Hungry Ghosts, Wendigo, and Other Cannibal Spirits

My first contest -- woot! On to business, eh?

I want to see some good, intensely, creatively gory horror. And specifically, I want to focus on a creature most unfairly overlooked... the hungry ghost.

Whether it's the soul of a dead serial killer who just can't let go or a Yin entity of pure hunger that literally exists to kill and consume, whether a spectral presence haunting the site of its death or a free-roaming horror that knows no boundaries, there's a lot of room for creativity and mythological inspiration alike.

For those of you who want a specific example, you can take a look at my own hungry ghost stories (Slaughter in the Bone Forest, say) but I'd really prefer you write what's in your own imagination rather than trying to aim for what you think I want.

Rules are brief:

1.) Spelling. Grammar. Everyone says it, I know, but still, just in case.

2.) If you have a genuinely applicable prewrite, go ahead and enter it, but my strong preference is for new stories.

3.) While I thoroughly enjoy and in fact encourage the inclusion of graphic gore, don't just spew blood and guts randomly. Spew blood and guts *creatively*, inspirationally. Do something interesting -- or at least describe it freshly, sans usual cliches. As the quote goes, "And then, off comes the head without spilling one single drop of blood... now I call that showmanship!"

4.) Okay, this is new, but I now realize I really should have given a word limit. For those of you already entered/not talked to by me about this, don't worry about it, but for all newcomers -- I'm flexible, but I cannot read 20,000 words at once on the Internet. My back isn't up to it and I don't have enough printer paper. Anything up to 5,000 is fine; more than that I'll take on a case-by-case basis, but 7,000 is the hard limit. Nothing personal, I just want to be able to give everyone fair reading/critique.

For those of you who need a bit of a prompt or have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a few links and images to spark you...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry_ghost
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendigo
http://images.elfwood.com/art/a/r/artemis/guardian.jpg
http://images.elfwood.com/art/a/r/artemis/moonsaber2.jpg
http://www.capurromrc.it/devil/735wendigo.jpg

I will, of course, fully read and comment on every valid entry. If I DQ you, it's because your entry violates one of the rules. Good luck, everyone!

Contest is Over

  • Contest was judged on September 12, 2008
  • Rewards: Gold: 200, Silver: 100, Bronze: 50, Honorable mention: 2 people
  • Final notes:
    Well, it's finally time for me to judge my first-ever contest. Sorry it's taken so long... my life has been ridiculously chaotic. If I still owe any of you a comment, rest assured you will get one once my life is back in order. It may be some time, but I plan to go back over all my contests and catch up with everyone, as I promised. Anyway, to the contest at hand!

    First of all, I got a couple of entries that I wanted to give a trophy to due to their quality and creativity, but which weren't really what I was looking for thematically the authors of "Heisenberg's Shaman" and "A Haunted Half-Life," I enjoyed your entries very much, and it was difficult not to give you trophies for them, but they just didn't have the feel I was going for here. Thematically they just didn't fit this contest as I envisioned. That may be my failure of clarification; nevertheless, I must give priority to those who did meet the theme I had in mind. I do, however, plan on running contests about both shamanism/animism and about ghosts in general (as opposed to cannibal spirit) and I strongly encourage both of you to enter your stories in the relevant contest when they happen. I'll be able to properly acknowledge them there.

    Now, on to the winners!

    The "I Am" Clause -- I knew this was going to end up taking gold when I first read it. I kept my mind/heart open as I could, and there were some others I really liked, but this one was just so absorbing from the first word to the last. It absolutely *nailed* the mood and theme I was going for, and I love the cadence of character that permeates the whole, and the intense, rippling flow. It's poetic and yet not a poem. Fascinating work!

    End of Times -- It was very difficult to choose between this and "I Am". I adore the thorough saturation of personality in this work, and especially how distinctive the narrator's diction and phrasing are. Very individual and convincing. I would love to see an expanded version...

    Urges -- And here's that gory, serial-killer-type mood/feel I love so much. >D The edgy hunger shooting through the lines is clearly palpable here and very much appreciated. It could stand some polish, hence why it's 'only' bronze, but it has so much potential that I felt it deserves a trophy.

    The two honorable mentions both appealed to me with plot, characters, and/or story element(s), but both of them need editing and polish, to the point where it damaged my ability to get absorbed in the story. I did invite both of you, IIRC, to edit your entries, but as far as I can tell, neither of you chose to do so; hence, you remain Honorable Mentions. I enjoyed reading both HMs, however, and I do hope to see the final drafts of both someday.

    For those of you who are wondering why you did or did not win, my judging is based on the following factors: Relevance to the contest theme, how interesting/believable/compelling the characters are, how interesting/believable/compelling the plot is, how vivid/original/apt the descriptions and scene-setting are, how discernable and appropriate the mood is, how quickly and thoroughly absorbing the work is, whether there are any logic or factual errors, and, finally, its level of completion. There are a few stories that didn't win, but could have, if they had only been proofread for spelling, grammar, and punctuation. If your story is one of these, please keep in mind that presentation is important. I did my best to read every story and give good critique (and if I've missed you, I'm coming back to you when I can as noted above) and I always judge originality, vividity, and convincingness higher than mechanical factors (I call it "polish" for a reason, after all) but there were several entries that were so thoroughly in the rough draft stage that I just couldn't judge them alongside the more complete, finished pieces and be honest and fair at the same time. So please, proofread your contest entries! It's not just me -- in just about anyone's contest, if several people have equally good stories in all other ways, the well-edited, easy-to-read story is always going to win over an equally creative but poorly-edited, difficult-to-read story unless the judge specifically states that they're accepting unedited pieces. So keep that in mind, those of you who want trophies and haven't won any yet... that may well be the reason! (And if it is, that means all you have to do to fix the situation is a little bit of proofreading! )

    Congratulations to everyone who won, and I sincerely wish everyone who entered good luck in their next contests!

    Shakti,
    --Jack Red-in-Tooth-and-Claw

Contest Winners

  1. Error: Unable to find finalist item 178230, it seems to have been deleted :( [remove]
  2. Error: Unable to find finalist item 171598, it seems to have been deleted :( [remove]
  3. Urges
    by demonp3n 800 words, 10 comments, on Jun 2 10:30 PM 2008. In Dark, Death, Fiction, Horror, Short story, Third person, Young adult
    Bronze trophy winner
    • Viewed by judge. [remove]
  4. The Waters Edge
    Cher has moved into a new house but what is in the lake outside, what is the secret of the trees and what is the houses' secret.
    by Peachy 2800 words, 18 comments, on Dec 20 5:50 AM 2007. In Dark, Death, Horror, Short story, Strange, Supernatural
    Honorable mention
    • Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove]
  5. Welcome to Demonsville
    by kkz2343 1400 words, 7 comments, on Jan 8 7:33 PM 2007. In <200 lines, Abuse, Dark, Horror, Other, Short story, Third person, Unfinished
    Honorable mention
    • Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove]

Entries [10]

1 - 10 of 10

Add a comment

    : Comment:

Comments

1 - 5 of 5

  • whatami
    June 19, 2008
    Edit | Reply
    hm brb.


  • xoimsolameox
    August 1, 2008
    Edit | Reply
    You didn't specify no erotica and I'd really like to write something on an incubi or sucubi.
    They're sexual demons that supposedly rape the living is this acceptable for you?


    • intoothandclaw
      August 2, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      I don't care if the spirit *also* rapes them, or if it *also* feeds on that rape. The main point, ideally, is the spiritual and physical cannibalism, the devouring. A succubus/incubus as usually portrayed is not really what I was going for. However, if you can tie the cannibalism/literal devouring aspect in somehow, it'll probably work well enough.

  • slashinguk
    September 12, 2008
    Edit | Reply

    Great feedback on the result

    I think you've posted up the best contest results post I've ever seen. I'm glad to have received no trophy - for all the right reasons and will definitely be looking out for your competitions in future.

1 - 5 of 5