Quiver and Quake

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting: Oct. 6, 1995

[WARNING! Contains explicit invitations to horrify and suggestions about things that could go bump! in your stories...]

[only a few more days left in our Halloween Contest! Remember, take this sentence

What waited there was powerful and hungry and alive, alive, wild and fierce and old and strange--

add your own touch of gore, twist of tale, or other mysterious seasoning, mix well with pitchforks, and send in that story or poem! 3,500 or less words, with the whimsical notation Halloween Sub: in the subject line. may the frightfullest entry win!]

[Whilst that contest is long past, feel free to challenge yourself with that little ditty:-]

In recognition of the season, I thought we might try a little exercise in fear...

1. Think of something that makes you shiver a bit. Maybe a spider on your hand, or blood dripping on the floor, or something else like that. Think about the way it makes you feel, all the little shivers and quivers it gives you.

2. Take a scene. One of your characters is...putting their hand in a box? Reaching into the closet to get a coat? Opening the suitcase?

3. Okay? Write that scene, with the characters brightly chatting, wondering just where Annie went, and so forth.

4. And bring that hand out of the box with the black widow spider perched on your wrist! Or pull out that damp coat--and watch the blood spill on the tile floor. Or maybe twist that lock open, lift the top of the suitcase, and POP! goes the weasel? No, Annie!

5. Refine that last part. You want us to jump, but you also want us to feel the fear, the sweat breaking out on our forehead, the shiver that runs down your neck and into your collar, the very physical sensations that go with that particular fear for you. Maybe the spider on your hand makes your arm go numb--put that in the scene. Maybe the blood dripping makes the background turn into a black-and-white montage, with only the bright red drops still in color--put THAT in your writing. Make us feel terror. Show it to us.

And that sudden shivery shake that wells up in the middle of sleep will make us recognize the master of nightmares--you horror writer, you!

Very simple--nice normal scene, then the sudden introduction of the element of horror. Use your characters to scream, to fall backwards, or whatever--and make us JUMP!

For those still looking for scary elements, a few suggestions:

• bats, birds, other flying things
• mice, rats, snakes
• blobs, slugs, slimy bits and pieces
• body parts. especially independently moving ones (hands, hearts, etc.)
• burning, energies, lightning, ...
• dogs, cats, predators--werebeasts!
• insects, spiders, scorpions
• living dead, monsters, mummies, zombies
• parasites--sickness, illness, etc.
• phantoms, ghosts, hauntings
• vampires, warlocks, witches, cannibals
• vines, trees, etc. especially if they move
• disturbed graves, crypts, tombs

• various ways of dying--beheading, live burial, chain saw, dismembering, being eaten alive, burning, hanging, impaling, the rack, being sacrificed, being skinned, mutilation...

And for those who have read this far, and still want a new one-sentence seed for their writing this fine friday...

"It screamed when I hit it the third time," she said.

There you go. Who is she talking to, what is "it", what did she hit it with, and so on and so forth?

Did you hear something snickering in the corner? Nah, must be my imagination...or maybe the muse of the season?

*yeesh--now I'm going to have to sleep with the lights on*

It

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting: Sept. 29, 1995

[cuddle up in those jammies, pull the blankets tight, and watch the flicker and flash in the heart of the fire for a while.

listen to the breeze nudging through the woods, and the silence when it stops. listen to the creak of boughs, the slither of dry leaves, and...

crack!

a twig bursts in the fire.

smell the sweat that sprung out, and wipe your face.

and then realize that something is blowing hot breaths on the back of your neck...:-]

It clanged once on the roof, scraped across the back and slid off as we raced away.

Think about it, think about we, and think about us trying to race away.

Is it animal, vegetable, mineral, or just plain other?

Are we afraid of it? (you bet we are!) But how do we feel about each other? Will one of us push the other into the gnashing teeth, or will one of us sacrifice ourself to keep the other pure and innocent?

And what are we riding? A car, a chariot, a ... no, really?

Go on, dream a little, nightmare a little, and tell the tale of it.

[Remember, only 16 more writing days until the end of the Halloween Sub Contest (Now long past, but go ahead and challenge yourself!), so if you'd rather, you may work on that. The sentence for that is

What waited there was powerful and hungry and alive, alive, wild and fierce and old and strange--

3,500 words and no change...Halloween Sub: Your Title Here!]

(this next part is non sequitur--just non-sked, non-sectarian, and
most of all nonsense...

I am a lineman for the poets,
and I rhyme these silly shorts!
a rhythm and a tapping that never seems to end...
I am a lineman for the poets,
when the center snaps, they throw its!
tackling and sacking and quarterbacking all downs...

:-)

*giggle--wild words running!*

Double Trouble!

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 10:14:37 EDT

faust, a little exercise to go with the recent technical nuts-and-bolts discussion (no frankenstein, just frankly writing)

1. Take a parental unit and a generative unit (parent and child in the old cant, perhaps even father/mother and daughter/son).

2. The generative unit wishes to take the family demon out for a spin, participate in their first Saturnalia, feed the familiar living under graveyard, or some other initial experience with normal life. Your option as to the change in their life that they are attempting to lay claim upon.

3. The parental unit, being a parental unit, is concerned, fearful, trying to let the little slug drool on their own, and otherwise emotionally knotted about hanging the next generation out on a line. Again, your option as to their exact reaction(s) to this attempted departure from the fold (manacles and such are strictly optional:-)

4. Got the picture? Good! Now write the diabolic dialogue!

practice what you impeach? well, let the good words roll and we'll see how it works, okay?

dualist, for those who prefer door number two, here's another seed sentence to evolve around:

I was awakened by a wet drip on my forehead.

Take that sentence, let it percolate, feel the roots penetrate your innermost being, grope into the sunshine with those first leaves, wash your face, and...

WRITE!!!

(that's TWO exercises, although there are those who may mingle the two and let them twist and turn as one...hook, line, and sinker, perhaps?)