It's about to get spoopy up in here. We wanted to do something special not only to celebrate everyone's favorite season but also to honor the amazing writers and creators on Tumblr.
Most of us are creators of some kind — whether that be writers, gifmakers, or artists — and this time of year is hard. We start running into fatigue + the scariest thing during the whole Halloween season: creator's block.
✨ Cue the prompt list ✨
This prompt list is split into three groups: dialogue, scenario, and NSFW prompts. Each section has 31 prompts which are sorted with more general autumn themes first and Halloween-specific prompts after that.
A HUGE HUGE thank you to Shawni (@austin-butlers-gf), Sage (@fangirlwithasweettooth), Kenzie (@fangirl-imagines), & Gabby (@dontbesussis) for helping to create this lovely list!
Feel free to reblog + use for whatever it is that you create and post here on Tumblr! Happy Halloween and enjoy 👻 ♥️
DIALOGUE
[ prompts with / indicate that both characters A + B have lines ]
“You have a leaf in your hair.”
“You’re shivering.”
“Why don’t you take off that mask? I’d like to see your face.”
“You’re scared of that, really?”
“That’s your favorite candy? You have shit taste.”
“Promise not to laugh at me if I scream.”
“My friend abandoned me at this Halloween party and I don’t know anyone. But you look as miserable as I feel.”
“If you can’t summon flames directly from hell, store-bought is fine.”
“It says take one, love.”
“Well…you grabbed my hand first.”
“Oh, I see. Is someone a little scared?”
“I spent so long in the darkness I’d almost forgotten how beautiful the moonlight is.”
“You’re the devil in disguise.”
“Nice try. You’ll have to work harder to scare me.”
“I know you’re trying to be scary, but you’re just way too cute.”
“I couldn’t find a costume, so I just decided to go as your [partner/bf/gf].”
“You’re a scaredy cat.” / “I am not!”
“Boo!” / “You were scarier with the mask off.”
“What are you supposed to be?” / “It isn’t obvious?”
“Ew candy corn?” / “What? This candy is hated for no reason. It’s good!”
“Kill me now and put me out of my sugar-fueled misery.” / “I told you to slow down.”
“Come on, it’s just a haunted house! It’ll be like a walk in the park.” / “More like a walk through hell.”
“There’s literally one candle flickering mysteriously. In what universe would I go over there?” / “Is that…a no, then?”
“Well, it is a seance.” / “Good thing the person I want to see is already here.”
“Oh no. You are not wearing the same costume as me! You can’t!” / “Well I did.”
“Ooh very scary!” / “That’s not part of the costume, dumbass.”
“You could have been a prince(ss).” / “Well, I wanted to be a(n) [insert costume] instead.”
“Who you gonna call?” / “Ghostbusters?”
“You look so stupid.” / “Well, that was the idea since I dressed as you.”
“What happened? Let me help you!” / “Relax, the blood is fake.”
SCENARIOS
Leaf hunting/raking leaves
Tailgaiting a football game
Getting drunk at Oktoberfest
Baking a pumpkin pie
Getting PSLs together
Visiting an apple orchard
Visiting a pumpkin patch
Carving a pumpkin
Making caramel apples
Bonfire
Corn Maze
Hayride (haunted or not)
Decorating for Halloween
Costume shopping
Buying couple costumes
Baking Halloween cookies
Haunted house
A doing B’s makeup for a costume
B doing A’s makeup for a costume
Watching a not scary Halloween movie (we recommend Hocus Pocus but take your pick lol)
Watching a scary movie
Halloween photoshoot
Setting up a haunted house
You’re actors in a haunted house
Masquerade ball
Going trick-or-treating
Handing out candy
Playing with an Ouija board
Telling scary stories
Bobbing for apples
Halloween/Murder Mystery Party
NSFW + AUs
[ most of the prompts can be adapted for NSFW or SFW themes but some are more suited to NSFW than others which is why we've separated them ]
“Love the costume but I’d rather see what’s under it.”
“Trick or treat.”
“I would light the candle but…I’m not a virgin.”
“I like your yabbos.”
“Don’t torture yourself ___. That’s my job.”
“Darling, you’re already in my veins.”
“I’ll be the demon to your angel.”
“I want to be what you are, see what you see, love what you love.”
“Just one bite…”
“You’ve been bad. Good thing my costume came with handcuffs.”
“He/She/They prefer(s) virgins.”
“I know what you should be for Halloween. Mine.”
“You’re not as scary as you think you are.” / “Maybe not. But I’ll still have you screaming tonight.”
“Everybody likes your costume better.” / “I could always take it off.”
"Forget the broom. Ride me instead."
“I may not be a vampire but I know how to suck.”
Rolling in the hay? Nah, rolling in the leaves
Sexy couple costumes
You’re stuck in the house of mirrors
7 minutes in heaven but make it Halloween (who can resist a good trope)
Painting each others’ faces/bodies
Mummy wrapping competition
A wears a sexy costume and teases B all night. B isn't happy.
A or B is under a love potion
Roleplay in costume
NSFW Halloween costume fashion show
Getting down and dirty in a corn maze and/or haunted house
Haunted bride/groom AU
Werewolf AU
Vampire AU
Succubus/Incubus AU
Bonus: “This is the skin of a killer, Bella.” 💀
─────
Disclaimer: Feel free to borrow prompts from this list to add to your own prompt lists but if you do, please reblog + credit the original creators of this list or link to this post for proper credit.
Halloween divider by gutterface on DeviantArt + retrieved from Tumblr.
I feel like many people have a fundamental misconception of what unreliable narrator means. It's simply a narrative vehicle not a character flaw, a sign that the character is a bad person. There are also many different types of unreliable narrators in fiction. Being an unreliable narrator doesn't necessarily mean that the character is 'wrong', it definitely doesn't mean that they're wrong about everything even if some aspects in their story are inaccurate, and only some unreliable narrators actively and consciously lie. Stories that have unreliable narrators also tend to deal with perception and memory and they often don't even have one objective truth, just different versions. It reflects real life where we know human memory is highly unreliable and vague and people can interpret same events very differently
The Watson: is present for the event but does not have the same level of perception as protagonist
The Lemony Snicket: isn't present for the event, reconstructs the facts based on later research, can get things wrong or incomplete
The Ted Moseby: is present for the event but has romanticised and embellished their memory of it through nostalgia to an extent that you cannot fully believe it; is also prone to misremembering or outright forgetting details.
The Katniss Everdeen: is present for the event, is the protagonist, but is completely foreign to the world and out of their depth so they don't quite understand a lot of what is going on.
The Rose Quartz: is present for the event, but due to their personal agenda or feelings of shame hides and embellishes what actually happened in favour of a version that paints them in a better light.
The Big Brother: overwrites what actually happened in favour of propaganda.
The Jonathan Harker: is absolutely clueless about what is going on around them and the genre they're in so their perception of events is tinted by their own naivety.
The Goob: the narrator's own emotional bias clouds their judgement of what really happened.
The Tyler Durden: the narrator is suffering from hallucinations and doesn't realise it.
The Pi: the narrator has survived a traumatic experience and copes with it by turning it into a wonderful tale.
So there's something I want to say re: intentionally withholding your vote, and I want to do it without coming across as condescending or dismissive.
I've worked as a field organizer in two campaigns, 2010 and 2012, and my job was to help turnout the vote for Democratic candidates up and down the ticket. Technology may have changed, but people are still knocking on doors for specific voters the way they were 12 years ago.
If you say you're not voting/voting 3rd party, the campaign volunteer is supposed to mark that and move on. Their job, in the final month of the election, is to make sure the campaign's supporters have all the information and resources they need to cast a vote.
They aren't collecting data on why you're withholding your vote. They aren't submitting opinion polling results to the campaign. Something like 155 million people voted in the 2020 election, and if you say you're not voting, the campaign is not going to waste a volunteer's time and morale begging you to vote when there are literally millions of other voters to turn out.
Let me repeat that: The campaign does not track why you're not voting. They simply note your vote is not a priority for turnout and move on.
I say this because I see a lot of promotion of non-voting like that's a boycott, when the function is not the same. A boycott is a coordinated mass refusal to engage with an institution—which sounds similar if you see a vote as a good or service to withhold. Unfortunately, it's not.
A vote is a choice you're making as part of a community hiring committee. Your abstention doesn't prevent someone from being hired. It just lowers the threshold for the worst candidate to succeed.
All this to say: In my direct experience as an organizer, abstaining from the vote sends a message. That message is not "You need to try harder to win my vote." It's "Don't waste time on me."
Yes, your worldbuilding is thorough, your geography meticulous, your plotting elaborate, and your characterisation nuanced, but answer me this: is there a fucked up little guy?
A cool thing about writing is that the better you get at it, the more you're aware of what you want out of it, which means it gets harder, which means you actually feel like you're getting worse.
as the new year approaches, many of us set goals and resolutions - myself included. one of my goals for 2024 is to write a novel (I've been procrastinating on this for quite a long time now). i assume that some of you might have the same goal, that's why I'm writing this post today.
over 2023 i've been releasing some freebies for authors just like me, so I thought I could compile my favorites in this post. hope you find this useful :)
1) the writer's workbook
this workbook has over 60 exercises to help you develop characters, scenarios, etc. if you're ever stuck, I'm pretty sure this workbook will be your best friend.
2) author's corner (notion template)
this is the most downloaded freebie in my shop! it is a notion dashboard with everything you need to organize your writing and has some templates included (like scrivener)!!
3) another notion template
this one has two themes you can choose from: cottage-core and dark academia. they're very similar to the previous template, but this one is more recent and I added some new features. feel free to explore both and pick the one you like the most.
4) the author's journal
this is a cute printable with 20 pages that will help you stay on track and manage your social media accounts as a writer who shares their work online. you can also register what you're currently writing and your personal research and resources.
5) plan your book printable
this is a 6-page printable for you to fill out and plan your book easily and effectively.
6) excel sheet to organize tasks & word-count
this is a simple excel sheet, but it is very effective for keeping track of your tasks & word-count of your novels. also, it is 100% customizable to your liking!
that's all for now! feel free to explore my gumroad shop where I have plenty of freebies to grab! also, don't forget to subscribe so that you never miss any opportunity to get a goodie for free :)
Google Ambient Chaos if you ever need background noises for writing! It's a customizable soundscape website.
Anon, when I first saw this ask, I thought it was going to be one of those mixers of nice, traditional sounds, like rain or a coffeeshop. And it is! And there's lofi hiphop, my favorite sound to write to! Which means this is legitimately an excellent tool for writers, and I love you for introducing it to me.
But I also want to say. There are some choices here. That I need to point out. Because they're either fantastic or questionable, and I can't decide.
Things like . . .
Couple arguing.
Medieval battle.
Beehive, where you can write to a fuckton of bees.
Crime scene.
And actually the perfect soundscape for NaNoWriMo.
Somebody found this last week and reminded me it existed, so I'mma bring it back to this blog because it's about ten days until some of you will need that last one. :D
(@urfriendlywriter | req by @rbsstuff @yourlocalmerchgirl anyone under the appropriate age, please proceed with caution :') hope this helps guys! )
writing smut depends on each person's writing style but i think there's something so gut-wrenchingly beautiful about smut when it's not very graphic and vivid. like., would this turn on a reader more?
"he kissed her, pulling her body closer to him."
or this?
"His lips felt so familiar it hurt her heart. His breathing had become more strained; his muscles tensed. She let herself sink into his embrace as his hands flattened against her spine. He drew her closer."
One may like either the top or the bottom one better, but it totally depends on your writing to make it work. Neither is bad, but the second example is more flattering, talking literally.
express one's sensory feelings, and the readers will automatically know what's happening.
writing, "her walls clenched against him, her breath hitching with his every thrust" is better than writing, "she was about to cum".
are some vocabulary you can introduce in your writing:
love this! and another reminder: you can write acts you’ve never personally done - use your imagination*, literally imagine what you would think would feel good (or bad, depending on what you’re going for lol). there is no right or wrong !
‘It’s called ‘carving a pumpkin’, NAME, not ‘brutal pumpkin murder’. Show some decorum and seasonal goodwill.’
‘Yes, well, the only thing frightening at the present is how you’re holding that carving knife.’
‘If it’s any consolation, I promise not to ghost you when the season’s over.’
‘Halloween is for five-year-olds, and overgrown ones too.’
‘Can too much candy corn actually rot your teeth or was my dentist just trying to drum up October business?’
‘How about I treat you to a dinner?~’
‘Why does every costume have to be sexy? I don’t want to be sexy, I want to be the reason why the night is feared, muhahahahaha!’
‘Don’t be afraid of him; he’s still a Chihuahua, even if he’s wearing a lion costume for the occasion. He just has loftier aspirations at this time of year, that’s all.’
‘Your neck looks delicious, my dear. I mean…uh…you look delicious.’
‘My dad still insists on trick or treating with me every year in coordinated outfits, and I’m a fully grown adult.’
‘You dressed up as Santa Claus last Halloween and told everyone that you were the Ghost of Christmas Present. That is why you’re not invited this year.’
‘Theoretically, do you think brewing up a pot of special edition neon-green slime is honouring the season adequately, or would that breach workplace regulations if I tipped it over the boss?’
‘Are you crazy?! I’m not answering that door! That’s exactly what happens at the start of all of those movies, right before the killer gets in and –’
‘It’s just a kid dressed up as a watermelon, NAME. Chillax, will you?’
‘The entire office are a bunch of vampires? Well, I know they like to gossip and suck the life out of you, but I think that’s going a bit far…’
‘I don’t see a difference, actually. You’re a clown for the majority of the year.’
‘Is it acceptable to buy a jumbo bag of trick-or-treat candy and eat the lot myself while cuddled up under a blanket watching Twilight? Asking for a friend.’
‘Woah, scary. Oh, you’re not wearing a costume yet? My bad.’
‘Has…has NAME really come dressed as the Titanic? I have a sinking feeling about this party.’
‘What would actually happen if you did say ‘boo’ to a ghost? I’ve often wondered.’
‘The scariest thing about this party is the dirt cheap alcohol, just saying.’
‘It’s fine, it’s just a spooky clock chiming at the incorrect time while all of the lights are off and there’s strange footsteps creeping up the stairs.’
‘Someone egged the house again, dear. The neighbour’s house, that is. Ours apparently deserved rotten tomatoes, instead.’
‘I can’t come in to work today. I’m a certified emergency ghost buster.’
‘Well, I also can’t come in to work today. I’ve been bitten by a vampire.’
‘Oh, very funny NAME. The white sheet ‘ghost’ trick only works the first time you do it, you know. NAME, that’s enough! Uh – NAME…?’
‘Holy macaroni!!! There really is a ghost!’
‘Some people take the whole event a little too far.’
‘NAME decided to dress up as Batman and follow all of the clowns around the neighbourhood, pretending they’re the Joker. That’s one way of handling that, I suppose.’
‘Ah, here we go: the yearly observance of Fireworks Week, right on cue.’
‘It’s ALIVE! …I mean, good morning, dear. Did you sleep well?’
How do you tell a character's backstory without the forbidden 'infodump'? I'm stuck and convinced my writing is sh*t but I don't know how to get around it. You don't seem to have any issues with it so I figured I'd shoot you an ask and see what you say.
Oof, it’s a tricky one, and I definitely don’t manage to avoid the dreaded ‘info-dump’ every time, Anon! But thank you all the same.
For those wondering, an info dump is what often happens at the start of a piece of writing when you want to convey everything to the audience so they know what’s going on, and who’s who. Think of it as the ‘narration’ at the start of a film, perhaps. Anyway, it’s stodgy and boring and to be avoided at all costs.
“You were the youngest of three siblings, and you were fed up with being treated like a baby. Your father had said that morning that you were too young to go out dressed like that and you’d lost it.”
Here we have the classic ‘telling’ instead of ‘showing’. You’re telling your audience that the ‘reader’ is the youngest (boring) instead of showing them through incidental dialogue or hints here and there.
Consider something along the lines of:
“Fuming, you stalked out of the kitchen with a bagel in your hand, your father’s voice still ringing in your ears. Alex flattened himself against the wall as you steamed past him in the hallway, but when he heard your father still yelling about the cut of your skirt for the hundredth time, he snickered and lightly smacked you up the backside of your head. “Too bad, lil sis,” he laughed. “You’ll always be the baby.”
You shot him a searing look. “If Laura were here, she’d stand up for me.”
“No, she wouldn’t. We both have to gang up on our lil baby sister, and you know it.”
With that, you stormed out of the front door with no real idea where you were headed.”
Obviously, that’s just something I made up on the spot and would be edited down, but it tells a story and sets the dynamics up without boring the reader to death with lots of clunky exposition.
One tip is to look out for instances of the verbs ‘to be’ and ‘to have’. If you’ve got a lot of ‘you were the youngest’ or ‘she had three siblings’ in there, you might want to find a way around that.
Hope that helps a bit! Starting off with dialogue can be a great way to drop readers into the action. And remember, you don’t have to tell them everything anyway. The reason fanfic works so well is because we already know the backstory or the characteristics of each player in the narrative, for the most part. Treat your story like a fanfic and just drop hints of worldbuilding in here and there, and it’ll feel more natural.
This is for the writers out there who don’t have a support group. Who don’t have family and friends cheering you on. Who are met with criticism and negativity when you talk about your writing and your dreams.
This message is for you.
I’m proud of you.
Your stories, your determination, your passion for your creative and self-expression is incredible and admirable. It’s HARD to keep going when it seems like you’re fighting an uphill battle for every step of the way, but you’re powering through.
Even if it doesn’t feel like it. Even if you want to give up and never write another word.
You keep going. You keep putting words on the page, despite the naysayers.
If you’ve never heard this, I’m telling you now: you’re doing an amazing job. Keep writing! ♥
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