 Horror/Scary: July 06, 2011 Issue [#4486] |
  Horror/Scary
This week: Kids Like Being Scared ~ Really! Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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Welcome to this week' edition of the WDC Horror Newsletter, where we strive to make you feel a need to lock your windows, draw tight your shades and, whatever you do, keep away from the door. As writers of horror poetic and prosaic, we peel away the carefully constructed layers of skin reveal for our readers what lies (sometimes literally) at the core of mundane reality's onion ~ or other root crop of choice.
{b:}c:blue}As a small child,
I felt in my heart two contradictory feelings,
the horror of life and the ecstasy of life.
Charles Baudelaire
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Greetings,
I love roller coasters, I've always loved them, the thrill of the climb, a bit scary as the wheels clatter up, past a couple of birds, then for a split second pause to look down on treetops and ant-sized people before going into a freefall with a scream and upraised arms. Let me tell you of one time the screams became real for me, back in grade school.
"Come on Mary, let's get the last seat in the last car. It's almost as good as the first in the first car," Kate said, grabbing her best friend's hand and ducking past the high school kids who were all pushing forward.
Kate and Mary slid into their chosen seat behind all the high school kids and, after slapping shut the bars across their knees, the attendant started the chain of kid-loaded cars grinding forward and upward. The climb was nearly vertical, four cars with six passengers each lumbering up metal tracks, leaving treetops behind along with the ever-shrinking people on the ground.
"Look at Sister, down there," Kate pointed as their climb was near completed. "Doesn't she look like one of the penguins from up here?"
"Shhh, quit laughing, she'll hear us," Mary answered, poking Kate's arm, while grinning at the sight of Sister's shrinking habit moving along the walkway way way below.
"Nope, we're way up high, ready to fly," Kate said, jiggling the bar across their laps, which raised straight up in her hands.
"Mary, the bar's not locked!" she shouted, even though Mary's ear was right next to her face. "Brace your knees!" Mary saw the terror framing Kate's gritted teeth and gripped the lap bar and pushed her legs against the backrest in front of them. And they reached the apex and gravity took over, pulling the cars into apparent freefall on the tracks, with the girls gripping useless hand bars as their butts rose from the last seat in the last car. Two pair of knees pressed against the back of the seat in front of them were the only barriers to flying out of the dropping car, which then rose again, turned, and dropped again, and again. Their screams were not exultant yelps, but arcing terror as they plummeted and rose, with nobody behind them to see they were hanging on for their lives, in the last seat of the last car.
Now, I still love coasters, the faster and higher the better, even decades after that terrifying ride, as I head for the last seat in the last car if I can't get the first in the first car, I always check the bar is tight after the attendant goes by locking it. I raise my hands for the exultant scream a split second after we start the free fall, once I know for sure the bar is locked.
See, kids like horror, it's scary fun!. They like being scared when they can subsequently exert control and master the situation. That's one of the key elements, though, that they eventually exert control and master the situation. They want to ride that coaster, experience the thrill of the terror, but resolve the cause of the fear and regain mastery of the situation. In other words, they don't want to ride the coaster and end up hurling lunch or wetting themselves at the end, leaving a residual fear of ever riding again. Kids tell each other scary stories, often ending comically, gross but funny.
Kids actually like reading scary stuff. Scary stories for kids have been growing in popularity. Think about it - reading, as opposed to watching on film, gives kids more of a sense of control. They can turn the page, they can read the words, and create their own mental image of what's happening in the book. In a film, they are given the filmmaker's vision, take it or leave it. And, when it's thundering and lightning outside (cant go out to play), lights flickering (no videogames), they can give their gaming thumbs a rest and embark on a journey of scary terror.
See, I'm not thinking here the little ones to whom we read sanitized fairy tales, but middle grades, aged 8-12, some as old as 14. The continuing popularity of R.L. Stine's Goosbumps and Lee Striker's (a/k/a Margaret Clark)'s Hair Raisers, along with Neil Gaiman's books - consider Coraline and The Graveyard Book - and such classics as Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow are proof that kids actually enjoy the act of (yes, active) reading a good scary story! And statistically, boys and girls in fairly even numbers read them. Some of the younger kids may not be able to read every word, but they can read enough to understand the gist of the story and stay in the moment. The unfamiliar words soon become familiar ^_^
So, what is it these writers, and others, perhaps you, do to give the kids just enough of a scary thrill to keep them coming back for more, keep wanting to read more?
 Empower the victims in the story. Where the familiar becomes unfamiliar, control is lost - for a time - the story holds out hope that there's a solution. The victim may have to work to find the solution, but has the ability to deal with the horrific situation. Cliffhanger chapter or scene endings keep the ride moving, the pages turning, always with the hope that the next page will allow your character (and reader) to see a way out of the horror.
 Free the child to push boundaries, be 'naughty,' resist authority and see how kids resolve a scary situation. Often the adults in the story appear as foolish or ignorant of how to solve what's under their very noses. It's up to the young victim/hero to 'save the day.'
 Use fantasy characters or dastardly strangerbully villains, but avoid making parents or siblings evil villains that have to be eliminated to resolve the story. Also, refrain from making favorite pets horrific victims or villains. If you explore social issues in horror, like kidnapping, child stealing, for example, give kids a safety net that they may have to work to find, but one that's there for them to gain control and come out ahead. Kids can entertain the apparent powerlessness over strangers mortal or of other realms, but when the story is over, it's over. Putting the terror in their own family or home makes it harder to close the 'book' on the scary stuff.
 In that vein (yes, bad pun), avoid gore for gore's sake. A graphic biology lesson after a monstrous battle doesn't move the story forward or empower the victim (or reader) as much as, say, an eyeball popping off a decomposing zombie who's trying to buy a brain straining to read the sign that says 'O R G A N B A N K.'
 That leads to another key factor in the appeal of horror stories for kids. Give them comic relief. Let them explore scary everyday fears, gain power over them along the roller-coaster ride of cliffhangers and resolutions, then let them resolve the fear they've encountered. You don't want the monsters to be so graphic as to create decades of nightmares, nor so silly as to instill no terror with any possibility of loss of control. Remember the one-eyed zombie, now chasing the boy who stole the key to the organ bank, as his body parts start popping off and some icky maggots squirm their way out, making it slip and flop on the rainy wet sidewalk. Scary zombie loses, kid wins this race through his own devices!
When they open your book your readers need to believe in the horror you create. That's their payoff for reading your story. And what keeps them coming back to read some more!
Thanks for exploring this intriguing and growing realm of writing ~ horror for kids. I invite you to read some of the scary 'kid stuff' written by members of our Community.
Keep Writing!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
With thanks to: http://children.fiction.factor.com/articles/kidshorror.html
and to: http://www.margaretclark.com
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Submitted to our Newsletter for your reading (and reviewing ) pleasure ~
Horror for kids in verse and prose ~ control attained even through comedy ~ check it out
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So Bad it's Good Entry. Idiot father tells "scary" camp story in a strange manner.
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How about engaging in the story
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Thank you for this brief respite in the safety of your virtual home. I look forward to reading some good scary stories in verse and prose ~ do share your vision of what might have been or may yet become.
Write On! and have some scary Fun
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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