Once Upon A Time: the Dark Fairy Tales Challenge

[Erozetta]

My one attempt at EH took about three months to get to 1k views, and even after two years I doubt it will ever crack 4k. But the score is good and the view-to-vote and view-to-comment ratios are pretty decent.

I have one at 4.6k and one at 3.7k views. The first is a little over a year, the second about 7 months. I doubt either one will budge much from where they are.

I should've dropped my dark fairy tale there.

 

[StillStunned]

Perhaps EH will get a boost next month, for Halloween. And presumably people are more inclined to read darker stories during the autumn and winter months.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Perhaps EH will get a boost next month, for Halloween. And presumably people are more inclined to read darker stories during the autumn and winter months.

Don't think so. It's always been a slow category, and you don't get much of a clue how your story is going. But you don't get so many self appointed category police, so that's a plus.

 

[SaintValyssa]

Hey @SaintValyssa, great to have you on board for my challenge!

It's hard to say where the boundary lies between fairy tales and more regular fantasy. If there's something otherworldly about the tale, that helps. If you can imagine reading it as a bedtime story. If you write it in a fairy tale style: lots of repetitions, archetypal characters, abstract situations.

That said, the scope is inclusive, rather than exclusive. I think the key question is: do *you* consider it a fairy tale? And can you convince your readers?

Good luck!

Thanks for the clarification.

I think that the Cthulhu body horror with bonus Innsmouth tie-in might not be the right fit for this. That's alright.

I have something else in mind. Very classic damsel in distress, saved from a monster, etc

 

[StillStunned]

I have something else in mind. Very classic damsel in distress, saved from a monster, etc

I look forward to reading it!

 

[Jorunn]

Is there a link with the story list yet? That may help with the number of reads.

 

[StillStunned]

Is there a link with the story list yet? That may help with the number of reads.

The list will be published after the event. Until then, you can check the "dark fairy tales 2025" tag page: https://tags.literotica.com/dark fairy tales 2025/

There are 15 stories up, but I don't know whether everyone has used the tag.

 

[BryanRichardson]

None of these stories (Except for Emily’s I/T) has very high readership.

 

[BryanRichardson]

In college I almost always had an eight o’clock class. There weren’t usually a lot of other people up at that time so there weren’t usually many other people moving around then. One morning in early Fall I was walking across the quad and most of the grass was wet, except for one corner that was in the shadow of a dorm building. There was still frost there.

As I crossed the quad I saw a trail of black marks in the grass. They were footprints leading from fraternity row toward the regular dorms. The grass was partially blackened and dead. I remember thinking, “How evil do you have to be to kill grass by walking across it?”

What had really happened was that someone had walked across the frosted grass and crushed the stems. Then, when the sunlight hit the grass it thawed and the cellular damage caused the grass to blacken. Not enough to kill the grass completely, but just enough to be visible. By the next day I couldn’t see the marks any longer.

Still, the thought has remained with me, “How evil do you have to be to kill grass by walking across it?”

===

This is one of the story seeds I’m planning for Halloween…

 

[StillStunned]

Still, the thought has remained with me, “How evil do you have to be to kill grass by walking across it?”

I'm picturing a demon looking over the fence into his neighbour's garden and complaining that the grass is always greener there.

 

[TiberiusPrime]

I'm *not* going to complain about long approval times, I'm *not* going to complain about long approval times, I'm *not* going to complain about long approval times.

(I'm not even at the 72 hour mark, so I have no right to complain. I just get overexcited when I submit a new story.)

Length matters

 

[SaintValyssa]

I look forward to reading it!

One other thing.... Are we limited to how many stories we can post to the tag? (Did I miss that somewhere?)

Had a story I was ready to publish the other night; realized it fit the theme well, so I edited my draft and tagged it. But it's not the main idea I have for the prompt (I'll have 2 stories submitted by the end).

 

[StillStunned]

One other thing.... Are we limited to how many stories we can post to the tag? (Did I miss that somewhere?)

Had a story I was ready to publish the other night; realized it fit the theme well, so I edited my draft and tagged it. But it's not the main idea I have for the prompt (I'll have 2 stories submitted by the end).

No limit, the more the merrier. I have my second story in Pending.

ETA: don't forget to include "Dark Fairy Tales 2025" in the "Notes to the Admin" field as well!

 

[SaintValyssa]

ETA: don't forget to include "Dark Fairy Tales 2025" in the "Notes to the Admin" field as well!

Yeah, I got that on there.

I swear to Christ if I have to resubmit this fucker again...

 

[kytaliana]

General question. I have a story I want to submit for the Dark Fairy Tale event, but it's being split into three parts. Do all three parts need to be posted before the 25th? Also, do I need to make an indicator with each posted part that it's for this event, or since it's a series will the series be added?

 

[EmilyMiller]

None of these stories (Except for Emily’s I/T) has very high readership.

The comp approach of publishing a list on day one and amending it as more stories get added drives greater engagement. But I’m guessing it’s a PITA for Laurel / Manu and so they don’t do it for author-organized events.

 

[StillStunned]

General question. I have a story I want to submit for the Dark Fairy Tale event, but it's being split into three parts. Do all three parts need to be posted before the 25th? Also, do I need to make an indicator with each posted part that it's for this event, or since it's a series will the series be added?

Any stories that you submit before 25 September and mark as "Dark Fairy Tales 2025" in the Notes to the Admin will be added to the anthology list that's published at the end of the event. Occasionally a story that's published later will also appear on the list.

Most readers won't read later instalments of a series without reading the first chapter. So you'll probably be OK in terms of exposure as long as the first chapter makes it into the anthology: if your readers enjoy chapter 1, they'll check out the next chapter regardless of whether or not it's officially part of the challenge.

 

[kytaliana]

Any stories that you submit before 25 September and mark as "Dark Fairy Tales 2025" in the Notes to the Admin will be added to the anthology list that's published at the end of the event. Occasionally a story that's published later will also appear on the list.

Most readers won't read later instalments of a series without reading the first chapter. So you'll probably be OK in terms of exposure as long as the first chapter makes it into the anthology: if your readers enjoy chapter 1, they'll check out the next chapter regardless of whether or not it's officially part of the challenge.

Thanks so much! That's helpful to know and gives me some idea of how to break things down. Can't wait to read all the stories that get posted. I love fairy tales, darkness, and smut.

 

[StillStunned]

My second fairy tale will be published tomorrow:

 

[Yogma]

I'm close to finishing my second story and all of a sudden I'm not sure it still fits the challenge any more. It started out as a short grim-dark story of an evil magic using queen that lost all her power after being trapped by a demon, followed by a tale of redemption. However, as the story became longer and longer, it appears to have morphed into much more of an epic fantasy story as opposed to a short fairy tail.

When I started writing stories just over a year ago, I was worried about writing more that 2 or 3 thousand words, now I tend to get caried away and struggle to keep it under 40k

 

[StillStunned]

Hag-Ridden: A Fairy Tale is up and ready for reading!

6.5k words, published in Group Sex but it could easily have been SF&F.

 

[StillStunned]

Not a bad first 12 hours for "Hag-Ridden":



I was slightly concerned that the Group Sex readers would reject a fairy tale, but so far they seem quite happy with it.

 

[dirk2024]

Not a bad first 12 hours for "Hag-Ridden":

View attachment 2563797

I was slightly concerned that the Group Sex readers would reject a fairy tale, but so far they seem quite happy with it.

I read this story last night and was amazed! I won't throw any spoilers out there, but you hit the fairy tale concept dead center.

I realized as I was reading it that I didn't get the concept at all for my submission for this challenge.

 

[StillStunned]

I read this story last night and was amazed! I won't throw any spoilers out there, but you hit the fairy tale concept dead center.

Thank you for saying so!

I realized as I was reading it that I didn't get the concept at all for my submission for this challenge.

I think there are any number of styles that could work for fairy tales. Your story is on my TBR list still, but I think Erotic Horror can be a good fit. I've read plenty of tales that really ramped up the horror - Prince Ivan and the Witch Baby has left a permanent scar, for instance.

The two fairy tales I've published for the challenge so far have been in the old-fashioned style of the fairy tales I grew up reading, but I have other WIPs where I'd be hard pressed to explain what makes them fairy tales rather than more generic fantasy.

 

[crookedletter]

Mine's gotten away from me a bit. It was kinda writing itself, then it just kept going, and not where I planned. I need to see if I can wrangle it into submission in the coming days/weeks. Either way, it's been a fun exercise.

I'd like to read some of these other stories, but I feel like I need to get a handle on what I'm doing first or I'll just further confuse things.