
Say Hello to Twisted50 Volume Five!
1 October 2026 · 2 min read
Twisted50 is back. Chris Jones, founder of Create50 and the London Screenwriters' Festival, is joined by Amy Livingstone to launch Volume Five of the horror anthology: 50 short, terrifying stories, written and shaped by a global community of writers.
In this episode
What's new: submissions and reading now happen on TalentCircle.org, the new home for Create50, the Screenwriters' Festival, courses and events
Already done something with Create50? You're probably on the system. Request a password using your existing email
How Volume Four was chosen: judges' scores, "must include" nominations, community feedback and a long session in the pub (no alcohol involved) deciding the final 50 and their order
Formatting matters: you now paste your story straight into the platform, so please no tabs, no stray line spaces, and check how it looks on the page
Themes we expect: monsters, serial killers, AI and robots, and the new wave of liminal horror
Keep it contemporary. A little into the future is fine, but not too far
2,000 words is a limit, not a target. Some of the strongest stories came in well under, and 100 words that scare us is welcome too
Add a specific visual image description with your story, as we create images for each one on the platform
Amy's advice: submit early and don't talk yourself out of it
Chris's advice: leave an impression. Write something that stays with the reader days later
How it works
Submit your story (£15)
The community reads it and leaves feedback
Let it stew, then redraft and submit your final version
The deadline is Halloween 2027, so there's plenty of time
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome and Twisted50 Volume Five
01:15 The move to Talent Circle
02:48 How Volume Four was put together
06:31 New submission process and formatting
07:41 Themes we expect to see
08:53 Keep it contemporary
09:58 You don't need to use all 2,000 words
10:37 Images, and the awards night in London
11:29 Amy's advice: submit early
12:53 How the feedback process works
14:06 A global project
14:47 Leave an impression
Links
Submit: talentcircle.org
Read past stories: twisted50.com
All previous Twisted50 books are on Amazon
Can't find your account? Email chris@londonswf.com or chris@create50.com
Written by
Chris JonesPassionate about all things film, I have spent my life watching movies, making movies and helping others make their movies too. Most recently I have been directing Splinter Unit on 'Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning', parts 1 and 2 for Paramount. I also executive-produced 'The Enfield Poltergeist' for Apple TV+. Deeper into my past, my early major projects include action thriller 'The Runner', serial killer thriller 'White Angel' and paranormal horror 'Urban Ghost Story'. I co-created and authored The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook series, published by Bloomsbury. There are now eight books in the series. More recently I have run a series of London-based festivals, kicking off with the London Screenwriters Festival which attracts over 1,000 professional screenwriters from around the globe annually. I also set up and run TEDxEaling, an annual TEDx conference on storytelling and human communication. In 2009, I made the multi-award-winning and Oscar-shortlisted 'Gone Fishing', the whole process being heavily documented on my blog. In 2014 I completed my fourth feature film, the crowd-created 50 Kisses which entered the Guinness Book Of Records for most screenwriters on a feature film. Following this success, I founded Create50 to continue the idea of crowd-created projects. Twisted50, our first book, was published on Halloween 2016 and immediately toppled Stephen King from the top spot on Amazon. Five books have followed in the Twisted50 series and we are working on the sixth now. During the summer of 2016 I trained to become a master Firewalk instructor and now regularly take people across the hot coals for charity. Late 2017 I directed the short film 'Seeing Him' which collected a ton of awards too. Over the following years I continued to make award-winning shorts, such as Meet The Nativity and Never Too Late. In the summer of 2022 I premiered Impact 50, the second feature-length movie from Create50. This time I directed the segment at the start of the film, with Olivia Williams as the President, and written by Joe Eszterhas. In the summer of 2022, I also joined the Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 productions as Splinter Unit director. At Halloween 2023, the Apple TV+ show that I co-executive-produced, 'The Enfield Poltergeist', premiered. I run regular filmmaking workshops for filmmakers both online and in person. Some people ask how I began making films? Like most filmmakers of my generation, it was with a Super 8mm camera, summertime and school friends, usually after watching a behind-the-scenes TV programme on a Hollywood movie like Star Wars. My first film was a zombie horror called Necronomicon, heavily influenced by John Carpenter's The Fog. And I was hooked for life. Contact me at Ealing Film Studios, Ealing Green, London, W5 5EP, UK




