I was invited by Ted (shredbobted) to join his Discord group to workshop some short fiction for cross-promotion amongst the participants. I’m only now getting some free time and energy to explore some ideas; it’s been a busy time for me, or I have been worn out.
A few weeks ago, I cranked out an exploration into an old theme that I wanted to revisit, called “Drifter”. The idea was that there are a group of folks traveling in the “in-between” spaces and using dolmen as doors to try and find their homes back in realspace. After a week, I looked at the first thousand or so words I had written and realized that I’d left the tale completely without an anchor. To remedy that, I would probably have to at least write it as a novella, and more likely as a full novel — neither of which am I prepared to do at this time.
A few days ago, I started working on a different idea, with the explicit intention that it would have a solid anchor prior to getting weird. And the weirdness was going to be quite a bit more grounded in nature. I’m a little more satisfied with this effort after drumming up around 2500 words because it doesn’t feel quite so airy and disingenuous (in places).
Instead of placing it on some imaginary plane of existence, I decided to root it in a generic small town at the end of ranching country. Instead of high-browed concepts about “the ‘Twixts” and subverting necromancy to suit my story, I am exploring latent secrets best left in obscurity.
Except, of course, where’s the fun in that?
The current piece is based on a phrase developed from a word mashup I’ve used a few times in my poetry: Wytching Tree. The first line came to me one night about a month ago and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it, so I just jotted it down on a notepad and set it aside: “We all used to hang out down by the wytching tree back when we were young, but no one goes down there no more.”
As I got to thinking about alternatives to my ungrounded, sans-anchor earlier effort, I decided it was time to return to this idea and to dabble a bit in folk horror. It has been a long time since my writing has gone in that direction, as I have been more drawn to supernatural adventure fiction, scifiwesterns, and grimdark when it comes to such things, rather than the horror elements, but I liked the challenge that it presented with that first scrawled line. for this story.
I’m not sure if I am up to the task, but at least it is a break from my normal mode of writing, fiction or otherwise. Keep your eyes out for it, as I think Ted intends for us to publicly share our stories after this workshopping attempt. Okay, I know he intends for us to share our stories eventually.
Another unusual thing for me it attempting to hold back publication of my writing. Because I write primarily for my own enjoyment, I tend to post half-baked writing, assuming I’ll go back and clean it up if I decide to more formally publish something. It is a little bit of copyright protection by my reasoning; obviously incomplete, and typically requires some editing before I would dream of charging for any of my fiction. Alas, it is not my dream to charge for my fiction, so the spit and polish is lacking.
I’ll be interested in what you have to say about it when it goes live. If it ever goes live. The recommendation from others might very well be. “Keep it under your hat, Michael. Please?”
11 responses to “dabbles — folk horror”
No way, I say
At least you’re actually working on the project. Ted invited me, but what with various other activities and the group site sign-in asking for information I’m not prepared to give I bailed before things got going. Probably better for all involved; I’m a pantser who isn’t good at planning, plus I’ve never been much if a team player. Best of luck to you all though. 🙂
I’m afraid you’ve been mislead. There is very little planning required of anyone and the only group effort is to workshop our stories. If you think my tale is a planstered idea, you’ve misunderstood. I currently have no idea what will happen aside from some vague notions that paint it as folk horror. For all I know, it could end up as a romance by the time I am done. 😂
It’s more like herding cats than a focus group.
Oh, I’m sure no one mislead me. I’m just not very good at being part of a group, even to herd cats. To join a group and come up with a story to order (not that exactly, but you know what I mean) isn’t something I’m any good at. I wasn’t too bad a few years back, but something’s changed. It’s why I’m not one of those authors who has a panic attack if they don’t write everyday; if I sit down and try to force it when nothing’s coming I never come up with anything good. I’m better waiting until the ideas come, so if I joined this group and tried to come up with a story nothing would come because I’d feel presssured. So nobody’s misinformed me, it was my mistake to say I’d join because I’m victim of an old habit of saying yes to people when I really ought to say no. I’m getting better at that, but I have occasional breakouts and this was one. My bad, nothing done wrong by anybody else and now I feel embarrassed about it. Okay, back off into my den, catch you later. 🙁 🙂
Both of your stories are shaping up fantastically. I hope you have the time and energy to keep going.
Thanks! I’ll probably lean into the second one.
It’ll likely be more accessible to readers in the long run (based on my vague notions of what happens next), and I expect the “horror” elements will be less visceral (by design) than what most people think of when they think of horror.
Can’t wait to see where you take it.
Neither can I 😂
I hear ya. The little story I wrote went places I didn’t expect it to go.
Cool, man, folk horror is really starting to catch on as its own subgenre. I just had a folk horror Halloween story get accepted for a Halloween anthology next year.
That’s really cool news, Ray. You’ll have to let us know where and when it goes live. 💙