Welcome Promptlings to The Spark! It’s time to be weird, fantastical, daring, and deploy your creativity. Imagine monstrous beasts, conniving ghosts, and characters with mysterious motives who may also control weapons of wonder. All of this wondrous speculation originates from your imagination. The task is yours. This is The Spark!
The Rules
The rules are simple. You will be presented with a prompt. It could be a required first line, a task that will challenge your craft, elements required in your story, or a genre specific prompt. You will have two weeks to write a short story under the rules of the prompt. We’ll host a Gathering to celebrate what’s been accomplished and highlight your stories at the end of two weeks. You can share them on this thread, as well as The Pitch at the end of the month. This is an opportunity to find writers you admire, befriend, and learn from.
When sharing your creation, give us the title of your piece, genre in the form an emoji (see below), a brief teaser, and a link to your work. While most of the work will be posted on Substack, you are welcome to share work that fits the prompt that has been shared elsewhere (Wattpad, Simily, Amazon, etc.), but we do ask that the piece be available to readers for free. The Spark is an opportunity to grow in your craft and share your work with other speculative fiction writers.
Genre Emoji Index
👽- Science Fiction
🔮- Fantasy
💀- Horror
🔥- Dystopian
🍫- Magical Realism (Like Water for Chocolate, get it??)
👀- Weird Fiction
(The Gathering discussion thread will take place on Sunday, October 18th, starting at 3am PST, and will run all day.)
The Prompt
This month’s prompt is not only on theme for the spooky season, but is also brought to you by a fellow Substacker, Caroline Beuley at Fairytales by Caroline. Caroline, “an agented writer, teacher, and fairy tale enthusiast” shares fiction, essays, writing lessons, and more. I find myself going back to Caroline’s essays, enjoying them and learning from them. This prompt is from one of twenty-five prompts she shared for fall.
I’m thrilled to be partnering with her for this month’s Spark prompt.
The Prompt:
Pick a scary story you were told or read as a child. A ghost story that always
terrified you. A tale from that terrifying book In a Dark, Dark Room. A local legend. A story your parents told you. Write a modern day retelling of this story that turns this tale on its head somehow. For more guidance, you can check out my guide to writing a retelling.
Good Luck Promptlings!
If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to comment or send me (Reina Cruz) a DM.