Okay, in fairness, there isn’t a heated debate amongst the internet horror community about this topic, but I have seen enough confusion for me to feel that the record needs to be set straight. Who better to do that than yours truly? I’ll begin by explaining what Creepypastas are to me personally. Then, from there, elaborate on why this is the case. They are any horror story that was first posted online, either written or narrated
Even if they are adapted into novels or even films later, they’re still Creepypastas. They’ve just become Creepypasta books and movies. NoSleep stories are a type of Creepypasta. Specifically, they are meant to be more personal horror posts, which is why they tend to follow these core rules (barring special events such as April Fools, where they are temporarily tweaked for fun). First, they need to be “believable” or “plausible”, as it’s been changed to in recent years.
This means they have to be written in a way where their validity can be considered unfalsifiable aside from the supernatural elements most of them tend to have, so nothing that would make major news headlines like an eldritch kaiju wreaking havoc in Greece or something along those lines. They also must be complete stories, so you have to have the one the story is about face some kind of peril. I worded it this way because even though NoSleeps are typically in first person, because there needs to be a valid way the OP’s (original poster’s) experience got uploaded to the internet, there are ways around this. For example, someone could be posting an experience on behalf of someone else who is incapacitated or dead. Alternatively, someone could be transcribing a journal or videos they’ve come across.
I’m a big fan of these kinds of NoSleeps in particular.
[Edit: I decided to skim the rules of the subreddit since they sometimes change them, and I haven’t been on it in a while. I saw this:
No found media or “lost episode”-type stories. The scary personal experience must happen to/directly affect the character posting to NoSleep (the Main Character), not others. Further, the Main Character can’t just describe being afraid of/freaked out by something they watched/read/played (which is how most “lost episode”-type stories are written). I don’t remember this one when I was still active there, so this must be one they added. Either that or my memory is shitty. With this in mind, I guess as the rules stand currently, all posts are required to be directly in first person. I think it is possible to have a found journal or transcript-style type story qualify, so long as the poster is put in danger.
Think along the lines of Ringu. Say someone stumbles across a VHS tape of a show that only they seem to remember. Then, after they watch it, they become cursed with some supernatural, life-threatening infection, or monsters from the show appear and try to kill them. At least, that’s how I’m interpreting the rule. If you want more clarification on it, you can contact the mods of r/NoSleep.]
Okay, with that out of the way, I’m going to try and address the possible counterpoints to the definitions I’ve laid out. First, if you’ve only heard of Creepypastas in passing, such as on YouTube, the first thing that may come to mind are characters such as Jeff the Killer or Slender Man, or certain tropes like haunted video games or lost episodes of early 2000s or late 90s TV shows. As it gained traction, though, the standards for stories grew along with it. The posts that were tantamount to fanfic started getting filtered out for ones of higher quality.
You can still find the stories that made specific characters and themes popular. However, there’s more variety. These tales were shared around, thus gaining the Creepypasta community fame. This brings me to the first criticism from those I am choosing to call the Creepypasta Purists. That is, Creepypastas were originally intended as a form of copypasta.
For those who don’t know, copypastas are posts meant to be pasted across the internet. Replace the copy with creepy, and you have Creepypastas. In other words, these posts were meant to be freely shared. If you can’t do that with a story, it doesn’t count. Maybe this is how it was originally.
Unfortunately, with authors understandably being more protective of who can use their work, this doesn’t hold up. You can’t take a known writer’s story and post it somewhere else word for word without our permission, or narrate it, for that matter. The only thing you could make an argument for are stories that are first uploaded exclusively to the Wiki, because Wikipedia is a free-use site. That’s why I haven’t put any work on there. I don’t want anyone using my stuff without getting a yes from me first.
Not to mention, with sites like Creepypasta.com and them having their own subreddit, it’s clear that most authors aren’t okay with their stories being freely used. This is understandable given some people make a living narrating them, and unfortunately, the writers tend not to see a lot of compensation for it. The good news is with subreddits such as r/SleeplessWatchDogs, there’s more vigilance against those who think they are entitled to use something just because it was posted online without considering nuances such as the rules of where they are getting the stories from. Hopefully, this leads to more writers being able to make a living from what they upload. Personally, I think Reddit should be compensating authors, considering how much traffic story subreddits bring them.
With the site trying to force AI on their users, it doesn’t bode well for them. If you’ve been following me on social media, you know I’ve already beaten that horse to death several times over, so I’ll spare it here. There’s one last thing I want to touch on since there’s not enough meat left on this bone for me to justify making it into another article. That would be a specific complaint I’ve seen from writers when it comes to posting to r/NoSleep. This is regarding the believability or plausibility rule I mentioned above.
To be fair, the majority of users don’t have an issue with it. That said, there are those who, for some reason, wish it were gone. I can empathize with not caring for some of the rules on that subreddit. For instance, I think the believability rule should apply to series where it’s made clear at the start of it, the poster is recounting an experience that took place in the past. Therefore, they’re able to put it online, which means parts can be open-ended if the poster makes it clear they’re capable of being online and will be recounting the rest of their experience in future uploads. Another I’ve had issues with is for a while, users had to hammer in how afraid their narrators were.
It got to the point where there’s only so many times someone can describe their hands shaking or a chill creeping down their spine before a reader goes “We get it! You’re scared!”. In fairness, I think they have eased up on this rule. Although the fact that they did it after I left makes me feel like the guy in this image. Complaining aside, I will always stand by the plausibility requirement. Without it, NoSleep would lose what makes it unique.
While the stories themselves are fictional, they’re written as experiences. Treat it as though you’re recounting something that really happened to you to a group of people. Now do you see why ending a story with the one telling it being killed doesn’t work in this context? To wrap it up, all NoSleep stories are Creepypastas, but not every Creepypasta is a NoSleep story. I hope I’ve explained things well enough.
Feel free to share your thoughts on the matter. See you again, and happy reading.
