 Horror/Scary: November 17, 2021 Issue [#10954] |
This week: Short and Scary Edited by: Lilith 🎄 Christmas Cheer  
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"Most fears are basic: fear of the dark, fear of going down in the basement, fear of weird sounds, fear that somebody is waiting for you in your closet. Those kinds of things stay with you no matter what age.”
~ R.L. Stine
“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.”
~ Edgar Allan Poe
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”
~ H. P. Lovecraft |
| ASIN: 0997970618 |
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Amazon's Price: $ 14.99
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If love stories make you swoon and comedies make you chuckle, then horror stories make you clench your gut, slam shut your eyes, and pray for the nightmare to end. Scary stories deliver fear. That’s their job. But can you write a scary story in 150 words?
Yes, you can!!! The keys to doing it are to trigger fear fast by leveraging age-old human psychology and to narrow the story to its most basic elements. Here are a few tips to keep your scary story super short.
 Scare the reader early!
Things are scarier if you are already afraid. So scare them early and often. Once we are primed for fear, we interpret everything else through this fear-smeared lens. Especially in a micro or short story, we need to get to the fear fast.
In your story, don’t go for the slow burn by building to suspense or fear. Dive into the middle of the scary. Think that’s hard to do in 150 words? Here are a few scary words that might help: screaming, buried, bloodstains, death.
Un-scary things can be the scariest (humans imagine the worst).
One of Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite techniques was to invoke fear in normal settings, like showers, and into normal things, like birds.
Sure, graveyards and old, empty houses are scary. But so are rain gutters with smiling clowns.
When choosing your story and scene settings, think outside of the graveyard. Invoke fear into the ordinary. Pick a normal place and make it terrifying.
No Way Out
According to neuroscientists (people way smarter than me), the purpose of fear is to prompt us into appropriate adaptive action. Mainly, that is to escape the source of the threat or perceived threat.
That’s why it’s so terrifying to feel trapped. So, ramp up the fear in your stories by hemming in your characters so that they can’t do what everything in their biology is screaming at them to do: get the hell out.
Now all of those buried alive stories make more sense. So do the stories of being conscious but immobile on the surgeon’s table, the scalpel-sharp and gleaming inches away from the whites of your eyeball.
When you think about trapping your character or characters, think not only about the physical location. Also, think about access to help through cell phones and other resources like food, water, and air.
Give it a try! Write a scary micro story! |
| |  | The Abduction (18+)
This is a micro fiction story written for the Hundred Words of Horror contest.
#1974435 by Garrick  |
| |  | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1896376 by Not Available. |
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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Comments Received From "Horror/Scary Newsletter (November 3, 2021)" :
Ray Scrivener  wrote:
"Hey Lilli! Thanks for featuring Lola's Dream, I've been wondering how it turned out and haven't heard a peep. Maybe now I can get some feedback on how terrible my writing is!  By the way, do you know anyone that wants to buy a coffin? Only slightly used, I assure you. The previous owner got evicted it seems.
Anyway, thanks for putting up with my nonsense, and have a great rest of your day!"
LOL, used coffin! Wait...is the owner going to need it back during the daylight hours?
dogpack saving 4premium  wrote:
"NaNo can be a fantastic way to learn to kick the editor to the nearest bus station and send him or her on vacation for a month. If all else fails and you struggle to write for NaNo, take whatever you need to in order to relax, a nice relaxing shower, walk, snack, whatever works, and then write. Don't start writing for NaNo, just start writing. Write anything doesn't matter, write, write, enjoy the process while you allow your imagination to go all over and create whatever. After a project. BUT! DO NOT! Don't discard what you used to jumpstart your writing. There are treasures like gems and diamonds and other words for your NaNo or other projects."
Not throwing away old writings is actually very good advice for all of us! |
| ASIN: B083RZ2C5F |
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