 Horror/Scary: May 06, 2015 Issue [#6968] |
  Horror/Scary
This week: Truth or Myth of the Urban Legend 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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Greetings,
I got an email from a co-worker the other day to be very cautious and observant. Her cousin stopped at the cash machine outside a restaurant, took her card out of her wallet, setting her purse back on the passenger seat. She got the money and, as she put her wallet back in her purse, noticed she had not set the door locks, so she did, and drove out of the parking lot. Braking hard for a red light she had first thought would stay yellow, she felt something roll against the back of her seat.
She turned her head to see what the kids had forgotten in the car - skates, a bookbag? And she found a face, with a grayish hoodie drawn so tight only two dark orbs and a shadow of nostrils appeared to float above a mound of body mashed against the back of her seat. What caught and held her eyes was the metallic flickering of the knife that reached towards her neck, a mirror image of the traffic light pulsing red as it moved closer.
"Open the doors, 'n hand me th' keys," the voice, muffled by the hoodie, commanded in a low, rasping voice. She obeyed, eyes on the knife, and watched the other hand appear palm up for the key then lift her purse off the passenger seat, while the knife carve an arc in front of her nose, almost touching, as the body unfolded and backout out of the car, the hand with the key removing the packages, and her purse. The car door slammed shut on her useless, empty car. She put her hands to her throat, glad to find the only wetness was from her sudden tears, realizing, in her purse, he had her wallet, with her address, to go with the keys to her home.
Although this didn't really happen, I have received emails about incidents similar to this. Actually, this was my creation. modeled after urban myth, after reading of a purse snatching from an unlocked car on a street. 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.
We find urban legends 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 modified a couple a few minutes ago, and make it your own 'believable' story to tell 
 Choose a legend 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 battle, 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
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A few urban legends ~ proven or disproven ~ by members of our Community in prose and verse ~ you decide and let the writers know your thoughts ~ with a review perchance 
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Thank you for this respite in the relative safety of your virtual home. That scurrying on the roof, I'm sure, is just a squirrel taking a shortcut between driveways 
Until we next meet, stay safe, and
Write On 
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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