30 Days of Fright
A horror story writing challenge for the month of June
Wendy Cockcroft's Writings proudly presents
This very special writing event owes its existence to the excellent Bradley Ramsey, the awesome
, and the wonderful , whose tireless promotion of other writers has inspired me to set this up despite my small following.How it works
Every day, from 1st June 2025, I will post a prompt, and anyone who wants to can write a story or poem about it in any style or genre you want to, but ideally there should at least be something creepy or unsettling in it. Horror is in the eye of the beholder, after all. For example, to a vegetarian, a hamburger is horror. If you're not a fiction writer as a rule, you could write about something factual that the prompt reminds you of, or take creative liberties with some real events to fit them to the prompt and change identifying details. There is plenty of horror in real life, after all.
On 1st July 2025 I will write a post to celebrate each participant and link their Substack and each of their stories or poems. Since I'm going on holiday in July I will pass the baton for running the next challenge to someone else, and will advertise it on the celebration post to promote it.
Who can take part?
This event is open to everyone who has a Substack and wants to have a go at it. When you're writing your story, I want to know how your characters feel about the situation they are in. What effect it has on their bodies (goosebumps, etc.), how it affects their perceptions (heightened sensory experiences, e.g. noticing slight sounds) and emotions (are they afraid? Do they feel betrayed? Are they angry?), and how these influence the course of action they choose as a result.
You don't have to submit stories on time or take part every day, but it would be cool if you did. You don't have to submit them on time, though it would be cool if you did. If you come in late and want to catch up later or just start in the middle, that's fine. While discipline is good, what I'm after is a trove of stories for readers to enjoy.
The prompts
Please feel free to DM me with your prompt ideas. I've got enough for ten days so far, and I really can't have too many. Each of these is designed to make you think about a particular situation and how your characters would deal with them—and how they are affected by them—if they survive.
The rules
You must post your story on your Substack publication. You can link other platforms and cross-post to other platforms but it's the Substack I'll be linking for the Challenge.
Put "Written for the 30 Days of Fright Horror Story Writing Challenge. Come and join us!" at the top of each entry to help promote the challenge. Adding the prompt title is optional.
Link this post at the bottom of your story so writers who want to join us will know how to take part.
Join the chat I've started for this. You will have to subscribe to Wendy Cockcroft's Writings to do so, if only for the month of June (I can't be dealing with spam). It's free, and will stay free.
Post the title and link to your stories in the appropriate chat thread (I'll make a new one for each prompt)—it makes linking for the celebration post easier.
Restack the other entries to promote their work as well as the challenge.
The money, the glory, and the fun
We're doing this for the joy of writing—there's no prize but the praise of our peers. The idea is to stretch us as writers, even if we don't write fiction. You might find that your finished work can be used for other purposes, e.g. the Top In Fiction weekly "Send Us Your Fiction" feature, where writers can submit their own (or other people's) stories for consideration for the archive. Heck, you might even get a set of stories to make your own anthology with if you do it every day.
Have fun, and welcome to 30 Days of Fright!
I’ve subscribed. Do they come in daily in the email? This is what I’ve been looking for!
My June is pretty packed with non-writing stuff, but…I would love to participate. I’ll try!