 Horror/Scary: May 09, 2012 Issue [#5032] |
  Horror/Scary
This week: Peel away the layers Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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Welcome to this week's edition of the WDC Horror/Scary Newsletter, where we journey into the 'dark' side of writing prosaic and poetic.
All that I see or seem is but a dream within a dream
...quoth the Raven, nevermore
Edgar Alan Poe
Foremost in a work of horror, I believe, is the writer's ability to provoke fear or terror in readers - a sense of dread or anxiety from the opening image, a foreshadowing of impending doom. Let's explore some of the techniques by which we can make our readers feel this horror while absorbed for a time in the world we create prosaic or poetic.
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Greetings, fellow weavers of the dark.
I believe that inciting horror in self and others is akin to peeling an onion. Think about it, you start with a slit in the cloak of an onion, then peel away layers to reach the essence, the flavor and scent and texture of the essential onion. So too, the story or verse that incites terror. Perceive.
What scares you? What makes you cringe and shiver with a sudden need to get someplace safe, right away? Think about it for a minute, there has to be something - could be of this world, of another world, of your own mind (or loss thereof). Now believe it's real, know it's real for you. Then, write it out in all its visceral detail - show my eyes what you see, make me hear, smell, taste, feel everything you do at the moment of your greatest fear.
Make me know it as you do, that I too must be as scared or as horrified as you. Take those vivid details and give me the why - or the why not - and we've got the makings of a horror story or poem that will weave a link between your reality and mine for a time, a footprint in my personal space.
It was a dark, starless night, yet the wind made no sound as branches wept leaves and twigs, bending limbs in unison to encircle me. An arboreal wave hiding in autumn's moldering musk, or perhaps the scent of fermenting rot was the signal, the welcome mat, for Axe. [now - Axe can be a chainsaw wielding eviscerator of flesh-bearing mammals (humans included), an android, a vampire, a dragon, a ghost, a stalker, a serial killer, a feral cat, ... Whatever you imagine now, get past my learned skepticism to make me see it; make me know it as though I were there. Ask your character why the situation terrifies him/her. Then empathize with that character's fear while you write the scene that shows your readers. You don't need a litany of items, dates and places. Sometimes allusion is even more effecting, allowing your readers to form the image from their own experience or perception as you continue weaving the tale.
 Suspending disbelief. I think, is paramount in writing horror. For a brief time, we give our readers an 'otherworld' whether today, in the past, future, alternate reality. Make your readers need to know what will happen, Make them know the story, but without relating a litany of 'facts,' but rather weaving them into the story or poem.
Make it believable, with enough detail to convince your readers it can be real. Give your readers direct reference with relevant physical details in the premise. For example, you wouldn't have oak trees bending sideways in a desert of 100-degree sand (but how about cacti shedding their outer spikes as the inner growth thrummed, its tempo increasing in sync with the trekker's own heartbeat). Or does your character touch it, call for help, and why - related to a childhood memory or driven by present-day philosophy.
You can also indirectly allude to the nature or cause of the aberrant action or image. Mama said Susie was special. Susie didn't want to be special. She didn't want to have to take classes with kids who couldn't compete just because she was guided by dragons. "But Susie, how come you were you the only biker who made it past that hairpin turn? We were watching the whole time, yet can't see how, short of taking wing over the other bikers, you alone didn't plunge over the cliff."
I hope the above exploration makes sense ~ horror writing creates an 'otherworld' your reader can step into with either direct or indirect imagery that provokes your reader - making him/her want to read on to discover how he/she can avoid the horror ~ along with your character(s).
Write On!!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Now, why not peel the skin of these onions in verse and prose, layer by layer, to arrive at their essence, the horror within ~ then, maybe you'll dare to cultivate your own horrific tale
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Thank you for this brief respite in the relative safety of your virtual home. Remember to take care peeling the skin from your onion, lest you find the bite before you're ready to engage its 'pungent' texture and depth. And have fun slicing and peeling
Write On
Kate
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