OctPoWriMo

Fun News! The prompts are up at OctPoWriMo 2021! Today’s prompt is “Contemplation.” This prompt made me think of the work I did on “reflections” last month, and inspired me to take some mirror in mirror photos I had been too insecure to do before.

The OctPoWriMo prompt for Day 3 (from 2018) is Insecurity and finding ways to chase away doubt and just enjoy. I feel that sonic surrender and play as my practice for this OctPoWriMo is helping me get over my insecurities. However, contemplating the issues that came up last month with reflections, reminds me that I have many insecurities to overcome.

The poem I wrote in 2018 “In Security” has some interesting moments. I like the sounds in “embrace a bramble” and the “orn” sounds of “thorn, shorn, and pouring” (there should be a torn in there). So those may be good places to start. Maybe add “ornament, ornery, horn, corner” move that “orn” around.

I got excited about “br” sounds just the other day, but didn’t do anything with them. Guess I was psychically prepping for today. And look at that, right in the Word prompts from the prompt from 2018 and 2021: embrace.

The suggested form is Florette. Will sonic surrender and play work with a form with both syllabic rules and a rhyme scheme? Guess I’ll find out.

Looking in the Mirrors

Today, I may embrace a way
to contemplate the faults I see
and break the patterns I abhor
look around a different corner, where my joy plays

and stay with it a bit longer
surrendering to my own song
vibrating to my frequency
without worry of destiny or doing wrong

I may embrace both brows and bones
emboldened by entrusting tones
choosing gooey oozing pleasure
over what’s expected of her, and drop the stones

After today, I’m not sure how I want to proceed. I’m excited about Surrender as my personal theme this year, so I’ll stick with that. And I’m enjoying looking back at the poems I did do in 2018 as jumping off points for finding sounds. Looking back at the poems from 2018 also keeps with this year’s focus on revision. But I think I want to surrender to the now and go with this year’s prompts. I’ll probably end up mashing prompts together, like I do.

Writober

Today for my boar man and wheelbarrow man story, I’m going to work on character development.
What I know so far: I have four characters

1. the boar
2. the man with the boar and large suitcase
3. the wheelbarrow and shovel man
4. the person he buried in the woods

1. The boar is a magical creature, symbolic, paranormal entity that protects the forest. Why is it with the man? Why does it allow the man to lead it? How does it protect the forest?
2. Who is the man with the boar? How did he meet and join the boar? Why does he return every fall? What is his connection to these particular woods? What’s in the suitcase? What’s with his outfit? Why the scarf to lead the boar, or is he leading the boar? Does the boar have power over him?
3. The wheelbarrow man is local, lives near these woods and knows them well. He has just had a horrible experience and done something terrible. Knowing more about this character will help me with the plot of the story.
4. This character is pivotal to the plot. I need to know the relationship between this person and wheelbarrow man to put all the pieces together.

Let’s start with Character 4, since I have the least ideas for this character and s/he could really inform the plot.

On Sundays I often enjoy joining the #StoryCrafter chat on Twitter. Today was a character chat where you answer questions as your character. I don’t usually participate in these, but it was a “what if” about putting your character in spooky situations, so I broke through my insecurity and discomfort, and took Character 4, named him Harvey, and let him answer the questions. It was fun. I learned he likes pumpkin pie, has seen the man with the boar, and the wheelbarrow man (Dalton for the chat) feels guilty about his death.

Now it’s time to turn to my character creation spreadsheet to flesh out these characters. I use Official Random Number Generator to randomly pick from my columns. If I don’t like what I get (which I haven’t much so far today), but like something nearby, I go with whatever appeals to me, or I just press enter and get another number.

I’ll work through my characters and tell you what I came up with tomorrow when I start outlining the story.

How are your spooky Writober stories coming along?