The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
Back to feedPost
Negro Spiritual — Short Horror Fiction
🖤 New short story: “Negro Spiritual”
I’m excited to share my newest short story, a supernatural horror piece exploring generational fear, family, identity, survival, and the masks we wear to protect ourselves. 👁️🎭
“Negro Spiritual” follows a woman who begins experiencing a terrifying presence connected to something that has followed her family for generations. As the story unfolds, she is forced to confront something much deeper than the supernatural.
🩸 Genre: Horror / Supernatural Fiction
✍🏾 Role: Writer / Author
📖 Format: Short Story
I’m continuing to build my writing portfolio and share more of my fiction with readers across different platforms.
Read the Story
📖 Substack:
Read “Negro Spiritual” on Substack
👀 Reddit:
Leyland | The Writer on Reddit
✨ More writing coming soon.
The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
Trending
retrofuturism
Share your favorite designs from the past exploring the distant future. Or your own take on the aesthetic 🚀
halftone
Dots. Texture. Grain. Let's see your designs using the halftone technique.
Midjourney
Creatives are showing off what they're making with Midjourney.
colorgrade
Video editors sound off: How do you enhance the mood of your video in color grading?
Related posts
A first glimpse of Senses, a skincare rebrand I’ve been working on. Here's a few highlights from the identity, packaging and art direction.
There’s still more to reveal. Full project coming soon.
packagingbrandingbrandingdesignPackaging DesignBrand DesignGraphic DesignAdobe PhotoshopFigmaHiggsfield AI
Beautiful work!
✍🏽 Learning to trust the reader.
One thing I’ve been exploring in my fiction writing class lately is the power of diction and dialogue.
I recently revisited one of my own scenes and realized something: I was explaining too much.
Instead of telling readers exactly what my character was feeling, I started experimenting with letting the dialogue, physical reactions, word choice, and silence carry the emotion.
📖 Reading Jerome Stern’s Making Shapely Fiction and Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants helped me see this differently.
Sometimes, what a character doesn't say can be just as important as what they do say.
I’m learning that good fiction doesn’t always hand the reader every emotion and every answer. Sometimes, we have to leave enough space for the reader to step into the scene and experience it for themselves.
That realization has changed how I approach my writing.
I wrote more about this process, including an excerpt from my own fiction, on my Substack.
🔗 Read “Learning to Leave Room for the Reader” on my Substack:
https://leylandthewriter.substack.com/p/learning-to-leave-room-for-the-reader
📚 Want to read along with me?
Making Shapely Fiction — Jerome Stern
🛒 Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Making+Shapely+Fiction+Jerome+Stern
Hills Like White Elephants — Ernest Hemingway
🛒 Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Hills+Like+White+Elephants+Ernest+Hemingway
If you’re interested in following my writing journey, subscribe to my Substack. I’ll be sharing more about fiction, creativity, reading, and what I’m learning as I continue developing my craft. ✍🏽📚
What are you currently learning about your own creative process? 👇🏽
🕯️ I’m excited to share my newest fiction piece: Caged.
This story is deeply personal in the way it explores family, sacrifice, motherhood, and the things we carry silently.
Caged follows a grandmother through what begins as an ordinary day with her grandson. But as the day unfolds, she finds herself carrying more and more emotional weight while trying to remain strong for the people she loves.
One of the things I wanted to explore was what happens when someone becomes so focused on caring for everyone else that they begin to lose themselves in the process.
The monster in this story represents something much deeper than a physical presence.
It represents the things we try to cage.
The emotions we suppress.
The pain we carry.
The responsibilities we never put down.
The parts of ourselves we keep hidden because everyone else needs us to be strong.
✍🏽 Writing this piece allowed me to explore how fiction can show what a character is experiencing without always saying it directly.
I’m continuing to learn how to create characters who feel human, complicated, loving, flawed, and real.
📖 Read Caged on my Substack:
👉🏽 https://leylandthewriter.substack.com/p/caged?r=5pnsd4&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer
If you read it, I’d love to know what you think.
What do you think the “monster” represents? 👀
And if you enjoy fiction, storytelling, and following the journey of a writer developing their craft, consider subscribing to my Substack. 🕯️📚
