2018 is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein and the birth of Emily Bronte, writer of Wuthering Heights. Both novels are key works in the gothic novel genre. So it's a perfect opportunity to run a gothic novel themed challenge this July.

What is a gothic novel?
Gothic novels often feature mystery, terror, supernatural horror and sometimes romance set in old buildings, such as castles or crumbling mansions. As well as Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights, both Dracula and The Hound of the Baskervilles are regarded as gothic novels.

If you want to know more about the genre, the Discovering Literature section of the British Library site has plenty of inspirational information, and this GoodReads list of popular gothic novels will introduce you to more classic titles.

To get involved in Gothic Novel Jam all you need to do is make something creative (eg story, poetry, art, game, music, films, pictures, soundscape etc) inspired by the gothic novel genre and upload or share it here by the end of July. If you can't upload whatever you've created (eg because it's not physically possible to upload a cake in the shape of Frankenstein!), you can upload images and text to this jam to show what you've created.

This jam is being run as part of July's Read Watch Play online book, film, music, game discussion group, but you don't have to be involved in Read Watch Play to get involved in the jam. It's open to anyone.

As part of the jam we also want you to use at least one of the images on the British Library Flickr account as inspiration for your submission. They're freely available for anyone to use.

You might find the following British Library Flickr albums and galleries particularly inspiring.

• Gothic Novel Jam Collection
• Curated collection 1
• Curated collection 2
• Architecture
• Children's Book illustrations

However, don't feel that you need to limit yourself to just those images. The full list of image albums can be found here.

There's also this atmospheric set of British Library sound files on Soundcloud you can use for inspiration.

Sub-theme

The sub-theme is... The monster within.

Teams

If you want to join a team for the jam we've set up this page over on Crowd Forge - you can either join a team there or create one yourself using that site.

A quick word about NSFW content

Please read and abide by these official itch.io rules about identifying NSFW content.  

Chat

We've also set up a space on  Discord where you can chat, share ideas and get inspiration for the jam.

If you're on social media don't forget to use the #GothNovJam hashtag.