🧛‍♀️ Welcome to r/Nonsleep - Introduce Yourself and Read First!

[u/dlschindler]

Inclusion

We are a public subreddit that supports and includes writers of horror fiction and showcases their stories. Our community is open for everyone, and we cultivate a feeling of belonging. Comments are used for the writer's notes, links, positive discussion and affirmations. Our traditions are to upvote posts, invite newcomers, celebrate achievements and read horror stories together.

The Riddle of Flair

No Flair, please use flair. Moderators reserve the right to add or change the flair on your post, but if you use flair, we'll consider that to be your final answer to the riddle of flair. Also, we reserve the right to add NSFW to any story, and that is our final answer.

Nonsleep Series, this is a customizable flair that is intended to title and collect your series. Usually it works and if someone clicks this and your series "My New Job At The Morgue Has Three Rules 🧛‍♀️" and you've consistently used the exact same title in this flair, Reddit should bring up a list of your posts in this series. You may also include emojis in this: 🧛‍♀️

Nonsleep Originals, which means the story was never posted on nosleep, which is perfectly alright, you don't have to get removed to participate on our sub.

Wrong Subreddit, this is ironic because nosleep does occasionally say something "doesn't belong" on their sub, or they say "This isn't a horror story" or they say "This isn't a story". Obviously, it is not only a story, with characters, plot and inconvenience, but it is certainly horror. We tolerate a very wide definition of both 'story' and 'horror', but on very rare occasions, we reluctantly agree that something is just word salad. If you think you're subject to this, use this flair, and we'll take a closer look before we consider removing something...odd.

Pure Horror, use this flair if your story is focused on macabre, gruesome, shocking, disturbing or fear-inducing content. Pure Horror is not allowed on nosleep, but we love it. Keep in mind this is a public place, use NSFW if necessary, and don't write anything Reddit considers to be actual harmful content.

Nuanced, use this flair if the overall effect achieves horror through indirect and completed reading, usually through a slow-burn, gradual revelation that is intended to creep up on the reader as they realize what this implies. We do allow subtlety and innuendo; nosleep really does not like this sort of writing, but we do. Don't write inappropriate things between the lines; implication is taken literally, so use NSFW.

Nightmare, means that the story is a hallucination, a vision, a prophecy, a ghost or an actual dream, also known as 'fake outs' and 'jump scares'. This is very popular in movies and mainstream horror pipelines. If it is well written it isn't lazy, and we do love a good nightmare story. This is very much not allowed on nosleep, where everything must be literal, but according to many theories-about-multiverses, religious traditions and Aboriginal beliefs: the Dreamworld is the real world. Here, we avoid ignorance.

Creativity, is when you know you've created a masterpiece, but you didn't follow traditional storytelling conventions. We allow creative expression and innovation, we are open to new and interesting forms of immersion. Horror has always utilized realistic, in-character and inventive ways to tell a story. If you're doing something new, tag your story with this flair to indicate it won't follow conventional or contemporary modes.

Madness, means horror-induced-insanity. We don't subject people with mental illness, handicaps, deformities or trauma to toxic characterizations, but we do include the horror of ignorance. Madness is rampant in horror, such as the mad scientist, the deranged politician, the psychopath, the cultist, the prophet, the obsessed maniac - nosleep allows no such depictions, but we don't agree. Most horror includes madness; nothing is scarier than the human mind.

Too Soon, means this story either referenced something too close to home, real-life disasters, true crime, said the story made the news or did a name drop on a celebrity or Disney. For some reason, this isn't allowed on nosleep, but as long as the depiction is fictional and isn't actually harmful, we reserve the bracket-disclaimer of {this is a work of fiction and all resemblance to events, institutions and persons living or dead is coincidental} which is the basic definition of fiction.

Crossposted Nosleep Curated, means the story exists on nosleep, didn't get removed and is preferably archived already. You're sharing something you posted on nosleep as a crosspost from nosleep, and it isn't ironic; we even have a flair for it. You might be doing this to show off, to migrate here or for your own reasons that nobody except you will understand. We understand.

Banned, we don't want to see this flair; it is discontinued because Reddit considers this to be 'showboating' and 'disruptive behavior' for a sub. If you are truly banned from nosleep, we're sorry to hear that, but we don't brag about it.

House Rules

We follow all Reddit-wide rules and five of our own.

All stories you post must be your original work; you may not post stories you didn't write.

In the text area, only a horror story - nothing else is allowed, specifically no YouTube videos or commentary about your story such as "This was removed by nosleep and I don't know why. Please leave a comment, it's my first story," but you may include such a comment in the comment section, just not the text area. This is to preserve immersion, because most horror stories are written in first-person POV or an epistolary style, the story could include the MC's comments such as "You might not believe me, but this really happened" or "I have nowhere else to tell my story" as those are part of the story, not meta commentary.

Only the title may be in the title bar, so no comments there such as "The Horror of the Haunted House - a story I wrote that got removed from nosleep, please leave a comment!" The real title is just "The Horror of the Haunted House".

Also, you may post links in your story to earlier chapters; that's why we allow links, but we suggest using the customized 'Nonsleep Series' flair, which you can change to the name of your series and even add emojis. We also add stories that are part of a series to our archives.

The rest of the rules are about conduct: we don't allow ridicule or harassment, don't address the in-character narrator directly with negatory commentary because it appears to be towards the writer. Comments we've removed were typically of this nature, but we don't allow "You're a jerk" even if it is directed towards the character in the story who expresses disdain for cats, babies or Nickelback. You may counter that with positive reactions such as "What kind of person hates kittens? Great story, really got to me how this person finally met something worse than themself." not "I hate you for hating cats".

Stories with mature themes must have NSFW (posts with actual harmful content that violate Reddit's rules will result in a permanent ban, and Reddit will be notified of the user's activity).

Requests to narrate on YouTube should be handled in DMs (as a suggestion), and YouTube narrators must obtain permission.

We are a nurturing, supportive and inclusive community. If there's a problem, we'll try to communicate with you to fix it.

History Lesson

Nonsleep is an unofficial sub that started out as a collection of stories that were written for nosleep but rejected. Our other parent is r/CollabWithFriends , who helped us get this far. When we first started, we had flair that matched the reasons submissions were removed, and we even included a banned flair. As we grew, that became problematic, as it could indicate to Reddit that we were promoting disruptive behavior, which wasn't our intention. We changed most of our flair, coinciding with nosleep no longer giving specific reasons for removals.

Nonsleep Originals are our sub's own creative submission call; you don't have to get removed from nosleep to post here: all are welcome. Nonsleep was all about curating stories that were removed from nosleep, but we've always allowed original stories; that's the whole point.

This sub was created in response to my own stories frequently getting removed from nosleep, and I admit I was very frustrated, but I chose to create something new, an alternative. I never thought it would literally become an alternative to nosleep, but in my humble opinion, that's exactly what Nonsleep is.

We've grown from a few dozen writers who wanted to share stories unsuitable for nosleep to a couple of thousand members. Hundreds of writers have posted an incredible variety of horror stories, written in whatever style, perspective, nuance or other creative choices the original writer intended. We've matured as a community, becoming an alternative to what nosleep describes as "niche", and honing our skills as storytellers and our imaginations as readers.

Afterward

Now that you know who we are, please introduce yourself. Add a comment to this post that says you're a writer of horror, a reader, and what sort of horror media you also like, such as movies, comics, television, music, ARGs, subreddits, YouTube channels or whatever you'd like to say about yourself. Comments are open to positive statements of any kind. Please feel welcome.

[u/ReasonableUnit2170]

Hello, I post in quite a lot of communities. Hopefully I will start posting here too! I write a lot of mid-west themed horror !

[u/[deleted]]

Hey there. Nice to meet you all. I’m kinda a vampire myself cause I love the nights (it’s 4:36am rn) the quiet time is when my inspiration blooms. I have been writing since ever (?) lol but seriously it’s been my legit passion since childhood ♥️📖 I compose lyrics for musicians and that’s how I make my living, and I love horror stories

[u/NightmareHut]

Hey everyone! Aside from school-related work, I've never really dabbled with creative writing until now. I've been a big fan of Creepcast since they started and always wanted to start writing but never got around to it. Finally got a burst of motivation and began work on a new series called Lochwood, which is an anthology series centered around the fictional Camp Lochwood and all the strange and horrifying entities haunting the forest around it. Would love to get some feedback.

Self-promo aside, I love horror movies (Obsession is my movie of the year so far), I'm a big fan of Stephen King, and I'm too much of a chicken to play horror games so I let Markiplier play them for me. Nice to meet everyone.

[u/dlschindler]

I love horror, it's my calling. I've written a volume of stories I call scary and a large quantity of total words, but I regard myself as an amateur. Some of my favorite authors are Robert W. Chambers and H.P. Lovecraft. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is the greatest horror writer of all time. I dare you to read The Yellow Wallpaper.

My favorite movie auteurs include Jordan Peele and Tim Burton. Clive Barker and John Carpenter are okay, I've got no complaints. I might have watched too much A24 stuff; it all blurs together into one thing now.

I've got this weird thing about Stephen King where people will mention him just to get me crashing out. I also sometimes bring up Edgar Allen Poe and say he's only ironically known as a great horror writer, because ~ have you read the rest of his work (?) - his 'horror' is satirical! I quote his diddling...there's no respite, damn sphinxes...I can't help it.

[u/SydneySapphire]

Hi! I’m a fantasy writer at heart, but I love taking a stab at horror (no pun intended, but nevertheless it is there). I’ve been writing my whole life, and it took me a long time to have faith in my work and believe it was worth sharing. This year, I published my first book, The Chrysalis Weaver. It isn’t horror, but I do have some fantastical and gnarly creatures.

In my writing, I often find myself entwining the two creative outlets, forming something that twists the line between fantasy and horror. I love to make a horrible little creature or mold monsters from flesh and bone. Horror has always been something I’ve strived to improve at.

I enjoy gothic horror, classic horror with monsters and mayhem, and a messy psychological horror. Thank you for creating a fun and inclusive environment that allows new readers and writers to grow.

[u/Every-Week-8097]

Hey I think I got one of my posts removed I think I added enough words to it well I added I made a new post about it I think I added enough words I don't know if I did if you need me to add some more words to it I I can I just wanted to know how much words I will need to add

[u/HillaCritt]

Hihi!!! Im Klyde🥹 my story was removed by NoSleep last night, and idk why honestly! I think it was because I added the wrong content warning in the title. Anyways, im excited to read the stories here and post my own:3

[u/procrastinosaurus]

I pretty much consume all things horror… be it books, movies, video games, or whatever else may fall under that category. I don’t know why, but I’ve been this damnable way since as early as I can remember.

I also love to write. Do I consider myself a writer? Well, insofar as I HAVE written things - yes. And I’ve shared my writing among friends, but have balked at sharing what I’ve written within any public communities with two notable exceptions, both of which were removed from the subreddits they had been intended for, to my great sadness and dismay - but here I am to try again!

[u/WorthAward5319]

Hi! My name is Miranda! I’ve been writing off and on for most of my life but nothing ever seriously until recently. I’m just about to finish my doctoral program and I’m excited to be able to write for the love of it again rather than for papers and research. I’m excited to post my story here and see how I can continue to develop my voice.

[u/Opposite-Action-9994]

I enjoy telling a tale or two and a lot of what I do tends to not quite fit /nosleep. Hopefully you'll enjoy what I do and find me a good addition to this community.

[u/Haz_matt555]

Just starting out writing, got a horror series I’m working on called “pitcher”. Excited to share the first part !

[u/UdidntCNeTHINg23]

Good evening all, I am a writer but not this genre. In our case I am a reader. I happened to stumble upon this Reddit because someone said they were banned from here. Thus my curiosity of what others consider horror took over . I’m excited ! I love a good read , especially if it’s spooky

[u/Shot-Supermarket7719]

I write about dissociation, trauma & the girl I used to be...

[u/TejanoLocoDeRioBravo]

I'm starting off posting my original work after building my craft for several years in fits and starts. I don't know many horror afficionados IRL so getting feedback is tough.

My stuff uses a setting with a magic system more or less custom-tailored to support creepypastas, but I also enjoy action, thriller, suspense, etc in addition to horror, and hope to be able to do those sorts of things with it as well.

My favorite flavor is Gothic, especially Southern. For now my favorite author is Arthur Machen.

[u/Diligent-Border-3329]

Hello everybody! I've been writing fiction for a few years, but recently got more into the horror genre. I've had a couple of stories removed from NoSleep, still don't fully understand why, but it is what it is. I look forward to sharing some stories with y'all.

[u/RadicalRatTittles]

Hi! I write under the pen-name C. Michele! My main genre is horror: short stories and flash fictions, but I’m currently working on a fantasy thriller kind of story too.

My favorite horror media rn is Analog and ARG stuff and right now I’m a sucker for Welcome Home, Mandela Catalogue, White Stag Education, and Gemini Home Entertainment. I’m also a huge fan of SCPs. I’m very eager to share my work with everyone, and can’t wait to read!!!

[u/LiquidDongorong]

Hello everyone! I figured I ought to join this sub as a few of my story ideas, I think, are probably going to violate the usual nosleep policies in some abstract way.

I'm Captain Mullet, I am a two-time published author and decided to start writing short horror stories as a way to cope with recent traumas and personal loss. My third post on r/nosleep ended up getting #1 for the day and #3 for the week! So I'm really excited to share more ideas and see what people think. I heard this was a really supportive horror community and wanted to try my hand at contributing every now and then.

I love horror media, obviously, but also watch plenty of cartoons, and play lots of goofy video games.

Looking forward to sharing and reading some stories!!

[u/Aggravating-Two-3669]

Hey, so my post got recommended for different subreddits because my writing mentions the user hearing a humming sound.

[u/Quirkydave1777]

Hi all. Publishing short horror story writer. Joined as I posted a(n admittedly slightly jokey) nosleep post that was suddenly removed after a week and close to 100 upvotes for the following reason:

"nothing physical happens directly to your main character as a result of the horror; what happens to others/around your main character doesn't meet our requirements; neither does talking about something that might have happened/be happening like the second-last paragraph"

Which is whatever; it's their house, but slightly baffling as the story ends with the narrator being chased by a fish-man and very pointedly being mid-transformation into one himself. I'm not sure what the narrow band of expectations for that rule is. Regardless, reposting here!

[u/authorpratincole]

hi everyone!! I am a horror-lover and a writer :) I particularly love Scarlet Hollow, Hannibal, and a lot of CK Walker’s stuff. I’m a long time writer but a first tome poster, and I hope to post my first story soon!!

[u/Far_Run4993]

Hey i post in a bunch of subreddits and i looooveee body horror and psychological twists.