Join Me for Fun October Creative Challenges

October is almost here which means it’s time for OctPoWriMo, Writober, and a Halloween Photography Challenge. I love using these challenges to get me into a Halloween mood all month long.

This year it looks like I’ll be providing the prompts for all three challenges, so I’ll schedule prompt posts to be up just after midnight Pacific time each morning, and then write my responses to the prompts and post later in the day. I hope you visit each day for inspiration and to share in all the spooky fun.

OctPoWriMo 2023: Exploring Our Fears

I first participated in October Poetry Writing Month (OctPoWriMo) in 2017. The challenge is to write a poem every day in October. Since it doesn’t look like the OctPoWriMo site is active this year, I will provide a prompt here every day in October. After posting your poem to your blog, you can link back here so we can read each other’s poems and support each other’s efforts.

For this year’s theme I would like to explore fear, how it stops us and excites us; our physiological responses from fight to flight; how it shapes and distorts our perception; and why we need it but also want to be free of it.

I found inspiration for some of my prompts from My Shouting, Shattered, Whispering Voice: A Guide to Writing Poetry & Speaking Your Truth by Patrice Vecchione, and The Art of Voice: Poetic Principles and Practice by Tony Hoagland, as well as looking back through the years of my October posts.

For those of you who are excited to get started, here’s a practice prompt:

For today’s poem, let’s use Maya Angelou’s “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” as inspiration. Here are a few ways you could use this poem as inspiration:

Subject:

1. You can write about something that most people are afraid of but you aren’t, and express why it doesn’t scare you.
2. You can write about something you are afraid of but use the poems to convince yourself and others that you are not afraid.
3. You can write about something you’re not afraid of, but maybe should be, and explore the pros and cons of being afraid of it.

Form: This poem also has a fun rhyme scheme with a refrain. You can follow the form of the poem with any topic you choose. Notice the change in the fifth stanza where her rhyming couplets tell of her action and the scary things’ reactions. How do you keep fear away?

Today is Open Link Night at dVerse Poets Pub, so head over and link up your poem when you’ve finished, and read and comment on other poems.

Today’s Poem

I’m Never Afraid of the Lake

Though I’ve seen tiger muskies
and their razor-sharp teeth
I’m never afraid of the lake

Fishermen’s hooks and
too many boats
I’m never afraid of the lake

Brown crawfish sun-baked
snapping pincers mud-caked
They’re new and strange in the lake

Above raptors sharp beaks
dive in for scaly treats
They’re circling over the lake

I’m up on the dock
so their out of luck
I dive and splash
They’re off in a flash
I’m not fit and young
or anyone’s son
so the hungry lake beast
won’t eat me

I’m never afraid of the lake

Boats fast at night
aren’t boating right
I’m never afraid of the lake

The full harvest Moon
Will be beckoning soon
I won’t be afraid of the lake

Bryozoans’ blob-like showings
colonies all freaky growing
I’m never afraid of the lake

Don’t show me the bloated
raccoon where he floated
because that’s just gross
Let’s not sugarcoat it

I’m never afraid of the lake
Not ever
No never

Writober 2023

I’ve collected images in a Pinterest file like I do every year. I’ve organized them by week starting from left to right. The goal of the Writober challenge is to write a flash fiction story every day in October. It can be a six word story, or a 999 word story, or anything in between. I found a list of one word prompts for Writober over at A. Rich Writing, so you can find inspiration there too.

Halloween Photography Challenge

For the last couple of years I have really enjoyed Tourmaline .’s Halloween Photography Challenge. It doesn’t look like she’s doing it this year, so I hope people will join me here. I used some of Tourmaline .’s one word prompts, and aligned some days with A. Rich’s Writober prompts and made this calendar for this year’s Photography challenge.

R.I.P XVIII

And don’t forget the Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge continues through Halloween as well. Read, watch, and listen to horror, mystery, thrillers and suspense and share your experiences. I’m focusing on Thrillers and made a bingo card if you want to play along:

And here’s a Readers Imbibing Peril bingo card from 2021:

I hope you’ll join me for a daily dose of poetry, flash fiction, and photography starting this Sunday, October first. Let’s celebrate fall and the fun of Halloween all month long!