mistressofmuses | (no subject)

We went out and got fajitas for dinner (though we brought them home rather than eating in the restaurant) and OH MAN THEY WERE SO GOOD. SO. GOOD. And it was a crapton of food... it was a "dinner for two" thing, but I'm pretty sure it would have fed at least four. That was hours ago and I still feel overfull (but in a mostly pleasant way or at least not unpleasant.)

Bummer that tomorrow is supposed to be our nice day, and Sunday it may snow again, since Sunday is my day off. I'm feeling a little crazy lately, and I think it's partially from not going out to do much. The internship does break the monotony of my normal work week nicely, but it's still doing work... it's not the same as getting out and doing something entirely recreational. I also realized that I think I forgot to sign out on Thursday... oops.

Ugh... in general still just not feeling real well. Still probably a lot of stress, probably combined with mundane things like *having no time for the sun* and *thinking three hours of sleep per night is reasonable.* It's getting frustrating, though.

Unrelated to everything, I've been reading lots of creepypasta over the last few days. Some of them are really good, but I do wonder when the trend toward practically novella length stories started. I mean, creepypasta has only been a thing I was aware of for... a year or two, maybe? But while the stories that are now usually considered the "best" are often really good, they aren't what I generally thought creepypasta was supposed to be. I enjoyed the ultra-short fiction aspect (thought the semi-related long-form ARG/character blogs/slow descent into horror installment stories/etc. have always been fun, too.) A lot of the new ones I'm seeing look more like traditional short stories, even though many of them are quite good. Much as I adore a well-crafted creepy short story, especially if it succeeds in drawing some tension out over the equivalent of 10 or 20 pages, I think it takes a different skill set to get that kind of creepy impact in half a page. Ah well, I enjoy them all, so I'm not really complaining too hard.

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"For Sale: 1 pair of baby shoes, worn only once."

and

"The last man on earth was sitting in his room when he heard a knock at the door."

That's about all I can think of. Admittedly, one-liner creepy pastas are REALLY challenging.
Some pastas do have to be a bit long to wind you up. Sometimes you gotta take the reader by the hand and lead them down that dark hall, explaining the history of the house before pausing in front of The Door to That Room and inviting them to open it.

I totally agree with you on the length of some of these are getting. It's the ones that cover a few days that kind of wear on me so I see where you're coming from on that. Those get long and a few that I did read, the pay off was "meh".
Those are equivalent to taking the reader by the hand and leading them outside, around the house, through the garden, into the front yard, down the street, into the corner store, over to the candy aisle, remembering the stove was left on, rushing the reader out of the store, galloping up the street, in the yard, to the front door, not finding in the keys in a panic and -

And then leaving it there! I HATE THAT! I just read 3 pages for ... that?

I like writing challenges, though. I like the concept of putting up a pic on the Creepy site and everyone making a story for it.
One Liner Creepy Pasta challenge ... goosebumps!

It's also why on Fridays I do a Build-your-own=Demotivator or Caption this. Well try to - I've been real bad about it this year.

Agreed! I don't expect every pasta out there to be a one liner (the two you mentioned are the only one-line short stories that fit the bill that I can think of.) Ones that take a few paragraphs and give you a good setup and maybe some nice creepy description to help immerse you are all good, and are what I first considered creepypasta to be.

Even a few of the ones that get to a few pages in length are good, and are some of my favorites. Some of the ones that come to mind are one titled "Killswitch" about a fictional video game (though it isn't really a pasta... it was a short story that gets passed around as a pasta, though.) One called "Up" about a strain of Cordyceps fungus infecting people. One called "Psychosis" about people being replaced by something that learns to mimic people by monitoring any technological or digital communication with them... Those are some of my favorites, and some of them are several pages long.

But yeah, I've found a bunch lately that are in the 10+ page range, almost to the exclusion of anything shorter. Some of them are very good, well-written stories, but a lot of them, like you said, have no payoff worth the time.

I don't MIND longer stories as a whole, but it just seems like they've replaced the short ones for the most part, which is kind of a shame. Once you're getting into 10-20 page range, I don't think you can call it "microfiction" anymore.

I so love a good short pasta. <3 I've tried my hand at writing them a few times. I love the ones that give you a bunch of complicated instructions and then have some kind of creepy hook at the end, and my favorite of the ones I've written was along that vein:

If you go to a certain town, and follow the main street facing North, it will take you past the square and past the suburbs and past the outskirts and past a field that sometimes has soybeans in it and sometimes grows over, and eventually you will end up next to a little cemetery. It is unmarked, but the headstones are plain to be seen, and while it looks a little scruffy, it's clear someone comes in and clears out the worst of the weeds and tames back the grass to a certain length every so often.

The biggest stone has a gargoyle on top instead of an angel. And the gargoyle has a secret.

If you come again at dusk and wait until midnight, without speaking the whole time, you will notice that the gargoyle's eyes have become bright like a cat's eyes. If you turn away, the glint will disappear and you will never see it again. Meet their stare without blinking, and eventually the gargoyle will lean forward, its glinting eyes and terrible mouth inches from you, close enough that you will feel something you have probably never felt before nor are likely to again-- the breath of a stone.

Now is the time to act, but carefully. Lean forward yourself to meet the gargoyle. If you whisper in its ear one name, it will return to its position on the stone, and you must turn and RUN home, lock your door, do not look out your window, and if you wake up the next morning, you were spared, and you will receive the blessed news that your loved one who was in danger is now fine.

The gargoyle will only bargain with Death for you once. If you ever return to the cemetery, the gargoyle will be still and you will die within the year.

I cannot tell you the name of the town. I'm afraid you would go there. If the person for whom the gargoyle intervened ever sets eyes upon it, even to thank it, Death's bargain is undone and they must forfeit immediately.

So I can't let you be tempted to go.

I like this one; the hook at the end is awesome. (You've shared it in ontdcreepy threads, haven't you? I remember reading it!)

"Instructions" or "ritual" style creepypasta are pretty good... I like ones like this that have some kind of reasonable payoff for if you are 'successful' at completing them. There were a bunch for a while (some of the Holders ones got pretty bad about it) where succeeding led to an awful fate and failing led to an awful fate, so it just seemed pointless to even invent the ritual in the first place, because there was no reason for someone to attempt it.

I call those Skeptic Traps. They don't make much sense, I agree, I don't really care for them. XD I think even the most hardcore skeptic would be like "um, why bother? that's a whole lot of fuss to prove something I already know is bullshit, is bullshit."

(no subject)

Really short pasta is tough! (^_^)

Re: Really short pasta is tough! (^_^)

Re: Really short pasta is tough! (^_^)

Re: Really short pasta is tough! (^_^)

Re: Really short pasta is tough! (^_^)