“Hauntings in films are all jump scares—bloody scratches and hollow raps—but in my grandmother’s house the spirits were tired, flimsy things, leaving fingerprints on the walls and stroking my hair at night until I was finally able to sleep.”
Thank you so much! The prompts have all been so fun and generative.
I thought I'd need to make some stuff up for the one sentence ghost stories, but apparently I have more than enough to draw from just using reality- never realized my life was so full of ghosts! The one I went with is this:
I'd never met Charlene's dad, but after he died I saw his body hanging from everywhere: the streetlights, the trees, and the handles on the bus, jostling against one another every time it jerkled to a stop.
"Birds Surrendered and Rehomed" really hit home for me — there was an African gray parrot in my family who still called for my dad's childhood dog in my grandma's voice years and years after both of them were dead. The parrot as haunting in this story feels so creepy and ambiguous, and the many ways the parrot's dissatisfaction with the changes in the house manifest feel similar to the ways we've seen ghosts manifest, like in Carmen Maria Machado's story from Lesson 3.
Here's my least favorite one-sentence ghost story fleshed out:
After she died, Mom kept on judging me from the vantage point of the family photo stuck on the fridge. It was all in the eyes. Her smile stayed fixed but her blue eyes turned black, cheerless. In November, I got laid off from the job that was never good enough for her anyway, and she glowered with rage at my carelessness. Then I took too long to find another one, bad economy, and I swear she knit her eyebrows together in worry all through January and February too. Why couldn’t my life be stable and steady like hers with my father was until it wasn’t? In March, I got dumped and tears welled in the blackness that I still wouldn’t give her the grandchildren she was still owed even in death. I took the photo down, hid it in a drawer underneath my summer clothes. Then it was July and I, still single, saw her again, staring up at me as I pulled on my favorite pair of cut offs. She always hated my frayed edges, hated when I showed too much thigh. I could almost hear her sigh, so I stuffed the photo in the inside pocket of my winter coat and got drunk at the park on sickly sweet hard seltzers. I’ll see her again in November. Maybe by then I’ll be better.
“After she died, Mom kept on judging me from the vantage point of the family photo stuck on the fridge. It was all in the eyes. Her smile stayed fixed but her blue eyes turned black, cheerless.“
This is so good! Really creepy start to a great flash
"What I mean by disruption is actually shifting your writing process or instincts in a significant way."
This is actually super helpful. While I'm working on a book-length work, I find that I really get bogged down by the style and tone and even topics of that work in all my other little experiments outside of that. I'm trying to do random writing prompts and change gears to work on some of my other projects from time to time, so I don't burn out on the book, but I find that it is kinda like a black hole, dragging my writing into its gravitational pull. But this idea of choosing what you aren't immediately drawn to seems like it could (to use another tech bro word) pivot my other work out of that... if that makes sense.
Morton thought he was rid of his shrewish wife when he smothered her and buried her deep in the trackless forest behind their house, but she came back the next night, and every night thereafter.
Until tonight the bus had always sped by the empty stop before last.
This was such a thought-provoking exercise. I had so many drafts where there were eyes, figures etc. so now I wonder if this is creepy just by itself. Really interesting way of assessing how much to give the reader and how much to let them infer or imagine themselves.
“Hauntings in films are all jump scares—bloody scratches and hollow raps—but in my grandmother’s house the spirits were tired, flimsy things, leaving fingerprints on the walls and stroking my hair at night until I was finally able to sleep.”
Thank you so much! The prompts have all been so fun and generative.
Love this!
I thought I'd need to make some stuff up for the one sentence ghost stories, but apparently I have more than enough to draw from just using reality- never realized my life was so full of ghosts! The one I went with is this:
I'd never met Charlene's dad, but after he died I saw his body hanging from everywhere: the streetlights, the trees, and the handles on the bus, jostling against one another every time it jerkled to a stop.
Suuuuuper unsettling one-sentence ghost story, thank you for sharing!
"Birds Surrendered and Rehomed" really hit home for me — there was an African gray parrot in my family who still called for my dad's childhood dog in my grandma's voice years and years after both of them were dead. The parrot as haunting in this story feels so creepy and ambiguous, and the many ways the parrot's dissatisfaction with the changes in the house manifest feel similar to the ways we've seen ghosts manifest, like in Carmen Maria Machado's story from Lesson 3.
Here's my least favorite one-sentence ghost story fleshed out:
After she died, Mom kept on judging me from the vantage point of the family photo stuck on the fridge. It was all in the eyes. Her smile stayed fixed but her blue eyes turned black, cheerless. In November, I got laid off from the job that was never good enough for her anyway, and she glowered with rage at my carelessness. Then I took too long to find another one, bad economy, and I swear she knit her eyebrows together in worry all through January and February too. Why couldn’t my life be stable and steady like hers with my father was until it wasn’t? In March, I got dumped and tears welled in the blackness that I still wouldn’t give her the grandchildren she was still owed even in death. I took the photo down, hid it in a drawer underneath my summer clothes. Then it was July and I, still single, saw her again, staring up at me as I pulled on my favorite pair of cut offs. She always hated my frayed edges, hated when I showed too much thigh. I could almost hear her sigh, so I stuffed the photo in the inside pocket of my winter coat and got drunk at the park on sickly sweet hard seltzers. I’ll see her again in November. Maybe by then I’ll be better.
love this! you accomplish a lot in such a tight space
“After she died, Mom kept on judging me from the vantage point of the family photo stuck on the fridge. It was all in the eyes. Her smile stayed fixed but her blue eyes turned black, cheerless.“
This is so good! Really creepy start to a great flash
"What I mean by disruption is actually shifting your writing process or instincts in a significant way."
This is actually super helpful. While I'm working on a book-length work, I find that I really get bogged down by the style and tone and even topics of that work in all my other little experiments outside of that. I'm trying to do random writing prompts and change gears to work on some of my other projects from time to time, so I don't burn out on the book, but I find that it is kinda like a black hole, dragging my writing into its gravitational pull. But this idea of choosing what you aren't immediately drawn to seems like it could (to use another tech bro word) pivot my other work out of that... if that makes sense.
Totally makes sense! I think forcing yourself to write even when it doesn't feel quite right can help you work through "problems" on the page
Morton thought he was rid of his shrewish wife when he smothered her and buried her deep in the trackless forest behind their house, but she came back the next night, and every night thereafter.
"every night thereafter" is so GOOD!! love this, very scary
Thank you, Kayla. If you like serial killer novels, my debut novel A Little Doll Will Die is available wherever eBooks are sold. Thanks again!
Until tonight the bus had always sped by the empty stop before last.
This was such a thought-provoking exercise. I had so many drafts where there were eyes, figures etc. so now I wonder if this is creepy just by itself. Really interesting way of assessing how much to give the reader and how much to let them infer or imagine themselves.
Thank you
love this! glad the exercise was thought-provoking!