Crafting Chilling Tales: A Spooky Evening of Storytelling at BOOKgem

On Tuesday evening, BOOKgem hosted Crafting Chilling Tales, a Halloween season writing workshop organised by Gibraltar Cultural Services’ Davina Barbara as part of the GCS Adult Programme. 

The season was led by Jackie Anderson, a local author and poet, who drew on more than 30 years of writing experience and her first non-fiction book, Myth, Monster, Murderer. 

Anderson taught the audience the core elements of writing such as structure, show don’t tell, themes, settings and character creation and shared her insight from her literary career along the way. 

She opened with a trigger warning, noting that the evening would touch on the darker side of human nature. 

Ghost stories, she said, have been popular for as long as people told tales, and they often work as a safer way to explore danger, fear and the lines in-between good and evil.  

Jackie said that when she started writing ghost stories, she learned that their key elements were the same as any other good story.  

 “It’s just how we use those elements and how you put them together,” she said. 

The attendees wove together the different themes of suspense, unexpected, plot twists and satisfying conclusions. 

Jackie stressed how important themes are, acting like a common bond that hold the plot together and give the story a reason to exist.   

“I once wrote stories simply to write, but now I ask myself why I am telling each one,” she said. 

“Themes such as revenge, injustice, guilt or lost love tend to emerge, and they shape the characters.” 

While discussing the importance of setting, she read the opening of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher to examine how a space can establish a mood.  

“The atmosphere doesn’t depend on darkness. A character who feels unsettled can make a sunny afternoon frightening, and carefully chosen verbs do much of the work,” she said. 

She also explored point of view in a story, how writing in the first person pulls the readers into a character’s head and works well, although it limits what the story can show.  

“Stories with multiple viewpoints need careful handling, such as giving different characters their own chapters.” 

The workshop also discussed the shortage of local publishers and literary networks in Gibraltar, as well as the need to support women writers. 

If you would like to attend events like this, please see Gibraltar Culture Services’ Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/culture.gi