#HorrorWritersChat
Missed this q yesterday, but I have a new newsletter mini-essay about writing (and the dangers of holding forth too confidently on what your work means) here: mailchi.mp/d9de2c01c1fc...
And if you'd like more of my rambling in your inbox, you can sign up here: eepurl.com/hIMM1H
Why not offer both?
In one of my stories, an alien entity comes to take over the Earth but is waylaid to play wargames by a retired gentleman who almost never loses.
The trap: The old man convince the entity to not attack Earth as long as he can beat the entity in any game.
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Thaddeus Howze. Any genre, any time.
Substack and Patreon
Favorite imprisonment concept: expertise as a cage. Imagine being the only person who speaks the language of the monster eating your city. You can never retire.
You're not a prisoner. You're essential. Same difference.
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#HorrorWritersChat
I got lots going on all over the place (including headlining a reading next Wednesday in the Bronx), which checking on my Substack (maybe subscribing?) will keep you up to date on:
jamesryanfiction.substack.com
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I look around for the lock, but find none. There is nothing I can use it for as a key, no way out.
Then I realize what kind of release from here they want me to fashion:
I'm to use it as a club on myself...
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There are two aspects that get to me:
* How the form of imprisonment reflects the jailer (in abilities as well as personality)
* How the imprisoned react on their fate; acceptance, surrender, rage, the whole gambit, and what it says about that character
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I'm more of a "state of mind" person in preference. I've not done that many prisoner horror pieces so far, but when the time comes, that's likely to be my direction...
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(Sorry I'm late, folks)
I'm James Ryan, I write in a number of different horror sets; my favorite is one where someone only discovers they're actually imprisoned when it's too late. (Think Fassbinder's WORLD ON A WIRE for an example...)
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I look at my bone, frozen. Not by glass, but by fear. I can't move. The very idea of mutilating myself like that... I can't!
As I am pulled in further, I begin to frown. Mama always said to beauty above all else. Spending day after day in front of the mirror... Only to become it
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Don't really have a favourite, I think? I prefer to mix and match depending on the character
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I kinda do and like both? And the concept is used a lot by me - People trapped in an eternal Nightmare, people captured in cards, people brainwashed, somebody literally split into multiple representative pieces to seal them away, being trapped by society, etc.
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I am Vee, I write Eldritch horror and the horrors of slavery and -isms (Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, etc.), and I love imprisonments that flip the power - The mighty hero brought low to a weak enemy
#HorrorWritersChat, oh my. That sounds so unpleasant!
Okay, well, #promo time!
I have a poetry collection of spooky poems! Download it for free on my Ko-fi or purchase it elsewhere. There's some silly doodle inside of it.
ko-fi.com/spookysplend...
www.books2read.com/shadowonthewall
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I know if I make this key, it will end my torture. But, it will be used to lock all the others within this house of horrors. It will feed on them, never let them rest.
But the pain...Oh gods. They won't make it stop. If I don't do this, I'll suffer forever.
#HorrorWritersChat, I really like when prisons in horror attempt to twist a character, to tempt them to evil.
It's always interesting to see who resists and who falls into its open arms.
I think it's even better when who it is isn't who you expect.
Thank you, @greethewriter.bsky.social!
Several of the tales I've mentioned in this thread can be found in my collection Breaking the Devil's Bread - a book whose title story deals reveals a tortured sorcerer's final confession.
See y'all next week...
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#HorrorWritersChat I think it depends on the story. Spaces or metaphorical prisons can both be used to tell terrifying stories.
For me, I think I use a bit of both in my stories. I can think of examples from the stories of my characters for either, really.
My skinned goddess turns away with a dismissive flip of her hand.
Ice cakes the wound, numbing all sensations save a steady piercing burn.
Closing my eyes, I reach for the knife.
I know now for certain that pain doesn't end after you're dead.
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#HorrorWritersChat I am free from the pickle jar! Finally!
I am Spooky Pickle, a pickle that likes spooky things. I write a lot of things: poetry and short stories, eventually longer things in a readable format.
I really like when entities are imprisoned in random things, like books and so on.
In my stories, imprisonment forces a character to search within themselves, confront fears and internal conflicts, replay past moments of trauma, loss and victory, and transcend limitations they had either placed upon themselves or had placed on them until that point.
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Depending on the story, a character's imprisonment could be internal, external, cosmic, or - in stories like Red Shoes, "Chaser," "Shahkarah," "...But They Call Me Jo," or I Come to You as Thunder - a combination of all three.
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I'm Satyr, and I write dark stuff - usually, but not always, dealing with music, magic, gender, nature, shapechanging, divided selves, abuse and recovery, the slippery nature of reality, and "alternative" perceptions and states of mind.
My characters often get imprisoned alone.
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I’m going to suggest that one can compliment the other. I have a character, Alec, who is trapped by the expectations of his fans. When he becomes literally imprisoned by the members of a cult who should believe in him, the anxiety from those expectations compounds the problem. #HorrorWritersChat
Thanks again #HorrorWritersChat I'm looking forward to a couple of new short story releases in anthologies this summer, but they're not here yet, so we'll both have to wait! In the meantime, check out my horror work already out in the world! dangerouswhenbored.com/collections/...
I stare at my exposed ulna bone. They want me to fashion a key out of it. Do they know what they ask? I *know* what's on the other side…but I'm not sure they do. Squinting up the man who thinks he's captured me, I smile. "Sure. Why not?" Shock silences him. I laugh while I work. #HorrorWritersChat
Gree, this has been among my favorite thematic questions for #HorrorWritersChat yet! Thank you!
Plugging someone else today: did you know ace horror & eco horror often intersect? @beyondtstarspress.bsky.social is an ace press debuting with this new cozy horror anthology! 👁️
bsky.app/profile/beyo...
You ask the hard ones, #HorrorWritersChat! Imprisonment can make a person desperate, and what a deperate person will do is revealing. What lines will they cross that they thought they wouldn't? What hidden talents/skills/strengths might be revealed? Great stuff to torment my imaginary friends with!
Both can be good! But I think I've played more with the metaphorical in my work up till now. #HorrorWritersChat
Hi #HorrorWritersChat! I'm Samantha Bryant, a multi-genre writer whose horror explores a lot of subgenres. So far as imprisonment, I'm especially horrified by scenarios where someone is trapped and can't communicate.
