Fearfully...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 00:03:22 EDT

[for those who may not know it, we are getting ready to have a little contest concerning All Hallowed's Eve (sometimes known as Halloween). Submissions go to our own dear defrosted queen of the north western territories - in the time from Oct. 1 to Oct. 15? Something like that...and October is just around the coroner!] (NOTE: The contest is long over)

In horror of the situation, let us consider some things that might make you fearful. Scared? A deep-down, bone shaking, quivering puddle of pusillanimous timidity? Just as examples:

fear in a dentist's office...the sound of whirring, punctuated with clashes of whining, framed in aching silence touched with liquid gushes. the medicinal odors, tainted with the stink of burning bone and decay. the faint twinge of abdominal muscles tightening in anticipation. the screaming--expected, awaited as a release from the tension, and yet never allowed, never heard, swallowed in sputtering silence.

or perhaps your metier is a wall of blooms--lovely golden explosions of petals, a joyful collar of lavender pink surrounding a black velvet button, long green stems and tattered leaflets--and the small black spider lurking deep inside, red hourglass marking the last grains of the sands of time. Or does the flitting bobbing drone of the happy bee conceal the sting of finality?

So, pick a number from one to six.

1. Insects (pick one, pick one...)
2. Snakes/Reptiles/fish (you get to select one that you shiver with)
3. Illness (yes, you decide whether it will be a simple burst appendix or the more exotic strain of something from afar...Andromeda?)
4. Disability (smashed, cut, gouged, a small nick in a nerve...)
5. Rodents and other chitters in the night...
6. Plants (from the little greenhouse of horrors? or your own backyard? you plant the seed, water it, and reap the thorny cold embrace...)

Play with it. What about that would be frightening to you? Now, can you take a character or two and put them in a situation where they are going to put their hand into the dark crevice where it lurks?

Let me give away a plot.

1. The protagonist is introduced, with a little bit of foreshadowing that this is a person who has some problems. Perhaps they duck away from the sound of a car backfiring? Or maybe they have some trouble pulling the drapes in their room to hide the hideous green outside?
2. There is...a kitten? a puppy? a child? someone weak and in need of help...that forces our protagonist up against the thing they fear.
3. amid flashbacks, carefully sketching in the breaking of the protagonist, the horror of that time that can never be forgotten -- and never remembered in full! -- the protagonist struggles and twists, trying to help, but...
4. take your time. make us feel the agony of the protagonist, looking at the little girl about to drown and fearing to tread where memory tells them evil lurks...tighten the tension, drive home the drip of sweat trickling cold down the back, make us hang our head in shame as the hot tears and fear paralyze us...
5. And the triumphant end! The cathartic release of doing it, of snapping the bonds of the past and saving the day!

Quick Start?

"Leave the bloodsuckers behind us," she said, and kicked his kneecap, hard, leaving him lying on the ground.

or maybe...

Any day that starts with dead men kicking in your front door isn't going to be a good one.

Write two three four...

Is That A Monster in Your Pocket?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Sat, 7 Sep 1996 18:50:36 EDT

[or are you just happy to meet me?]

drawing on How To Write Horror Fiction by William F. Nolan, ISBN 0-89879-442-0

Do you need a monster for your loathsome tale of supernal menace?

[Say, did you know we will be doing a contest? Halloweeny stories, grilled over an open fire, waiting for the flickering light to reflect from the slitted eyes behind you...now open those veins and bleed...:]

Pick a number from one to six, then try:

1. Old Ghoul, New Approach! Ghost, vampire, werewolf, demon, zombie - take a conventional monster, and think about fresh insights, fresh ways of presenting the old blood and guts. Make us feel for them, make us think about the humanity and depth, the inner fears and uncertainties of the real monster.
2. Multiple Monsters. Often, the "human" partner of the macabre is in some ways even more monstrous than the physically bizarre ones. Mix and match, let us cheer for the witch who is protecting her home town from the zombies or make us shiver when we realize that werefido is just a lapdog for the real monster. Be careful to avoid losing the sense of reality, though!
3. Keep those powers in check! If your monster has the strength of ten, it should also have severe hayfever. Or maybe the undying heroine also has a broken heart, crushed by rejection, looking for the one lover who can see past the wrinkles...
4. Human monsters. Take that criminal, and remove human compassion, human guilt, other ordinary feelings. Normal emotions and feelings either aren't there, or are twisted and perverted to the point where they are no longer human.
5. The mechanical, the robotic, the electrical. Cars, computers, massive machinery - there is a subtle fear of these which you can use. Imagine that machines sometimes grow tired of their slavery to humanity, and stalk the night, looking for revenge...
6. The unseen and hidden. What lurks in the shadows? Outside the edges of sight, below the street in the sewers, chittering in the walls of your apartment building, waiting for you to close your eyes?

There are a few possibilities that might help you get started. Remember, think about your monster, think about what drives them, what thirst and hunger draws them, what evil calls them to act.

And don't forget the stakes!

"...summing up, the monsters you create for your stories and novels must be credible; whether human or supernatural or robotic. ... They must pose a significant threat to your main characters. They must be removed from the norm. And they must _not_ be all-powerful."

Short start? How about...

"Every night in the year, four of us sat in the small parlour of the George at Debenham--the undertaker, and the landlord, and Fettes, and myself."

Have at it, fiends and other writers of the dark underside, have at it!

And never, ever feed them after midnight...