Spooks and Screams for Halloween!

For your reading pleasure and education, I shall tell you a historical tale about the origins of Halloween and I shall give you a poem. Learning is probably the best thing in the world. It is never ending and it is changeable.


When the Christians were trying to convert pagans, they decided to incorporate pagan festivals into Christianity. One of these festivals was Samhain (pronounced sow-in) which was a celebration of the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter.

It was said to be the time when the veil between worlds was thinnest and spirits could roam.

Bonfires were important to revitalize the earth. Some bonfires would be low enough that people could jump over them and, in some cases, two bonfires were made so that cattle could be herded between them.

I included this picture of Stonehenge because the stone circles are speculated to have been relevant to the solstices and possibly other celebrations. So much mystery surrounds these circles that who can say whether or not they were important parts of the past.

It became known as "All Hallows Eve" (Since Nov. 1 was All Saints Day) and then Halloween.

***

Shadows dance upon the wall,

like they’re at a fancy ball,

lightning flashes across the sky

thunder rumbles, the time is nigh.

The clouds must break and from them must fall

a rain droplet carnival.

What better friend to wind than rain

and without them both it’s not the same.

They are invited to the party too,

guess who’s next, I dare you to -

Although the moon cannot be seen

and from the clouds she can’t be gleaned,

she is invited, the stars as well

and some more straight from hell.

Ghosts and goblins, monsters plenty

all can come to Pandemonium City

Up to My Eyes in Eyes

Do you believe in signs?
Do you believe in hidden messages from our subconscious?

Perhaps one is easier to swallow than the other. Perhaps you could say that one has more scientific reasoning behind it and the other is a foolish belief from times long ago.
It probably depends on who you are.

I like to keep my options open, so I believe in both.

Lately, I've been drawing eyes. When I'm in class or doing something that can't hold my attention, then I start to doodle on the page. Lately, it has been eyes, but it has been every manner of thing before nuts and fruit, teacups and animals. For me, it is significant if I do something multiple times. If I feel an urge to make relatively the same shape over and over. The curving of the eyeball and the pupils, the eyelids and eyelashes, a combination of pen strokes that form something with meaning.

In stories, there are signs and hints, little details that we store in our subconscious and don't realize the importance of until the end. It's important to be talented at foreshadowing when writing a story, but what about our own lives?

Eyes are curious. They hold so many meanings. Eyes are the windows of the soul and all that. So I've been trying to figure out why they've been coming to me. Perhaps it is just my mind telling me that I should pay attention, since I'm usually drawing these in class. It certainly could be a simple as that.

Editing Fever

Wow! Last week I posted early so that I wouldn't forget and then today, it just slipped my mind, not that the day is too far-gone, but I usually try to do this earlier. Anyway, I'm sure we all are busy, busy. Make your week great!


There are so many types of edits: proofreading, copy-editing and developmental editing.

Each one is a cog in the wheel that turns your manuscript into something publishable.

Tips

• Read aloud your stories. It is easier to find mistakes when you try reading the sentences aloud. 
• Start in different places when writing so that you're not correcting one section more than the others.
• Have others make critiques. Get some fresh eyes on those words.
• Set a goal. It can be exhausting and frustrating to edit your own work. Take breaks and give yourself time to think about it.
• Set it down for a while. If you're really struggling to look at it objectively then maybe you need a longer break like a month to sort out your feelings from what needs to be done.
• Print it out. This is if you normally type your stories. Sometimes a physical copy is what you need to make those marks, and you can always use colorful pens!

I try to be available for my friends, but thorough edits takes a lot of time.

Also, I'm wondering which do you think is better?

Reading all the way through a story without stopping and then editing - OR - editing as you go along so that all of your comments are from your first reactions.

I can't decide and while I usually edit with my first impressions, I'm afraid that I might be distancing myself from the story and not allowing myself to read it as a reader. Any suggestions or thoughts?

Teardrops for the Fallen

I know Tuesday is usually my day, but I'm getting a jump start on this. I've got so much on my mind lately that I'll forget and Monday night is close enough.

Characters die. It happens in countless stories.

Readers may imagine that writers are gleefully cackling to themselves as they sentence a character to an early demise, but we feel the loss just as strongly. As creators of characters, it can be gut-wrenching to take them away, not only is it work lost (as in most cases, characters don't come back to life) but we grew to know them and like them, flaws and all.

I haven't been the cause of too many character deaths yet, but I'm learning the value of them. Or the value of making it look like a character died, it can be fun to tease the readers with a particular tear jerker moment then relieve them with a joyful reunion. However, it's best not to do that too often as readers will catch on and also think that you will never really kill anyone.

The Power of the Mind: Nightmares

Nightmares - those terrifying dreams that cause bodily reactions of fear.

I recently had a nightmare that I woke from in a state of shivering fright. The thing about a nightmare is that it contains elements of something that you find scary in normal life, so think about how scary it is to then have a life-like experience of it.

*

For the life of me I'm not sure why, but I am afraid of ghosts.

Grave art in Bath Abbey

No other version of the undead terrifies me the same way. So, of course, this nightmare had a ghost. What probably made it even more terrifying was the fact that it took place where I am currently living. If it had been in a graveyard or my mind had taken me to a supermarket, I probably wouldn't have experienced the same level of fear.

There I was walking down the hallway with some of the other residents and then one of the housekeepers tells us to come with her. We see a strange wall that she can put her hand through. Everyone else starts touching the wall and shadows play upon it. Not random shadows either, gruesome and evil looking shadows. Everyone hurries away, but as I go, I notice that a door at the end is open...a door that was not open before.

(Side tangent: The scarier or most iconic scenes are where all is not revealed. Back in the day, they were great at this, sex in particular was not allowed to be shown on the screen so movie producers would find other ways to send the message. For example, cutting to a window where the curtains are blowing in slowly in the breeze or to a piece of bread baking in the oven.)

Back to the nightmare.

I notice this door and my senses are on high alert. I make it about a third of the way down the hall and then tell the housekeeper. We stop and she says that if the door was open then the lady is out. She makes me wait and listen. We begin to hear doors close down the hall and the ghost is getting closer with each door slam.

Needless to say, I woke up at this point, shaking in fear.