 Horror/Scary: February 17, 2010 Issue [#3557] |
  Horror/Scary
This week: Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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Greetings, and welcome to this week's edition of the WDC Horror/Scary Newsletter.
Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment.
There is no why.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
Edgar Alan Poe
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Casey runs, her feet somehow missing the gaps betweent the tangled roots that would catch her ankles and grab her toes to drag her into the muck of the decaying cemetery loam. She runs without looking back, because that's when they get you in the movies, right? So she runs to the safety of the caretaker's lodge; the door ajar, she stops running only when she clears the porch in two long steps and slams the door behind her, turning to throw the bolt across the old cast iron lock. There's a lantern, already lit inside, and no windows. Why no windows? Casey has but a moment to ponder that before the pounding begins. Not at the door, but atop the roof - and along the walls! There are more than one of them, why didn't she realize that, and their home is the cemetery, she the invader - the trapped invader.
Will Casey get out, or has she met her fate not by turning back to see how close her pursuer was, but by being trapped. Will she escape? Will she survive even if she doesn't escape? Those are the questions your reader will turn the page to learn, more so than the cliche running and looking back at the pursuer.
Think about it, being trapped, whether in a cabin, a cave, a dark place, a boat (think 'Jaws'), heightens the tension and opens doors to myriad possibilities - escape, battle, survival (or not), physical and emotional. We've created tension by trapping the character(s) with monsters - either supernatural or crazed mortals - roam freely outside.
This technique dates back to the early Gothic horror stories of the 18th Century, where the young woman was trapped in a gloomy castle by an old villain who wanted her for his own.
Today, the 'castle' of old may be a subterrainean conduit beneath a cemetary, a basement, or one's mind hypnotized? Just a few possibilities to trap your unwitting protagonist and force him to either find an escape or succumb to the forces keeping him trapped.
This small space, this trap, allows your readers to focus on a smaller group of characters, become more intimately involved in the horror unfolding. Once your readers get to know the characters, how they were trapped, what they do to try and escape, how they interact, why they fear being trapped, your readers become more emotionally involved with the story and drawn into the 'otherworld' you've created. Mass destruction is horrific, yes, but it's more distanced from your reader. Getting up close and personal with a few characters on the other hand involves them in the story.
Traps often allow the characters a chance. If they can succeed in stopping the antagonist, whether mortal, supernatural, or a plague, then a terrible fate may be forestalled. You as the writer haave the option to make the characters either fail or succeed and show your readers how they attempt success or accede to failure.
Traps often give the 'monster' the advantage and the characters have to act creatively to battle, best, or escape the clutches of the monster. Consider again 'Jaws' or 'Cujo' where Stephen King created a trap for a woman and her child in a car. So anything can become a trap, even a person's mind, keeping him/her safe from the monsters without, real or imagined, mortal or supernatural.
The struggles of those trapped are the story; how they react to being trapped and how they either fight to survive or succumb to the 'monsters' without. Consider 'Night of the Living Dead,' where those trapped in the farmhouse act according to their nature, succumbing to fear or acting with bravery, though in the end they are all eaten.
It's up to you, the writer of horror, to engage your readers, draw them into a trap and make them follow your character(s) as they engage their own fears, the 'monsters' keeping them trapped, and realize their potential either by vanquishing the 'monsters', escaping the trap by some sleight of hand, or the ultimate evasion. You get the picture. Give this classic a shot, and create a trap for today, either physical or ephemeral, and snare your readers with the insights and twists your characters devise while entrapped, and hopefully they will enjoy watching them try to escape.
Until we next meet, Write On!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Getting out of the trap ~ or not ~ see how a few members of our Community do it ~ and share your thoughts on their 'success' if not always that of their protagonist(s)
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Being locked in a public restroom is not always the most pleasant thing. (1st Version)
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Ready to break out and show your readers how ~ like a few 'cues' on how to do it ~ check out the prompts for some 'guidance' here
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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!
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Thank you for this brief respite in the safety of your virtual home ~ we're not trapped, for sure, those scraping noises are just the icicles melting and shifting across the roof. Really, you can open the door and look outside, while I go to the kitchen and grab a knife to cut us each a nice hunk from that sausage hanging from the pantry ceiling, the one as thick as a human calf.
Write On!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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