in a themed anthology.

Abstract

The webpage introduces the first weekly challenge for October, themed "Oh, The Horror!" Writers are encouraged to compose a horror story that can induce terror and suspense, following a campfire story structure. The challenge has specific requirements: the story must be between 100 to 1000 words for fun, and 500 to 750 words for consideration in the anthology, excluding the title, subtitle, and post-story bios/links. The narrative should be fictional, employ the word "Campfire" as one of the five tags, and aim to scare or give goosebumps to the readers. Additionally, there is a bonus challenge to honor a character named Paul or Mr. Mansfield in a gruesome manner, as it is his birthday month. The page also provides an example story by Teresa Grabs and encourages support for the publication and its writers.

Opinions

The challenge is designed to be engaging and fun, with a clear goal of collecting terrifying stories for an anthology.
The inclusion of a bonus challenge adds an extra layer of creativity and homage to the theme of horror.
The requirement for the story to be fictional, despite potentially including factual information, emphasizes the importance of creative storytelling.
The use of a campfire story structure suggests a preference for traditional storytelling methods that build tension and suspense.
Encouraging the use of specific tags, like "Campfire," indicates a desire to categorize stories for easier discovery and thematic consistency.
By providing an example story, the challenge offers a model for writers to reference and aspire to in terms of quality and style.
The call for support through Medium membership or a donation implies a commitment to sustaining the writing community and the platform's literary endeavors.

Weekly Prompt: Around the Campfire

Have you heard the one about…

Welcome to the first weekly challenge for October, where the theme is Oh, The Horror!

As we said in the Monthly Theme announcement, the goal is to get you to write a truly terrifying horror story—the best of which we want to collect in our first themed anthology.

This week our challenge is simple.

Gather round the fire, your friends and frenemies.

Smoosh together your smores, and if it's that kind of party, hand round the ol' whiskey flask. When it's truly dark, and all we can see are each others' flame-lit faces. Then begin your tale.

Let it start with your narrator. Let it draw us in deeply. Tell us the details, but keep the suspense.* Let us hold our breaths, building tension, even as we know what must come.

Then surprise us!

And give us the fright we truly deserve.

Let it haunt us and follow us around for days. And leave us too scared to turn out the lights.

Tell us a campfire story to remember.

Challenge Requirements

Your story must:

Use the campfire story structure and scare the crap out of us. Or at least give us goosebumps.
Just for fun: Be min 100 and max 1000 words long
For Anthology: 500-750 words.
This excludes the title, subtitle, and any post-story bio/links. (We use Medium's word count feature.)
Be fictional, even if it includes factual information or concerns.
Use "Campfire" as one of your five tags.

Example Story by Teresa Grabs:

A Team Building Campfire

Some teams you don’t want to be on

medium.com

Find other answers to this prompt.

Bonus Challenge:

Because it's Paul's birthday month, and a contest feel's like a repeat, why not murder a character called Paul or Mr Mansfield in his honour.

Make it gruesome and gory — he likes that's sort of thing.

We all have a story, told to us when we were young, in the dark and away from the safeties of our homes that haunts us to this day. Tell us that one, or one just like it.

If this prompt stirred your words, please consider supporting this publication and our writers by becoming a Medium member or buy us a hot cuppa! ☕️ ❤️

*Updated, with thanks to Melissa Balick for her feedback.