FILL: What is horror?

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Original Posting 1 March 2011

Oh, let's try this. Over here, http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/02/27/writing-excuses-5-26-scared-for-the-characters/ Dan Wells, who writes horror novels, suggests an experiment.

First, ask somebody what horror is.

You look like somebody. So -- what is horror? Go ahead, tell me what you think horror is.

Now, Dan says that unless someone is a reader of the horror genre, they are likely to say horror is one of two things. First, slasher movies (Friday the 13th? Is that the hockey mask slasher?). Second, 1970s Steven King era stuff. A house full of demons or something like that.

He says that's not what modern horror is. Of course, I don't think he ever says what it is, but...

So, how did we do? Did you think horror was either a slasher movie or a house full of demons? What did you think it was?

Any readers (or writers) of modern horror out there? Just what is horror today?

TECH: Killer Stories? With Lipstick?

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Original Posting 3 March 2011

Aha! Over here http://johndbrown.com/writers/ John Brown offers some observations about writing. Now, I'm going to skip down the page (we'll come back to suspense later... maybe! :-) to the part about 3 Things You Must Learn to Write Killer Stories. And...

Let's take a look at Lesson 1 under Thing 1. Thing 1 is What Stories Do. Good thing to know, eh? And Lesson 1 is Lipstick! Yes, John uses lipstick to reveal the first mystery underlying killer stories. You see, if you just look at the ingredients in lipstick... oh, my. Wax, fats, emollients, pigments... not terribly appetizing. And if you asked an alien to make some up from that list, well, you might not appreciate the results. What's missing? Ah, what do we do with lipstick? Well... he uses a picture of a woman with lipstick on her lips to point out that we (at least some of us) feel something when we look at that picture. Lipstick (in the right place)  makes us FEEL something!

Guess what. Lipstick creates emotion. Stories? Well, yes.

He suggests a simple exercise. Make a list of say five of your favorite stories. Novels, movies, cartoons, whatever, what sticks in your mind?

Then, look at that list. What do you love about them? What do they do that makes you enjoy them?

Make you laugh, make you cry, make you feel emotions!

What do you think? Is John onto something here?

Want to take a look at Lesson 2? Coming soon...

TECH: Thing one, lesson two: getting specific

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Original Posting 4 March 2011

OK. So lesson one was use lipstick to write your stories?

No, no. Stories, like lipstick, generate emotion. They make us feel.

But, lesson two at http://johndbrown.com/writers/getting-specific/ points out...

That's not very specific. Emotion? Which one? There's so many. OK. So let's see if we can figure out which emotions you like to read about and would like to create. Get specific.

John Brown recommends an exercise (I like this guy! He wants you to work for it.)

Step one: list 10 of your favorite stories. Not necessarily your most favorite, just 10 favorite stories. Fiction, history, biography, novels, movies, poetry, whatever. Make a list.

Step two: beside each one, write down what you liked about it. What did it make you feel? What did it do to you or for you? Did you laugh, cry, wonder, hold on to the edge of your desk, feel that sense-of-wonder, say, "I wish I could do that?"

Step three: Look at your lists. You'll probably see a pattern. These are what John Brown calls your draws. What draws you to a story. You might want to write those down as a separate list, although keeping them with the stories that make you feel those can help you. After all, when you want to write your stories, you'll need to have models of stories, characters, setting, problems, plots that make you feel those. Then you'll want to do some imitation.

OK? So we've got lipstick -- stories make us feel emotions. Now we've got draws -- the specific feelings that we like in stories.

Go make your lists. We'll come back to thing one, lesson three real soon now.

Oh, my. The Phantom... no, don't look ahead. Make your list.

TECH: Who knows what evil lurks in the Phantom Menace?

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Based on http://johndbrown.com/writers/my-big-draws/

Now, this is where it starts to get complicated. See, John is going to get seriously analytic here, starting with taking apart The Phantom Menace (you remember, the Star Wars movie? Jar Jar Fun Fun and other pains? Yeah, that one. Article right over here, compleat with sections, appendices and all that. Imagine, you too can have your very own Thrill-O-Meter! Go to http://www.hatrack.com/misc/phantommenace/index.shtml and read all about it!)

Quick summary: We all like sympathetic wahoo, curiosity, wanna, wonder, humor, and insight. When a story fails, you get confusion, disbelieve and disregard, mistrust, irritation and anger, and boredom. Now what we as writers want to understand is what sequence (character, setting, problem, plot) makes what effects!

Readers need to understand the situation, trust the author, and believe.

And... that's probably enough. Go read the article for more details.

So, what's that got to do with Thing 1, Lesson 3? I'm glad you asked. Basically, thing one, lesson three is about John Brown's big draws -- and yours. The same kind of thing that John does with Phantom Menace, and that we did with our list of 10 stories (you did make your list, right? And what emotions they stirred in you?) But with more detail.

First, John makes a list of the emotions that his favorite stories generate. Along with some keywords. Not just sympathy, but sympathy, rooting, justice. And he notes that this is basically story. Take a look at his list.

He also notes how he likes to feel when he's finished. When the movie ends, when you close the book and set it aside, how do you like to feel? He's got three, but you might have more or fewer.

Finally, he looked at it in terms of three or four story parts: characters, settings, problems and plots. What do you like to feel about characters? What do you like to feel about settings? What about problems? And of course, plots?

OK? So we've got our lipstick. Stories make us feel emotions. We've got our draws. What specific emotions do we like in our stories? And now, we've taken that list of emotions a little bit further. Polished up the list, looked at what we want to take away, and played a little with which emotions go with which parts of the story.

Go ahead and tidy up your lists. What are the emotions, where do you like to end up, and what do you associate with each part of the story: characters, setting, problem and plot?

And next... we'll look at thing two! How do stories do what they do (that old Black Magic?)?