A frightening tale is only successful when the story at its heart is great.

Submit a Frightening Tale
or Weird Story!

So, how does it all work?

• Submissions are added to a reading queue and read in order of submission.
• Once read, you will be contacted if I feel your story is a good fit.
• Then you can grant permission for your story to get performed.

Additionally, you are not held to any exclusivity rules with the stories you submit.

This means you can allow other narrators to tell their own version of your story, too.) Often, channels want your story all to themselves. But that goes against what I'm doing, which is sharing horror - so get it out there!

 I must preface that NOT all stories submitted will be suitable for a... performance.

I will say, though, that your story will be read.

If your tale doesn't meet the needs of a performance, it in no way means it's a poor piece of work, but rather that it's just not the right fit for this program. I implore you to continue, for a master fails more times than a beginner has even tried. Keep writing!!!

Please note that while I will never claim ownership of your story, I do claim ownership of the performance I create. Not in any way that I want to monetize it, but in that they can only be listened to from Frighteningtales.com. This funnels listeners to visit here, in turn exposing them to other authors as well as you, and is part of the horror for the love of horror motto. It's kinda how this all works.

Content Requirements "The Devil is in the details"

• Stories MUST contain the supernatural / paranormal in some way, shape or form. So many writers submit stories that have no paranormal activity nestled in their pages. But that's the heart of the program, so be aware. There are enough crazy humans and psychopaths actually wandering the streets for me to tell more stories of human-on-human horror. I prefer to keep a foot firmly planted in whimsy. Now, a crazy psychopath ghost... we can talk. It's the signature bit that separates my program from all the rest.
• Stories should be works of Fiction. Authors who are sending me accounts of ghostly encounters they've had. Narratives that are a documentary-style retelling of ghostly encounters you've had personally... aren't the format that I'm looking for... unless you can retell it in a way that reads like a story.
• Evil and darkness in all its frightening tales are well enough without racist hate. Again, this treads too close to reality for my liking. So please don't hide your racist views in your writing; I'm not allowing it here.
• Overly sexualized stories sent to me get locked in a folder my wife keeps. In order to cater to the diverse audience that listens here, and knowing that not everyone enjoys explicit intimacy, I'm going to have to pass on sharing content that is overly sexualized. Implied intimacy for story purposes is tolerated. For example, "We spent the night exploring our bodies" vs. a play-by-play of everything.
• Stories should be 1800 words to 4000 max. I like episodes to be around 20 mins; 30 is optimal. I max out at 45 mins. But shorter stories can be paired up with other shorter stories to flesh out a full episode. So, don't hesitate to share. My analytics show that ALL listeners seem to cut out at 55 mins... this is why we collect data like this, so thank you, everyone, who accepts the cookies. Browser cookies are like digital inuksuks that say you were here.

• AI stories are out. I have read enough AI-generated writing to recognize its cadence, patterns, and tendencies. Please do not submit work that has been written entirely by AI. AI can be a useful tool for copyediting, punctuation, grammar, and other forms of assistance, but the story itself needs to come from you.

  Historically, if I suspected a story was AI-generated, and only then, I would run it through a checker. But from this point forward, I will not use AI detection tools to evaluate your writing. I don't want to risk overlooking an amazing story because a detection tool caused a writer undue stress or cast doubt on their work. Nor do I want the possibility of having their work subjected to AI detection to discourage someone from submitting in the first place.

  I want to curate stories based on the writing itself and build a relationship of trust with the writers who submit to Frightening Tales.

  The purpose of this website is to promote and encourage human writers and to give them the exposure they work hard for. I want to reward that effort.

  The artwork on this site follows the same rules. Some of the artwork you see on this site has been finished or polished with the help of AI. I use it as a production tool to create atmosphere and maintain visual cohesion across the show. All images begin with my own sketches and direction, and I use AI to help me develop them into finished artwork. I'm a one-person operation, and I simply don't have the time to hand-render every piece of artwork to the level I'd like. But fundamentally, the composition and design are mine. And no different from using AI to check grammar or punctuation. It's used only for polish.

  I studied illustration for four years in post-secondary school, and the artwork used for merchandise is drawn by me. AI is a tool I use to extend what I can produce, not to replace the human stories that Frightening Tales exists to showcase.

  I know there are strong feelings about AI, and I respect that. I'm not asking anyone to agree with how I use it. I just want to be transparent about it.

  Thank you, Eric Jepson, for your beautifully written commentary on the matter.

   

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