My pal Al the author has been writing some entertaining Halloween poems, one of which he is submitting to a Halloweensie competition, the rules of which are to write a kids Halloween poem/story in 100 words or less. Sounds like a good exercise in concise writing, so here’s my take on it (97 words) using a somewhat unusual format. Not sure if it’s worth entering the comp though because I think it may be a bit dark for little uns.
babbitman 
U R GR8!
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Thx!! 🙂
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Freaky! And the texting was a smart way to keep word count down. Nicely played:)
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Thanks! Yeah, using texting got it down to the bare bones (excuse Halloween pun) while actually getting the reader right into the story.
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I will not excuse the pun – I’ll applaud the pun:)
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DUN -dun -dun!
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I like the format – a dark story indeed.
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Thanks Sylvia; I do tend to try & do something a bit different every now and then but I’m never quite sure how it will work out!
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Ooh! Freakishly spooky, Nick! Nice job! Love the original format – perfect for the slightly older age this story is intended for. And you did a great job of leaving me worried about what happened to Sam! Thanks so much for joining in the Halloweensie fun!
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Thanks Susannah, yes I wanted to leave the reader wondering… Was it Sam just playing a joke… Or something more sinister? 😉
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You should definitely enter it! A classic ‘behind you’ scare
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Thanks Al. Decided I might as well, seeing as I’d gone to the trouble of formatting the speech bubbles! And people have been saying nice things about it too 🙂
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Great way to pare down story packed with tension!
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Thanks Julie. The idea for making it a text came out of nowhere but it is ideal for this kind of story!
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Love your formatting! Scary fun!
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Thanks Cathy! It did take a while to get the spacing right!
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So, so creative! I could feel the spookiness!
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Thanks Penny! Much appreciated 🙂
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So cool! I hope they were very good friends. He sounded a bit spooky.
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Somewhat deliberately left for the reader to decide! A scary prank between good friends? Or maybe something terrible had already happened to Sam…? Whatever makes the best ending for you…!
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Oh I didn’t even think of that. Been a while since I dared read a thriller. Great job!
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Ooh…dark. I like it. Sounds like a modern twist on a camp fire story!
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Oh yes! Hadn’t thought of it in that context, but I guess this idea is piggybacking on many genres and ideas. I just wasn’t doing it consciously!
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I love a good gotcha. Bwahahahhaaa.
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Thanks 🙂 and I love a comment with a good evil laugh!
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Very cool . I think I saw these two texting on Halloween… maybe saw a stray pumpkin head too. Great job. Lots of tension here.
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Thanks Stacy! Yes, tension and a sense of things spiralling out of normality were the main aims. Luckily, most of the kids out on Halloween around here are young and accompanied by parents!
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Awesomesauce! What a great idea. And scary. You got all the right tension in there. BOO!
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Wow! Thanks – I don’t think I’ve ever had an awesomesauce before! 😀
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Cool format! A sure delight for older kids!
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Thanks Carrie! I wanted to do something a bit darker and hoped that it would be appropriate for young teens.
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I can so imagine this around a campfire when I was a kid at camp. We’d all be screaming and having a blast!
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Sometimes, less is more!
🙂
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