Don’t mind the notice, we’re no alternate—Terror and Tales, an EXO horror fic-festival, is back for blood. Keep your doors locked, but your eyes peeled and your television on—you won’t want to miss our broadcast.Containment specialists have put together a carrd featuring information about this strange, anomaly-ridden festival, as well as resources for yourself and others. So please, read closely and familiarize yourself with this new, uncanny timeline and content!

GUIDELINES

EXO Terror and Tales was created with love to fill a ghostly hole left in ficdom. The mods are both fans of scary content, as well as of EXO themselves, so when they realized there were no longer any active Halloween-related fests in the fandom… they had to step up! Our first round was a hit, so we’ve come back for more.EXO Terror and Tales does differ from the traditional fest format, and some parameters have been updated since last round, so please read the following guidelines even if you are familiar with how fests normally work because you’ll probably find that we do something just a little bit differently!

Our second round is Terror and Tales: the Uncanny. By definition, uncanny is something strange or mysterious, especially in an unsettling way. The mods settled on this theme because it has a wide-range of interpretation, while also nailing down a cohesive “feeling” for the collection. Some examples of tropes/settings/characters that would land under this theme are the following:

  • Inhuman Entities: Doppelgangers, Robots, Alternates, Reflections, etc.

  • Human Representations: Dolls, Puppets, Clowns, etc.

  • Genres: Analog Horror, Suburban, Sci-fi, Supernatural, etc.

  • Settings: Liminal Spaces, Parallel Universes, etc.

We will not be hosting a prompt archive, so you’ll be choosing what to write on your own! The mods are happy to assist with making sure ideas are on theme~

  • The fest will be running in KST.

  • The minimum word count for stories is 500 words. There is no maximum.

  • Artists are welcome to join.

  • Participants in the fest may submit two, original works in all.

  • Participants must keep their works a secret during the writing period!

In the past, we allowed author’s to republish previously posted stories, but for this round we want to keep everything new, so all works are required to be original! Look forward to mini-rounds or later rounds that may allow for republishing in the future.

sign-ups

July 31st until October 2nd

Terror and Tales is operating with an extended sign-up period. Essentially, we’ve made the period as long as we can while still leaving us time to make graphics for any submitted stories. Our sign-up form is pretty simple. We’ll ask if you’re joining us as a writer or as an artist, remind you of some of our rules, and then ask a little bit about your plans! Super easy!

check-ins

Terror and Tales will not have check-ins that require anyone to show progress. However, we will operate with a single soft check-in around half-way through the fest’s run-time. Here, we’ll simply ask if you’re still with us as well as include any pertinent information that has come up as we near posting!

previous rounds

RULES

EXO Terror and Tales has a few rules that all works will have to abide by in order to be accepted to the collection. Please familiarize yourself with these rules prior to writing—we don’t want any of your work to go to waste! If there are any updates to this page, we will notify participants via Twitter!

  • EXO-centric works. We are an OT9 fest.

  • Works must be tagged accordingly. Because the theme opens us up to some darker topics, we want to stress that you use your tags and warnings to the best of your ability, even if it contains spoilers to your plot. If you’re unsure about something, always feel free to contact us mods.

  • Banned Topics: Pedophilia, Bestiality, Incest*

  • Works must be completed, standalone works at posting.

  • Your works must be kept secret during the writing period.

  • Plagiarism is not tolerated. Consequences for plagiarism include the removal of a work from the fest collection, notifying our readers of the situation and directing them to the original work, as well as a subsequent ban from the fest. There are no exceptions.

*Self-cest will be allowed.

SCHEDULE

Sign-Ups
Jul. 31st - Oct. 2ndSubmissions
Sept. 4th - Oct. 6thPosting
Begins Oct. 16th

All schedules starting at 11PM KST