DISCUSSION THREAD -- OCTOBER 2022 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge

[Jo Zebedee]

Not sure if I'm an hour early (but I'm going to bed soon!) but the challenge is up here:

October 2022 -- 75 word challenge

Light and/or Darkness
Gothic (for the spooky month of October)

Have at it, people!

 

[Phyrebrat]

Oh lawd @Jo Zebedee I love you

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Bout of insomnia, 5am... consider the new Challenge... enter a story... do final edit in Challenge thread, yikes.

Great choices, Jo! Good luck, all, with your stories, CC

 

[Elckerlyc]

And we're off with a Flash.

 

[BigJ]

I've already written two, and am trying to convince myself to put them aside and sleep on it for pete's sake.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Yes, definitely sleep on it, BigJ! I didn't, and I think my story may not make sense.

 

[Guttersnipe]

@Cat's Cradle Way to start us off!

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

Yes, definitely sleep on it, BigJ! I didn't, and I think my story may not make sense.

It makes sense. Puts me in mind of Edgar Allan Poe (which is a compliment of course).

This being the month of Halloween, I am now in with a suitable tale. And my 300-worder will be in a similar vein.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Thank you, Guttersnipe!

It makes sense.

Thank you, Christine! My mind is a zombie right now.

I enjoyed your story a great deal, and yours too, BigJ.

 

[THX1138]

Yes, definitely sleep on it, BigJ! I didn't, and I think my story may not make sense.

Yes it does...

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Cat's Cradle sheds light on a Poeish problem.

BigJ sheds light on just deserts.

Christine Wheelwright sheds light on strange bedfellows.

 

[VRlass]

Not sure if I’m gonna pull this off this month… Gothic seems too specific vocabulary dependent…

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Not sure if I’m gonna pull this off this month… Gothic seems too specific vocabulary dependent…

More a sense of feeling than vocabulary. At least I didn’t go for Tudorpunk (I’m looking at you, @HareBrain. We remember)

 

[therapist]

Great theme/genre choices. I like being restricted to a genre i've never written. Although I have no idea what gothic genre is. Can anyone shed some light on it?
From googling it, I have a vague idea, and feel it is a lot to do with the setting. Is that right? Or could you write a gothic story in a brightly lit Mcdonald's playground?

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

That's a huge topic. Start here:

Gothic fiction - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

If I had to boil it down to the basics, I think it would be dark, moody, often (but not always) supernatural, and more emotional than rational.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Great theme/genre choices. I like being restricted to a genre i've never written. Although I have no idea what gothic genre is. Can anyone shed some light on it?

Think Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Bronte or Rebecca de Maurnier. Elements of brooding fear and disquiet, often indicated by the feel and Setting. Haunted house stories would be gothic in feel.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Well, it is called a ‘challenge’.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Great theme/genre choices. I like being restricted to a genre i've never written. Although I have no idea what gothic genre is. Can anyone shed some light on it?
From googling it, I have a vague idea, and feel it is a lot to do with the setting. Is that right? Or could you write a gothic story in a brightly lit Mcdonald's playground?

Coming back to the brightly lit playground - absolutely. A lurker in the corner, baseball hat over his dark eyes, a trenchcoat sweeping the ground. He leans forward, and says, in a whisper ....

 

[paranoid marvin]

My definition of gothic? Anything written by Edgar Allen Poe, or starring Vincent Price in it! But gothic can include horror love and even comedy stories ( I myself would class Jane Eyre as gothic romance, Dracula certainly is, and Northanger Abbey is a delightful satire).

It's dominated by horror though, and the Wiki definition of 'Gothic literature' allows for plenty of scope.

Well done on the choice of theme and genre, Jo!

 

[VRlass]

OMG OMG LOVECRAFT IS IN HERE!!
COUNT ME BACK IN!!