Although this didn't really happen last Saturday, I have received emails about incidents similar to this, along with a message from our IT department that it's 'spam' and a hoax. I'm sure many of you have also. What this is, along with the claw left in the car after getting lost in the woods, or the body of a traveler found pinned to the hood of a car, is an urban legend. A fictional story that's told as if it really happened. And the story need not be in an urban setting, i.e., campers lost, one goes off to find help or gas, and doesn't return, but in the morning his body falls onto or rolls off of the hood of the car.

         Urban legends are found in all cultures; and cover almost any subject, from food to politics to weddings to funerals. Some deliver a moral or lesson while others are told for comic relief. Some do have truth underlying them. The time and place of urban legends vary, but they each have a few things in common, and most people have heard, and believe, at least one.

         Consider some of the following familiar ones: the sewer alligator that grows to monstrous size (or the pet snake that returns supersized through the sewer system to bite the 'hand' that flushed it). Some alligators have grown to large proportions and several have been documented, but do they really return to payback the hapless mortals who commended them to their fetid habitats?

         Or maybe you remember the legend of Mary Mary and the mirror, and if you do, you won't say "I do believe in Mary Worth" nine times while gazing into one in the dark, lest she appear in the room to do you harm ~ I mean, it's just a story, but just in case.



         One legend which has moralistic undertones is The Hook, which is told to adolescents everywhere and meant to discourage late night back-seat 'activities.' The story begins with two teenagers having a 'make-out' session in the boy's car when the news comes on that an escaped lunatic is on the loose in that area. Apparently the escapee has a hook for a hand and the news announcer urges anyone who sights him to call the police immediately. The teenagers hear noises from outside the car. Then the story can go one of two ways, one with the teens driving away, scared, only to find a hook embedded in the side of the car when they get home. The other, darker version ends with the boy getting out of the car to investigate the noises - only to never come back. The girl, hiding in the car, hears banging noises on top of the car and later, when the police come and drive her away, she looks back to find her boyfriend dead on the roof.

         Now, you also can weave an urban legend, as I modifiied a couple a few minutes ago, and make it your own 'believable' story to tell.

Choose one that's familiar.

.Create three-dimensional characters from the people involved in the original urban legend, including victims, unknown killers and/or supernatural characters -- even if these characters' roles are ambiguous.

Determine your setting and customize your plot so the setting becomes important to the story itself. The idea is to turn the legend into a real horror story. Remove your story from the realm of the urban legend, where the setting is unimportant, often ambiguous and generalized.

Add original elements to the legend. You want to use the urban legend as the basis for an original horror story. This means you create material that gives your urban legend an origin as well as an original twist. You might even add new characters to help dramatize the history of the legend.

Consider tying the legend to a real life historical event - a massacre, a plague, witch trials?

Leave the urban legend itself intact and recognizable. Since you're writing a horror story based on an urban legend, you want your readers to have an overall sense of familiarity as well as a feeling of being introduced to something new. Don't completely disregard the legend ~ expand upon it. Combining the old and new will leave your readers satisfied.

         Now, ready to try weaving one of your own ~ But First, check out some of the 'legends' offered here. You will note that I didn't use the term urban myth, as it's been earmarked as denoting 'fantasy' not 'legend' ~ but they can be used interchangeable.

         Enjoy the journey, then perhaps have fun creating one of your own.

Write On!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading