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R/nosleep is a community on Reddit that describes itself as “a place for redditors to share their scary experiences.” The values of the r/nosleep subreddit include good-intentioned horror writing and original subjects of horror. These key values guide posters to be creative, and find new facets for horror.

This is exemplified in the famous r/nosleep story Borrasca. Borrasca follows the childhood and adolescence of Sam Walker who moves to a small town in the Ozarks called Drisking. There he hears of the urban legend of a place where bad things happen and people go missing, Borrasca. The source of horror in Borrasca is the unknown, as the reader is not told what happens at Borrasca until the very end. Additionally, the “bad things” that happen in Borrasca ends up being forced impregnation for the profit of the town. The community thrives from the illegally sold babies produced in Borrasca to science research and human traffickers.

This creates a sense of real horror, as it is something that could happen, but is still outlandish enough (the whole town is in on the activity) that it seems otherworldly. Borrasca subverts your expectations in a satisfying way, which is part of the main values of the r/nosleep subreddit.

An assumption this community holds is that new or inexperienced horror writers need a place to grow and develop their skills. Back to the example of Borrasca, the writer of the story Rebecca Klingel went on to co-write shows like The Haunting of Hill House and other projects alongside Mike Flanagan.

This is to say because of her start on the r/nosleep subreddit, she was able to grow her writing skills and eventually branch out into bigger and better writing ventures. Another assumption is that having a set format for stories to be posted on the subreddit helps challenge horror writers to be creative with their storytelling. Being limited by these factors requires writers to be creative in how they move the plot and story along.

A rhetorical appeal that sways the community of r/nosleep is that by everyone involved in the community staying in character when interacting with it, the horror experience can feel deeper and more real. This is shown through this interaction with the original posts of Borassca 10 years ago.

In this deleted account’s comment, the user is trying to share their own scary interactions with the regional setting of the story, and in this way adds to the setting of the story.

A rhetorical appeals that fails is that even though outright criticism is not allowed in the community, users will still give feedback, whether it is helpful or not. All of the other comments of the first part of Borrasca are not staying in character and are directly complimenting or critiquing the story. Here are some examples of those comments:

Some larger patterns of discussion across the group’s history includes the requirement of sending a story proposal to the subreddit moderators for approval to post, and the required format of the subreddit (first person perspective). This process helps to weed out stories that use too much shock value or involve inappropriate horror subjects that are not allowed. It also forces a writer who has their story rejected to adapt and find other ways to involve horror into the story.

Rules on this subreddit are heavy. A story proposal must be in the first person, have good use of grammar, formatting, and punctuation, and follow the rules on horror subject matter. Subject matter that is forbidden includes mental/physical health, victimization, tragedy, and abuse. These subjects are allowed to be mentioned, but should not be the main source of horror. There are rules about staying in character when interacting with the subreddit and not acknowledging that the story is fictional. No images or visual media are allowed on the subreddit and stories must rely only on written symbols. Other unspoken rules are that comments should strive to move the story forward, and stories are more well-received when the tone is more casual or realistic.

My posts on the subreddit received little to no interaction. Patterns that emerged were that by the time I posted on a story, the original poster had already interacted with the comments. Therefore, my comments went unnoticed or overshadowed. This was frustrating yet expected, as with a subreddit with around 18 million members as of this writing, it is hard to be noticed on such a large scale.

I designed my posts to appeal to this community by being casual, attempting to move the story forward, asking questions rather than making comments, and looking for stories with fewer interactions. I wanted to be casual as to match the tone of the stories I commented on which I chose based on their laid-back delivery. I wanted to attempt to move the story forward to increase the likelihood of the original poster interacting with my comment. I tried to ask questions rather than make observations so that another community member could potentially answer my question. I looked for stories with less interactions so that I could give the original poster some interaction as to hopefully rise the popularity of their post, and to increase the chances of others interacting as there would not be many other comments to interact with. These methods were not all set in place the first time I posted, but gradually formed as I learned more about the community. Here are the posts I made.

I Know Why Children Can’t See Their Own Reflections Before Age Five

Something is Off About My Husband

I caught something on my trail cam. It’s trying to pretend it’s a cat.

A new neighbor moved in next door. Everyone swears he’s lived here for years.

I learned the through my weekly postings that the r/nosleep is a large community with more posts than I expected posted per day. I also learned that original posters are very selective about what comments they interact with. Last, many members do not follow the written rules of the community (even though some of the rules that they break claim that if broken, the user would be banned or suspended from the community).

Reddit shapes conversations by placing most of the “spotlight” on the original post, with comments being secondary content. Comments are not as important as I thought they were on Reddit. The organization of the subreddits, including hot, new, top, controversial, and rising, allows the user to decide if they want to look at the most popular stories, the ones gaining popularity, or the ones that may not have been seen yet. The inclusion of community highlights allows the user to stay updated on the guidelines and awards given to writers in the community. Seeing how many people are active on the subreddit when you are makes it feel more like a community, even though the user is not in a physical community.

Reddit influences the way conversations unfold through upvotes and downvotes. Upvotes allow community members to collectively decide and manage which stories are worth the read and are trying to grow or give new ideas to horror. Alternatively, downvotes allow members to decide which stories are not worth the users’ time or are not honestly trying to improve or change the norms of horror writing.

In conclusion, I think r/nosleep is a great resource and outlet for aspiring horror writers. I chose this subreddit because of a personal horror project and wanted to see what has and could be done in the genre. R/nosleep is a great resource because it provides a (generally) judgment-free space for writers to post, meaning there is a greater possibility to read something you never thought could be scary. It is a good outlet for aspiring writers as it is a place to share stories you are unsure of and see how people react. It could also be used as a form of drafting, as some stories posted to the subreddit will be reformatted into books later on after they have gained popularity and will improve and add to the original concepts from the r/nosleep post.

I wanted to post a story on the subreddit, but was too nervous to share the ideas for the personal project I am working on as it is a collaborative project and I did not want to lessen the impact of the final product. However, after completing this project, I wish I had. I think if I had stuck to describing the opening to the project I am doing I could have gained insight into what elements worked and what didn’t, just as other successful r/nosleep authors have done before me. I eventually will post a original story to the subreddit, but I want more time to be able to formulate exactly what I want my story to be.

I hope all writers, even if you have no interest in writing horror, get the chance to explore the stories on this subreddit and see how a positive writing community like r/nosleep can help grow your writing skills and can be a launching off place to greater heights.

Work Cited:

Walker, C. K. “Borrasca.” Reddit, r/nosleep, 2015, www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/3e2zje/borrasca/.

OiShi, PROXeR. “I Know Why Children Can’t See Their Own Reflections before Age Five.” Reddit, r/nosleep, Jan. 2025, www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1i69esa/i_know_why_children_cant_see_their_own/.

Verliezero. “Something Is Off About My Husband [Update].” Reddit, r/nosleep, Jan. 2025, www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1idp5im/something_is_off_about_my_husband_update/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button.

abalonetea. “I Caught Something on My Trail Cam. It’s Trying to Pretend It’s a Cat.” Reddit, r/nosleep, Feb. 2025, www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1ih75t9/i_caught_something_on_my_trail_cam_its_trying_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button.