User blog:ChristianWallis/My Curation Blog

So I thought I’d put together a blog that pulled together some of the better stories I’ve read over the last few weeks, like a curation. If this goes well I’ll try to do one of these once a month because I think it has the potential to help some of these writers get some exposure. I know there’s the showcase but it’s not very active. A few things to consider though. First, I’ll mainly focus on new stories. And I’ll be excluding stories included in collabs/competitions because the respective pages for those projects will already act as collections.

Second, I don’t read every pasta that comes through so I’ll only pick stories that I’ve read as part of my natural lurking. If you’d like me to read your story and put it up here though feel free to message me, but please don’t take offense if I don’t include it. And thirdly, the criteria will focus more on novelty than quality per se. I’d also like to give recognition to writers who are active and who I feel deserve a bit of exposure because of consistently quality contributions. So I’ll often include stories that have come from people who are active although this will be limited by what I read, and will not be a golden rule. It’s just something I’ll consider when pulling stories together. Also for future posts I’ll try to pick stories from a more limited time frame. But for now I’m playing it a bit loose because it’s the first post so there’s no set limit other than my recent memory.

Another thing is I’d like this to be a very community oriented thing so don’t just take it as me spewing out my own opinion. I think this idea will work best if everyone feels free to put forward stories they’ve read and enjoyed—for any reason—because, like I said, I can’t read them all and chances are I’ll have missed plenty of great entries. Ultimately I just want to help get some exposure for some of these writers. If you’re interested please feel free to either post your opinions of the stories I’ve listed, or suggest stories that you think were good but I didn't mention. Although to help differentiate this from the showcase I think it’d be best if we didn’t bump our own stories. At the end of the day I’d like to be able to use these blogs to create a discussion where writers help other writers. It’s hard to get exposure, and the more we help each other the more we help ourselves by keeping the community active.

So with all that over with let's get on with it.

Here We Are in Nanking – so Blackpersephone has two contributions that I’ve read. Their first was submitted to Whitix’s contest, so I thought I’d focus on their newest one. So far Blackpersephone’s stories seem to focus on historical events, and are written to a high standard. But what I like is that their choice of subject matter is raw, and the basis in reality only deepens this sense of dread. It’s quite a refreshing blast of realism that strips away the idea we should be scared of demons and monsters, and reminds us that our own real world is pretty shitty as it is. In particular this story focuses on the Nanking Massacre which is just… shit. So yeah… that happened. Ultimately I just like the idea of using creepypastas to illuminate people’s awareness of history, and humanize these terrible experiences in a way that is very unsettling.

Volatile Routine – This entry by Demuerto was, in my opinion, quite fun. It’s short, and kind of funny. It’s got a kind of plain and honest style of writing which is mundane but put to good use (my way of saying it’s meant to be a bit…routine – pun intended). It just works because it relies on someone’s routine going…wrong. So yeah, give it a read. It’s fun. And the ending is good. Basically the synopsis on this one is that a boring guy has a not-at-all boring day.

Money Troubles – Blizzard Lemon seems to write stories grounded in reality. But I think her work is consistently good and it’s refreshing to see stories that aren’t filled with ghosts and monsters. Plus I’ve noticed a repeating theme of unsafe domestic settings in her stories and that’s always a fun place for horror to go. Once again Blizzard’s stories are written to a high standard and Money Troubles is no exception. It’s clever, original, and weird, and focuses on a pair of roommates who end up with a terrible debt. Fall Asleep – Nachtrae has contributed a couple of consistently good stories. She’s submitted Gracious Host which is pretty fun, but I’ve got to give some credit to Fall Asleep. It’s a great example of the micropasta sub-genre and it’s subject matter is freaky as shit. Don’t like the idea of going under for a surgery? Well this plays on your fears. I can’t say much – this is short, effective, and good and it’s easier for you to just read it than it is for me to spoil it for you. Go on… it’s like five hundred words at most.

So yeah - these are some of the pastas I've read that I've enjoyed. Please feel free to mention your own suggestions, or give your opinion of the stories I've posted. Hopefully if this goes well I'd like to do one of these every month/maybe even every week.