Seasonal themes can be used across all genres. All a writer needs to do is take the basics, and apply them to their genre and audience. Halloween/All Hallows Eve is a wonderful example of seasonal focus. We have the season of autumn/fall, with the focus on a specific event - Halloween/All Hallows Eve.
Things to be taken into consideration include:
Colors: black and orange, for Halloween itself, and shades of yellow, orange, and red, to represent the season of autumn/fall.
Physical Environment: graveyards, backyards, school parties, private parties, masked balls, seances, pumpkin patches, trick-or-treating, haunted houses
Symbols: leaves in fall colors, skeletons, ghosts, goblins, pumpkins, spiders, bats, black cats, witches, cauldrens, broomsticks, skulls, scarecrows, candy corn, cobwebs, mummies, caskets, camp fires
Food: cakes & cupcakes frosted with Halloween symbols, apple cider, carmel apples, popcorn balls, pumpkin bread, spice cookies
Themes: costumes, disembodied voices, haunted houses, trick-or-treating, seances (one of my favorites!), cemeteries ... the list is endless!
Add a character or three ... and you have a story!
Here are a few stories that you might want to check out:
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Washington Irving), The Cask of Amontillado (Edgar Allen Poe), The Judges House (Bram Stoker), The Black Cat (Edgar Allen Poe), and A Ghost Story (Mark Twain). One must not forget the poem The Raven (by Edgar Allen Poe)!
(c) October 2018 Bonnie Cehovet
Reproduction prohibited without written permission from the author.
Very helpful ideas, thank you Bonnie.
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