Embracing The Seasons: How Seasonal Writing Can Help You Create Better Stories

I always search for horror short story competitions when the summer ends. This is a logical step with Halloween getting close. But the changing of the seasons kicks my brain into horror mode in a way that is beyond mere ghosts and demons. This is a desire to harness the characteristics of a specific time of year. Gripping spooky stories can of course take place at any point in the calendar. But my annual search has made me consider quite how effective seasonal writing can be. By looking for inspiration in Autumn itself, you can create some brilliant fiction. 

Seasonal writing allows you to tune your brain to the world around you, and use it for constant stimulation. You do not even have to leave your home. Setting up an autumnal writing zone requires minimal effort. YouTube has hundreds of playlists that can provide everything from calming October lo-fi to full blown synth gravewave. You can change your screensaver to copper leafed trees, and watch relevant clips in your downtime. The first minute of Day of the Dead is a good place to start. 

But there is a deeper sense to this concept beyond an initial digital sheen. One of the keys to seasonal writing is going beyond the cliché of certain objects and colours, and searching for details specific to the time of year. There is nothing wrong with referencing pumpkins and Halloween orange displays if done well. But try and get outside to discover the other detritus in the change from Summer to Autumn. 

We all know about the abundance of dead leaves in September, but have you considered how they sink into the mud? And what about the empty conker shells and abandoned wasps’ nests? Even the way that shops fill with discounted swimwear can make your writing sing.  Think about what these details mean. The loss of happy memories. Opportunities gone for another year. All can feed into the tone of your work. 

You can push this further, and consider how this is a time of decay, and waiting for rebirth. How easy someone can get lost in the mist and the gloom.  In what ways does the human animal cope with such change? There is an intrinsic reason why horror works so well at this time of year, and one that you can capture on the page.

For example, one of the crucial features of the story I submitted for Twisted50 is that it takes place after the sun has set. Yet for the logic of the story to work, the characters must still be able to visit a swimming pool at a reasonable opening time. This was not a midnight tale. Autumn therefore was an ideal time for this story to take place. I wrote the piece in the weeks that bridged Summer to Autumn, and I remembered once again how the nights draw in. Evening trips are no longer as tantalising. Although I love a cosy September night, you are now more trapped than before. This sense of loss and change underpin the claustrophobic narrative, and emerged directly from writing at this specific time of year.

I would recommend seasonal writing the for the chance it gives you to enhance your writing, and enjoy the season itself more. There is still plenty of time to create new horrors as the barrier between the worlds get thinner. But do not forget that winter will soon be here, and red and green will fill the streets. Rabbits and eggs will follow, and before long the swimming costumes return. What writing can you create then?