How will you win Twisted 3? by Christopher Stanley

Twisted50 is back for a third and final outing, so for those of us who have yet to place a story in the series, this is our last chance.

I was wondering: what’s the ideal story for a Twisted50 competition? Is it better to write something that’s never been written before, or to stick with tried-and-tested tropes and rely on the quality of your writing to win over the judges?

The many flavours of fear

One of the reasons for the enduring popularity of horror stories is the many subgenres that have emerged over the years, including:

• Psychological (home invasion, madness, phobias)

• Slasher (serial killer, final girls)

• Body (werewolves, mutations)

• Monsters (zombies, vampires, kaiju)

• Occult (devil worship, witchcraft)

• Supernatural (ghosts, haunted houses, possession)

• Weird (cosmic horror, non-traditional horror)

Having read this year’s excellent entries, the most popular flavours so far seem to be ‘slasher’, closely followed by ‘monsters’, with no entries (yet) for ‘occult’ or ‘supernatural’.

What’s your favourite flavour of fear? And have I missed any? Leave a note in the comments below.

The politics of horror

I know, I know – you were hoping you could forget about politics now the election is over. But have you ever considered the politics of horror? John Carpenter (The Thing, Halloween) once said “There’s two kinds of horror. Left-wing horror and right-wing horror. In right wing horror, the evil is out there and it’s coming to get us. In left wing horror, the evil is inside us.”

By my reckoning, the majority of this year’s stories lean towards the right, but not all of them.

Which way do you think the judges will vote? And which do you fear most?

The secret of a good scare

Towards the end of 2023, I was invited to run a workshop on writing horror fiction. I was tempted to say no – I hadn’t ever run a workshop before, and I hadn’t written any horror for years – but I do like to try new things, and they were offering to pay me, so I figured: why not?

The question of whether horror needs to be scary is one we discussed during the workshop, as it’s one of the biggest challenges we face as horror writers. Everyone has different thresholds for fear, and we’re all afraid of different things, so how can we possibly know whether our hard-written words will make a reader’s skin crawl?

Whenever I’m wrestling with this question, I keep coming back to the following quote:

“We have all experienced moments, or feelings, in which the world is suddenly not quite as we thought it was—in which that which was familiar is suddenly revealed to us as strange, or that which was strange is suddenly familiar.” (Darryl Jones, Sleeping with the Lights On)

For me, this captures the essence of horror. It’s something uncanny that makes me lose faith in my surroundings, that makes me want to double check the doors and windows. When I’ve judged horror-writing contests in the past, this is what I wanted to experience.

I’ll be honest, I have no idea how to win a horror contest like Twisted50 – other than to re-read the previous collections in search of inspiration. And take part, of course. There are no prizes for sitting on the sidelines.

How are you planning to terrify the judges this time around? And how will you make your twisted tale bite a little deeper than the rest of the ghoulish crowd? I’d love to know your thoughts. Leave a note in the comments below.

Best of luck to all ye who enter Twisted 3.