How to Prompt for Horror (and Other Signup Notes)

How to Prompt for Horror?

If you want to write prompts for your writer or artist but you’re not sure how to prompt for horror, we have some questions below to help you get started!

First, here are two other things to let your creator know in your letter or optional details:

• If you’ve requested one or more groups of characters, do you ship the characters in the group? You’re much more likely to get a shippy gift if you say you ship your characters! On the other hand, if you DON’T ship the characters, you definitely want your creator to know that, too.
  
  
• What kind of endings do you want for your horror? Happy/safe ends, bad ends, ambiguous, all of the above?

And here are some questions you could think about as you write your fic or art requests. You might decide you want to include the answers in your request, or maybe the questions will just help you think.

• What horror movies or books do you like? You can use these inspiration, or you can mention them explicitly in your signup. (“I love John Carpenter’s The Thing and anything by Cronenberg” tells me a lot about what kind of horror you like!)
  
  
• What do you like about the horror genres you’ve requested? For example, if you request medical horror, do you like it because of the body horror possibilities? Noncon vibes? Extreme hurt and/or comfort? Are you just really into explicit, lovingly detailed description of gory injury?
  
  
• What kind of character dynamics and relationships do you like to see in horror fic? If you ship your requested characters, how do you like to see your ship in a horror context? Do you prefer getting-together fic in a horror context, or do you also like established relationship fic? Would you like one of the characters to be a source of the horror, or do you want the characters to face an external horror together?
  
  
• Is there anything you particularly like to see in horror art? For example, do you like to see explicit gore? AU art with your fave as a monster/spirit/other kind of horror? Art where your fave is menaced by a horror? Do you like darker or deeply shadowed art or art that’s incongruously bright (or both)? Are there any particular settings you love, like forests or graveyards or huge looming architecture? Does your requested canon have neat settings or imagery that would be great for horror?

You definitely don’t need to have answers to all these questions! These are just ideas to get you started as you think about what horror things you like, and how those likes might intersect with the characters and canons you’re requesting.

Signups are Open!

Summer of Horror 2022 is officially open for signups! Please see the signup rules for details.

You can sign up here, and the finalized tagset will show you all the fandoms, characters, and relationships you can request, as well as the horror subgenres tags. (For general guidelines on the subgenres, see this post.)

We also have some suggestions about things you may want to specify in your optional details and useful questions to keep in mind when prompting for horror specifically.

Signups will be be open until 11:59 PM on June 1. If you have any questions, you can comment here or email us at summerofhorrorex at gmail dot com.