#OctPoWriMo

Today’s OctPoWriMo theme is The first time you were disappointed.

Life’s disappointments come early

I got too big
too big for the carrier on a hike
too big for the seat on the back of her bike
too big to be carried asleep from the car
too big to play airplane or horsey
or hold hands and swing really far
too big to play tent under sheets on the bed
too big for stories and a kiss on the head
too big to crawl in with them in the night
too big to believe that they were always right
too big to sit in the cart at the store
too big to even hold hands anymore
I got too big

#Writober4

The image for Day 18 on the Pinterest board shows a tall, slim humanoid form leading a small boy into the forest. The boy appears to have a small shovel in his hand, leaving a trail of dirt and leaves behind him.

My take: I zoomed in on the picture this morning and though I like my first impression that the child held a trowel, I now think it’s supposed to be a knife. What I thought was a trail of dirt, I now think was supposed to be blood. This image is much darker than I originally thought. It works for a creepy story either way.

Micro-fiction: The tall man always came when Tommy’s mommy was “sleeping.” Now he could play with the tall man in the special place and never get in trouble again.

Writing Process and Tools

Emotion: Jealousy

Creepy verbs: bind, ensnare, capture, hide, obscure

Story Cubes Symbols: padlock, monster shadow, fountain, parachuting, building, crescent moon, light bulb, balance scales, eye

Woodland creature: bear – a maul of bears, a pack of bears, a sleuth of bears, a sloth of bears. From all of those different collective nouns for bears, you would think there were roaming packs of bears. The only bears I’ve seen in the wild have been alone, or a mother and cubs. One of my neighbors got a picture of a lone black bear in their yard last night.

Collective nouns: a colony of herons, a flight of herons, a hedge of herons, a rookery of herons, a sedge of herons, a siege of herons, a station of herons – like with the bears, A Compendium of Collective Nouns: From an Armory of Aardvarks to a Zeal of Zebras would give the impression that herons hang out in groups, but I see a heron all the time and it doesn’t appear to have any friends. 😉

Horror trope: a dark and stormy night

Oblique Strategies: Don’t break the silence

Celtic Cross Plots:

1. Three of coins 2. The Hierophant 3. Knight of coins 4. The Emperor 5. The fool 6. Knight of swords 7. Four of swords 8. Ten of swords 9. King of coins 10. The Empress

This plot worked for my story. It helped me flesh out some of my ideas about the image. I could see how the boy’s father and mother fit into the story and how the shadowy, tall figure influenced the boy.

Happy Reading and Writing!