Welcome to October Day 1: Prompts to Put Us in a Spooky Mood

Here we are. It’s the first day of October. Thank you for joining me. I’ve provided prompts for poetry, fiction, and photography. I like to use all of these prompts to inform each other in a daily poem, flash fiction story, and photo shoot, but you are welcome to use them in any way that is fun for you. Once you have created a post on your blog inspired in any way by these prompts, please link back here in the comments so we can enjoy each other’s creations. If you do not have a blog, feel free to type your poem in the comments.

OctPoWriMo 2023: Exploring Our Fears

To start an exploration of fear, set a timer for ten minutes and mind map the word “fear,” letting all of your associations fall onto the page. Here’s a mind map graphic I made that you can print out (just write click and select Save image as):

Use your mind map associations to create a metaphor for fear and expand on that metaphor in your poem. Do not use the word “fear” in your poem.

You may find that using a poetry form helps you organize your ideas from your mind map. Today’s suggested form is the Pantoum. Here’s a pantoum I wrote during OctPoWriMo 2021:

The Bone-train Symphony

I listen for the tones of my X-ray-whites
the meatless-me meanders along the tracks
the bone-train, pops and grinds when gravity fights
groans and moans, creaks and cracks

the meatless me meanders along the tracks
a shell of elemental elegance sketched
groans and moans, creaks and cracks
a schism, a radiation-picture etched

a shell of elemental elegance sketched
rattling, prattling, tattling organ-armor
a schism, a radiation-picture etched
why does action bring on such a clamor?

rattling, prattling, tattling organ-armor
the bone-train pops and grinds in gravity’s fight
why does action bring on such a clamor,
a cacophony of tones from my X-ray-whites?

Writober 2023

To explore the many many possibilities of how we can approach our scary flash fiction, I found an info-graphic about horror genres:

Quick brainstorming exercise: Think of your favorite movies, shows, and books for each of these genres. What’s your favorite part of each one? What is the moment that changes everything for the main character?

Our first image prompt is a very creepy gif. What are these things? Where would one encounter them? What happens next?

Your flash fiction story can be anything from a six word story to a 999 word story. I usually like to keep the full draft to myself and share a logline and a few sentences to my blog.

Halloween Photography Challenge

The images at the top of this post are the photos I took for “Spooky” in 2021 and 2022. In 2021 I had fun creating scenes to put my bokeh shapes into. In 2022 I tried to create a more realistic spooky scene. Come back later today to see how “Spooky” inspired me this year.

Please link to your creations in the comments. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.