Superstition and the Sea

July is National Learn to Sail month! Why not start by reading up on some weird sailing superstitions? For example:

Daring Death: Flowers, coffins, and ministers

Why have everything you need to host a funeral on your ship if you don’t want a funeral on your ship? Duh. For the same reason, a ship’s bell sounding on its own or even a wine glass ringing are unlucky because they sound like church bells. A possibly related superstition warns against bringing black suitcases on board, and some sailors expand this to all luggage. It might be that black bags look like body bags, but nobody’s really sure on the origin of this one.

Visit my blog for more sea superstitions and some watery writing prompts, such as:

Love wins. Ministers and flowers don’t only mean funerals. So what if you had a ship’s captain who noticed too late that some idiot brought on board the rose his sweetheart gave him, and some other sailor happens to have a degree in divinity. You can throw the rose overboard, but sailors, not so much. (At least, you’re not supposed to.) Could a ship beat its bad luck by instead using the rose and minister to stage a wedding? Sailors’ superstitions are clear about forbidding women on board, for various reasons, including misogyny and also misogyny. But maybe a couple of mates might not mind being…mates? At least long enough to go through the ceremony and cancel the bad luck. Fake marriage trope, anyone?

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Hey, y’all, it’s Weird Wednesday! Where on some Wednesdays, I blog about weird stuff and give writing prompts.

Today: Ghost on the Road: The Vanishing Hitchhiker

Welcome on this Weird Wednesday! Today we’re taking a road trip with an unexpected passenger—at least, for a while.

Or maybe they’re not so unexpected. The Vanishing Hitchhiker is one of the most famous urban legends out there. The story goes like this: a driver of a car (or in older versions, a horse-drawn vehicle) stops to pick up a hitchhiker on a lonely road. The hitchhiker asks to be driven to a particular destination, but once they arrive, the driver finds the hitchhiker has somehow disappeared, even though the car never stopped moving.

The story ends with the driver realizing they picked up a ghost. There are a couple of ways to do this: if the destination was a house, the driver can question its occupants and find the hitchhiker has been dead for years, either because the driver recognizes their photo, or because it’s not the first time the hitchhiker has tried to get home, and the family is used to it. The ghost may have left an item in the car (book, scarf, lighter, or even bicycle) that the family recognizes, or they might have borrowed a jacket or other item from the driver, who later finds their item resting on the hitchhiker’s gravestone.

Check out the blog post for the whole story and some writing prompts, such as:

We meet again. Say the family of a woman killed in a road accident is used to drivers coming confused to their doors, holding the dead woman’s scarf. It’s such a regular occurrence that the family starts to wonder if they themselves might be able to pick up their lost loved one on the road. Would the phantom hitchhiker appear to her own family? What would they think on seeing her—especially if she looks injured or doesn’t seem to recognize them? Most importantly, would they finally be able to complete the journey, and bring the spirit of their loved one home? (And if they do make it work, do they come to wish they hadn’t?)

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Writers: looking to do the ethical thing and avoid AI images in illustrating, promoting, and selling your work?

There are many places to find public domain and free to use images. Always double-check the license before you use an image and remember to credit your source with a citation and/or link.

Pexels: photographs uploaded by contributors – does not allow AI. I found the photo for this post on Pexels. My blog post citations are usually a link on the photo itself or at the bottom of the page/post.

Unsplash: photographs and art uploaded by contributors – does not allow AI. Make sure you select the “free” license.

Public Domain Image Archive: out-of-copyright historical images.

Artvee: public domain paintings, posters and illustrations.

Smithsonian Open Access: images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 21 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.

Getty Research Institute: images of Getty-owned artworks in the public domain.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: public-domain artworks in the Met collections. Be sure you select “open access.”

New York Public Library Digital Collections. Be sure you select “search only public domain.”

Wikimedia Commons: lots of free-to-use and public domain images.  This is my other go-to for blog posts.

Remember, if you want custom artwork and book covers, there are tons of real, live artists you can commission to create for you! And as a fellow creator, you should not have a problem paying artists for their work. 

PS: please don’t use AI to write, either…nurture your own voice! We want to hear it.

This article was first published on my writing blog

DannyeChase.com ~ AO3 ~ Linktree ~ Weird Wednesday writing prompts blog ~ Resources for Writers

Image credit

Hey, y’all, it’s Weird Wednesday! Where on some Wednesdays, I blog about weird stuff and give writing prompts.

Today: The Essex Whaleship: the True Story Behind Moby Dick

Welcome to Weird Wednesday! Today we’re headed to the middle of the Pacific Ocean in the year 1820, where we’re about to meet the real-life Moby Dick.

Moby Dick is an 1851 novel by Herman Melville, a sailor-turned-author. The story of Captain Ahab battling a giant white whale who sinks a ship might seem unlikely—but surprisingly, Melville based his story on real events. Let’s set the scene:

Whalers in the 1800s sought out sperm whales partly because the whales’ heads contain mass quantities of oil (which resembles semen, hence the name) that was used as a pricey lamp fuel. However, the supply of sperm whales close to shore was soon exhausted, so whalers had to start taking years-long journeys to the middle of the Pacific to ply their trade. Sperm whaling was a cruel, bloody process in which men with harpoons were pitted against creatures with massive teeth (sperm whales are toothed whales, like orcas) and bodies nearly as big as a whaling ship itself. And the men didn’t even hunt whales from that ship, but small, open whaleboats.

At the close of Nov 20, 1820, those little boats were all the sailors of the Essex had left. A giant sperm whale—estimated at 85 feet—repeatedly rammed the ship Essex, opening a large gash in the bow while its sailors were pursuing other whales. No one knows why—the Essex wasn’t the only whaling ship sunk seemingly on purpose by a whale, but such occurrences were rare. It’s possible the whale acted in defense of its pod, which is only fair.

But imagine being in a tiny boat and turning around to see your ship mortally wounded, while between you and the nearest land is hundreds of miles of ocean, storms, sharks, and starvation. 

Fortunately, we know exactly how the Essex crew felt at that moment, because some of her sailors survived. 

Check out the blog post for the whole story and some writing prompts, such as:

Lost at sea. Ships sometimes vanish without a trace, even in this digital age. Chillingly, we don’t know how many sinking ships put out lifeboats of survivors, if those boats are never found. You could write a horror story about all the ghosts in doomed lifeboats that must sail the open ocean. Maybe a psychic can speak to them, or a necromancer raise them to tell the fate of their lost ships. Or you could have a sci-fi story about lost lifeboats ending up on another plane of existence. What would the sailors of different eras say to each other?

DannyeChase.com ~ AO3 ~ Linktree ~ Weird Wednesday writing prompts blog ~ Resources for Writers

On this day in 1948, songwriter Stan Jones released Ghost Riders in the Sky, which tells a version of the Wild Hunt legend.

As the riders loped on by him

He heard one call his name

‘If you wanna save your soul

From hell a-riding on our range

Then, cowboy, change your ways today

Or with us you will ride

Trying to catch the devil’s herd

Across these endless skies

A mighty hunter and a pack of dogs, horses, or other beasts racing across the horizon, making a terrible noise as they rush above you! What could it mean? Well, that depends on who you are.

Let’s say you might be an average citizen in a time of political upheaval and great anxiety about the future (seems rather timely). For you, the appearance of the Wild Hunt may not be so helpful. In some traditions, the Wild Hunt is a bad omen— not just for those who see it, but for the entire society they represent. That’s right, those huntsmen chasing howling wolves across the sky means you’re going to have a war! Except! If the guy leading the hunt happens to be King Arthur or some other long-dead hero. Then you may be relieved, as the day is about to be saved, supernatural-superhero-style.

Check out my Weird Wednesday blog post on the Wild Hunt for the whole story and some writing prompts, such as:

King Arthur returns. This is some Angels of Mons type stuff, where visions in the heavens presage victory for one side or the other. But what if your character finds they recognize Wild Hunt Arthur as somebody they know? A grandparent, neighbor, or lover? Maybe someone could get abducted into the Wild Hunt only to realize they themselves are the supernatural hero.

DannyeChase.com ~ AO3 ~ Linktree ~ Weird Wednesday writing prompts blog ~ Resources for Writers

When I count, there are only you and I together

But when I look ahead up the white road

There is always another one walking beside you

–TS. Eliot, The Waste Land, written about Ernest Shackleton’s 1916 third man experience.

On this day in 1916 Ernest Shackleton reached a whaling station in Stromness in the South Atlantic, completing an epic 26 day journey to reach help after losing his ship. While crossing the mountains, starving and without climbing gear, Shackleton famously saw a fourth person in his group of three desperate sailors.

And he’s not the only one. The “third man,” named for the poem above, is the phenomenon where people in life-threatening or highly stressful situations sense another person (of whatever gender) with them. The solo hiker has a companion, or the group of four becomes five, of which most or all report seeing the extra person.

Read all about the Third Man Phenomenon and get writing prompts on my blog, such as:

The Evil Leaper. History is written by the victors, and survival stories by the survivors. If there’s a benevolent voice which tells freezing mountaineers to get up and keep walking toward safety, might there also be a malevolent voice telling people to lie down and give up? We’d never know, because those who die don’t report back. Your plot could have various degrees of an evil third man here: a comforting voice telling people to let go and pass on, an evil voice giving bad advice, or a malicious presence causing all kinds of mischief. Who might experiencers see as the third man here? The devil or an attacker? Or still an angel or loved one?

DannyeChase.com ~ AO3 ~ Linktree ~ Weird Wednesday writing prompts blog ~ Resources for Writers

Four Reasons Your Really Great Story was Rejected

It takes a lot of courage to send a story to a publication, and it takes a lot of faith in yourself to deal with hearing no. Obviously, you want to submit stories that are well-written and carefully edited, but there are many reasons a story can get rejected, and sometimes, it’s not about how “good” the story is.

Let’s take the case of a magazine editor trying to decide between 20 great stories for only 10 spots.

Two things you can’t change

• Your story doesn’t fit with the others chosen for the publication. Let’s say this month the editor received a couple of great cozy mysteries. Editors often want to publish magazine issues with cohesive content, and unfortunately, your awesome tale of Mothman’s wild weekend in New York is not going to fit. Some editors will ask to hang onto your story for a future issue (especially if they’ve got other great cryptid tales), and some will reject it.
• Your story fits too well with the others chosen for the publication. On the other hand, if the editor gets a couple of great cozy mysteries that are too alike to publish side-by-side, she’s got to pick one. And which one she chooses is probably going to be down to her subjective personal preference.

Sometimes story rejections are just luck: you need to have the right story in front of the right editor at the right time. Which is frustrating, but don’t let it shake your faith in a story you think has potential.

Two things you can change

• Your story is not what the readers are looking for. The editor might honestly love your sword-and-sandals epic with zebras on Jupiter. And maybe most of her readership would even like it. But that’s not what they expect to find in a magazine of haunted house horror. 

Note this is only advice for stories that blatantly don’t fit. If you’ve got a story about a haunted bus, for example, you probably do want to send that to the haunted house magazine. If you’re familiar with the publication and honestly think your story might fit, don’t self-reject. Send it.

• You didn’t follow the submission guidelines. You know those stupid rules about font, and attaching a story to an email rather than pasting it in, and having a story between 2000-5000 words? Yeah. You actually want to follow those.

Submission guidelines are not arbitrary. The magazine’s readers do not want 500-word flash, and the editor who asked for an attachment does not want to have to paste your story into a document and/or change the font to something legible.

In speaking with editors, I’ve learned a surprising amount of people actually don’t follow submission guidelines. And their stories were usually rejected, not least because an editor doesn’t really want to work with someone who starts off by ignoring the rules.

Here’s how to understand and follow submission guidelines

The most important thing about rejection letters is what happens after you get one. It’s normal to be sad and it’s good to take time to grieve. But then send your story back out. That’s the only way to eventually get that yes.

This article was first published on my writing blog

DannyeChase.com ~ AO3 ~ Linktree ~ Weird Wednesday writing prompts blog ~ Resources for Writers

For example:

Divination

Telling the future via trees is known as dendromancy, and it includes all sorts of fun stuff. A fruit tree blossoming out of season (flowers with mature fruit) is a bad omen, but a heavy crop of apples or nuts means a good year for twins! If you put an even ash leaf (meaning it has the same number of leaflets on each side) in your pocket, you are sure to meet your future lover that day. I grew up with the tradition of twisting an apple stem while reciting the alphabet: whichever letter was spoken as the stem broke would be the initial of your future spouse.

A couple of farsighted prompts:

He loves me, he loves me not. The Oxford Dictionary of Superstitions lists a few ash-leaf lover rhymes: Even ash-leaf in my glove, the first I meet shall be my love (recorded 1831), Even ash or four-leaf clover, you’ll see your true love before the day’s over (1846), The even-ash is in my hand, the first I meet will be my man (1978). This, and/or the apple stem bit, could easily work for a soulmates-trope romance.

Something is off. On the other side of things, the apple blossoms and ripe fruit together thing is actually quite creepy, the sort of just-slightly-wrong eeriness that sets the tone of a horror story. What evil could be so powerful that the trees themselves give warning?

DannyeChase.com ~ AO3 ~ Linktree ~ Weird Wednesday writing prompts blog ~ Resources for Writers

Want to write about a haunting? Take inspiration from history

Proofread

Grammar can be confusing (looking at you, its and it’s). Even if you’re a writer, it’s not a moral failing if you can’t wrestle commas into the right places. But before you send in your story, find somebody who knows their there from their they’re and have them proofread for you. Because if you don’t, an editor will have to do it themselves, and that is extra work.

Remember, even if your story is fantastic, which it probably is, it’s not the only fantastic story that editor is going to get. If yours is well proofread, that’s a leg up for you.

Follow the submission guidelines

In another article I’ve said following the editor’s guidelines makes a priceless first impression. But there’s another angle to this: the guidelines are there for a reason, and that reason is the editor wants to do less work.

An editor isn’t arbitrarily picking a font for submissions: they’re asking for something easy on their eyes. They want file types that work with their computer and specific email subject lines so they can stay organized.

If an editor needs to change formatting on your story, they want to use a quick document setting. They don’t want to discover you manually hit “tab” every time you started a new paragraph, and “enter” to double space your story, because that is all work the editor has to undo, line by line. Do they want to do that? No.

(Here’s how to understand and follow submission guidelines)

Hit your deadlines

Your story was accepted! Congrats! Now you’ve got some more work. Depending on the publication, you may have to do edits, approve layouts, and/or participate in advertising. The press will usually ask you to get back to them in a week or two. So do that.

Yeah, it’s that simple. The last thing an editor wants is to have to chase down a writer who is delaying the project by not answering emails. If you’ve got a real-world reason for running late, that’s fine, it happens. But let your editor know, and do your best to work something out. 

Remember, short story publication is not necessarily a one-time thing. If an editor knows you’re not a lot of work, they’re much more likely to buy from you again, or even invite you onto a future project. We all want to work with people who make our lives easier. So when you send in your story, be that person.

This article was first published on my writing blog

DannyeChase.com ~ AO3 ~ Linktree ~ Weird Wednesday writing prompts blog ~ Resources for Writers