It falls to my happy lot to write this week’s pensive for the week after Halloween. Anticipating that you are still charged with horror (or maybe still on a sugar high), these writing prompts are all supernaturally adjacent. Can’t decide the one to write on? Roll a dice and see which number comes up!
1 You or your protagonist visit an antique shop and come away with something – perhaps an item of vintage clothing, a musical instrument, a tool or a device, an empty bottle that once held perfume, a mirror or a piece of furniture. You take it home, or give it as a gift, and strange things begin to happen.
2 Countess Elizabeth Bathory was a sadistic serial murderer in 16th century Hungary, infamous for her supposed habit of bathing in the blood of virgins to retain her youth. Liz Batori is a modern day social media influencer with a curiously successful on-line business selling beauty products. Are they one and the same person?
3 Can you Survive the Haunted Horror of the Witches’ Vampire House? Maybe this is the title of a story you were destined to write. Or maybe it’s the title of a film your boy/girlfriend takes you to see on Halloween.
4 The ghost in the machine. Inside every computer, a spirit is imprisoned, trapped and compelled to do the bidding of the human owner. The spirit can never escape, but does it enjoy its servitude and do the best it can, though sometimes falling short? Or does it, instead, wage a guerrilla campaign of psychological resistance?
5 Plain and Pearl. Pairs of words associated with the season. Use one or more pairs – or just pick among the plain or pearl words. Write a short story or a short poem using the words and the spirit of the season. (Once again, there are six pairs so you can roll another dice.)
whisper - insinuation skin – membrane chill – discourage mirror – replicate hand – assistance flower – efflorescence moon – lunatic
6 It’s a well-known fact that some musicians choose to do a deal with the Devil; a life of diabolically successful musicianship in return for their soul after death. There are also many stories of how the musician then cheats the Devil, escaping just a little singed around the edges. But what if a junior Devil of today was so seduced by the music that he left Hell in order to play with a heavy metal rock band?
Wow, John! This is amazingly imaginative! Am surprised nobody has jumped into this breach. Maybe because several are in NaNoWritingMonth mode. Me, I’m still just reeling from jet lag and can barely get my act together. Feel like sleeping all day (without doing so!) and then can’t fall asleep at night. But maybe I’ll come back to these challenges at some point. Thanks for the effort you put into these!
Very welcome Debbie. I’m certainly in NaNoWriMo mode myself … and I’m also saving these (and previous Pensives) for later. Hope you soon recover from your jet lag!
Does a full moon bring out the worst in us or the best that we have been?
Do we all turn into lunatics on the night of Halloween?
Are there ghouls and ghosties all about every time on All Hallow’s night?
Are there strange things lurking in the shadows intending to give us a fright?
Or is it an excuse for children to dress up and Trick or Treat?
To get high on the sugar rush from the goodies that they eat.
It all depends on what you believe and I’m not one to judge.
But however you choose to celebrate don’t let others theirs begrudge.
Ha! A Halloween poem. Nice one Patti.
🙂