Ghost Stories for Christmas

 “His ghost stories transformed the genre like a galvanic shock. His universe — the one which made him famous as a first-rate writer of ghost stories — is not one of clear boundaries between good and evil, but one in which the two merge and blend, trespass and encroach. He was deeply concerned about human corruption — both more broadly in society and individually within the spirit — and this plays out chillingly in his best tales.” — M. Grant Kellermeyer, from his introduction to A Warning to the Curious, Count Magnus, and Other Horrors: The Best Ghost Stories and Weird Fiction of M. R. James 

For my last blog post of the year, I thought that I would write about Christmas and ghosts. I never realized how connected they are until recently. 

Most people who celebrate Christmas are probably familiar with the song “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” as sung by Andy Williams. I listened to it growing up and I heard it recently in Hawkeye, the latest series from Marvel. I wonder how many people are familiar with one particular line though:

There’ll be parties for hosting

Marshmallows for toasting

And caroling out in the snow

There’ll be scary ghost stories

And tales of the glories of 

Christmases of long ago

Huh. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve listened to the song, but I don’t remember the line about scary ghost stories. Although telling ghost stories in December isn’t a thing in present day America, I learned that it was quite popular in Victorian England. While that tradition made it over to America it never really caught on. The writers of the lyrics seem to remember though.

Telling spooky stories at the end of year began as an oral tradition, stories told around a fire during long dark evenings. This tradition became even more popular in Victorian England with the invention of the printing press. I was familiar with A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, but I had no idea that he also wrote other ghost stories and that he included lots of ghost stories at the end of the year in the magazines that he edited.

Last month I learned about a reading challenge where participants were to read the ghost stories of M.R. James. He was a medievalist scholar, and he was provost of King’s College, Cambridge and of Eaton College. Many of the stories were written to be read out loud to his friends at the end of the year. 

The creator of the challenge made a list of twenty-six stories with the idea being to read one story a day from November 30th to December 25th. I decided to join in since I already had his first collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, but hadn't read it yet. The Kindle version also includes his second collection More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. That still didn’t cover all the stories on the list, so I also downloaded a complete collection, and I was all set.

I enjoyed the stories a lot and decided to learn more about the author. This led me down a rabbit hole. I eventually learned about the lyrics above as well as other connections between ghost stories and Christmas, like the annual A Ghost Story for Christmas specials from the BBC. 

A Ghost Story for Christmas is a series of television specials from the 1970s. Most of them were adaptations of M.R. James stories and directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. The BBC has revived the series recently in specials directed by Mark Gatiss. The latest one was just released, an adaptation of “The Mezzotint” by M.R. James. I’ve watched most of them and enjoyed them. One thing that added to my enjoyment was spotting actors who have played Time Lords on Doctor Who. So far, I’ve spotted four. 

While that was fun, I’ve been thinking about why I’ve been drawn to horror fiction recently. It’s much more than just the thrill that these kinds of stories can provide. I think it’s because I’ve become more concerned about the things mentioned in the quote above.  

Ten Things I Learned from National Novel Writing Month 2021

 “Finish things.” - Neil Gaiman

This year was my fourth year participating in November’s National Novel Writing Month. I had three goals this time. Beat my previous year’s word count, write every day, and finish a story. 

So how did I do? Well, I beat my word count by the 15th, wrote every day (some days more than others), and I finished a story. Now technically the story isn’t really finished. It’s a first draft. A pretty rough first draft so it needs plenty of work. But it still feels good. 

While I’ve learned something from each year’s experience, I feel like I learned the most this year. So here are ten things I learned from participating in NaNoWriMo 2021. 

One: I’m a plantser.

A “planner” believes in rigorous preparation and a “pantser” believes in hardcore spontaneity. A “plantser” is somewhere in between. While I didn’t have everything plotted out in detail this year, I didn’t jump in blind either. I had a goal in mind and a number of story beats that I knew I wanted to hit. I found that this helped me with keeping forward momentum and it allowed the freedom for new ideas to develop. This kept me interested. 

I’ve spent way more time in my life thinking about stories instead of sitting down and writing them. When I did sit down to write I didn’t finish. I either lost interest or I wasn’t sure where I was going and gave up. Now I have a better idea of how much I need to figure out before sitting down to write. 

Two: Using a timer can help you be productive.

I learned about this method last year. Set a timer and don’t stop writing until it goes off. If you stop writing, stop the timer. This method worked really well the first couple of times I tried it out. I started off small, just fifteen minutes. Then I went from thirty minutes to an hour. My problem in the past was that I wasn’t doing it regularly. I tried it again last month and was more consistent. Funny thing is, after seven days I stopped using the timer. I found that I didn’t need it anymore!

Three: Write fast, edit later.

Don’t second guess yourself. Unsure about including a scene? Include it. Can’t decide between which way to word something? Write down both ways. The most important thing is forward momentum. You can always cut stuff later. 

Four: Talk to a writing buddy.

Whether it’s in person or online, talking to someone who is also writing can be motivating. Even just reading comments from others who are sharing their struggles and accomplishments. 

Five: Hemingway was right when he said, “Always stop for the day while you still know what will happen next.”

I’m familiar with this advice but it didn’t have an impact until now. Maybe because I wasn’t so focused on finishing a story until last month. Since I had a number of story beats worked out ahead of time, and because I learned new things as I was writing, whenever I stopped for the day, I knew what would happen next. I felt good and it left me motivated to jump in the next day. 

Six: You need a goal. 

This is pretty obvious of course. The most common goal is a daily word count. I wasn’t reaching the recommended 1667 words per day. I figured that was okay since I wasn’t working on a novel. My goal was to finish at least one scene per day.  It left me with low word counts but I felt a sense of accomplishment after completing a scene every day. The downside to this was even with just working on a short story, I was behind at the end of the month. I think a word count goal is something I still need to consider. 

Seven: Take notes as you write.

This helped me stay in writing mode.  While I was writing I would get new ideas or think of ways to improve previous scenes. Instead of stopping the flow by tinkering with previous scenes or starting something new, I’d make a note on the document somewhere or add to a list in a notebook I kept by my side. 

Eight: Find a way to stay organized that works for you.

After a few days and trying different things, I found myself working between two documents and a notebook. The first document consisted of the story draft, character names and notes, place notes and history, and conversations. The second document consisted of a general outline and list of story beats. The notebook consisted of anything that popped into my head, for example, background information, small details to add, and notes of inconsistencies to address later. 

Nine: Find a workflow that works for you. 

My main rule was this: When working on the draft, stay focused on the draft. No editing. This became more challenging the more I wrote. The longer the story got, the more the logical part of my brain wanted to create order, fix things, and tinker. This was bad for forward momentum. 

So, my other rule was I could edit before or after, either as a warm-up or as a warm-down. This helped me focus on finishing scenes and moving forward.

Ten: Read for motivation. 

I discovered pretty quickly that one of my weaknesses is writing fight scenes. Since I was working on a fantasy adventure story, I started reading Robert E. Howard again. He’s a master of action scenes. I also read Damon Knight’s Creating Short Fiction. It was an enjoyable read and I got a number of ideas out of it. 

Bonus: Don’t wait for motivation. 

You get a lot farther from sitting down and doing the work, even when you’re not motivated, than waiting for motivation to hit. Also, you’d be surprised how often motivation actually kicks in once you get started. Who knew?! Well, a lot of successful writers apparently as I see this advice given a lot. I guess some people just need to learn this for themselves.

Closing

I have mixed feelings about month-long challenges like this. On one hand, it’s a way to be productive, but on the other hand it can be stressful. Whether it’s drawing, writing, or something else, doing something creative every single day takes time and energy. 

NaNoWriMo is over. So now what? I realize I need to keep doing the things I learned throughout the year, not just one month out of the year. So far, I’ve continued to write a little bit every day since last month. I may not continue to write every day from here on out, but hopefully I’ve developed some good habits. Habits that will help me finish things. 

(Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month)