Happy Friday the 13th! ‘Tis the season for spooks, frights, haunts, and treats. ‘Tis also a particularly fun season for crafting Halloween-worthy stories, poems, or creative nonfiction. Here are 10 writing prompts to get your spine-chilling creative juices sparking (a la Dr. Frankenstein’s lightning bolts). Enjoy! [Photo by Marko Blažević on Unsplash]
Tag: horror
What is New Wave Horror?
Every time I tell someone I write horror, I feel compelled to add “but not like slasher horror.” Often I find it easiest to describe what something is not as a means of paring down to the thing’s essence. Why I feel the need to justify my writing as “not slasher” or “not too gory”…
How We Write Monsters Matters
Spooky Season is officially upon us. I read a lot of horror and thrillers but especially around this time of year, without feeling the need to balance the dark with an occasional romcom. I’m intrigued by the mysterious and supernatural elements of course, yet perhaps the most compelling ingredient of these genres for me is…
Embrace the Darkness
Five years ago, after only a few months of living in Colorado, I realized I’d been suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder, probably since middle school. Growing up in North Dakota, I spent the long, dark, dangerously cold months of winter indoors reading. My asthma was much worse back then, which meant I couldn’t play outside…
Rocky Mountain Writer #174
Claire L. Fishback & The Blood of Seven Claire L. Fishback, who enjoys scaring readers more than a little, is having a busy year. In March, she released LUMP: A Collection of Short Stories, some 51 tales in all. Among those is “Remembra,” the story she published as part of the RMFW short story anthology…