Cheers – it’s October! 

And what better way to celebrate than with a little Promptober? For the month of October, we’re going to lean into the spooky season with a literary twist. Every few days, I’ll share a short story, poem, or collection of quotes for us to read and discuss, followed by a handful of keyword prompts to inspire your own writing. To kick things off, we’re starting with master of the macabre, American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe. He is renowned for his mastery in Gothic horror, mystery, and fiction. Some of his most notable works include The Raven, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Tell-Tale Heart, which we will be talking about today.

The Tell-Tale Heart (my favorite story by him!) is a wonderfully creepy way to begin our Halloween month. It gives us so much to explore – fear, obsession, madness, guilt, perception, and the uneasy relationship between what we believe and what is actually happening. In this short story, Poe creatively builds tension through sound, repetition, and the narrator’s increasingly frantic attempt to convince us of his sanity. It is frightening, but what makes it particularly fascinating is how much of its horror comes from the narrator’s own mind.

Read The Tell-Tale Heart and think about how Poe takes normal, everyday ideas and turns them into something unsettling.

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How does a single eye become a source of obsession?

How does a heartbeat become something terrifying?

How does the narrator’s insistence that he is not mad make us question him even more?

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Through The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe demonstrates that he doesn’t need to invent something completely unfamiliar to frighten us. He takes things we all know – a person watching, a sound in the dark, a beating heart – and gives them an entirely different weight. Something ordinary becomes strange simply because of the way he presents it. This is a great demonstration of how powerful writing can be. A familiar word can take us somewhere completely unexpected depending on the story we build around it.

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With this concept still fresh in your mind, let’s see where it takes you. For the first three days of Promptober, write a short story, poem, reflection, collection of thoughts, scene, or anything else the following words inspire:

October 1st – eye

October 2nd – mad

October 3rd – heart

Interpret them literally or let them take you somewhere unexpected. And if you decide to share what you write, I’d love to see it! Share your work on Facebook or Instagram and tag @paigeturnerblogs. You can also use #paigeturnerblogs and #themodernfolio so we can find your work and follow along with Promptober.

Happy writing – and happy Halloween season!

Paige Turner