The Place For My Writers Notes

original posting: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 23:18:53 -0400

TECH: Horror Springs From...

Let's see.  The halloweenie contest is going to start accepting submissions on... October 1?  Plenty of time to... NEXT SUNDAY!  Better start writing faster and furiouser, my dear Alphonse.

Okay, here's a few words that may help with the horror of the situation.

 From Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman ISBN 0-553-09503-X, which in Chapter 13 talks about Trauma and Emotional Relearning.

"At the core of such trauma... is ' the intrusive memory of the central violent action: the final blow with a fist, the plunge of a knife, the blast of a shotgun.  The memories are intense perceptual experiences -- the sight, sound, and smell of gunfire; the screams or sudden silence of the victim; the splash of blood; the police sirens.'"

So we might want to make sure our horror story has a central violent action, with carefully crafted "intense perceptual experiences."  This is the time to make sure you are describing the senses (sights, sounds, smells, tactile feelings, tastes) in detail.

"Any traumatizing event can implant such trigger memories...: a fire or an auto accident, being in a natural catastrophe such as an earthquake or a hurricane, being raped or mugged.  Hundreds of thousands of people each year endure such disasters, and many or most come away with the kind of emotional wounding that leaves its imprint on the brain."

"Violent acts are more pernicious than natural catastrophes such as a hurricane because, unlike victims of a natural disaster, victims of violence feel themselves to have been intentionally selected as the target of malevolence.  That fact shatters assumptions about the trustworthiness of people and the safety of the interpersonal world, an assumption natural catastrophes leave untouched.  Within an instant, the social world becomes a dangerous place, one in which people are potential threats to your safety."

"The operative word is _uncontrollable_.  If people feel there is something they can do in a catastrophic situation, some control they can exert, no matter how minor, they fare far better emotionally than do those who feel utterly helpless.  The element of helplessness is what makes a given event _subjectively_ overwhelming. ... It's the feeling that your life is in danger _and there's nothing you can do to escape it_ ..."

So, a violent act that seems to intentionally select the victim, and leaves them helpless? that's the kind of act that is most likely to generate horror?

Okay, here's a little exercise.  Take your favorite character, and pick a number from one to six.  Got it?  So they are going to encounter:

1.      Fire
2.      Automobile accident
3.      Earthquake
4.      Hurricane (other storm at your selection)
5.      Rape
6.      Criminal Act (mugging, etc.)

Think about it.  Do you want them to directly encounter it, or are they helping a friend who has encountered it?  Do you want to show us the incident, the immediate results, or the longer-term disintegration?  Or do you want to show us the recovery?

How can this encounter strip the character of control, leave them dangling helpless in the path of the oncoming disaster?

Can you make their situation one that has been deliberately planned for them?  Even if the hurricane seems to be a purely natural affair, perhaps being locked out (chained down?) in the path of the oncoming storm could be more intentional evil?

Go ahead and craft that encounter with violence...

And for those who want to know, there are steps for recovery from trauma: "attaining a sense of safety, remembering the details of the trauma and mourning the loss it has brought, and finally re-establishing a normal life."

"Another step in healing involves retelling and reconstructing the story of the trauma in the harbor of that safety, allowing the emotional circuitry to acquire a new, more realistic understanding of and response to the traumatic memory and its triggers."

Why do people like to read horror stories?  What is it about that peculiar sense of fear under control that makes it deliciously attractive?

Something to think about, especially while you're preparing your entries for the unhallowed contest that starts so soon...

"Every poem is rooted in imaginative awe....there is only one thing that all poetry must do; it must praise all it can for being and for happening." W.H. Auden