History is a great place to find inspiration for writing, but it’s even better when it’s strange! Here are some bizarre stories from history that you can expand upon, based closely on the story or written with great artistic liberty. Make it funny, make it dark, make it yours.

Poetry: Pope Gregory IX supposedly hated cats (black ones in particular) so much that he ordered them killed, which led to a rat population increase, which spread the bubonic plague. Write an ode in favour of cats, or an ode against cats, supporting Pope Gregory IX’s mission to rid the world of them.

Fiction: Apparently, Victorian England, the American old west, the Meiji Restoration, and French privateering in the Gulf of Mexico timelines all overlapped each other. So, theoretically, you could have a French pirate, a samurai, an English gentleman, and a gunslinger all in the same room together and it would be plausible. Write a story where all of these characters meet! Are they all in a bar together? Did they form a gang in the south of Mexico? Are they all pirates?

Fiction / Creative Nonfiction: Some royals believed that their bodies were made of glass. These delusions caused very strange behaviour, including tiptoeing through doorways or laying for hours wrapped in blankets. Choose the perspective of someone in the castle who might be observing this strange behaviour, such as a servant, a priest, a doctor, or a family member, and write a diary of what they might observe.

As always, share your stories with us! Who knows, we might just feature it!

Happy writing!