That writing prompt about the "haunted house" I used last week almost got me banned from a local writers group

Last Tuesday I posted a prompt based on a real abandoned farmhouse on Route 9 near my town. I thought I made it fictional enough, but someone in the group recognized the exact property line and description from 2019. Turns out the current owner's cousin is a moderator and she was furious I was sharing local lore without permission. I got a 7-day suspension and a lecture about respecting real places. Has anyone else accidentally stepped on a landmine with a prompt that was too close to real life?

2 comments

2 Comments

jana_davis9025d ago

Guess you found the one house that's actually haunted by lawyers.

elizabeth_williams25d ago

Haha seriously though! It's funny how we always think of ghosts as these dramatic Victorian era figures when really the most terrifying haunting would probably be a bunch of lawyers showing up in your living room at 3 AM arguing about property lines. But honestly this makes me think about how we just accept that some places have weird vibes and call them haunted when maybe there's a simpler explanation. Like every old building I've been in has this weird energy but its probably just decades of people being stressed and arguing and living their messy lives. The whole "haunted house" thing feels like a shortcut to explain why a place makes us uncomfortable when really its just the weight of all those human emotions piling up over time. Kinda makes you wonder what stories every wall in your house could tell if walls could talk and all that.