Kinktober is here: scary stories, kink teams, and a bracket to Halloween

October is here, and so is our first team contest. Kinktober is open on RedQuill starting today, and the brief is simple: write Halloween stories that are scary and still kinky.

Here’s how it works. You join one of four kink teams, write short stories, and vote every day for your team’s best. The top stories from each team then go head to head in a bracket, one matchup a night, until a champion is crowned on Halloween.

Read on for the teams, the dates, the rules and the prizes. Then go pick your side.

Pick your team

There are four teams, each with its own flavor of fear:

• Breeding: “Something wants an heir.” Cults, a monster’s mate, a full-moon heat.
• Bondage: “No way out.” Ropes, chains, tied up in the crypt or the cabin.
• Monster: “Things that go bump in the night.” Werewolves, vampires, demons.
• Praise: “Good girl. Good boy. Perfect.” Praise from something that maybe shouldn’t be talking.

Choose carefully: you pick once, and you can’t switch later. Teams stay open until the bracket starts on Oct 17, so there’s still time if you’re on the fence.

Once you’re in, you get access to your team’s clubhouse. That’s your private hub, with team-only chat, the team’s writing prompt, and a Team Pick tab where you vote during each round.

Key dates

All times are Pacific.

Date	What happens
Oct 6	Kinktober opens to everyone. Pick your team
Oct 7 – 12	Round 1: write and vote
Oct 12 – 17	Round 2: all-new stories, votes reset to 0
Oct 17 – 31	Bracket: one matchup a night
Oct 31	The final and the winners

The contest runs itself. Rounds and matchups advance automatically, and results show up the next time anyone visits after one ends.

The writing rounds

There are two writing rounds, and each one works the same way.

Entering a story

• You can enter up to 3 stories per round.
• Each story is a single chapter, 500 to 4,000 words, set to public. We kept it short on purpose so people actually read each other’s work.
• Stories you wrote before the contest are welcome, as long as they fit the rules.
• Once you submit, hands off. A story that gets edited, deleted or made private is disqualified.

Voting

• You get one vote a day, and it resets at midnight Pacific.
• You vote for the best story on your own team. You can’t vote for your own story.
• Every vote earns you 2 quills.

When a round ends

The top 2 stories on each team make the bracket. Ties go to the story with more votes, then to whichever reached that count first, then to whichever was entered first. If a story is disqualified, the next one moves up.

Round 2 starts completely fresh, with new stories and every vote back at 0. That means late joiners get a real shot, and the early leaders don’t just keep snowballing.

The bracket

Two rounds, four teams, top 2 from each: that’s 16 stories battling it out. Think March Madness, but kinkier.

• Round 1 stories fill the top half of the bracket, and Round 2 stories fill the bottom half.
• Every opening match pits one team’s #1 against another team’s #2.
• Each quarter has one story from every team, so a team’s own stories can’t meet before the semifinals.

There’s one matchup a night from Oct 17 to Oct 31, 15 in all. You can vote once per matchup, as long as your team isn’t in it. If your team is playing, you hit Cheer instead to root them on, and you still earn your 2 quills for the day.

Ties go to the better seed: the earlier round first, then #1 over #2, then more votes. If a spot is ever empty, the other story moves on for free.

Final placings

• 1st place wins the final.
• 2nd place loses the final.
• 3rd place goes to the semifinal loser with the better vote share.

Prizes

Everyone who takes part earns something, and writers can earn a lot. (AW = advanced writes.)

For everyone

Action	Reward
Daily vote during a round	2 quills
Bracket vote, or cheer when your team plays	2 quills

For writers

When	Reward
Your first story entered (once)	10 quills
Your story makes the bracket	500 quills + 50 AW
1st place	3,000 quills + 300 AW
2nd place	2,500 quills + 250 AW
3rd place	2,000 quills + 200 AW

Prizes stack, so the champion takes home 3,500 quills + 350 AW in total. The bracket prize is per story, so if you land two stories in the bracket, you get paid twice.

For whole teams

Every member of the team behind a top 3 story shares in the win:

Story finishes	Every team member gets
1st place	100 quills + 10 AW
2nd place	50 quills + 5 AW
3rd place	25 quills + 3 AW

A team with two stories in the top 3 collects both prizes.

Badges

You’ll also earn badges for your profile: Kinktober 2026 for joining a team, Finalist for making the bracket, Champion, Runner-up and Bronze for the top 3 writers, and Champion Team, Silver Team and Bronze Team for their teammates.

Kicking it off with a sale

To celebrate, our Kinktober sale is running now: 50% off [SALE: what’s included, end date and link]. It’s a good time to stock up before the rounds begin.

Quick FAQ

Can I switch teams? No. You pick once.

Can I vote for any story? During the rounds, only stories on your own team, and never your own. In the bracket, any matchup your team isn’t in.

What if my team is in tonight’s matchup? You cheer instead of voting, and you still get 2 quills.

Can I edit my story after I submit? No. Editing disqualifies it.

Do Round 1 stories carry over to Round 2? No. Each round starts fresh.

Can one person have two stories in the bracket? Yes, and you get the 500-quill prize for each one.

What if a team doesn’t get 2 voted stories in a round? The empty spot becomes a free pass for the other team.

How to join

Head to redquill.net/kinktober. You can also get there from the Kinktober link in the sidebar, the Halloween banner on the home page, or the to-do card that shows your team and your next task. The “How it works” box on the contest page has the official rules, prizes and dates.

One heads-up: Kinktober isn’t in the iOS app yet, so join on the site for now.

Now go pick a team. Something out there is waiting for your story.