Words & Wonders: Writing Contest
Scaldcrow Games Presents: The Pocket Worlds Horror Writing Contest
Do you have the nerve to write the unknown? The imagination to survive it?
Scaldcrow Games invites novice and emerging writers to enter the shadows and test their storytelling skill in our official horror writing contest set within the dark and ever-evolving Pocket Worlds™ of Worlds of Pulp.
Submissions will be accepted through Halloween at midnight. After that… well, it’s just too late.
The Challenge
Submit an original horror story between 450 and 2,000 words set within one of the following Pocket Worlds:
- Haxanburg™ – where folklore festers, old magic lingers, and nothing is quite as it seems
- Dark Evolution™ – a realm of mutation, decay, and relentless transformation where humanity teeters on the brink
Your story should not just take place in these worlds—it should feel like it belongs there. Lean into dread, tension, and unsettling imagination. We’re looking for voices that can haunt.
The Prize
- $250 Cash Award for the winning entry
- Publication Opportunity — the winning story will be featured in upcoming Scaldcrow Games releases
This is your chance not only to win—but to become part of the canon.
Important Terms
- Ownership of Non-Winning Entries
All entrants retain full ownership and rights to their submissions unless their work is selected as the winning entry. - Winning Entry Rights Transfer
By accepting the prize, the winner agrees that the submitted story becomes the property of Scaldcrow Games. This includes:- Full rights to the story
- All characters, settings, and concepts contained within it
- The exclusive right to edit, publish, adapt, and create derivative works
- Use of Winning Content
Scaldcrow Games may use the winning entry, including its characters and settings, in future publications, Worlds of Pulp™ products, and other media. - Editing & Publication
The winning entry may be edited for clarity, tone, and consistency with Scaldcrow publications. - Agreement to Terms
By submitting, participants acknowledge and accept these terms in full.
Dare to Enter
This is more than a contest—it’s an invitation.
A door is opening into Haxanburg.
Something is changing in Dark Evolution.
We want to see what you find inside.
Good luck… and write carefully.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Eligibility
- Open to novice and emerging writers
- Open within the United States
- Employees or active collaborators involved in judging are not eligible
Submission Requirements
- Word Count: 450–2,000 words
- Genre: Horror
- Setting must align with:
- Haxanburg™ or
- Dark Evolution™
Format & Submission
- File types: .DOCX or .PDF only
- Formatting:
- 12 pt standard font (e.g., Times New Roman)
- Double-spaced
- 1-inch margins
- Title at top of first page
File Name Format:
LastName_FirstName_StoryTitle
Questions: Visit Scaldcrow.com → Contact Us
Subject line: Writing Contest
Content & Originality
Entries must be:
- Original
- Unpublished
- Not under consideration elsewhere
Limit: 3 entries per author
AI-generated content is not permitted (grammar tools allowed)
Include a short (2–4 sentence) statement describing your inspiration and writing process.
Content Restrictions
Allowed:
- Graphic horror
Not allowed:
- Explicit sexual violence
- Hate-driven or discriminatory content
Rights & Publication (Summary)
- Non-winning entries: Authors retain full rights
- Winning entry: All rights transfer to Scaldcrow Games upon acceptance of the prize
- The author of the winning entry will receive full credit upon publication
Judging & Awards
- Grand Prize: $250 USD
Judging Criteria:
- Adherence to setting
- Originality
- Atmosphere and tone
- Writing quality and impact
Timeline
- Submission deadline: Halloween at midnight
- Winner announced within approximately 3–4 weeks
Disqualification
Entries may be disqualified for:
- Plagiarism
- AI-generated content
- Failure to follow guidelines
Final Note
By submitting, entrants agree to all terms listed above. This contest is an opportunity to step into the worlds of Scaldcrow—and, for one winner, to become part of their future.
Write boldly. Write fearlessly.
Writing for Dark Evolution: Capturing the Shadows of the Veil
Great Dark Evolution horror starts with a feeling, not a monster—and with only 2,000 words to work with, that feeling has to land fast. Skip the long world-building runway. Open inside the dread, where trust is already a liability and nothing is what it claims to be. A short story can’t afford a slow burn across decades of conspiracy, so pick one thread and pull it tight. Establish paranoia and secrecy in your first paragraph: a character who hesitates before answering the phone, or notices the same car parked outside twice, sells the mood in a single line. Remember the three pillars holding this world up—genetic horror, emerging psychic powers, and the government and corporate conspiracies pulling the strings—but resist the urge to cram all three in. In a tight word count, choose one as your spine and let the others flicker at the edges, hinted at rather than explained. The strongest short entries suggest a vast nightmare while showing only a sliver of it, trusting the reader to sense how deep the rot goes.
When the horror does surface, ground it in the body and the senses—but ration those details carefully. With 2,000 words, you can’t catalog every grotesque sight, so choose two or three images that do the most work: the stench of antiseptic in a recovery ward, translucent skin stretched over new neural pathways, the cold glow of luminescent suspension tanks. One precise, physical image lands harder than a paragraph of vague menace, and it keeps your tone noir instead of cartoonish. Favor subtlety and subtext over splatter, especially when space is tight—a single earned shock beats three rushed ones, so let the unspoken do the heavy lifting and trust your reader to fill the dark corners. Most importantly, blur the line between hero and monster, and do it quickly. A short story can show moral collapse in one decisive moment: the parent who volunteers for a horrific cure, the scientist who tells themselves it’s all for the greater good. Moral clarity is a luxury here, so let your protagonist compromise, doubt, or cross a line before the final page. Write into that ambiguity, end on it if you can, and your story won’t just exist in Shadows of the Veil. It will belong there.
Capturing the Häxanburg Feel: Atmosphere on the Threshold
To write in the Häxanburg style, let the setting do the haunting — wherever your story happens to live. Häxanburg works because it’s caught between centuries: gaslit lanterns flicker beside neon storefronts, iron bells hang on every door, and red twine sags from porch railings nobody questions anymore. You can borrow that liminal quality for any town, any street, any house. Lean into texture. Fog curling around cobblestones, the cold weight of an old latch, the toll of a bell at an hour it shouldn’t ring — these images carry more dread than any monster reveal. With only 2,000 words, you can’t sprawl, so pick a single corner of your world and make it breathe. One street. One threshold. One ritual half-remembered. The strongest stories in this vein thrive on the tension between what people believe and what’s actually true. Your characters laugh off the old customs as quaint tradition, snap photos of strange fixtures, and shrug at the whispers in the fog. Your reader knows better. Let that gap between mundane ignorance and buried truth become the engine of your tension, and let the horror creep in through habit and forgotten law rather than spectacle.
Ground your terror in place and ritual, not gore. A door left unmarked one season too long, a child kept out after dusk against an old rule, a bell rung in malice — these small lapses invite ruin far more chillingly than blood ever could. Keep your stakes personal and moral, because a tight word count rewards intimacy over scale. Give your protagonist one wrenching choice: refresh a ward and abandon someone, speak a truth they swore to bury, cross a threshold they vowed never to cross. Then make your threat feel rooted in its own folklore. The Häxanburg style draws power from horrors that seem inevitable rather than invented — a revenant stirred by a broken oath, a figure who trades sin for power, an old evil disturbed by someone who should have known better. Build your own version of that logic: a threat tied to local history, custom, or forgotten law, so it feels native to your world instead of dropped into it. Write into that liminal dread, end on the weight of a choice rather than a tidy resolution, and your story will carry the Häxanburg feel wherever it’s set. Now light your lantern and step into the fog.
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