It's OK to Hate. It Makes Great Horror Stories

I think all horror stories are based on a dislike of something.

I always used to admonish my kids if they said they hated something (or someone). I'd say," Don't say hate. It's a strong word." I always think that the word 'hate' is dark and threatening.

But boy does it make a great horror story. 

In Stephen King's The Shining, the main character hated being an alcoholic and was looking for a place to escape to avoid alcohol.

In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the main character hated the belief that only God could create humans and tried to make one himself. 

In Iain Reid's psychological horror novel, I'm Thinking of Ending Things (which was made into a Netflix movie in 2020), the main character, Jake, hates his regret-filled and lonely life, so he invents a new one in his mind and plays it out.

In my latest book, Jackolantern, I can easily relate to the main character's hate of Halloween because I dislike all the made-up celebrations that are forced upon us, including Christmas. Most of them are based on fake reasons anyway. 

For instance, take Valentine's Day. It’s originally based on a Christian feast day honouring a martyr named Saint Valentine. 

Or Mother's Day. It originally meant the Mother Church and was a day that families could get together and visit the church where they were baptised or their local church. Hence the term 'Mothering Sunday' because Sunday is the day that Christians attend church.

The modern version of Mother's Day also spawned Father's Day and then Grandparents Day, meaning people have to buy more and more gifts.

All holiday celebrations are now geared towards commercialism and have lost their traditional meaning, including Halloween.

So I can relate 100% with my main character who hates Halloween and doesn't want to have anything to do with it, and is annoyed when he keeps finding a carved pumpkin on his front porch. 

I know that I'm not the only one who doesn't like Halloween. There are millions of others. 

The big problem with Halloween, as opposed to all the other occasions, is that kids going door to door trick-or-treating gives people no privacy in their own homes and little chance to avoid something they want no part of.

On the plus side, this misery that is inflicted on those who dislike Halloween is done by people in scary masks and costumes, which makes for a great horror story.

And my Jackolantern Halloween horror story is unique.

Jackolantern

Campfire Stories Book Two

https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/jackolantern.html

Why Jackolantern Isn't Misspelled

My latest novel, Jackolantern, was published last month. I enjoyed writing it and was pleased with the cover design and how the book looked.

But when my daughter saw it, she looked at the cover and said, " You've spelled Jackolantern wrong."

That was it. No congratulations, the book looks great, just a brief comment about what she thought was a wrongly spelled word. Of course, she was wrong. I hadn't misspelt anything-especially not my novel's title. Why? Because it's my book, so I can spell anything anyway I want.

The story is about a jackolantern, but all the way through the book I refer to it as" the pumpkin; '' so the spelling of the title is irrelevant.

Jackolantern is the story of a man who hates Halloween. One day he arrives home from work to find a carved pumpkin on his front porch. He thinks one of his neighbours put it there as a sick joke because they all know he doesn't like Halloween, and he always sneers at their Halloween decorations in their gardens.

He throws the pumpkin in the bin, but it keeps returning, and each time it looks angrier.. He soon realises it's not a joke. The reason the pumpkin keeps returning is much more sinister and evil.

And that, in a nutshell, is the story of my book, Jackolantern, and the freedom of writing fiction gives me the freedom to spell words anyway I please.

And, the way I see it, spelling something differently makes my title. stand out and might intrigue more readers.

Because, as the saying goes, why fit in when you can stand out?

It's not too late to grab a copy of Jackolantern before Halloween. Or buy a copy anytime.

Because a Jackolantern is for life, not just for Halloween.

Jackolantern

Campfire Stories Book Two

https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/jackolantern.html 

How To Stay Motivated and Write More

Sitting alone in a room and writing for hours can sometimes feel hard, because being a writer is so different to how others earn a living.

Writers don't have to get up at a certain time and don't even have to leave the house to travel to work. We just sit and write, which is why it sometimes feels hard, and why motivation can sometimes feel like it's lacking.

So, what is motivation, and how can you have more of it?

The word 'motivate' has the word 'motive' built right into it, which is why you need a good reason to do what you're doing.

I find that sometimes I lack motivation to write because I have no set deadline to finish what I'm working on, and no one will know if I've done my writing or not. That's why I always schedule my time so that I can sit down at a designated time and start writing.

Naturally, it's not as easy as it sounds, and many different things get in my way and try and stop me.

Just the other day, I promised myself that I'd sit down and write at 9 a.m. But I got distracted reading an article, and when I looked up, it was way past 9 o’clock, and I was angry at myself for getting distracted. But clearly, having a writing schedule doesn't always work.

It can be that the lack of motivation comes from a goal not being important enough to stick to. 

I found that the best way to stay motivated is to have a clear goal of what I want to achieve, and then I map out a plan of how I'm going to achieve it. Then all I need to do is stick to my plan. But the goal has to be important, otherwise, why would I care? These are the 3 things I need to stay motivated:

- A goal that's worth reaching 

- An action plan to get me there 

- A deadline

I think that the most important of these is a deadline. And this doesn't just apply to writing. 

As an example, when we were recently refurbishing the house we have now moved into, we knew what we wanted to do, but we didn't give ourselves a deadline. After a few weeks, we were sitting discussing what we still had to do and how long we thought it would take. We wanted to get out of the house we were renting as soon as we could because it was costing us nearly $600 a week to live there.

So we set a deadline for the end of the month, ev
en though the timing was a bit tight. 

Then we gave notice on our rental property, organised a removal company, organised the flooring and carpets to be installed 2 days before that, then we told the tradies who were putting in a new bathroom and kitchen that they had to be done before the new flooring went in. Not only did this deadline make us work faster (and longer hours at 12 hours a day), but it also mustered the tradies who were mostly not even turning up every day. Without a deadline, it might have dragged on for weeks.

And it's the same with my writing. If I have a deadline to meet, I get the work done no matter what. And I also need a goal and a plan to get there.

Once I know what I have to do, I have to make sure I stick to it the best I can. Every time I have a plan of what I want to do, life has an ugly habit of throwing as many obstacles in my way as it can, which often makes me want to quit.

But then I think to myself that the time is going to pass anyway. The only question is, how am I going to use it?

With the right motivation, I know I can achieve anything.

Why are Writers not like Other People?

One of the baffling things that I find about being a writer is that no one respects what I do. And it gets worse than that. Sometimes I don't seem to respect what I do either.

Let me explain what I mean by both these things.

People don't respect what I do for a living at all, which is probably because they don't understand what I do on a day-to-day basis. Non-writers don't seem to understand how writers work, which is probably because we sit alone for hours and don't talk to anyone.

If I went to an office every day and spent most of the day writing and typing, they'd understand. But because I sit alone at home and do that instead, it seems incomprehensible to most people.

Writers are never seen as noble as the man who comes to fix your oven, or a person who works on a construction site, or even the people who work in the cabins on a construction site.

Nope. If we don't physically go out to work every day, no one seems to respect what we do.

I find it strange because these same people will read a great book and admire the author, yet if they saw the author writing at home, they'd say it doesn't look like real work.

So how do you get respect from those you know for what you do?

You don't. It's impossible to convince others that you’re a hard worker and that what you do has merit if you're a writer working from home. Those you know you won't respect or understand what you do.

But they don't have to, so don't share.

It doesn't matter what anyone thinks about you being a writer. I’ve been earning all my income from my writing for over 20 years, and my friends and family still don't want to talk about it with me. Even if I bring it up, they change the subject.

My latest novel, Jackolantern, was published four weeks ago, in time for Halloween. It's selling steadily, and I even pre-sold quite a few copies before the publishing date because people were eager to read it. But my friends and family don't even know I wrote it, let alone that it's published and plenty of people are buying it ready for Halloween.

And they'll probably never know. So let them not know.

I enjoy what I do,

And that's really all that matters.

Mission Critical For Life

Start Living Life On Your Terms By Pursuing Your True Life Mission

https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/MCFL.html