Monthly Archives: January 2025

Blog, Writing Craft

Writing Tips to Transform Your Writing Routine

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Writing tips are useful only if you can use them. I know, that’s not very helpful, but neither is a lot of writing advice on the web. However, this post is going to offer you a few writing tips that will change your writing routine. I know this is true because each tip is actually tangible, practical advice that you can put to use each time you sit down to write.

Tip 1: Set a Schedule and Chunk It Out

The hardest part about writing is setting a schedule. It’s extremely difficult to sit down and just get to it, and there are many reasons for this. Very few of them have to do with loving or hating writing. It’s a motivation issue. We know we can get to it, but we just aren’t going to do it right now. Here’s a piece of advice: set a writing schedule. Writing is effective when it’s done in short bursts, which actually increases efficiency. Being alert and capable allows you to read with a clear head, edit precisely, and write with creativity and earnestness.

In practical application, this tip asks you to form a schedule for your writing project. If you are writing a novel, create a plan that involves you writing every day. Set the objective on the page with how much you are going to get done and what. Are you outlining? Did you start drafting a chapter? Are you writing character backgrounds?

Write it out over the course of a week, a month, or a year, but make sure it is clearly labeled and you know what your expectation is when you sit down. If you get done with a section early, don’t just ram yourself into the next section. Consider taking a day off. You are “chunking” your writing. That means breaking it down into digestible chunks instead of running headfirst into it miserably, expecting something to change. Additionally, you can use a host of apps to help you schedule and organize. PowerPoint and Google Slides, for instance, can help you map your novel and see it visually. Or, you could just use a good old sheet of paper and a pencil. Whatever works for you!

Here’s a tentative writing week setup with this idea in mind:

Five-Paragraph Essay: Argumentative

  • First Day: Research and find sources
  • Second Day: Draft 1/2 of the Essay
  • Third Day: Draft 1/2 of the Essay
  • Fourth Day: Revise for ideas and structure
  • Fifth Day: Edit for syntax
  • Sixth Day: Edit for grammar
  • Seventh Day: Peer review and/or publish

Tip 2: Find a Place to Write That Works for You

A writer’s room doesn’t have to contain a million leather-bound books. Nor does it need to look fancy or have a giant walnut desk. It just needs to be a place where a writer can write. In fact, it doesn’t even have to be a room. As long as you have a comfortable place to write, that’s all that matters.

When looking for a place to write, get rid of the notion that you need writerly attire and thick-rimmed glasses. After all, you just need to sit down and get the work done. In bed? While you are sitting in your recliner? At the kitchen table with the radio on? If it works, it works. We need to find places that are conducive to writing, and we have to remember that this has nothing to do with the mythological idea of the writer persona. Separate yourself from the idea of being a writer and actually write.

Tip 3: Use the Read Aloud Function

One often overlooked tool on most word processors is the “Read Aloud” function. Many authors and writers give the advice that you should read your text aloud to yourself to catch errors. My first writing teacher in college offered the same advice. This is because it actually works. Changing the modality in which you revise and edit can help you see things that you were unable to see before. It clears up missing conjunctions, misplaced modifiers, and missing punctuation real quick.

However, if you spend more time focused on your own voice than the errors, that could be a problem. As such, using the “Read Aloud” function on Microsoft Word (or any app, really) can be extremely helpful. Play the text and sit back and listen to what you have written. It’s very good at catching wonky sentences and missing words. Also, there are many apps like Microsoft Word that only execute a read-aloud function. Regardless, this writing tip may change how you approach editing overnight.

Tip 4: Use Templates and Mentor Texts

Whether you are writing fiction or informational works, you should consider using a template. What is a template? A template is a scaffold for a text that shows you the form and structure of a given piece. For instance, a template for an argumentative essay will have starter sentences for all five paragraphs and will show the layout of the essay. Run a web search for the keyword “Template” along with the type of essay, story, or text that you are working on at the moment. You will find immediate examples. Writing tips often employ vapid language about studying craft, but what does that mean? Here, that means studying a template to see the inner workings of a text. It may seem like cheating, but pushing to internalize structure is an age-old method of perfecting craft.

Moreover, one should consider using mentor texts to help guide them through the writing process. That is to say, if you are new to fiction, consider finding a story that fits the narrative you are trying to weave. Now, don’t steal the author’s words and story, but consider their layout, and investigate their moves. Very quickly, by paying attention to how they convey imagery and characteristics, you will be able to identify the text features that you need for your own work. Using mentor texts also helps in writing essays and informational works through the same process. Painters use images for reference, and you should use mentor texts for writing.

Tip 5: Write Trash

Admit to yourself that your draft is going to be terrible. There is no way around it. It is not going to be very good, because that’s what drafts are, after all. With that in mind, you need to sit down and start writing all of the trash that is on your mind. If you are writing an essay, just spit out all of the ideas as you move across the page. If you follow the writing process, schedule your writing, and identify a template, then you should be in a fine position to put garbage all over the page. Your job is to produce ideas and put thoughts into text. You can’t do it perfectly the first time, so sit down and get the work done, so that you can come back through and revise and edit.

Furthermore, writing is recursive, therefore you can come back to it when you want. That means you can clean it up when you want as well. Do not sit down and expect to spin gold—it will never happen. You must embrace writing trash in order to overcome those immediate deficits with writing—procrastination, imposter syndrome, anxiety, etc. In this way, writing trash will get you to the good stuff, which is revealed through revision and editing.

Conclusion

A good writer does what they have to do to get the writing done. This involves sitting down regularly and pumping out words, texts, stories, and whatever else crosses their brain. Writers also utilize all of the resources afforded to them and are not above any process until they have at least tried it once. Similarly, writers do not have to be in fancy rooms spinning gold. They just have to sit down and write it out, which can be done anywhere that is comfortable for them.

Simply put, a true writer is somebody who writes. They are not worried about whether they are considered a writer or not, whether they look like a writer, or whether they actually ever get to it or not. A true writer hones their skills and perfects their craft by any means necessary, and practical tips always help.

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My Literacy Journey and the Books that Made Me

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I have many memories of reading and writing when I was a kid. So, it’s actually kind of hard to put those thoughts into perspective, especially when I think about the most important books of my life. Without a doubt, the stories that come to mind have impacted me as a reader, writer, and a teacher. They are numerous. I know I could try to explain them, but there are just so many stories that changed me. In this post, I would like to discuss my literacy journey. It started when I was very young. But, by reflecting on it, I hope it inspires you to think about your experiences as well.

Library Books, Essays, AR Reading

I can remember going to my local library often when I was a kid. Occasionally, my mom would have us write book reports in exchange for takeout dinner. Consequently, my siblings and I would comb through the stacks at the library seeking interesting topics. I wrote a report about Bengal tigers once. But, it was here that we found a million interesting books (like Choose Your Own Adventure books by R.L. Stine), and where we learned that silence and reading were two comforting allies.

In elementary school, I also had a ton of Accelerated Reader points. The gold standard for myself and many of my peers. These points were extremely important to us because you collected them like coins. All you had to do was pass a short quiz on a book. The more points, the more prizes you could win. Myself and two other students won top prizes for the year. The prize? Going with our principle, Mr. Katzinger, to lunch and the local library. It’s a great memory for me, and it’s important for my literacy journey.

Read-a-Longs and Read-a-Thons

Another memory I have is from earlier in my life, roughly around third grade. My school would host a read-a-long (or a read-a-thon, I don’t remember which), where students would spend a good chunk of the day–if not the entire day– reading. We would lay around the school reading books and immersing ourselves in literature. As a bonus, we were allowed a sleeping bag, snacks, and a drink.

For me, the consummate teacher’s pet, I ended up putting my sleeping bag underneath the teacher’s desk. My teacher, Ms. Knoblauch, was elsewhere in the room. There I read Roald Dahl’s 1988 children’s novel Matilda front to back, cover to cover. It was such a pleasant experience and that book holds a precious place in my heart. I can remember the quiet solitude, and the rain pattering on the window. The energy was out of the school, as each child experienced the written word in their own way in silent contemplation. Dahl’s Matilda had all of the ingredients to lull me into a safe place, including a precocious, avid-reader protagonist and an evil principal.

There was also the love of an endearing teacher, Miss Honey. It was only a year later I would meet the kindest, sweetest teacher in my entire life, who was very similar in many ways. She was a literacy advocate through and through.

Childhood Memories of Reading and Writing

My literacy journey continues: in my early teens I sat at my parents’ kitchen table (sat on the kitchen table), and I had my legs up on a chair while my mom washed the dishes after dinner. She asked me to read a few stories, which was a frequent tradition when she was preoccupied with other matters, and so I read her two tales from two separate collections, exchanging each book on my lap when the first story ended.

One of which was Stephen King’s short story “Suffer the Little Children” from his 1993 collection of short stories Nightmares & Dreamscapes. This is an excellent collection, and in it, a third-grade teacher (much like a similar character from his story “Here There Be Tygers”) begins to suspect that her students are actually shapeshifting monster. It’s about a monstrous takeover or it’s about a teacher’s slow descent into madness. Either way, it’s one of my mom’s favorites, and I found it especially unsettling–but I did love it.

The second story was Edgar Allan Poe’s 1843 short story “The Black Cat.” This was in one of our many Poe collections. I didn’t quite understand Poe at the time and felt the story was too real. In fact, I thought it was from the perspective of the author himself. The admission of gouging out the cat’s eye with a penknife left me startled, as I thought it was an admission of guilt. Little did I know that the story is simply a genius-level conjuration of a literary giant.

These stories greatly infected my taste for horror, and I sought it out everywhere and in every form, from books to short stories, and from television to film.

Reflecting on My Literacy Journey

I think about these moments in my literacy journey often. Now that I am a teacher, I try to have a positive impact on my students. I also have a young daughter who is as precocious as I ever was. So, I can only think about how there are these exact moments with students in middle school and first-year college that shape their entire outlook on literacy. There are moments when you are a young kid in third grade that will forever impact you for the rest of your life. Even though I went through the same experiences, I guess I’m just glad I had a good book to help me along.

Blog, Writing Craft

How to Write a Ghost Story: Eerie Essentials

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In the realm of literature, few genres speak to the same sense of excitement as a horror story. The mystery, suspense, and eerie stories will always fascinate readers. Thus, exploring different types of ghost stories (and ghosts in general) helps writers understand their own approach to this genre. In this post, we will look at how to write a ghost story to weave our own spooky tales.

Writing Ghost Stories with Ghostly Character Development

Character development in ghost stories is important. In learning how to write a ghost story, we also have to learn about motivations. The following examples should help us familiarize ourselves with this idea.

A Christmas Carol

To begin, character development is one of the most essential parts of a ghost story. For example, the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge throughout A Christmas Carol shows the power of well-crafted characters. His movement from a monstrous anomaly of capitalism to an equitable seraph shows the power of character development. It also shows how it can move a story both plot-wise and thematically. In addition, Scrooge’s character helps us understand the story and the motive of the plot. As readers, we can see the plot unfold through the miserly old crook’s experiences. Then, suddenly, he is not such a miserly old crook anymore.

The Tell-Tale Heart

Furthermore, we can see more nuanced character development in the ghost story. For example, in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” the lead character is haunted by the murder of the old man with the milky eye. His hysterics over this violence causes him to reveal himself to the police. In examining this, we can see him as a paranoid, psychologically disturbed individual in the beginning of the story. What is more, Poe’s narrator, consumed by guilt, becomes a spectral presence in his own right, offering a different dimension to character-driven ghostly tales. Poe skillfully crafts a character whose internal turmoil becomes an essential part of the ghostly narrative, emphasizing the profound impact of psychological depth on the eerie atmosphere. By the end, he is a full on homicidal maniac.

The Turn of the Screw

Similarly, the governess in Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw” changes from both a caring, loving caretaker of the children to somebody equally paranoid and lost in her own psychosis by the end. Likewise, the ambiguity of The Turn of the Screw creates a different take on ghosts and the ghost story. In this, the reader has to question the reliability of the narrator. This ambiguity prompts readers to question the characters’ motives. They also question the very fabric of reality within the ghost story. This illustrates how characters can be a nuanced and pivotal in shaping the overall eeriness of the narrative landscape.

Ghost Settings in Craft

The setting is not merely a backdrop in a ghost story. It is also a living, breathing entity in the story. If you consider the locations and the places where the story takes place, all you must do is reach a little further and examine both the real and the metaphorical aspects of the setting. Both of these details help the reader feel as though they are in an environment that is alive.

For instance, Dickens masterfully transports readers to the cold, desolate streets of Victorian London in A Christmas Carol. This brings more sensory experience to the tale’s haunting quality. The reader can see the ghostly plumes of nearby factories. They can also hear the hollow coughs coming from destitute children on the street corner. The click and clack of Scrooge’s cane on the sidewalk is another added detail.

Additionally, when considering Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the confinement of the small home creates a claustrophobic environment. James’s The Turn of the Screw has an equally claustrophobic environment in Blythe Manor. This is where the governess cares for the children. Eventually, every turn leads down the rabbit hole of ghostly encounters.

How to Write a Ghost Story with Suspense and Themes

Moreover, a successful ghost story should not just rely on spectral encounters but explore deeper, richer themes. Dickens seamlessly weaves social commentary into A Christmas Carol, addressing themes of greed, redemption, and the role of the rich and powerful in benefitting society. Meanwhile, Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” examines how mania can transform somebody from simple paranoia to a murderous vulture, praying on the weak and vulnerable. In addition to that, Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw explores an unreliable narrator and ideas of “the truth” in context. These themes allow a deeper exploration of the work and ties many of the story threads together.

Conclusion

In learning how to write a compelling ghost story expects an execution of skill in the horror genre. There should be character depth, atmospheric setting, thematic richness, and effective pacing. In looking at similar writings, such as A Christmas Carol, and The Turn of the Screw, writers can use these mentor texts to guide them through writing.

As it relates to your own writing, thematic knowledge and research may be the most beneficial. Horror authors look into the hearts of humanity and pull out the taboo. A murder spree in the Bahamas has a juxtaposition at play. Meanwhile, a love story in a Gothic castle presents a new twist on an old genre. The most important thing with a good ghost story is to keep it interesting, even if it is a slow pot-boiler, or a fast-paced murder mystery. Give the reader something to grab onto, so they don’t get left behind.

Other ghost stories that can help guide you in your own writing:

  1. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
  2. The Shining by Stephen King
  3. Ghost Story by Peter Straub
  4. The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
  5. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Works Cited

Dickens, Charles. “A Christmas Carol.” Project Gutenberg, 2008, http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/24022/pg24022-images.html.

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Project Gutenberg, 2008, http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2148.

James, Henry. “The Turn of the Screw.” Project Gutenberg, 2014, http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/209.

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The Surprising Inspiration Behind “Dead Man’s Chest” by Robert Louis Stevenson

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There are many famous poems with lines that transcend the very work in which they appear. In this poem, by Stevenson, the utterance of “Fifteen Men on the Dead Man’s Chest” has now permeated culture, from Muppet’s Treasure Island (1996) to The Pirates of the Caribbean (2003). Such longevity might make one wonder: what is the staying power of this verse?

In this post, we are going to examine the poem “Fifteen Men on the Dead Man’s Chest” by Robert Louis Stevenson. This poem appears in chapter one of his novel Treasure Island (1883). In examining this poem, we can understand a little background about the verse itself and how it relates to the author’s novel. Of course, the poem is about pirates and the life of a pirate, but what inscrutable details can we parse out of it? Let’s find out!

Poem

Fifteen men on the Dead Man’s Chest —
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest —
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
…
With one man of her crew alive,
What put to sea with seventy-five.

Analysis

As stated, the poem comes from Treasure Island (1883) by Robert Louis Stevenson. It references the pirate Black Beard’s attempt to punish a mutinous crew by marooning them on Dead Man’s Chest island. The island itself is only 250 square yards and features high cliffs and not much to eat. Not a completely dastardly man, Black Beard left the crew members (15 all told) with a cutlass and bottle of rum apiece. His intention to return after 30 days to find that the men had all killed themselves fails, as they are still alive.

Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

According to Stevenson, he found the name “Dead Man’s Chest” in a book by Charles Kingsley. Stevenson wrote: “Treasure Island came out of Kingsley’s At Last; where I go the Dead Man’s Chest — and that was the seed….” Stevenson also said the book itself came from Captain Johnson’s History of the Notorious Pirates. Curiously, a footnote in Selected Letters states that “Charles Kingsley refers briefly to The Dead Man’s Chest as the name given by buccaneers to one of the islets in the Virgin Islands. The name is in fact Dead Chest Island; there is a Deadman’s Bay on the nearby Peter Island” (Stevenson).

As such, it may not be a chest after all, but a colloquial nickname for an island that pirates once visited. That goes to show you how names can take on many different meanings!

Works Cited

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Selected Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson. New Haven, London. 2001.

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“what love isn’t” by Yrsa Daley-Ward Analysis

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In this post, we are going to analyze by my own estimation, maybe the most important poem about love ever written. Yrsa Daley-Ward’s “what love isn’t.” It perfectly encapsulates the dichotomy and contrast of what love really is and not what the poets often say. Which, as it stands, is something akin to Heavenly purgatory. Humans have no choice but to think of their relationships, as they are beset by their communal needs in life. One such communal need is love, which is as ephemeral and transient as any abstract noun.

Analysis

The Reality of Love

Yrsa Daley-Ward, in her poem “What Love Isn’t,” states that love is not exactly what we learned about in the picture books. “It is not a five-star stay,” she writes. “It is not / compliments, and it is never ever / flattery.” That is to say, love isn’t a fairy tale, and there isn’t a princess to come out of the woodwork to steal your heart, or a prince to put on the glass slipper. Love defies such simple notions. It is beyond petty pleasantries.

What is more, love is a difficult thing to carry with you, even though it has many upsides. “It is solid,” Daley-Ward writes. “Not sweet but always / nutritious / Always herb / always salt / Sometimes / grit.” There is something hearty there for us to consume in love. Something to make us whole again and to make us feel something in our guts. Sometimes, we think of this as butterflies in our stomach, but that undercuts the wholesome, healing properties of love.

Love as Healing

Love can heal us in ways that we don’t understand, according to “what love isn’t.” In times of turmoil and strife, those we love stand with us and see us through. If you have ever been unemployed, depressed, morose, or apathetic, then you know what power a hand grabbing yours at the right moment can have, the same as a hug when you least expect it.

Daley-Ward continues: “It is now and till the end. It is never a slither, never a little / is a full serving / it is much.” How much? Well, I suppose that comes down to the partnership, but much is the difference between trying and not trying, loving and not loving. Communication is often difficult and tiresome. Though we can often overlook these things because our spouses are our backbone and supporters, people who cheer us on when nobody else has the time. That type of dedication matters. In this way, love becomes much. It transcends little acts of service and touch. It is a way of life, a dedication.

The Strongest Emotion

Even so, love gets heavy, and that can sound cliché, but love is the strongest emotion. You can’t always explain why you feel the way you feel about somebody because love internalizes itself in your soul—in your very being from your feet up toward your head. Daley-Ward states that “it is weight and it is weight and it is too heavy to feel / good sometimes… / It is / not what the films say… / it is difficult and always, always / surprising.”

Love is never what you think, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth having in your heart.

Works Cited

Daley-Ward, Yrsa. “What Love Isn’t.” CommonLit, 2014. Web. commonlit.org/texts/what-love-isn-t. Accessed 12 Nov. 2021.

Blog, Writing Craft

Temptation and Vice: Writing Fictional Characters

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“Knowing was a temptation. What you don’t know won’t tempt you.“ Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid’s Tale

Food, laziness, and material possessions; lying, cheating, and stealing. These are true-life vices, and they are also ones found in fictional settings. Writing fictional characters can be difficult. Yet, writers must understand that temptation and vice are powerful literary tools for creating endearing heroes and complex villains.

The Temptation of Adam and Eve

To begin, in perhaps the most famous example of temptation, Adam and Eve gave into their temptations and vices in the Garden of Eden.

As stated in The Holy Bible: King James Version: “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat … And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (King James).

In this context, the Lord punishes Adam and Eve to live in toil–they are to be human. Their short-term wants doomed them forever, and kept them from paradise. As such, there is no way they could aspire to the convictions of community that is necessary for a productive life.

What this says of writing fictional characters is rather direct. Temptation in literature takes the form of vices; typically the ones that entice us the most. Characters in dramas want what they can’t have—hero and villain alike.

Temptation and Vice in Hansel and Gretel

In folklore, temptation is a reoccurring theme. It fits the religious morality stories present in the Bible—but for children. For instance, in the story of “Hansel and Gretel,” the children’s parents leave them to die in the woods. After becoming lost, they come to a candy house where they are nearly murdered by an evil witch.

As it relates to our main point regarding temptation and vice, the candy house attracts Hansel and Gretel. There, a witch nearly eats them due to their thievery and her hunger for child flesh. In these stories, it is endlessly fascinating to see that authors tempt children into doing childish things. Eating candy and being naïve are commonplace in a child’s life. Nevertheless, overindulgence wreaks havoc on those naive enough to pursue it to its end.

As stated in “Hansel and Gretel” in Grimm Stories: “… when they came nearer they saw that the house was built of bread, and roofed with cakes; and the window was of transparent sugar… So Hansel reached up and broke off a bit of the roof, just to see how it tasted, and Gretel stood by the window and gnawed at it … And they went on eating, never disturbing themselves. Hansel, who found that the roof tasted very nice, took down a great piece of it, and Gretel pulled out a large round window-pane, and sat her down and began upon it.”

Writing fictional characters in stories often asks the writer to find vices that will hurt their darlings. These vices include love, drugs, fame, and excess. These wants often end in disaster or the character learns a lesson (theme) and changes (dynamically). While there are a variety of ways to interpret this idea, creating conflict in a character’s life is paramount in great stories.

Temptation and Vice in Frankenstein

Moreover, this theme appears in stories beyond physical temptation. For instance, the temptation of playing God in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein causes Dr. Frankenstein to create a monster who he can’t possibly love. In the story, Dr. Frankenstein studies for years to learn how to reanimate life. However, his creation is so horrible that he flees from it, only to be haunted by its specter until he dies in an attempt at revenge for his own foibles.

Frankenstein’s temptation to create a living creature was too great a motivator for him to ignore. His education and background both compelled him to commit an act against nature in a violent, vice-driven explosion of science. When reproached by his monster, it tells him: “Yet it is in your power to recompense me, and deliver them from an evil which it only remains for you to make so great…”

Writing fictional characters also means writing them to pursue their interests. However, this doesn’t have to lead to strictly good outcomes. Just because a character is talented doesn’t mean that talent will save them from retribution.

Temptation and Vice in “Goblin Market”

Furthermore, in “Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti, a strange goblin-run market tempts two young girls with its tantalizing delicacies. The story is a morality play, and features two children, Laura and Lizzie. They attempt to avoid a Goblin Market where all manner of delicious foods are displayed.

The goblins scream for patronage: “Come by our orchard fruits, / Come buy, come buy;” enticing anybody who can hear their voice to visit their stand. And who could resist? There are a variety of mouth-watering sweets: “Apricots, strawberries;– / … grapes fresh from the vine, / Pomegranates full and fine,” and so on.

Temptation is real for adults, but it’s especially real for children who have not honed and tempered discipline as a way of life. “We must not look at goblin men, / We must not buy their fruits:” Laura and Lizzie tell each other, afraid of what the goblins have used to feed the fruits “thirsty roots.” Later, they discuss the fruit as “honey to the throat / But poison in the blood.”

The girls discover, much like a well-written character would, that the love of fruits and sweets are not necessary to have an enjoyable life. Rather, those around you, our community, provide this meaning, as “… there is no friend like a sister / In calm or stormy weather;” Perhaps through these exploits characters learn that their vices can drive them to a more meaningful existence, if only to deny them. Consequently, their temptation leads them to a better understanding of the world around them.

Conclusion

Many more examples of this theme exist in literature. Some examples include the near destruction of Odysseus’s ship by the Sirens in The Odyssey the temptation of wealth in The Great Gatsby, the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings, and the characters’ vice in regaining its power. Writers can use all these examples to flesh out their characters.

By giving characters–protagonists and antagonists–fatal flaws and dark traits, the writer is creating a lived-in world, which goes beyond realistic fiction. Temptation, as we know it, is a dangerous threat to life and happiness. By marking characters with this type of defect, writers actually enrich the reading experience. Ultimately, what characters desire truly makes stories worth reading.

Works Cited

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. “Hansel and Grethel.” The Complete Fairy Tales, translated by Jean Hersholt, Anchor Books, 1975.

Rossetti, Christina. “Goblin Market.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, 10th ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2018

Shelley, Mary. “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.” Edited by J. Paul Hunter, Oxford University Press, 2012.

“The Holy Bible: King James Version.” King James Bible Online, https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Genesis-2-4_3-24/.

Blog, Writing Craft

Imagery and Figurative Language: Definitions, Examples & Types

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Blink, and you’ll miss it. The images flash in your mind, and you can see the stars, a forest, or a sunset on a beautiful evening. The sounds come alive too. You can hear the crickets or the droplets of water falling onto a steel bucket near the shed after a recent storm. The smells of fresh rain and leaves waft through your nose, and you can feel the autumn chill on your skin. It’s time to put on a warm, wool sweater.

Imagery and figurative language is at its best in experiential writing, especially when executed with finesse. But, how do you write with imagery, figurative language, and sensory details well? It can be tricky, but if you employ a few basic principles, then it becomes easier with practice and time. In this post, we are going to define imagery, explore how to use it, and understand why it is an important component of writing.

Defining Imagery and Using it in writing

Imagery is a blend of various elements, encompassing the types of language we employ and how we employ it. Some sources define imagery as language designed to be vivid and to engage a reader’s senses. According to Del Mar College, “In literature, imagery refers to words that trigger the reader to recall images or mental pictures, engaging one of the five senses… Imagery is one of the most powerful literary techniques because it connects with the reader’s personal experiences or memories.” Therefore, imagery can be described as the “mental images” conjured in a reader’s mind while they read.

As writers, we often use language that appeals to sight, hearing, smell, touch, or taste to make an event or scene more tangible to the reader. This is referred to as using sensory language. In the introduction, I attempted to describe a scene that is familiar to most people without overdoing it. We can see, hear, and smell that scene with minimal effort.

In this approach, we must “show” rather than “tell,” which means we should describe an experience instead of simply narrating it. For example:

  • Tell: He walked into a room in mid-December and grabbed a book off the old shelf before he left.
  • Show: The creaky old door greeted him as he entered the acrid-smelling room. The books on the shelf had damaged bindings and moth-eaten exteriors. He noticed one book had no binding at all, and a shiver ran up his spine as the cold seemed to creep in. He hurriedly left the room, slamming the ancient door shut behind him in a plume of dust.

Using Figurative Language Expertly

Another effective approach to employing imagery is by using figurative language. For example: similes and metaphors create vivid comparisons between two unlike things to draw a clearer picture in the readers’ minds eye.

Take a look at the following example:

  • Metaphor: The trees danced in the wind.
  • Simile: The trees danced like the wind was their music.

In both cases, a clear picture is painted; the trees are moving in the wind as a dancer would. This brings the reader into your writing because it allows them to see the picture you are painting through comparative subjects. Take something they’ve never seen and pair it with something they have–it’s a recipe for creative writing success.

What is more, employing onomatopoeia–like BOOM, Buzz, and Hum–and hyperbole–like my backpack weighs a ton!–can add sound effects and exaggeration to make your writing stand out and relatable. Again, drawing pictures with figurative language is essential to make your writing more realized.

Consider reading through some poems to familiarize yourself with these types of creative elements.

Conclusion

In conclusion, when writing, we should be mindful of the mental images we are creating for our audience. Readers appreciate descriptions, but not just any descriptions—they should be accurate and purposeful. Imagery should bring us closer to conveying our message, not further away. If you feel that your descriptions are not effectively conveying your message or if they seem dull, consider implementing imagery techniques such as similes, metaphors, or sensory descriptions.

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An Analysis of “The Moon” by Robert Louis Stevenson

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On nights when we have clear skies, no matter where you are, we happy faces look to the stars–and the moon. Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island (1883) and the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), wrote “The Moon” to speak to the foreboding nature of the moon, and the calmness that it can bring. Poetry lives in contrast, and the moon conveys this notion expertly.

Analysis of “The Moon”

In his poem “The Moon” that the moon “has a face like the clock in the hall / She shines on thieves on the garden wall.” Of course, thieves are a violent intrusion into our lives and their juxtaposition to the a thing of beauty–a garden wall–is like that of a beautiful full moon and the violence of dismemberment by a monster of the night.

Horror movies featuring werewolves always feature the moon high overhead, and the expectation that Lon Chaney Jr. is down below looking up in horror is expected, but the looming eye of that wondrous spectral bulb exists to tell us that the moon is there watching and waiting, so stand guard!

“The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse, / The howling dog by the door of the house,” Stevenson tells us of the moon and its watchers, and “The bat that lies in bed at noon / All love to be out by the light of the moon.” Here Stevenson says that the bat sleeps in the day to engage in its love (of flight perhaps) when the moon is full and high in the sky.

And while the portentous nature of a full moon enlightens us to the werewolves among us, it also represents a peaceful time of recharging and solace. Kindly, Stevenson further states, that “But all of the things that belong to the day / Cuddle to sleep to be out of her way; And flowers and children close their eyes / Till up in the morning the sun shall arise.” The image of a sleeping child is a descriptive one as cherubs cuddled up in blankets and flowers falling to their gardens and soil until the light comes back can only be best described as childlike wonder and peace.

“The Moon” by Robert Louis Stevenson

The moon has a face like the clock in the hall;
She shines on thieves on the garden wall,
On streets and fields and harbour quays,
And birdies asleep in the forks of the trees.

The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse,
The howling dog by the door of the house,
The bat that lies in bed at noon,
All love to be out by the light of the moon.

But all of the things that belong to the day
Cuddle to sleep to be out of her way;
And flowers and children close their eyes
Till up in the morning the sun shall arise.

Works Cited

Stevenson, Robert Louis. “The Moon.” Public Domain. Web.

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True Detective Season 1: Weird Fiction, The Yellow King, and Cosmic Dread

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Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, which had a profound impact on True Detective season 1, was a strange book even for its time. While ostensibly a collection of short stories, it is in fact a hidden narrative of psychosis and madness. There (somewhere) in the text is the story of The King in Yellow and a play that drives anybody who reads it mad.

If you compare this to the first season of True Detective, one can see that strange visions, an eerie setting, and the shifting of time fit within these weird fiction parameters. In this post, we are going to look at how Writer Nic Pizzolatto and Director Cary Joji Fukunaga collaborated and created one of the greatest seasons of television put to film.

What is Weird Fiction? Definition of the Bizarre

Weird fiction is a genre of writing that focuses predominantly on the supernatural. These supernatural elements include the strange, eerie, and unexplainable. It explores the limits of the human mind and includes cosmic horror, forbidden knowledge, and encounters with horrific adversaries. Much of the time, writers in this genre blend horror, fantasy, and science fiction.

Authors in this genre crafted varying stories of horror and the inexplicable. Some stories featured men envisioning their own safety shortly before execution, while others featured travelers encountering long-dead gods thought to be asleep. These stories were strong departures for the norm. They caused audience to think and fear the unknown. What is more troubling then the dark and mysterious eons of eternity? According to weird fiction authors–not much.

A Brief History of Weird Fiction

While it’s difficult to say just when weird fiction came about, one can argue that it was popularized in the 19th and 20th centuries. Authors Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and Algernon Blackwood contributed largely to the development of this style. Poe focused his efforts on horror and the macabre. He showcased his talents in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Bierce, meanwhile, used elements borrowed from ghost stories in his tales, such as in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Blackwood, meanwhile, emphasized the eeriness of the world and nature, such as in the story “The Willows.”

The genre became popular with the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, who focused his stories on cosmic horror and joined them together with the Cthulhu mythos. Meanwhile, other writers within his circle–including Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard–wrote similar stories that contributed to this genre. For example, Howard’s most notable creation, Conan, ventured into the realms of sword and sorcery. However, most, if not all, of his stories had something supernatural included, such as monsters, sorcerers, and dark forgotten lands.

Weird Fiction in True Detective

In the context of True Detective, the influences are obvious if you know where to look. Ideas from the aforementioned Robert W. Chambers and H.P. Lovecraft make appearances. Mystery writers impacted the show as well. These influences include Raymond Chandler and, most notably, Edgar Allan Poe’s detective character, C. Auguste Dupin, who solved the murders in the Rue Morgue. Writer Nic Pizzolatto was a teacher and aspiring writer before his breakout success with the first season of True Detective. Before the show ever took form, he wrote short stories that he published in Between Here and the Yellow Sea (2006). In this way, the literariness of the first season is evident.

Meanwhile, the show also utilizes philosophies that ere on a darker side, including Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Alan Moore. The shows belief system operates consistently. For instance, Cohle exudes nihilism and there are nihilistic experiences throughout the show. Meanwhile, Marty tries to stay positive even though he is flawed, which leads to the final uplifting line of the show. With consistent beliefs in place, the themes and tones of the show are both vibrant and engaging.

Cosmic Visions from Beyond the Pale

Weird fiction is all over the first season of True Detective. The plot, the characters, the setting, and the overall tone are pulled straight from a turn-of-the-century pulp magazine with a few updates.

The first thing worth mentioning is Rustin Spence “Rust” Cohle’s visions. Cohle, played adroitly by Matthew McConaughey, experiences strange lines of light and visions of strange symbols. Some online reviewers have opined that Cohle seems to suffer from synesthesia, which is “a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway (for example, hearing) leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory pathway (such as vision)” (Psychology Today). In other words, one’s senses cross over into other senses creating visions of sound or the noises of visuals.

In Ep. 1, Cohle sees True Detective’s version of Chamber’s the Yellow Sign in the form of birds flying through the sky. This symbol mesmerizes Cohle, and unsettles the audience, as the same sign was apparent on the skin of a deceased woman shortly before. Moreover, throughout much of the series we find that Cohle hallucinates sensory experiences, and sees streaming lights as he drives. In the final episode of the season, Cohle hallucinates a void that ostensibly reveals the otherworldly nature of the antagonist, whether he imagines it or not.

Cohle’s hallucinations are very much inspired by Lovecraftian lore, and more particularly the monsters that hide in the shadows. These are the others that humanity can’t see with their own eyes and with their own senses. It is the world beyond the veil. In “The Music of Erich Zann,” by H.P. Lovecraft, the protagonist finds himself in a wretched battle of survival against the forces of the unseen and with the void itself, that whirls, mocking, outside of Zann’s window. Likewise, in “The Dunwich Horror” by the same author, a massive invisible monster wreaks havoc on a community, killing many, and leaving invisible footprints in its wake.

Thusly, True Detective‘s emphasis on an invisible world and the fantasy of H.P. Lovecraft come together within the genre. Cohle’s ability to see beyond the veil grants him a focus that other lawmen do not possess, and it ultimately allows him to solve the murders. In contrast, many of Lovecraft’s protagonists encounter the horrors of beyond by proxy. Yet, they must cross this invisible veil in order to see the truth of the world in which they live. While True Detective may not use literal monsters, the monster(s) in the first season still hides amongst the weeds, and beyond the veil of reality.

Carcosa as a Weird Setting

Continuing, one could draw tangible parallels to Carcosa, in which the literal land and old fort where Erroll Childress has taken up his rituals are hidden in the swamps of Louisiana. Carcosa, as it is used in the show, was no doubt inspired by The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers, but it comes from Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Inhabitant of Carcosa” (1886). Chambers, an author or darkly atmospheric peices, borrowed from Bierce, another author of similar caliber. In response, Pizzolatto borrowed from them.

In examination, we can see parallels between the way in which it was implemented in True Detective season 1, and how it is portrayed in other works. As it was originally conceptualized by Ambrose Bierce in 1895, it is an eerie and foreboding place. It is inhabited by death and decay, and haunted by an undead narrator. Meanwhile, in Robert W. Chambers’s The King in Yellow collection, Carcosa is realized in a foreboding play that can literally drive the reader to madness. The land of Carcosa exists within the text as a haunted or “cursed” place. Chambers references it as “lost” and “dim” and filled with black stars and lost moons. The paradoxical nature of its descriptions feed into the cosmic horror of it all.

Chambers writers:

“Strange is the night where black stars rise,/
And strange moons circle through the skies,/ But stranger still is/
Lost Carcosa.”

Meanwhile, in True Detective, we find that the killer, Erroll Childress, has created a sort of ritual chamber within a labyrinth in an old Civil War fort. Director Fukunaga and company discovered this place while scouting locations in Louisiana. Carcosa, in this instance, is not possibly cursed, but is absolutely cursed by the death of innocent children. If it is not cursed by children, then at least by the real tragedies that have occurred there, such as ritualistic sacrifice, torture, and rape.

In response to fan theories about the shows relationship to Chambers’s The King in Yellow, Fukanaga stated: “I think for Nic (Pizzolatto ), he definitely enjoys those references. For us we’ll take the signifiers in terms of content and lace them throughout. So, yes, it definitely did. Black stars. Different forms of yellow are definitely peppered throughout the show.” Some references were “planned,” he stated, and some were “spontaneous.”

The Shifting Sands of Time

Time is a strange beast in weird fiction. Often, time is the deus ex machina in the story that helps the protagonist miraculously appear somewhere else to succeed. Often times, they traverse time to simply die in the horrors of an infinitesimal void. For example, many of Lovecraft’s stories feature characters passing out in danger and then waking up in safety. “Dagon,” (1917) for example, features a narrator who loses his grip on reality when confronted by a horrible fish God. He wakes up near his boat some time later unsure of how he had clawed his way from near death.

This is strange, but intentionally so to subvert the reader’s chance at understanding the horror of something so horrible.

Time also works differently in this genre. In Chamber’s The King in Yellow, the narrator of “The Repairer of Reputations” has considerable past damages to be aware of and important work to look forward to in the future. Meanwhile, in “The Mask,” the protagonist must wait patiently for a revelation to occur in order to understand the effects of a magical liquid. Additionally, we find dreams and alleys contorted in the text that revel in a complete understanding of time and space. It cannot be so because of our conventional understanding of time as a linear construct as opposed to views of time out of sequence.

In True Detective season 1, the initial scenes feature Rust and Marty investigating the death of a woman named Dora Lange in 1995. This is intercut with interviews with them in the future. By playing with time, Fukanaga is able to distort the audeinces’s own sense of what is happening in a rational way. We know mystery stories in chronological sequence: first they work together to get clues, and then they get the bad guy. Yet, in True Detective season 1, the flashforwards give us a sense of unease. Cohle is wearing a jumpsuit that is oddly similar to prison clothing, and he gives his interview in a sterile environment that is befitting a prison cafeteria. This misdirection plays with the idea of time and makes the audience question what exactly happened in the intervening years.

Meanwhile, the Yellow King in the show has a cooldown period that is less consistent than most famous serial killers, like Ted Bundy or John Wayne Gacy. This irregularity invites comparisons to the oddity of time in the genre and how time plays a crucial role. There are multiple victims in the show, but the years seem to range from 1990 (possibly earlier) to 1995. That gives a rough cool down period of every 5 years. Again, time works as a thematic element in this way, and allows Cohle to believe that he may strike again.

Later in the season, as older men and investigators, Cohle and Marty continue to search for the Yellow King. Their reflections on previous investigations lead to both conflict and resolution. They learn to work together, but acknowledge how the years have slipped away. Time is like that in weird fiction. While it can operate as a deus ex machina, it is also a reminder that the frailty of life is over in an instant.

In Conclusion

Weird fiction permeates off of True Detective season 1. The use of this genre’s tropes is effective when melded with the mysterious natures of Cohle’s visions, the setting, and the usage of time. As viewers, we are pulled into the world of weird fiction, and we are invited to engage with a story that is unrelenting, violent, and filled with surprises. Nonetheless, there are many more weird fiction stories out there that use the conventions of weird fiction as a catalyst to pull us into the unreality of their very own Carcosa.

Works Cited

Psychology Today. “Synthesia.” Sussex Publishers, LLC. 2023. Web. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/synesthesia

Guerrasio, Jason. “True Detective Director Cary Fukunaga on the Yellow King Theories.” Esquire. March 2, 2014. Web. https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/interviews/a27619/true-detective-cary-fukunaga-interview/

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Book Review: Mark Twain’s ‘Letters from the Earth’

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It goes without saying that Mark Twain has a myriad of books that are worth reviewing. In fact, I’ve reviewed A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court in excessive detail on The Writing Post. Yet, Twain has a great many short-form pieces that are worth discussing, including his essay collections. In Mark Twain’s Letters from the Earth, published “posthumously” in 1962, the author expresses his feelings about Earth and governance–and a few other life-adjacent topics.

Summary of Letters from the Earth

Background

Twain’s Letters from the Earth features a variety of different writings put together by “Twain’s second literary executor” Bernard DeVoto. These pieces include stories about Satan and his fellow angels, a historical account of Adam and Eve, critiques on other writer’s writing styles, and always a decent amount of perilous satire.

In the foreword of the book, Literary Editor of the Mark Twain Papers Henry Nash Smith writes that DeVoto submitted a manuscript of Letters from the Earth in 1939. However, Twain’s family kept it from seeing the light of day for reasons of impropriety.

As stated: “…when Clara Clemens read the manuscript she objected to the publication of certain parts of it on the ground that they presented a distorted view of her father’s ideas and attitudes.” Obviously, it is to the family’s only opinion whether something is published or not, but I might argue that Twain’s views on life were sometimes overly critical and distorted themselves, shifting from novel to novel. Pastoral, reflective, and cynical in Huckleberry Finn while biting, violent, critical, and depressed in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. However, the critical approach to religion surprised critics as Mark Twain’s atheism shocked a Christian-focused society.

Of course, the book would eventually be published and here we are today. Smith also points out that the volume of writings contained in Letters from the Earth is cut into multiple sections.

Letters from the Earth Writings

The novel features biblical themes in a collection of letters between Satan and the angels Gabriel and Michael. In these letters, Satan dissects human life. In these letters, Satan laments the strangeness of human rationale and how they perceive their own beliefs. He also tears into God’s hypocrisy related to a variety of actions. These include Adam and Eve to violence toward the innocent. Similarly, there are moralistic tales from the POV of a feline family. There is also a good deal of pondering on why humans assume their superiority on Earth in some. The essays in question focused on kangaroos courts and the evil nature of humanity.

Book Blurb

From the book: “In Letters from the Earth, Twain presents himself as the Father of History, reviewing and interpreting events from the garden of Eden through the Fall and the Flood, translating the papers of Adam and his descendants down through the generations. First published fifty years after his death, this eclectic collection is vintage Twain: sharp, witty, imaginative, complex, and wildly funny.”

Critical Response

In looking for a critical response on Amazon, I used my edition of the book (Perennial Classics, Feb. 2004) to siphon reviews. The positive reviewers stated that Letters from the Earth “is sharp, witty, frequently funny, irreverent.” Other stated that it should be “required reading.” Interestingly, one review stated that the book is “For Hardcore Twain Fans Only.” They go on to write that “Its (sic) recommended that you read his most famous titles first and then come back to this if you’re craving more.”

In looking for negative reviews of Mark Twain’s Letters from the Earth on Amazon, I found that most of the negatives aimed at the edition of the book. This was different from the text itself, which I suppose speaks volumes of the content. Nevertheless, three to four star reviews address that it is “tough to read” and that some readers had to “look up” words “in a dictionary.” Most damning is that for some readers it “failed to hold interest.”

In positive reviews, The New York Times Book Review stated that Twain’s attitude in the book was “of Swift” and “the intellectual contempt is that of Voltaire,” and finally that “the imagination is that of one of the great masters of American writing.” Likewise, the Chicago Sunday Tribune stated that “Here Twain takes some of man’s most revered beliefs and demonstrated their downright preposterousness when examined in a cold light.”

Impressions

Some of the middling reviews of Letters from the Earth address my own criticisms of the text. Twain’s style and echelon of prioritization in writing is sometimes confusing and arbitrary. In this way, his style can be “wandering and garbled at times.” Some examples include the structure of Letters from the Earth. Perhaps, if I gave it more time, I could put themes together, but the book seems to be organized by no real relationship. Satan writes to Gabriel and Michael in the titular story, and then we venture into a bedtime story about cats. Again, though, I have yet to read this book in full and would need time to analyze its contents.

Though, coming back from Chicago after purchasing this text, I realized that I was going to need some help contextualizing. Twain’s essays and writings often need context. This is because (as a matter of theology) it is important to know when somebody lived and how the populace perceived the Church at that time, as far as politically and necessity. A dry read of Mark Twain’s Letters from the Earth book would be create conflict for any reader

Works cited

Twain, Mark. Letters from the Earth.  Harper Collins. 1991, 2004. Print.

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Folklore: The Botched Destruction of a Vampire on Mykonos

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When I was a kid, I had a book about vampires that explored a host of different undead lore. Also, how to stop vampires in their tracks. This book also mentioned some real-life examples of vampire slayings. As with many types of folkloric creatures, the monster in the following tale may inform us about more than the horror of the undead. Here is an interesting tale of one such re-killing that involves a vampire on Mykonos.

The Botanist Versus the Vampire on Mykonos

Our story begins in 1701 with Joseph Pitton de Tournefort. As a botanist, he took to traveling often, researching the world around him. It was on the Greek islands and Constantinople when he happened upon the story of an unruly, late-night vampire on Mykonos. Keep in mind: Tournefort was a rational man who just happened upon some events that were currently unfolding. These events would probably damage his view of humans for the rest of his life.

The body in question belonged to a local peasant citizens saw wandering the town in the evenings. They claimed he walked in an unusual way. That is to say, he had been alive, but had recently taken to performing actions that only living people normally take.

“In his writings, the botanist (Tournefort) describes that at first the man turned (undead) was nothing more than a nuisance, sneaking up on people from behind, stealing their alcohol and overturning furniture,” wrote Anna Wichmann for the Greek Reporter. Wichmann further states that after one of the townsfolk were attacked by the vampire, they fell into “shock and fear.”

The Ritual of the Vrykolakas

In response to this undead pain in the neck, the townspeople and the local butcher all got together. They decided that they had to do something about it. Their solution: cut open the body and tear out the heart and then have a nice religious mass afterward. One problem arose, however, when the butcher revealed his “clumsy” talent by not knowing where a human heart was in the body. Due to his negligence, splashed a generous amount of blood and entrails about the scene. Tournefort, knowing that he should stay in his place lest he be burned as a witch for heresy. Thus, he merely stood by and recorded the entire ordeal as a faithful observer.

As stated, the dissection and investigation of the vampire on Mykonos created horrific smells. To mask this olfactory ilk, the townsfolk burned candles and incense. The two competing smells created an near unavoidable nauseum. Meanwhile, the hysteria of the crowd caused the spectators to take note of signs of vampirism on the corpse. These signs did not in fact exist. However, the nausea from the sweltering corpse and stinky, smelly incense swept over the attendees and caused mass hallucinations. In fear, they took the heart to the beach and burned it.

Yet, things only became more aggressive when the corpse allegedly returned to life as a vrykolakas. The vrykolakas were an unholy creature of folklore that brought fear and terror to Greek citizens. As written by D. Demetracopoulou Lee in “Greek Accounts of the Vrykolakas,”: “The vrykolakas is the animated corpse which can leave its grave every day except Saturday … he starts out as a dead human body, he can change his form, or even enter the body of an animal.”

In this way, the corpse of the man born anew, and he meant to cause harm.

An Ongoing Issue and a Solution

Afterward, the angry, heartless vrykolakas committed further harassment of the townsfolk as recourse, as the creature “took to beating people, breaking doors, windows and roofs, tearing clothes and, worst of all, emptying all the bottles and vessels around.”

The vampire’s annoyances forced the townspeople to stabbing the creature’s grave with Christian swords. Though, as noted by Tournefort, this idea came from a visiting man who insisted that the cross made by the hilts holy. He told them that the swords “hindered the Devil from coming out of the Body.” Remember, that the vrykolakas was already a folkloric monster. So, there was all sorts of homespun wisdom generated around the metaphorical campfire.

The End of the Vampire on Mykonos

All of this hysteria eventually led the men to deduce that there had been a small mistake when the ritual had been completed, as it had been done a little backwards. In other words, they burned the heart at the wrong time–that particular action should have come before the religious mass instead of after. The mistake in the ritual, according to the superstitious locals caused the already ornery undead peasant to become far ornerier.

The peasants, realizing their error, took to splashing the doors in their town with holy water. Similarly, they poured it into the vampire’s mouth when given a chance. On top of that, stabbing swords into the grave did little. By the time their patience had finally ran out, they decided to burn the corpse of the creature.

The townspeople then allegedly took the vampire on Mykonos to the sea and burned its entire corpse. As for Tournefort’s estimation: “After such an instance of folly, can we refuse to own that the present Greeks are no great Grecians; and that there is nothing but ignorance and superstition among them.”

Works Cited

Kolasa-Sikiaridi. “The Haunting Legend of the Walking Dead Vrykolakas on Mykonos.” Greek Reporter. Sept. 14, 2016. Web.

Lee, D. Demetracopoulou. “Greek Accounts of the Vrykolakas.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 55, no. 217, 1942, pp. 126–32. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/535250. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

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Exploring the Origins of the Bogeyman in Folklore

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What child has not had a million nightmares about creatures bursting out of their closet door or crawling out from underneath their bed? While the threat of a horrible creature is a fairly simplistic fear for a child, understanding the exact reason for the bogeyman’s existence is more complex. In this post, we will look at the origins of the bogeyman and how it has been used to keep children in line for centuries.

The Origins of the Bogeyman

The bogeyman is entirely entrenched in multiple folkloric cultures. After all, there has always been something in the dark that will come and get you for various reasons. Nevertheless, our understanding of the bogeymen appeared as early as the 1500’s as a Middle English term meaning “a frightening spectre.” Furthermore, as there are references to hobgoblins and other malevolent creatures, the term is synonymous with The Devil as well.

Similarly, the word “bogey” is actually a reference to “ghosts” or “bug” in many languages, which, in contrast to hobgoblins, could also be a reference to bugbears. Building off of that, the term generally stands for something evil or dangerous that individuals should watchout for when in strange or unknown locales.

Here are a few examples of different bogeymen from around the world:

  • Wewe Gombel: A spirit in the Semarang area of central Java who kidnaps neglected children from their parents until the parents understand the responsibility of raising children.
  • Babaroga: A Croation boogeyman. An ugly, horned lady who hunts for unruly children at night to kidnap and eat.
  • The Night Hag: An evil spirit that favors paralysis and “sits on the chests of her victims while they sleep” to cause nightmares.

The idea of the bogeyman is worldwide, but it means lots of different things to a lot of different cultures. So, regardless if your bogeyman was a horned lady or an evil spirit, it still lurked somewhere just beyond in the darkness.

Why All the Horror, Though?

Back in olden times, humans couldn’t just put on a horror movie at too-early an age for children to remind them of what’s scary in the world. No, humans had to tell children stories—an oral tradition of storytelling, really—to get them to understand morals and how to act right.

As stated by one source, there was a commonality between the bogeyman story across cultures. The commonality was discipline. As stated: “Creating compliance in children is something parents long for, but it is sometimes difficult to do with compliments and candy. Scaring them by telling them that a monster would come and eat them if they disobeyed is much more effective in that case.”

Therefore, there is a bit of old time parenting to contend with as compliance, obedience, and communal thinking were (and are) important functions to stability in a household. Wisdom contends: children must be compliant and obedient for the purposes of helping with chores. Naughty children didn’t help with the animals and the crops. The ones who knew their role in the household did. Those bad seeds, meanwhile, faced the prospect of being dragged off by a horrible creature that only existed in the nightmare projections of their parents’ minds. While childrearing has changed, the threat of the bogeyman has not.

Conclusion

In a way, the bogeyman is very real. True, it is not some creature that will come from dark pits of nightmares. As such, it won’t come eat you because he “just feels like it”; nay, he will come eat you because you’ve done something bad. This idea comes from folkloric notions of explanation in a world that is sometimes hard to explain.

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Mark Twain’s Sorrowful Last Words

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Mark Twain allegedly was born during a visit from Halley’s Comet and died upon its return some 76.8 years later. Twain certainly has a lot of mystic about his legacy. His death and final words are up for debate as well. While this may be morbid, it’s therapeutic to spend time deciphering the last words of the dead if only to understand our own mortality and what they have to say before crossing over. In this post, we are going to look at Mark Twain’s last words, and see how they are in fact a little sadder than one would think.

Twain’s Last Words (or scribbles)

Twain died of angina pectoris, according to reports, and lay bedridden leading up to his death. Being a legendary author, there are a few versions of his death.

One Version of Events

Conflicting stories exist for most things in history. After all, the winners are the ones writing about history. Or, in this case, those who were there to witness the end times of popular authors. According to some, Twain did not speak his last words; rather, he wrote them.

Twain had been bedridden with sickness and was hardly conscious in his last weeks of life. This may have something to do with his 20-cigar-a-day habit affecting his ability to breath. Regardless, he woke up on the day of his death and briefly spoke to his daughter, Clare, before requesting his glasses to write a note. The scribbles of his note were the last words he jotted before falling back asleep and dying sometime later.

Allegedly, all he only wrote: “Goodbye. If we meet…”

Another Version of Events

Another story, and one of the more popular stories of his death, says that Twain held Clara’s hand and uttered, “If we meet…” before falling to sleep and dying “several hours later.” What he wanted to say is a mystery.

Similarly, he may have asked for his glasses.

Grief, as it has been written, plagued Twain for most of his life. In a 1910 article by the Arizona Journal-Miner, the author states that Twain, “died of a broken heart.”

“Feeling unequal to the conversation, he said, ‘Give me my glasses.’ These were his last words. Laying them aside, he first sank into a reverie, and later into final unconsciousness.”

Why His Death is One Shrouded in Sorrow

Whether true or not, I think there is something peaceful about his death in the second story. After the loss of his wife and two daughters–one to spinal meningitis and another to accidental drowning–one can only imagine the heartache he must have felt at the end of his life. As stated elsewhere on the blog, Twain cared deeply about his family. To pass away quietly while holding his only remaining daughter’s hand sounds lovely to someone who had lived through so much pain and loss. Therefore, it doesn’t really matter what Mark Twain’s last words were, because he had lived and died with those he cared about the most.

Author and friend, William Dean Howells wrote a eulogy for Twain and stated:

“Twain saw the humor of life, for ever he portrays real types with force and truth, to make them permanent … His most audacious sallies were terse and yet strongly grave. As a moralist, he showed his love of humanity and his hatred of sham, and this sense of duty formed his most ironic and debonair preachments.”

Blog, Literary Bios

The Rough and Rustic Writings of Jack London

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Tales of exploration, violence, and humanity’s struggle against nature permeate the writings of Jack London. In a past post, we discussed a fantastic story by the author, but, today, we are going to look at London’s life and times to glean some of the significance of his upbringing, which, hopefully, will help us better understand how his experiences impacted his work as a vivid storyteller and weaver of adventures.

London’s Early Years

Jack London was born John Griffith Chaney in San Francisco, California, on January 12th, 1876. London never really knew his father, who left the family when London was young. His mother married a Civil War veteran, and they fell into a working-class life. When London was old enough to work, he ran a variety of manual labor jobs, from shoveling coal to working on ships.

He also spent his youth stealing oysters on his own sloop ship and riding a freight train around the United States as a hobo. As it was the turn of the century, financial ruin and economic disparity plagued many Americans, so London also spent time in Charles T. Kelly’s industrial army—a “protest” army—which was born of the financial strife in the late 1800s.

“London saw depression conditions, was jailed for vagrancy, and in 1894 became a militant socialist” (Britannica).

His early success winning a writing contest after a rather scary adventure on the ocean proved to be a catalyst for the young London. At the behest of his mother, he wrote about his experiences in “Story of a Typhoon of the Coast of China.”

London stated of writing his first victory while still working aggressively as a manual laborer:

“Very tired and sleepy and knowing I had to be up at 5:30, I began the article at midnight and worked straight on until I had written 2,000 words, the limit of the article, but with my idea only half worked out. I continued adding another 2,000 words before I had finished, and the third night I spent in cutting out the excess, so as to bring the article within the conditions of the contest. The first prize came to me, and my success seriously turned my thoughts to writing, but my blood was still too hot for a settled routine” (The New York Times).

He would eventually take this one-off success more seriously and dedicate himself to the craft.

London’s Life as a Writer

Libraries, as they often are for budding writers, became a haven for the young London, who took refuge amongst the volumes of action, adventure, and philosophy. After graduating an accelerated version of high school, London attended the University of California; however, he quit after a year due to a “lack of money or means to support himself.” He then departed to pan for gold in the Klondikes (which would inspire his short story “To Build a fire” among others). After that venture proved to be a bust, London set about taking writing seriously.

“By 1899, he had honed his craft and major magazines began snapping up his vigorous stories. When it came to evoking elemental sensations, he was a literary maven” (Smithsonian).

London published his first book in 1900, The Son of the Wolf. This novel was followed by The God of His Fathers (1901), A Daughter of the Snows (1902), The Children of the Frost (1902), and The Cruise of the Dazzler (1902). Of course, being a prolific author meant that London would continue churning out novel after novel, and story after story for many years.

London died of an apparent accidental overdose of morphine on November 22, 1916, at his ranch home shortly before his 41st birthday.

Works Cited

Brandt, Kenneth. “The Short, Frantic, Rags-to-Riches Life of Jack London.” Smithsonian. Nov. 22, 2016. Web.

“Biography: Jack London.” Biography.com. A&E Television Network. April 2, 2014. Web.

“Jack London.” Famous Authors.org. 2020. Web.

“Jack London: American Author.” Britannica. Jan. 8, 2022. Web.

The New York Times. “Jack London Dies Suddenly on Ranch. November 23, 1916.

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What is ‘Analysis’ and What is ‘Literary Analysis’?

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The academic world throes the word analysis around often. If you are unfamiliar with the term then that’s a little confusing, as it appears to imply numerous ways to understand one particular thing and in no particular discipline. This is okay because academia is all about how you define a term as long as you define it. This includes analysis and literary analysis.

In this post, we are going to look at the definition of analysis and we will see how that helps us define literary analysis.

The Definition of Analysis

According to Merriam-Webster analysis is, “a careful study of something to learn about its parts, what they do, and how they are related to each other.” Likewise, the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy defines analysis as, “The process of breaking a concept down into more simple parts, so that its logical structure is displayed.”

As we now have working knowledge of analysis, we might see how these definitions defy some of our prior knowledge. That is to say, analysis isn’t an umbrella term that involves poking something with the eraser of a pencil. In fact, it has to do with viewing a particular subject and its moving parts to see how they relate.

How Does This Apply to Literary Analysis?

Understanding analysis helps us understand a term close to the heart of a writer: literary analysis. As literary analysis has been defined, it is “not merely a summary of a literary work,” but rather “an argument about the work that expresses a writer’s personal perspective…” So, it’s not just our opinion, but our perspective on a work as a whole. All the while, analysis involves using our own background and understanding as well. It is literally looking at the elements of a story or a written work and seeing how they interact. We also want to have something to glean from it or understand.

As stated by some researchers: “This is accomplished by examining the literary devices the author uses within the work. The purpose of a literary analysis is to demonstrate why the author used specific ideas to convey his or her message” (Germanna). When we analyze on a literary level, we are looking at form, structure, tone, diction, syntax, etc. Then, we try to understand how all of those ideas relate.

Examples of Literary Analysis

Think about it. We could analyze a single author’s work just by looking at literary conventions such as form and tone.

As a fan of Ray Bradbury, I know that his work and tone differ from book to book because after reading a great deal of his writings, I can begin to understand his style. For example, if you read The Martian Chronicles, then you will know that this book is a collection of short stories (form) that is filled with curiosity and imagination (tone). Meanwhile, if you read Something Wicked this Way Comes then you will see that it’s a full-length novel (form) that is dark and mysterious (tone).

This is a surface-level interpretation but I can also use my own experiences with imagination, wonder, horror, and mystery to inform my analysis. The end goal then is to see how all of these parts work together to make the complete whole.

Concluding Analysis

Our quick examination, and comparisons and contrasts, help us analyze the text by understanding a subjects’ form and tone (short stories, novels, or poems) Yet, we can look at any literary conventions of a text (aside from form and tone), whether that be the characters, the plot, or the theme (or whatever) to conduct our own analysis. As mentioned, we can then tie this all together for one complete analysis the information we glean from this then creates a new understanding in the literary world.

Works Cited

Academic Center for Excellence. “Writing a Literary Analysis Paper.” Germanna Community College, Feb. 2AD, germanna.edu/wp-content/uploads/tutoring/handouts/Literary-Analysis.pdf.     

Analysis > Definitions and Descriptions of Analysis (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). plato.stanford.edu/entries/analysis/s1.html#1.

Definition of ANALYSIS. 20 Nov. 818, merriam-webster.com/dictionary/analysis.