’Twas the night before Christmas—or so it would seem,
Yet Friday the 13th spun a darker dream.
With coffee-stained mugs and stale midnight snacks,
Authors hunched over their keyboards in stacks.
Pens scratched like claws in the still of the night,
Plots twisted and turned under dim candlelight.
A horror writer cackled, his characters doomed,
While a poet wilted as bad rhymes consumed.
From the bookshelf, a creak—a whisper, no less,
“A typo! A TYPO!” the grim voice confessed.
Writers froze in their chairs, their spines wired with dread,
Had the ghosts of rejected drafts risen instead?
The fantasy author dropped her quill with a start,
For her villain’s backstory had just fallen apart.
Romance wept—her “love triangle” became a square,
While sci-fi declared, “My character lacks all flair!”
A breeze carried whispers through that cursed writer’s den,
“You pressed ‘Send’ on your manuscript—mistakes and all ten!”
“Who dares summon clichéd tropes—so overdone?”
“And who thought that adverbs should roam free in a ton?”
With a gulp and a shudder, the authors took stock,
Editing madly as the hall’s clock went “tock.”
’Twas a night for rewrites, for plot holes to seal,
For no writer can rest when their work doesn’t feel.
But as dawn broke softly on December the 14th,
The terrors of fiction snuck quietly from beneath.
For despite the typos and pacing unclear,
An author’s first draft is an act without fear.
So beware, fellow scribes, on Fridays so grim,
The ghosts of poor structure may creep on a whim.
But know this as your courage fights with despair,
Even brilliance is born from the dark midnight air.
Here’s to all the writers on this Friday the 13th, whether you’re just starting out or have been doing it for years. Keep fighting those Friday night battles and never forget that your words have the power to inspire, entertain, and touch hearts. Happy writing, from Richter Publishing!
Richter Publishing 