Three Things Thursday

1. Well, how did it go with the plotting? Did you have fun? I know, I know, the day isn’t over yet.

But here’s the thing. You now need to look back through your ideas and decide which one you want to spend time writing starting . . . wait for it . . . TOMORROW!

So pick and choose carefully.

Use the day to plan or pray or burn candles over your plots so you can decide on the best idea for you to write during NaNoWriMo.

 

2. For a couple of years now we have discussed how many words one needs to write a day in order to accomplish a 50,000 word count.

And for a couple of years we have used our own rules to play at the NaNoWriMo game. What will you do? Choose the traditional 50,000 words? Or participate in a different way? You know what I’m gonna do.

I have three goals for November.

1. write half a George and Gracie book with Cheri

2. complete the ghost story I started a little while ago and haven’t finished. I might have 15-20 written pages on that. If that many.

3.finish a rewrite of a book IF the new publisher wants it. I should know this pretty soon. Like in a couple of weeks.

NOTE: Notice, please, that I have less control over two of my goals. That makes those two goals RISKY BUSINESS. It’s always best to make goals you can manage because YOU are in charge completely.

 

3.If you write every day of November you need to pen 1666.66667 words a day. (Satan! And on Halloween, too!)

If you take one day off a week (and I encourage you to rest on your Sabbath), you need to write 1923.07 words a day.

If you take off weekends, you need to write 2272.72727 words a day.

 

Three Three-Things-Thursday Hints

1. Write first thing in the morning

2. DON’T GET BEHIND

3. Gift yourself time to write. You deserve to compete and play and write. Right?

 

We will try say something encouraging each day (not including the weekends) of NaNoWriMo. Or give writing hints. Or prompts. Or complain. Or do anything that will help (and us!) succeed.

 

And your stories look AMAZING. I thought we were supposed to turn in tonight. I’m a dumb-dumb!

Anyway–

Get ready. Get set . . .

 

Scary Stories Contest

Contest entries! 

1. Read all of them.
2. Make a comment about what you like about them so the writers can get feedback.
3. Email me with your choice for the winning entry. anndeeellis@gmail.com
4. Eat halloween candy and cuddle up by the fire until the winner is announced.

1. Scary

by Screech McGillicutty

Two costumed creatures stared at the haunted mansion and quivered. ‘’Ready?” the mummy asked.

The werewolf hesitated, then said, “Let’s do it.” The door creaked open.

 

“What was that?” asked a spirit hovering in the attic.

“Relax, Larry. It’s people?”

“In our house?”

“It’s Halloween, remember? The living take pleasure in scaring themselves.”

“They creep me out. Going for a glass of warm milk. It settles my stomach.”

“Larry, you’re a ghost. You have no stomach.”

 

On the stairwell the icy spirit brushed the skin of the boys.

The mummy screamed. 

Werewolf howled.

Larry dropped his milk. He squealed.

 

2. Untitled

by Amazing Bob

I am next. 

There is little time. 

Three of us went up the mountain. The locals told us not to stay after dark. They told us to hurry down at twilight. But the rain pelted us. We hid in a cave. 

The sun went down. The shadows danced up. The Things came out, their glowing green eyes searching the cracks where we hid.

The darkness shields me from the sight, but I can hear. The screams. The crunching—of bones, I think. The slurping of the Things eating. The torture of my friends dying.

I am last. 

I wait.

3. Nightmare

by anonymous

I sat upright, gasping, clutching at the sheets. My room was silent and dark, and colder than it should be. My throat was dry. I needed water.

 There was a small white rectangle on the carpet.

  I picked it up, turned it over. A school photograph of a stranger: a girl, long red hair, staring green eyes. As I studied her image, her neck started bending backward at a sickening, unnatural angle, mouth gaping in a silent scream.

 I turned to run, but something grabbed my hair, pulling my head back. I tried to scream, but no sound came.

4. Halloween Tryst

by Elvira Grim

 

Abandoned house

on Halloween.

“Follow us, girls! Let’s have some fun!”

The door creaks open.

We enter a family room

emptied of everything the fleeing homeowners could pry loose.

 

Soon we’re wrestling over candy.

Two girls get pinned.

Two condoms are rolled on.

Kyle and I tell the ugly girl to wait

until we drink some more.

 

Thwump. 

I freeze to the sound of a melon being clubbed.

The girl underneath me squirms.

The girl across the room screams.

I can’t make out shit over there.

But Kyle doesn’t make a sound.

And the ugly girl’s got the flashlight.

 

Crack!

 

5. Cloned 

by Rosemary Reaper

 I am pieces and parts. I’m not whole.

But I have a purpose.

That, Doc says, makes me important. Special.

If I’m so special, I say, how come I don’t get to be whole?

Because, Doc says, you are second. And she…she is first.

I glance at my double—it’s like looking in a mirror. Except she has ten fingers and two legs and lungs and hair and skin.

I don’t. Because she stole it from me for herself.

What happens when I run out of parts? I say.

You are second, Doc says, frowning. But you are not last.

6. Playground

by Scary Hairy

Once there was a haunted playground where no one wanted to play.

There were slides and swings and bars and nets and a woman who sat there all day.

Why is she there? the kiddies would ask as they watched her from far far away. 

Shhh, said their parents, holding them tight, it’s a reason we’d rather not say.

For the parents, they knew, the woman out there, had been dead for many a ray. 

She sat all alone, waiting for friends who with her would sit and decay.