SUBMISSIONS OPEN until end of day EDT Oct. 13!
Enter to win cash prizes in our annual Halloween Week Scary Story contest (max. word count of 2,500). Five winners win cash prizes:
First place wins CAD$100.
Second place win CAD$50
And three runners-up win CAD$25 each.
All five winning stories will be posted on CommuterLit during this year’s Halloween Week, Oct. 27-Oct. 31, 2025.
Submit here.
Want do you think is a scary story?
As we start accepting submissions for our annual Halloween Week contest, we’re curious to know from you what constitutes a good scary story. The old tropes (witches, ghosts, vampires and zombies) have been done to death. And gratuitous graphic violence wears thin in a story that has no other aim than to shock. Besides, its the threat of violence perhaps in an unexpected place that is often more terror-inducing than the actual violent act itself. It’s that tension waiting for the other shoe to drop.
So what are we left with? What are we truly scared of? The dark? Abandonment? Loneliness? Our own minds? Swarms of biting insects or rats or a deadly snake in the bushes? The unknown predator in the night? And is that predator human or some other sort of beast?
What do you think makes for a good scary story? Let the editor know.
Not all agree, but I think the most terrifying stories involve humans and their capacity for evil done unto another, as opposed to supernatural creatures or forces that you see in movies.