And Now for Something Different...
October has arrived, and with it, a traditional shift in writing a reading for many. You may have noticed I haven't been posting word count updates for my big three over the last few weeks, and there is a very good reason for this.
I have temporarily hit 'pause' on my big WIPs and instead decided to challenge myself with a daily marathon of horror and dread.
October Microfiction: 31 Tales of Terror
For the entire month of October, I am taking on a personal writing challenge. I am crafting and sharing 31 distinct horror microfiction stories across Instagram, Threads, and my personal Facebook.
It’s a complete shift in focus from the slow, deliberate world-building of Sanctorum’s Veil, The Whisper in the Margins or The Void Between.
Instead, microfiction forces brutality. It demands absolute precision because you have to set a scene, build tension, and deliver a chilling twist or an uneasy atmosphere in just a handful of sentences or even, in some cases, characters.
As of this morning's posting here, there are 11 complete stories published and ready for you to devour, with Day 12 creeping out later today!
The published lineup so far includes:
- The Trespasser Tree (A favourite of mine that originally fit into the strict 280-character limit of a single tweet a few years ago, now dusted off and given a fresh lease of life in the carousel format)
- Slow Reflections
- Swarm Harvest
- Night Bus
- Tap Tap Tap
- Who?
- Underpass
- Ride Along
- Unexpected Passenger
- Behind the Boxes
- The ShortCut
Crafting the Carousel Experience
To make these stories pop on visually driven platforms like Instagram and Facebook, I’ve designed a dedicated, retro-inspired set of themed slides for each posting:
- Slide 1: A consistent cover graphic featuring a textured pumpkin-orange backdrop, retro ghost illustrations, and a clear callout for the specific day of the challenge.
- Slide 2+: The story itself, spread across as many slides as needed to let the horror breathe.
I actually kicked off the month with a double-header—posting two distinct microfiction pieces on a single slide—mostly because I completely messed up and forgot to post on Day 1! Nothing like an immediate recovery effort to set the pace for October. Since then, the narratives have expanded in scale, with the longest story so far stretching across an immersive 7-slide carousel!
Rejections & Resubmissions
On the submission front, it’s not all smooth sailing—as every writer knows all too well. I recently received a rejection for one of my magazine submissions. The email was thoroughly automated, cold, and almost robotic, which takes any personal sting out of it! Rejection is simply part and parcel of the submitting game. I’ll be dusting the piece off, reviewing the manuscript, and finding a much better home for it elsewhere soon.
Main WIPs on Intermission
To give this spooky daily output the attention it deserves, my major projects are taking a brief, well-earned intermission:
- Sanctorum's Veil (sitting at 17,995 words)
- The Void Between (sitting at words)
- The Whisper in the Margins (sittng at words)
