Written by Emily Harstone August 29th, 2014

Writing Prompt: The Curse

A curse is a common trope, from Fairy Tales to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, curses have been used to throw a twist into the plot.

Sometimes the reader knows the curse from the start, which is how most fairy tales work. Or sometimes they know the curse from the start but they don’t know the catch, which is how it works in Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

It is fun to play around with the idea of a curse, and I encourage you to do so by writing either a poem or a short story about a curse. Your curse could be metaphorical or real but it should involve some sort of twist or surprise. Remember with a prompt this flexible, a lot of things are possible.

Happy Writing!

 

We Send You Publishers Seeking Submissions.

Sign up for our free e-magazine and we will send you reviews of publishers seeking short stories, poetry, essays, and books.

Subscribe now and we'll send you a free copy of our book Submit, Publish, Repeat

Harlequin Intrigue

Harlequin Intrigue

Harlequin Intrigue is an imprint of Harlequin Romance, which is an imprint of Harper Collins. We have also reviewed a number of their other imprint previously, including Afterglow Books, Carina Press, Mills & Boon, Love Inspired & Love Inspired Suspense and Harlequin Historical. All of the different imprints have clear focuses, and separate submission guidelines,…

Enchant

Enchant

Enchant is the Romantasy focused imprint of Entwined Publishing, which we have reviewed here. For those unfamiliar with the term, Romantasy is a very popular genre currently, which is focused on a blend of Romance and Fantasy. At my local big box bookstore, Romantasy is currently dominating the fantasy genre by a large margin. They…

Graveside Press

Graveside Press

Graveside Press is the Horror Imprint of Paper Angel Press, which you can learn more about here. It’s important to read that review as well, as it covers more of how the press as a whole operates. They are a relativity new imprint having been founded in October 2024. You can already get a good…

ORO Editions

ORO Editions

ORO Editions publishes beautifully presented illustrated books with a focus on architecture, urbanism, landscape, art photography, academia & applied research among other things (they recently published a tarot deck, for example). Before reading any further I would suggest you visit their catalog here. It should make it abundantly clear if your proposal would be a…