Into the Obscuradrome Issue 4
Hello. I’m Bob Pastorella, co-host of the This Is Horror podcast, website manager for This Is Horror, and writer. I’m the author of Mojo Rising, They’re Watching (with Michael David Wilson), and have numerous short-stories and non-fiction online and in print in various publications.
Hello. I’m Bob Pastorella, co-host of the This Is Horror podcast, website manager for This Is Horror, and writer. I’m the author of Mojo Rising, They’re Watching (with Michael David Wilson), and have numerous short-stories and non-fiction online and in print in various publications.
Previous newsletters can be found here.
Updates:
The fog is clearing. After suffering from a bad sinus infection, things went dark quick when my aunt died from Covid. I promised I wouldn’t rant about her death, but I will say please get vaccinated if you’re able. Between work and family, I’m exhausted. Thankfully, I’m on a long weekend off to detox. Sadly, this is my last long weekend of the year as the retail world ramps up for holiday season.
The Small Hours. Well, I had some fairly good news about this week’s round of edits, emphasis on the HAD part. Then I discovered I was editing from the wrong fucking file, so yeah, things aren’t so hot at the moment. Could have been worse. I had to start from the beginning with the correct file (now all nicely retitled to avoid that snafu again), and things are on the up and up. I’ve set my next WIP aside to focus on this round of edits. I have to get in the right headspace to read through the story, as I’m finding I like most of what I’ve written, which is a good thing because I’m really hard to please, but also I need to be mindful of looking at the story with an eye for honing each word, each sentence, each paragraph, each chapter to a razor sharp point. Cutting the fluff is easy, adding detail just as easy. Does it make sense, does it make the story flow … do the words sing? Beta readers help with this, especially if you’re too close to the work. This is why it’s always a good idea to step away from the story between drafts, work on something else, read a lot, watch those tv shows and movies on your watchlists, get outside and enjoy the weather when it’s pleasant. Any and every thing you can do to get the story out of your head for a while, that way when you return to it, you see it with somewhat fresh eyes.
Horror In My Own Backyard
I saw a tweet from someone (and I can’t remember who … sorry!) about the TBW pile. TBR, which stand for To Be Read, well … we know what that means, but TBW stands for To Be Written, and am I also very familiar with that. I have so many stories to be written. So many ideas that could be stories. So many characters that need stories. It seems like this never ends, and I love that because that means I’ll always have something to work on. My usual process with stories springs from one of the two sources: idea or character. Sometimes these things happen all at once, and that’s really cool when it does. But for the most part, it’s the idea, or the germ of an idea. I don’t even write the idea down. I let it bounce around in my head, give it time to germinate. This way, I forget shitty ideas, and remember the good ones. They hang around dormant until something else triggers them. For the most part, the triggering part comes from something mundane and ordinary: a personal remembrance, snippets of someone’s conversation, a random thought while driving. Sometimes just the way someone looks at an object, or a friend or family member, can trigger the idea, and away it goes, bouncing around in my head again, connecting to memories and stimuli, gaining momentum, growing in size.
And I let it percolate. For a long time. Sometimes years. Characters try to jump on the idea, and most can’t handle the ride. Eventually, a character will hit the 8 second rodeo mark and tame the idea. I still don’t write anything down. When I think of the idea and the character has stuck with it, then I begin to think more about the character.
Who is this person? What do they want? How are they affected by this idea?
When the character begins to talk to me, that’s when it’s time to get ready to write. Instead of me asking the character questions, the character begins to tell me about themselves in ways that relate specifically to the story idea. Sometimes there’s a story there, already formed, and I need to get it down, and sometimes, the story is right there on the edge of my vision, hanging around in a blind spot that only time can illuminate.
Last issue I promised a writing prompt, so here ya go:
My backyard.
How’s that for a segue?
Wait … this is related. My backyard has spawned an idea that needs a character. First … a little history. I’ve lived at this apartment complex for years, and this past winter I was forced to move due to a plumbing issue to another apartment at the rear of the complex, an area I always called “way in the back”. I never drove to this area of the complex until I had to move, so I had no idea there were woods “way in the back”.
Here’s a picture of my backyard.
And another.
This area is the size of two city blocks. Undeveloped, it runs along the side of the railroad tracks by my apartment. Even though it’s about two blocks, this wooded area is thick. I have never ventured into this area, and I never will. Trust me, I’ve seen The Blair Witch Project too many times, so I know better.
See how thick the woods are? See how dense it is? How close the trees are to each other?
It’s very creepy out there at night in the dark. You cannot see through the limbs at all.
There’s something in those woods.
One of the maintenance guys at the apartment complex told me there’s a homeless guy who lives in a tent in those woods.
Yikes!
Okay, that sounds bad. Poor guy, homeless, probably just trying to stay out the line of sight of the police, just wanting to be left alone. It’s sad.
But it’s also creepy.
Why live in the woods?
Who else goes in those woods?
What if someone got lost in those woods, scared and alone?
What if someone killed them? If something killed them?
What if a tenant discovered a body in the woods? Maybe they’re parking their car and they just so happen to peer into the tangled brush and they see a shape that looks like someone lying on the ground? They decide to step into the woods and check it out, and it’s the last thing they’d expect to find.
What if the police found evidence of occult activity in those woods?
What if someone hears a cry in the woods at night?
What if the wind in the trees sounds like someone talking? What if a tenant heard the wind?
What if they listened to the wind in the trees?
Maybe the wind tells them things? Maybe the wind in the trees has a message only you can hear?
See how your own backyard can create story ideas? This is what people mean when they say Write What You Know. They’re not talking about your job, or your family, though those things could also be great story prompts. Write What You Know means discovery. You know those woods in your own backyard, even if you never take a single step into those woods. You know it in your heart, your mind, your imagination, and it only takes a little prodding to let things get carried away. When prompted, and you let your imagination run wild, who knows what you’ll come up with.
A plethora of story ideas. You might even come up with the entire story with just one What If?, fully formed, characters at the ready.
There’s a story in those woods. I feel this story is going to be character first, because I need to know why they’re going into those woods. Did they hear a sound? Did they see something that just looked … strange? Have they heard stories about something weird happening in the woods? The idea could come first, that there’s something in the woods that needs a character, but I like the character determining what’s in the woods, as though whatever the idea, it’s dependent on the character. Thing is, you don’t want to force these things. Push it too hard and it feels forced. No … this needs to be organic, and the cool thing is I have plenty of things to work on while I let this one percolate. Every time I come home and park my vehicle I’ll see those woods. Well, until I move. But then I can always drive back here and look at the woods whenever I want.
What if those woods are calling out to someone who moved away? They return and stare into the branches.
See how easy it is to find a story in your own backyard?
Music: Jerry Cantrell, Monolord, Mastodon, Blackwater Holylight, Eivind Aarset, Miles Davis, Rob Zombie, Shooter Jennings.
Films: The Haunted Palace, Gaia, No One Gets Out Alive. On deck: The Night House.
Series: Chaplewaite, American Horror Stories.
Books: Rovers by Richard Lange. The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte (again).
Next issue: Coming soon, but I don’t have a topic at this time. Surely something will come to mind when I get there.
peace&love
Bob
peace&love
Bob