Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)
H Trope: Back to school!
Event: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeepers_Creepers_2
Asmunder Helguson stopped at the edge of the school ground.
Rynhildur Eggertsdóttir shoved him, “Oh, come on, you big baby.”
Asmunder swallowed hard and said, “Maybe I shouldn’t have watched those last five movies of the 30 Scariest School Movies of all time.”
She shouldered him, laughed, and said, “You think? Maybe you should listen to your best friend sometimes.”
Asmunder glanced at her. She looked away. He whispered, “I would if that Greenland shark hadn’t eaten him.” Rynhildur growled and shoved past him, ramming him into a garbage can. He called, “Ryn! Wait! I wasn’t thinking...”
She turned as she walked, saying, “Try thinking before you say mean things, Ass.” She kept turning and disappeared into Reykjavik High School. He cussed in one of the obscure languages – Basque – and took a step toward the school. He stopped and stepped back. People who didn’t know him couldn’t figure out why he refused to go into the school. Even the people who knew him accepted that he couldn’t go in, but still didn’t understand why he wouldn’t do it. “Can’t do it,” he muttered. He looked up at the third floor, the wide dormer with three windows. Even as he looked, he saw a faint, ghostly shadow pass into the school.
He was certain the Greenland shark that had murdered his best friend haunted his school. That it waited for him.
That it might be waiting for something else. Suddenly, high overhead, the head of the shark came out of the building, paused, looked down at him, then turned and re-entered the school, disappearing. Asmunder staggered backward, certain that the creature – the ghost – had truly horrible things in store for the students. He was quite sure there was one, special student the shark would be visiting...
Resources: http://horror.about.com/od/horrortoppicklists/tp/30-Great-Back-to-School-Horror-Movies.htm
Names: ♀ Iceland; ♂ Iceland
“What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects – with their Christianity latent.” CS Lewis
August 18, 2026
IDEA ON TUESDAY 717
Labels:
Ideas On Tuesdays
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and retired teacher/school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His new novel, MARTIAN HOLIDAY will be released on December 23, 2025 and takes place in a world 500 years in the future of his first novel, EMERALD OF EARTH (YA/MS, 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER. He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and has created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year in 1997. Really.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)

No comments:
Post a Comment