2K Terrors Competition 2025

TL;DR is a writer’s community and publisher, focused on connecting writers with growth opportunities and creating anthologies for charity. We are dedicated to providing an inclusive platform to writers of all ages, genders, races, and sexualities Whether you’re a fresh faced newcomer to the world of words or a grizzled veteran of publications, you can find your place in our herd.

TL;DR Press

The 2K Terrors Fiction Contest is a writing competition and fundraiser for TL;DR Press. Guaranteed feedback and a $150 top prize!

Thank you for your interest! We have either run out of tickets, or the competition has started and we can no longer accept entrants.

<h2>1 week. 2 prompts. 2,000 words. $650 in prizes.</h2>TL;DR Press is proud to announce the return of our horror competition! Sign up to participate in this week-long contest, with $650 worth of prizes for the top 25 placing stories!The competition costs $15 to register + tax/fees.We are also proud to offer each entrant guaranteed feedback on their story from the judges. Offering writers a chance for feedback is one of the Press’s core missions, along with our philanthropic mission to create anthologies to benefit charities.This feedback means we only have 300 spots – once they’re gone, they’re gone!Registration opens October 31, 2025, and closes on November 28, 2025.The competition begins at 12:01 am UK time on Sunday, December 07, 2025 and ends at 11:59 pm UK time on Saturday, December 13, 2025.(US Eastern times are begin: 7:01 pm US-Eastern time on Saturday, December 06, 2025, end: 6:59 pm US-Eastern time on Saturday 13, December , 2025)<a href="https://tldrpress.org/2k-terrors-rules/" title="https://tldrpress.org/2k-terrors-rules/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">You can find all of our rules and regulations here on our website.</a> <h3>How does it work?</h3>The 2K Terrors Competition will last for one week, beginning at 12:01 am UK time on Sunday, December 07, 2025 and ending at 11:59 pm UK time on Saturday, December 13, 2025 (US Eastern times are begin: 7:01 pm on Saturday, December 06, 2025 US-Eastern time, end: 6:59 pm on Saturday, December , 2025 US-Eastern time).Each entrant will receive two individual prompts at the beginning of the competition: A character, and an object or situation. Each entrant must create and submit a 2,000-word original horror fiction story by the end of the competition time.The judges will read, score, and provide feedback on each story to create a Top 25 Winners list. The top 25 stories will be announced, and prizes will be given to the winners as well as an ebook publication made of the top stories to benefit <a href="https://scaresthatcare.org" title="https://scaresthatcare.org" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Scares That Care</a>.<a href="https://tldrpress.org/2k-terrors-rules/" title="https://tldrpress.org/2k-terrors-rules/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">You can find all of our rules and regulations here on our website.</a> <h3>How can I join?</h3>Sign up through Eventbrite before the registration deadline ends at midnight, Eastern time on November 28, 2025, or before the 300 slots fill up.You will receive an email at 12:01 am UK time on Sunday, December 07, 2025 (7:01 pm US Eastern time on Saturday, December 06), with your individual prompts and the form to submit your story (we're aligning the contest with UK time this year as our new judge coordinator lives in London). You will have until 11:59 pm UK time on Saturday, December 13, 2025 (6:59 pm US Eastern time), to write and submit a 2,000-word-maximum horror fiction story based on those prompts. <h3>Fundraising</h3>This competition is a charity fundraiser. While the prizes for this contest are the first priority, once prizes are fully funded, all contest fees and all proceeds of the eBook sales will go to <a href="https://scaresthatcare.org" title="https://scaresthatcare.org" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Scares That Care</a>. In the event that we cannot fully fund the prize money, we will do everything in our power to raise the money through other means. We will refund any tickets sold should the competition be cancelled for any reason. <h3>Prizes</h3>1st Place: $150 USD, hard copy of the collection, notebook, pin badge, stickers, winner certs, and an eBook copy of each of our TL;DR Press collections to date2nd Place: $80 USD, hard copy of the collection, pin badge, stickers, winner certs, and an eBook copy of each of our TL;DR Press collections to date3rd Place: $55 USD, hard copy of the collection, stickers, winner certs, and an eBook copy of each of our TL;DR Press collections to date4th-10th Place: $20 USD, stickers, winner certs, and an eBook copy of each of our TL;DR Press collections to date11-25th Place: $15 USD, stickers, winner certs, and an eBook copy of each of our TL;DR Press collections to date <h3>Submissions</h3>Our house style (which we will also include in our email to participants) is simple:<ul><li>Double spacing</li><li>Typed in a 12 pt. standard font, such as Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, etc</li><li>Submit in a .doc or .docx format; do not submit a PDF</li></ul><a href="https://tldrpress.org/2k-terrors-rules/" title="https://tldrpress.org/2k-terrors-rules/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Find other rules such as anonymity and title page in the rules and regulations</a>. Only anonymity (not putting your name INSIDE your document, we will scrub document titles before judges receive them as Google Forms tends to add names and that is a known issue), including the prompts, and word count are necessary to be considered.We are welcome to experimental styles. While we may make copyediting/formatting changes to stories that will be published, we will not penalize stories for not staying within a specific style. If you have any questions, please ask us through tldrpress@gmail.com.We want to make this a fun and rewarding experience for all participants, and thus we are not citing a specific, extensive style to follow. <h3>Publication</h3>The Top 25 Winners will be published in an eBook anthology in addition to their prize money. The anthology will benefit our charity of choice for this project, <a href="https://scaresthatcare.org" title="https://scaresthatcare.org" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Scares That Care</a>. <h3>Frequently Asked Questions</h3><a href="https://tldrpress.org/2k-terrors-rules/" title="https://tldrpress.org/2k-terrors-rules/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Find all official rules and regulations here</a>. If you have any questions, please ask us through tldrpress@gmail.com.Can I use ChatGPT or another AI tool to help me write my story?No. All work must be the sole creation of the writer. The Press will disqualify any entry that they deem has been partially or wholly generated via an AI tool. Any qualifying entries later determined to have utilized AI will be removed from the featured collection and must return their prize within 15 working days of receiving notification from the Press. The Press will permanently ban any entrant that has used AI in generating any part of their submission from this contest and all future contests or anthology calls.Can I sign up more than once?No. We only have 300 slots, and we want to provide feedback to as many people as possible, so participation is limited to one entry/one story per person. Thank you for your enthusiasm! <h3>Community</h3>Competitions are better together. Share using the #2KTerrors hashtag on <a href="https://twitter.com/TLDRpress" title="https://twitter.com/TLDRpress" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Twitter </a>or share our competition on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tldrpress" title="https://www.facebook.com/tldrpress" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Facebook</a>!Need some eyes on your entry, or just some encouragement along the way? TL;DR Press manages a writing community on Slack, <a href="http://tldrpress.org/index.php/join-in/" title="http://tldrpress.org/index.php/join-in/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">apply here to join</a>! <h3>Judges</h3><a href="https://www.twitter.com/alexlaurellanz" title="https://www.twitter.com/alexlaurellanz" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Alex Laurel Lanz</a>Alex Laurel Lanz is an author and artist living in the bay area, California. Their work can be found in Tales to Terrify, Scare Street and Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic (published by Cosmic Horror Monthly). When not writing, they are scrounging through train tracks and abandoned sewers with their partner and their dog named Pigeon. You can also track them down on most social media platforms such as Twitter and BlueSky at <a href="https://www.twitter.com/alexlaurellanz" title="https://www.twitter.com/alexlaurellanz" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">@alexlaurellanz</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/CallRowLand" title="https://twitter.com/CallRowLand" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Callum Rowland</a>Callum is a fiction writer, and co-founder of TL;DR Press. He writes across all genres; though science fiction, fantasy, and horror are closest to his heart. His short stories have featured in various magazines, anthologies, and zines, including Daily Science Fiction, Fictive Dream, Aphelion Webzine, and Bandit Fiction.He is Director of Charity for TL;DR Press, and has also worked as either a curator or editor on a number of TL;DR releases, most recently as a curator on Growth. <a href="https://twitter.com/hhulbert" title="https://twitter.com/hhulbert" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Hannah Hulbert</a>Hannah Hulbert is a full-time mum and part-time writer from the south coast of England. She enjoys looking for mushrooms, doing crafts, and drinking tea, especially when she is supposed to be writing.You can find her stories in Metamorphosis, Hexagon, and the anthology Cat Ladies of the Apocalypse, among others. Her story ‘Ruler of Waves, God of Trees’ from Growth (TL;DR Press, 2021), received a Pushcart nomination.You can find her via her website, <a href="https://hannahhulbert.wordpress.com/" title="https://hannahhulbert.wordpress.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">hannahhulbert.wordpress.com</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/jennaharvie" title="https://twitter.com/jennaharvie" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Jenna Harvie</a>Jenna Harvie is a writer, painter, and photographer from Atlantic Canada. She spends her days ​writing and editing technical documents for a cybersecurity company and her evenings working on her own fiction, editing, and reading anything she can get her hands on. Jenna is currently editing her first horror novel, writing a few more, and she always has a short story or two on the go. Jenna has been editing and judging for TL;DR Press since 2019, and she recently joined the Board of Directors. And when that’s not enough, she paints landscapes and abstractions and photographs the beautiful landscape around Nova Scotia.​Visit Jenna's art gallery online at <a href="https://jennaharvie.com/" title="https://jennaharvie.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">jennaharvie.com </a>or ​find her on Instagram and Twitter with the handle <a href="https://twitter.com/jennaharvie" title="https://twitter.com/jennaharvie" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">@jennaharvie</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/writelikeashark" title="https://twitter.com/writelikeashark" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Joe Butler</a>Joe lives and works in London, but dreams of living and working elsewhere. He is the author of two sci-fi novels, Of All Possibilities and Strange Days in the House of August. His writing has been featured in Pilcrow &amp; Dagger, Story Bits, Bandit Fiction, New Orbit, Ghost Orchid, Second Chance Lit, and the Found anthology edited by Gabino Iglesias and Andrew Cull. He can be found on twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/writelikeashark" title="https://twitter.com/writelikeashark" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">@writelikeashark</a> and on his website <a href="https://www.writelikeashark.com" title="https://www.writelikeashark.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">writelikeashark.com</a>.He is one of the co-founders of TL;DR Press, and has been involved in all of the collections the press has published as either a curator or an editor as well as the marketing manager and cover artist for eight of the ten currently released collections. He was also a judge for previous 1KWHC competitions, and loves reading stories where the prompts are used in ways you might not expect. <a href="https://twitter.com/justpenfold" title="https://twitter.com/justpenfold" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Penfold</a>Penfold is a writer, software security engineer, and semicolon enthusiast. He is a founding member of TL;DR Press and has served as curator and editor on various anthologies, as well as judge in the previous contests. He lives near Indianapolis with his wife, two kids, and a number of cats as ever-changing as the sea. He is currently writing a collection of stories about the slow-burning insanity of raising an international family in the lawless, feral suburbs of the midwest. His stories have appeared in previous TL;DR Press anthologies, and he can be found and interrogated at <a href="http://justpenfold.com/" title="http://justpenfold.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">justpenfold.com </a>or on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/justpenfold" title="https://twitter.com/justpenfold" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">@justpenfold</a>.

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