Rusty Fears 3 - Fearsome!
As we wend our way towards Season 5 of The Magnus Archives, it’s time once again to see what lurks in your imaginations…
Welcome to Rusty Fears 3: Fearsome!
After the rousing success of the previous two installments of our Rusty Fears horror short story writing competition, it’s back again to find some of the best new stories in the genre to entertain us and your fellow fans. And seeing how well the theme helped to focus thoughts last time around, we’re expanding things a little. This year, we would like to read your tales on one of the following themes, chosen by various folks at Rusty Towers:
- Let It Out
- One Last Time
- The Awful Machine
How you choose to interpret these is up to you, but we’ll be on the lookout particularly for original takes and/or explorations of tropes that might be less well-known in traditional Western media.
As for the winning entries… would you like to hear YOUR words on air? This year’s competition will see 2 winners crowned, with each having their original horror short story produced and read out by Jonny and/or other members of the RQ Crew (depending on availability) as part of the current season break. Full details are provided below, but you’ve got until 21st February to get your creative pieces to us, and a judging panel will choose 2 lucky pieces to undergo the RQ treatment and be released in the main #MagnusPod feed. So, pick up those quills and get writing!
RUSTY FEARS 3: Fearsome – a RQ Horror Writing competition Terms & Conditions
- Competition closes at 9pm GMT on Friday 21st February 2020.
- Submissions should be made via this form, with all fields filled in: Rusty Fears 3 Submission Form
- Any questions should be emailed to mail@rustyquill.com, tweeted @therustyquill, or DM’ed to Anil (Chronomagistrate) via the official Discord.
- There will be 2 (TWO) winning entries.
- Entries should be an original short story in the horror genre, with a word count between 1,000 and 2,500 words (not including title).
- Entries should incorporate one of the contest themes, either Let It Out, One Last Time or The Awful Machine.
- Do not include more than 2 (TWO) characters/voices.
- Must be in English (or English dialect).
- We are looking for stories NOT statements. Please do NOT submit stories set in the Magnus-verse or use #MagnusPod characters/events/IP in your submission.
- Entries should be in prose, NOT script or statement format.
- Entries should be submitted in GoogleDocs or via a similarly accessible link (e.g. link to a pdf in GDrive).
- No more than 1 (ONE) entry per person; collaborations are permitted but will not allow for those writers to submit individual entries as well.
- Entries should abide by the standards as presented in The Magnus Archives, and avoid lazy & inappropriate horror tropes like (but not limited to) queer-coded ‘evil’, sexual trauma and mental illness stigmatisation.
- The winning entries may undergo script editing before transmission.
- The winning entry will be read/voice acted by members of the Rusty Quill crew and the episodes will be broadcast publicly in March 2020.
- Whilst copyright in the winning entries remains vested with the respective writers, the writers agree to freely licence the work and any adaptation thereof to Rusty Quill Ltd, who may use it as they see fit with appropriate credit given where due.
- In the unlikely event that we do not receive any entries that meet our standards, Rusty Quill reserves the right to decline to name & produce any winning entries.
- The judges’ decision is final and, unfortunately, no communication with writers about non-winning entries can be entered into, unless otherwise agreed.