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Post by ScintillaMyntan on May 23, 2021 11:42:05 GMT -6
I don't usually write, or like, scary things, but I've found myself in possession of a horror idea. Other than having the protagonist face creepy and threatening things, how do I make this frightening? For instruction, I’ve reread the only part of Dracula I found legitimately frightening, the chapter with the doomed ship. I'm not sure how helpful it really is to break stories down to understand their effect as opposed to just working from intuition, but here's what I can say makes that part scary: • The creepy atmosphere. It's foggy, and the weather is portrayed as both anomalous and dangerous
• The crew is scared but won't tell the point-of-view captain why, sort of suggesting to the reader to be afraid in a vague way
• We know from the beginning of the chapter that the people will die, but not how, so watching it unfold is suspenseful, and it feels dark because we're aware of their eventual fate
• Likewise, we all know what the main threat in the story is, but not its relation to this particular event, so we're anticipating him striking in an unexpected way. Basically, we're dealing with unknowns which creates a sense of uncertainty, while knowing enough of how the bad things in the story work so it's more than an abstract "anything can happen"
• That it's written in a day-by-day format, being a ship's log. Makes it feel like things are getting worse progressively or counting down to something dreadful
• The sense of isolation due to the crew not revealing things to the captain, possibly being untrustworthy, and gradually dying off
• When good old title character finally shows up, he and his method of killing are hardly described, making them seem greater than words I might keep an eye out for things that scare me in thoughts, media, and dreams as well. I wonder whether there's also value in getting myself in the mood when writing, like writing in the dark late at night while playing spooky sounds. What's your experience with spooking readers? |
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2021 17:44:56 GMT -6
Not seeing the man with the axe is scarier than seeing the man with the axe. In the end, almost all fears boil down to the Fear of the unknown.
Tell the story in a close point of view, so the reader knows nothing the character you're following doesn't know. If he can't see around the corner, the reader shouldn't be able to either. The reader will put themselves in the character's place. It's the mystery that will peak their interest, and the suspicions that will up the fear factor. Confirmations of what's actually happening are optional. I've seen great movies where there weren't even any theories as to what was happening, though big reveals are a thing as well.
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Post by RAVENEYE on May 25, 2021 8:54:28 GMT -6
Hmm, I have the same issue. I feel that when I try to write "scary" it's anything but. I love reading certain scary fiction though, and yeah, Dracula wasn't scary. It's a building sense of dread, but for us today, in a vampire-saturated culture, there's little to anticipate. That ship scene does stand out as brilliantly done though. The imminent arrival of the monster upon civilization's shores.
Thing is, when I read scary stories, it's the build-up that entices me. 99% of the time, the resolution, the reveal, the ending are huge disappointments, or at least are less interesting than the build-up that led to it. So I guess that's a sign that Tglassy's pointers are spot-on. It's the unknown, the mystery, the building dread that give us the thrill. Once the unknown is known, it's like, "Meh, so what? Another slay the monster scene."
That's probably why, in really effective ghost stories, the evil only appears to be vanquished. The last page or so ought to hint that beneath the surface, the evil insidiously still exists. "The Winter People" followed this classic pattern and was written effectively.
But in the end, I think "scary" is achieved through carefully chosen words. A foggy day can be romantic, mystical , sad, or horrifying depending on the words the author uses to describe it and the surrounding context. The problem I run into is choosing the wrong words, turning my settings into non-scary backdrops.
As far as ideas go, the most helpful advice I read on writing scary content was "What scares you most? Write that." So for the last horror contest we hosted at Old LF I wrote about children turning violent. Innocence being corrupted to the point that children become predators.
That leads me to conclude that ideas can come from "What's considered normal? Now twist it, subvert it, and let the imagination run into the dark with it."
Most of us, it seems, have an inner safeguard that keeps our brains from really "going there." To write about it, in a way, is to bring it to life, to sit in that place for a lot longer than it takes to just read it, and that takes willpower and guts and a willingness to not be nice to our characters. Really not nice.
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Post by Jib on May 25, 2021 18:20:12 GMT -6
I just finished reading a book called The Hollow Places. I started reading it and I didn't expect to be so scared! I honestly don't get freaked out by reading things very often. Watching movies or shows, yes. Books, not often.
I think what got me was a few things:
1) Things felt tangible and realistic, until they got weird. The grounding in reality and normalcy made things go creepy quickly.
2) The scary stuff is never fully explained and is left mysterious, but it does follow a certain rule-set/logic. So it's less "random crap happening" and it feels more sinister/insidious.
3) Likable/relatable characters... or at least someone whose got a story I'm invested in. If it's somebody I don't about, it's a lot harder to be invested in what happens to a character.
4) Having different "story beats". A major criticism I've had of some shows are when they are all one-tone and no rests in between. I guess it has to do with pacing, but give the characters a rest from the action. Give them things to be happy and excited about. Give them things to feel decent about. If it's all just a train-wreck 24-7, it's hard to keep up as a reader... and you also get kind of numb to things. If you have a nice respite in between, though, it gives you more room to ramp up the tension later.
Just some thoughts... hope that helps!
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Post by RAVENEYE on May 26, 2021 16:13:00 GMT -6
I just finished reading a book called The Hollow Places. I started reading it and I didn't expect to be so scared! I honestly don't get freaked out by reading things very often. Watching movies or shows, yes. Books, not often. I think what got me was a few things: 1) Things felt tangible and realistic, until they got weird. The grounding in reality and normalcy made things go creepy quickly. 2) The scary stuff is never fully explained and is left mysterious, but it does follow a certain rule-set/logic. So it's less "random crap happening" and it feels more sinister/insidious. 3) Likable/relatable characters... or at least someone whose got a story I'm invested in. If it's somebody I don't about, it's a lot harder to be invested in what happens to a character. 4) Having different "story beats". A major criticism I've had of some shows are when they are all one-tone and no rests in between. I guess it has to do with pacing, but give the characters a rest from the action. Give them things to be happy and excited about. Give them things to feel decent about. If it's all just a train-wreck 24-7, it's hard to keep up as a reader... and you also get kind of numb to things. If you have a nice respite in between, though, it gives you more room to ramp up the tension later. Just some thoughts... hope that helps! Ooo! Now I wanna check into this book. Hmm... |
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Post by ScintillaMyntan on May 26, 2021 20:11:17 GMT -6
Most of us, it seems, have an inner safeguard that keeps our brains from really "going there." To write about it, in a way, is to bring it to life, to sit in that place for a lot longer than it takes to just read it, and that takes willpower and guts and a willingness to not be nice to our characters. Really not nice. Oh, yeah, I definitely have trouble "going there." I've looked through some summaries of horror fiction and I find myself thinking a lot of things are far too bad for me to want to write about, too stressful for me to want to think about. I might never truly scare the reader if I don't make it past that. |
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Post by Jib on May 27, 2021 7:53:21 GMT -6
Most of us, it seems, have an inner safeguard that keeps our brains from really "going there." To write about it, in a way, is to bring it to life, to sit in that place for a lot longer than it takes to just read it, and that takes willpower and guts and a willingness to not be nice to our characters. Really not nice. Oh, yeah, I definitely have trouble "going there." I've looked through some summaries of horror fiction and I find myself thinking a lot of things are far too bad for me to want to write about, too stressful for me to want to think about. I might never truly scare the reader if I don't make it past that. Maybe it'd be helpful to dig into why you might wanna scare the reader? Like, what is your purpose? Is it to scare them into doing something? Or provide a thrill so that they wanna keep reading? Explore the unknown? I find sometimes that helps, if I know what I'm aiming for. Even if the answer is "I just do", that is helpful! |
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Post by Jib on May 27, 2021 7:54:46 GMT -6
I just finished reading a book called The Hollow Places. I started reading it and I didn't expect to be so scared! I honestly don't get freaked out by reading things very often. Watching movies or shows, yes. Books, not often. I think what got me was a few things: 1) Things felt tangible and realistic, until they got weird. The grounding in reality and normalcy made things go creepy quickly. 2) The scary stuff is never fully explained and is left mysterious, but it does follow a certain rule-set/logic. So it's less "random crap happening" and it feels more sinister/insidious. 3) Likable/relatable characters... or at least someone whose got a story I'm invested in. If it's somebody I don't about, it's a lot harder to be invested in what happens to a character. 4) Having different "story beats". A major criticism I've had of some shows are when they are all one-tone and no rests in between. I guess it has to do with pacing, but give the characters a rest from the action. Give them things to be happy and excited about. Give them things to feel decent about. If it's all just a train-wreck 24-7, it's hard to keep up as a reader... and you also get kind of numb to things. If you have a nice respite in between, though, it gives you more room to ramp up the tension later. Just some thoughts... hope that helps! Ooo! Now I wanna check into this book. Hmm... I'm actually really curious what other people might think of it! I did read another by the same author the Twisted Ones and it wasn't that compelling. It was an earlier work, though, so I suspect the author just got better at writing scary things. Maybe that's something to consider too...? Like, if we're bad at writing horror, it might simply be that we need more experience writing it. |
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Post by pelwrath on May 31, 2021 10:14:36 GMT -6
I’m not a horror writer. I tried on Legendfire 1, It was bad, so bad it was almost funny.
I like scary, that to me is the essence of horror. Does the monster really matter? Humans are the best monsters, so I’ll suggest that you humanize your monster. The first Aliens was scary, the monster changed during the movie/story. The Thing was scary.
Portray the monster through those threatened by it.
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Post by RAVENEYE on May 31, 2021 10:34:02 GMT -6
I’m not a horror writer. I tried on Legendfire 1, It was bad, so bad it was almost funny. I like scary, that to me is the essence of horror. Does the monster really matter? Humans are the best monsters, so I’ll suggest that you humanize your monster. The first Aliens was scary, the monster changed during the movie/story. The Thing was scary. Portray the monster through those threatened by it. "Humans are the best monsters." That's a great statement right there. Totally agree. I think it's because human monsters best fit that advice I badly paraphrased above: What do we categorize as within the realm of normal, acceptable, etc? And horror, real life or fiction, is those things turned upside down, or even slightly twisted in disturbing ways. Those who master that technique have my undying admiration, b/c it seems so hard to do well. |
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Post by Alatariel on May 31, 2021 18:07:29 GMT -6
I actually get disappointed with horror that ends up being gorey or bloody or murder-y. Death is not the scariest thing to me and I think a lot of horror focuses on that ending too much. I think psychological torment is a million times worse. And I agree with Pelwrath, humans are the worse (best?) monsters. A mindless animalistic monster? Eh. A person consciously making choices? AHHH.
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