Hello, monsters and matrons.
Children can be such a handful, can’t they? With all that energy, lack of volume control, and needing to be told over and over to keep their squirmy limbs to themselves. But such is the life of motherhood. Let’s see how well you can handle these little rascals, because…
This week’s Writing Group prompt is:
Mother of Monsters
RULES AND GUIDELINES BELOW!
Make sure you scroll down and read them if you haven’t! You may not be eligible if you don’t!
Who would have thought a prompt could sound both scary and wholesome? Leave it to this wonderful group to, as usual, subvert expectations. The key terms here, “mother” and “monster”, are both so flexible for interpretation.
In the spirit of the season, we here at the Foundry would like to issue you talented writers a little challenge for this week; try to keep things in the realm of spook.
With a prompt like this, we could have Eldritch mothers just going through the day with their Eldritch children, or a werewolf mother trying to tame and control her very energetic pups. It could be a vampire mother teaching her child how to feed, and possibly even having to coddle them when they almost lose control. It could even be a human mother who has adopted a child, only to find out her child can transform, or fly, or eats raw meat, or anything that a non-human baby would do. Or perhaps the child is also human, and just very rowdy and rambunctious. Maybe the mother of monsters is literally just the crazy cat lady next door.
It may not even be a real “mother” at all, but something that people look to for guidance. A revered woman leading her cult of darkness. Maybe the mother is a powerful sorceress that controls many beasts, possibly even creating said beasts herself from the elements around her. Perhaps, much simpler, the caretaker of a zoo of magical creatures. Or the warden of a prison where monsters, whether literal or metaphorical, are locked up for the world’s safety. Perhaps it’s even a daycare for monsters and humans alike, and the carer has her hands full trying to have them all get along.
Whichever mothers of whichever monsters you decide to introduce us to, we look forward to the wonderfully spooky tales that will rise up from this prompt.
Just watch the tentacles, will you?
—Shawna
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Remember, this is part of our weekly Writing Group stream! Submit a little piece following the rules and guidelines below, and there’s a chance your entry will be read live on stream! In addition, we’ll discuss it for a minute and give you some feedback.
Tune into the stream this Friday at 7:00pm CST to see if you made the cut!
The whole purpose of this is to show off the creativity of the community, while also helping each other to become better writers. Lean into that spirit, and get ready to help each other improve their confidence in their writing, as well as their skill with their craft!
Rules and Guidelines
We read at least four stories during each stream, two of which come from the public post, and two of which come from the much smaller private post. Submissions are randomly selected by a bot, but likes on your post will improve your chances of selection, so be sure to share your submission on social media!
Text and Formatting
- English only.
- Prose only, no poetry or lyrics.
- Use proper spelling, grammar, and syntax.
- Your piece must be between 250-350 words (you can use this website to see your wordcount).
- Include a submission title and an author name (doesn’t have to be your real name). Do not include any additional symbols or flourishes in this part of your submission. Format them exactly as you see in this example, or your submission may not be eligible: Example Submission.
- No additional text styling (such as italics or bold text). Do not use asterisks, hyphens, or any other symbol to indicate whether text should be bold, italic, or styled in any other way. CAPS are okay, though.
What to Submit
- Keep submissions “safe-for-work”; be sparing with sexuality, violence, and profanity.
- Try to focus on making your submission a single meaningful moment rather than an entire story.
- Write something brand new (no re-submitting past entries or pieces written for other purposes
- No fan fiction whatsoever. Take inspiration from whatever you’d like, but be transformative and creative with it. By submitting, you also agree that your piece does not infringe on any existing copyrights or trademarks, and you have full license to use it.
- Submissions must be self-contained (everything essential to understanding the piece is contained within the context of the piece itself—no mandatory reading outside the piece required. e.g., if you want to write two different pieces in the same setting or larger narrative, you cannot rely on information from one piece to fill in for the other—they must both give that context independently).
Submission Rules
- One submission per participant.
- Submit your entry in a comment on this post.
- Submissions close at 12:00pm CST each Friday.
- You must like and leave a review on two other submissions to be eligible. Your reviews must be at least 50 words long, and must be left directly on the submission you are reviewing, not on another comment. If you’re submitting to the private post, feel free to leave these reviews on either the private or the public post. The two submissions you like need not be the same as the submissions you review.
- Use the same e-mail for your posts, reviews, and likes, or you may be rendered ineligible (you may change your username or author name between posts without problem, however).
- You may submit to either or both the public/private groups if you have access, but if you decide to submit to both, only the private group submission will be eligible.
- Understand that by submitting here, you are giving us permission to read your submission aloud live on stream and upload public, archived recordings of said stream to our social media platforms. You will always be credited, but only by the author name you supply as per these rules. No other links or attributions are guaranteed.
Comments on this post that aren’t submissions will be deleted, except for replies/reviews left on existing submissions.
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