Tonight's Writing

 Well, tonight I tried finishing a short horror story I started last summer.

I started out writing in my Hemingway tribute shirt... but felt Hem was just a little too "less is more". So I switched to my red-with-yellow-lettering "Clive Barker Rules" shirt (that, suspiciously, didn't fit as well as it did two years ago and had me squirming and adjusting the whole time I was writing). I bought it off Etsy in 2024 and wore it to a horror con (Days of the Dead in Chicago in March 2024) where I actually got to meet Barker and (most of) the cast of Hellraiser. 

This story I am writing (called "In the Barn") is more along the lines of Barker (specifically, Hellbound Heart and some of the Books of Blood stories). 

I burned my Dark Academia candle (also bought off Etsy).

Honestly, I wrote tonight with self-doubt in my mind. I remembered all the critical and cruel things said to me by self-important magazine editors who had refused my stories in the past. I thought most of the lines I wrote tonight to be either too standard (for someone who's been writing as long as I have) or overwritten (bordering on the melodramatic and ridiculous).

I think I managed to eek out a few good lines, but it reaffirms a theory I have: sometimes the inspiration isn't there and, well, maybe you just shouldn't write! Take the night off! But with previous little time over summer break, I feel compelled to write whenever I have time (meaning, no other prior engagements) in order to make up for lost writing time during the school year.

Tomorrow I have plans with an old friend of mine... before the night's festivities begin, I plan to give this story another go. I only have about 3-5 more pages before it's time to close the curtain on this story.