Still looking for ideas for your 'under a spell' entry?

Bless you! What's that if not a magic spell? Well I guess it could be a prayer but then again... what's the difference?

"Happy birthday to you" is a line from a song. But if you sing it and then ask the birthday girl or boy to blow out candles on a cake, then surely that's a spell too? I once heard a talk about magic that made just this point.

Write a witch awards: WINNERS ANNOUNCED

If you are still struggling (as I am) to think up some new ideas for the Under a spell challenge, why not start with something simple. The

challenge has two main requirements. You write about a coven, and the first line has to be a spell. A coven is just a group of witches, and there are covens that meet around the world to this day. The term may have a sinister connotation and in fiction it is a commonplace that wicked witches meet as covens to cast their evil spells.

Fact and fiction, there are good witches, bad witches, funny witches, literary witches and witches from history. During the 17th and 18th centuries there were many persecutions of people accused of witchcraft and devil worship and some may have practiced witchcraft, others were simply those viewed with suspicion within a community or those that others harbored grudges against.

So if you are looking for inspiration, a simple piece of web research into historical, fictional or latter-day witchcraft should produce some good ideas. You may even like to try using one of the Chat applications currently being plugged. I have written several articles about how to use Chat-GPT for research and please feel free to make use of these if it helps.

AI tools like Chat-GPT can often help with research but can also provide some useful ideas as a starting point. If you are going to use any text generated by GPT and such systems, please add a note to say that you have done so. There is too much AI-produced text on this forum for my liking and much of it is not properly labelled.

For those who consider AI to be akin to a wicked witch, or those who want to know more about how to make good use of AI, one of my articles deals with how to use AI responsibly.

Back to the question of spells and spelling. One approach you could try is to write a spell as a simple rhyme, as many literary spells seem to be. "double double, toil and trouble" from Macbeth, for instance, although in this case the rhyme is a prophesy rather than a spell. You can see what I mean, though.

For one of the short stories I am trying hard to complete for the 'Under a spell' challenge, I have written the spell to start the story, introduced the main character, just can't quite decide where to take it. Still, plenty of time to go (nine days as I write) so hopefully I will have something to show by the deadline. If you are interested, the spell goes like this:

Breezes calm and waters placid, render this man's member flaccid.

As you might imagine, the intention of this spell is to introduce a story that has a humorous and irreverent tone to it. It will feature a character from another witchy story I published a while ago. In Dark clouds gather, there is a scene where a young witch talks about her best spell and it is this

character and her successful (but mischievous) spelling that has inspired my yet-to-be challenge submission.

I will link the story here once I have entered it

If you like the rhyming spell approach I have suggested above why not give it a go? You are welcome to use any of my suggestions but please credit the source if you do copy the words verbatim. Once you start scribbling down or keying in some ideas, you will soon find something that inspires you to write a stunning witchy submission for the challenge. Jotting down some initial ideas or prompt words is often a good way to start your creative juices flowing.

If you still need some nudging, how about playing around with some of the following ideas:

• Eye of toad and wing of bat...
• Witches old and witches young...
• Frogs and snails and puppy dogs' tails...
• Jewels and gems and diadems...
• Bless this house and all within it...
• Sun and moon and planets bright...
• Blessed Venus, hear my plea / prayer / voice..
• Dreaded demons come to this place / house / town

The list could be endless and I am sure you will come up with your own brilliant ideas for a spell to start your story with.

I don't know if some of the things I have suggested will count as spells but you could always try asking the Vocal team if you are not sure

A lot of my witchy stories have been inspired by witches of history, books, films and TV. I have referred to this in another of my articles. I am also

Another tip for inspiration. Think of the names of your favorite witches then weave those names into a witchy story. Mine would be Samantha and Tabitha. You know who they are?

acquainted with several practicing witches and those who follow wiccan and pagan beliefs, often a blend of these things and other spiritualistic ideas. I will even be attending the famous international Witchfest event in London in November. If you are planning to go, do let me know and I would love to meet up there.

Dont forget, if you have written a story for the 'Under a spell' challenge, you can also enter it into my unofficial Write-a-witch awards and earn an additional cash prize: $20 to be won in total.

Other witchy vocal creators

For more inspiration, I would recommend the following creators/stories:

Plus:

• The Writing Witch ✨🌗 (Joelle)
• A Lake and a Mountain
• A story about a young witch-in-training
• One Witch, Two Witch
• How about some wilderness inspiration? This from StoryholicFinds
• 6 Scarlet Witch-Centric Comics Worth Catching Up On

Yet more witchery from other Vocal creators:

• Witches' cackles
• Cosmic witch
• Four great witchy books
• Read some of my reviews of witchy stories here

I will add some more when I get time. Please feel free to make suggestions.

Love, peace and blessings (is this a spell too?)

Ray