Quick!! Two of you collude to submit at the same time so we don’t have to deal with the ghostpocolyse of only having 13 entries for any length of time longer than it takes @pigfender to process the follow on.
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Oh, I have plenty of ideas. Ideas are cheap. Even so, I keep a store of the best ones, because they are so easily lost.
Storytelling is something else, though. And that’s why I thought it would be interesting to find out how folk got going with their stories. If there’s one thing we learn as storytellers, it’s that we all do it differently. That in itself is a spooky story.
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Or a Scottish accent. The dog in the film Up was called Dug, which I think was a bit on the nose. Squirrel!
Tatty soup used to be a favourite of mine when we visited Scottish friends when I was a kid. Perhaps better known these days as part of neeps and tatties for Burns supper, along with a dram of haggis and a dollop of whisky.
I love the idea of a tattybogle. Makes me of think of the Soup Dragon in the Clangers for some reason.
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I didn’t think my story was all that ghostly, so I inserted an actual ghost into the metadata of the file I sent to pigfender.
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I have a story, I want to give my brain a rest and proofread it one more time tomorrow. I can guarantee it will not arrive at the last minute.
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I am happy to confirm that the prophecised ghostpocolypse was avoided by exactly this solution.
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This would explain why I’m typing nothing but gibberish!
You sent this ghost 15-16 years ago, right?
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Hi! I’ve written the beginnings of several ghost stories this week.
The first was too humorous and I think it’s turning into a book rather than a short story.
In the second, written from the ghost’s point of view, the MC seems to be wafting about too much, with not much happening.
The third required too much research about witches and the occult, and there’s so little time with the deadline looming.
So I started another one last night, and that seems okay if a little scary. It was inspired by a famous classical play and several other well-known stories (ie it’s totally derivative but with a few changes), but all will be revealed, no doubt, when I finally finish and submit it. Hopefully, before one minute to midnight on Sunday night.
On the other hand, I may come up with something else in the meantime… 
It’s so hard when you’re a procrastinator - but at least there’s a deadline and I may soon have enough plots for several ghost story books of my own. 
How is everyone else coping?
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auxbuss said:
I thought it would be interesting to find out how folk got going with their stories. If there’s one thing we learn as storytellers, it’s that we all do it differently.
Once I’d come up with the idea, I concentrated on the ending scene and made a Scrivener ‘document’ for it, taking notes especially on who (and what) needs to be there. Then I go back and think about what needs to be there at the beginning of the story, and make an empty ‘document’ for that. Then I think of the story beats to tell the story, and each of those gets an empty document as well. Now I have the outline of the story in the binder.
Some of the story beats strike me as more important than others. The ending usually is one. So for this story, I actually wrote the ending ‘document’ … then another important one, then the rest, taking care to find places to introduce all those things I’d noted as needing to arrive together by the end. In my case, for instance, I decided I needed a family member at the end, so made sure to write a sister in from the beginning and mention her once or twice during other beats.
Next I select all the beats to read as a whole in Scrivinings mode—reading out loud to myself and editing as I go, looking especially to re-write any dialogue that, when I read it, sounds like writing rather than dialog (thanks, Elmore Leonard). Then finally I either export or just cut and paste the edited scrivinings into the form the editor wants.
Viola. As you say every storyteller has their own methods, but this works for me. Getting the idea is the hard part, and making distinct idiosyncratic characters is the part that I never seem to accomplish to my satisfaction.
Maybe this is more detail than you wanted; if so, sorry. But you did ask…
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Not as well as I’d like. NIAD I had no problem with: there’s no time to fritter as the deadline looms ever larger, hour by hour, minute by minute. However Villa Diodati, with its month’s deadline, is triggering all my mañana tendencies. Hey ho.
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Message from my daughter… can you make it a pop-up book? 
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I was well into the horribly bland and boring thing I thought I’d submit. Guess I was hoping it being so utterly boring anybody reading it would just shut down their brain and blindly glaze over it. Until three hours ago when inspiration came along. Untimely thing, that one. But at least I’m excited now, so fingers crossed to make the deadline.
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You probably could, in VR.
Jolly expensive and time consuming… not Sure @pigfender would be keen.
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I think you just need to explain to the young one that this is a ghost pop-up book. Every few pages – when you least expect it – a ghost pops up!! You have to squint your eyes and look real quick or you might miss them jumping out. They are ghosts after all. Then again you might just better close your eyes when you turn the page, b/c ghosts jumping out!
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I wrote my first idea, a Gothic Poeesque study of murder and loneliness. I hope you are not too sad that I did not submit that tale. I struggled with not seeing a connection between the debilitating loneliness and the violent ending I had in mind. Two other problems, the first draft went to 4783 words and I still had to write the ending. Secondly, the events in the story too closely resembled a person I know personally. In the admittedly unlikely chance she read the story, I did not want to have to answer for my discretions. A side road appeared. As usual, I took it.
This new direction offered a beginning, middle, and end. The first draft came to 3430, with a very rushed end. I found it unsatisfactory. I finished the end. Then working backward, began carving the fat out of the body. From there, it was a dance across the upper limit. I need this in to make that work. Damit, over the limit again, what can be cut out? I am glad for the limit. I am happy with the result. I hope you enjoy it.
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A tale told for fun
Bloody tongue in wounded cheek
Forget what you saw!
I sent my story in, but it is 5 am at Central Clearing. I will look for confirmation when I get up tomorrow.
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Good morning everyone!
Thanks to everyone who has submitted their stories already (19 of you!). I’m just about to start writing mine, so will be here on the forum, distracting myself from the task at hand, for most of the weekend! Please feel free to offer advice and heckle!
Scary ideas
And my new favourite fears
Will be born right here
For those like me who are still to submit(1)… whether you’re giving your story a final edit and polish or just sitting down to start now, feel free to keep me company on this thread!
(1) - I’ve indiscriminately tagged us in the next few posts (there is a max tag limit per post) so the forum gives you a gentle reminder that it’s this weekend!
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My fellow purists who are embracing the weekend deadline (part 1 of 4):
@AB17 @AmberV @Calkate @Camy @Catrad @CeramicFairy @ClaireWoodier @Clinken @Daurmith @FleetAdmiralO
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My fellow purists who are embracing the weekend deadline (part 2 of 4):
@GilsDesk @GraceK @JacquelineM @katlovergilpin @kirtvee @Luiciferis @maximumsparrow @MsRestless @Napje @nom
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My fellow purists who are embracing the weekend deadline (part 3 of 4):
@OolonColoophid @oof_itsalice @pete340 @pigfender @Rimfrost @RuthS @scrapsandsass @seedypoet @Shadowspawn @SheilaWrote
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