Today I hit send on a short story submission for the No Sleep podcast. This is in my regular rotation of podcasts that I listen to when I go for my daily walks or when I’m doing chores. The original premise of the podcast was an audio production of horror stories from the /nosleep subreddit. These are horror stories told from a personal point of view. I’ve listened to hundreds of episodes, and it satisfies my craving for all things dark and spooky.
Although I had already had a short story in mind, after reading through the guidance for submissions, I had to do some major revisions. My original short story wasn’t told from a first-person POV, so I had to edit that. I also hadn’t given too much thought to the soundscape of the piece, something that is, of course, super important for a podcast. I have also been copyediting some fiction, and as I reread my story, I came across a lot of discrepancies. The seasons shifted from fall to the height of summer within a couple of paragraphs. I had the main character running from down the street to open up her store, but I had earlier described her store as being part of her house.
After making all of those fixes, I reread it one final time. I actually see why people like writing spooky stories. Reading the story aloud to myself, I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up multiple times. That exciting frisson of horror was somehow pleasurable while also creeping me the heck out. It was a fabulous feeling.
I have no idea if the submission will be accepted, and I’m planning on submitting it to other places as well, but I’m having a lot of fun writing these short stories. In all the decades that I had been copyediting, I had put aside my creative writing work. I thought, this wasn’t for me, and I certainly can’t get paid for it. Of course, I’ll still be copyediting to pay the bills, but I had forgotten how wonderful it felt to write creatively. With all of my creative work, both writing and art, I find a deep satisfaction that I don’t really get from other ways of working. I’ll keep doing it, and this time I won’t give it up. Each work that I create is a small little snippet I’m leaving out in this world that says, yes, I, this unique individual with unique experiences, existed. It’s a wonderful feeling and helps bring me out of the funks that I can get into.
If you haven’t tried working on something creative like writing, art, photography, quilting, really anything where you can get lost in the flow of pure creation, I highly recommend trying it out.
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