FILL: Aged Halloween Treats? (1)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 23:47:53 -0400

Slowly he turned, drool glistening on his chin, dripping from his fangs...

(and then what?  You tell me!)

why?

see the howling contest...
and make us shiver...

(in just one week, I can make you...
a man? :-)

Come live with me and be my love and we will some new pleasures prove of
golden sands and crystal brooks with silken lines and silver hooks.
        John Donne

tink
under a paper moon, the set looked empty without you.

FILL: Aged Halloween Treats? (2)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 23:42:41 -0400

The knife was like a bolt of lightning, coming out of nowhere, and illuminating everything with a harsh black and white flash...

send the story you write about what comes next to the halloweenie contest!

tink
under the tinfoil stars, the set rolled with thunder from a rattled sheet of metal.

FILL: Aged Halloween Treats? (3)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 23:55:35 -0400

EXERCISE: The House On the Hill?

The house frowned at visitors coming up the road to the hill, conjuring up the feeling that a castle should have been sitting there, casting its shadow down, instead of the rather ordinary little two-story house that showed up in the headlights.  And when the house awakened from time to time, it was wont to prove to the current residents that such a haunted castle would have been preferable to what actually had been built there.

Feel free to finish the story.  Who lives there now, and what happens...what kind of spirit does this poor house have, envious of castles, and willing to take out its frustrations on the residents?

tink

quoth the Raven, "Gothic means never having to say I'm happy?"

FILL: Aged Halloween Treats? (4)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 01:01:25 -0400

EXERCISE: When do you shiver?

Think back to the times when you have felt the hairs on the back of your neck rise, when the goosepimples threatened to become permanent, when your hindbrain was busily trying to get you to either run or fight, but don't stand still...

Pick one of those times, and think carefully about what it was that made it scary.

Then take this, and finish the story with fear...

The shadow in the alley seemed to move, and he stopped to peer more closely at the darkness.  That's when he realized the shadow really was moving.

[of course, you could have a light moving in the alley, but somehow, that's not so spine-tingling as a shadow...]

tink

FILL: Aged Halloween Treats? (5)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 23:31:42 -0400

EXERCISE: Scheduling a 3,000 word story?

2 days left?

48 hours?  2,880 minutes?  So at two words a minute, you've got time to write your story and have a bunch of words left over!

Or at 50 wpm, you can write 3,000 words in an hour, rewrite it a time or three, and still have 40 hours or so to fret over it.

No ideas?

Remember the old house with the scary shadows that everyone used to dare you to knock on the door?  Well, your best friend isn't chicken -- they just stomped up to the door and knocked while you waited.  The door creaked open, and they walked inside.  Or were they pulled in?  It was hard to see in the shadows.

Start there, and tell us about your visit to a house of terror...

But write faster, the deadline is sneaking closer, slithering across the seconds.  Don't you just hate the way they snicker and slither, faster and faster, even as you feel squeezed tighter and tighter against the wall...

tink