Oct. 2 Prompts: What are Your Creative Rituals?

Yesterday was such a fun start. I really enjoyed the poems and images you linked up.

If you didn’t get a chance to join in yesterday, it’s never too late to join in. I’m glad you’re here.

OctPoWriMo 2023: Facing Our Fears

Do you have rituals to get you in a writing frame of mind? Do you go to a specific place at a specific time? Do you say a prayer or a mantra? Do a little dance or use a special pen? I like to light a candle and do a writer’s meditation in my meditation closet. I tried having a writer’s cap to put on when I’m ready to write, but that didn’t work. I used to write three pages by hand with a special pen each morning, but now I usually free write in 4theWords as my warm up.

Prompt: For today’s poem, write the instructions for a ritual to keep fear away. It can be in the form of a prayer, chant or meditation, or can be step by step how to do the ritual.

To make sure your ritual still reads as a poem you may want to use a poetry form. Today’s suggested form is the Ottava Rima. Here’s an Ottava Rima I wrote in 2020:

Once I Escaped the Void

Taking a deep breath, I escaped the void
our restlessness was to me a paradox
an opportunity to be employed
like the worn off number on the celestial jukebox
repetition of continuation kept us annoyed
like each of the sullied grains freed from the sandbox
let them scatter into the universe
their upsetting choices making it worse

I understand the importance of most death
it can’t stop me either
though I’m flummoxed to draw my next breath
under the weight of that ravenous seer
time to strike and leave bereft
the shadow people in their fever
hands reaching out of the dark
leave a burn, a tender mark

Large heaps of flesh-colored wax
were scattered around the room
disobeying any logical syntax
melting in flame, bloom a heady perfume
the heat weaves it’s cracks
to the inter-dimensional vacuum
scattering me to the adverse universe
to disperse and traverse the inverse

Writober 2023

Continuing our exploration of horror genres here’s an info-graphic of horror genres and sub-genres:

Today’s image prompt introduces a frightening character. Is she the main character or the antagonist? What happened just before this image? Is this the first time she has revealed her true nature? Why ?

Halloween Photography Challenge

This is one of the new word prompts I chose that lines up with A. Rich Writing ‘s Writober prompts. Take a hop over there for even more inspiration.

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

While writing flash fiction, it’s important to read flash fiction. Here is an article that lists journals that publish flash fiction: 32 Magazines that Publish Flash Fiction.

I received an advanced reader copy of The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023 edited by Lisa Unger and Steph Cha through NetGalley. This collection of short stories is a great read! Though I didn’t find them all that suspenseful, each of the stories had something that lingered after I finished reading. There was such a diverse range of stories with a range of settings, subjects, and styles, I never knew what to expect from one story to the next. The first story didn’t really draw me in, so I jumped around a bit, but once I got into it, I enjoyed every story in the book. There’s an intriguing story by Walter Mosley, and a uniquely told story by Joyce Carol Oates. The book is available on October 17, so it’s perfect for The Peril of the Short Story for Readers Imbibing Peril (RIPXVIII). You can pre-order today!