I've recently become interested in the horror genre. I haven't actually read a large array of horror novels but I have read up on H.P. ovecraft and a bit of Stephen King's work. I have never actually felt scared while reading a book but I know of some people who have and I think it is fascinating. How can an author inspire fear in someone while reading? What kind of detail is scary and what kind of detail is a useless bundle of letters? Also, how can one be original in this day and age? I read on the Cthulhu Mythos through wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu) and I saw this picture: Clicky ...I was terrified. I don't really know why that picture scared me but it did. I'm used to seeing monsters; I mean we live in a society where half-human half-creatures, beholders, liches, zombies, etc. are quite common in literature. If you ask me Cthulhu is just another Illithid-like creature so I don't see why it could have made me uncomfortable. How can we come up with a new kind of creature without just re-using the same old ghost/alien/subconscious/demon...? So what do you guys think scares people? What kind of writing technique should be considered when writing horror? Is a lack of detail which lets the reader interpret scarier? I'm afraid of outer-space. Looking at a real picture of Jupiter makes me feel uncomfortable (I suppose I have a fear of REALLY big things) but I realize this might not be the case for everyone. So lets discuss! (I realize that I could read a few articles via-google but I find discussing the subject a lot more interesting. If this has already been discussed let me know and I'll glady delete the thread ;-) )

Well, people are empathetic, so if you describe a character in your story being terrified and explain why, you're reader will probably be scared too. Also, creating a story that combines two or more common phobias or taboos could help make it more scary. Like Snakes on a Plane combines fear of flying, snakes, and even guns and hijacking. My roommate is a fan of oldschool horror, and he said that mainly the authors each wrote about what they were afraid of. He also said that oldschool horror such as Lovecraft is quite different from modern horror such as King.

Personally I don't read horror, and I think that if I tried to write it I would get sick from thinking about things I was afraid of all the time, but I can see how I would so it by making a list of what I thought was scary and seeng how I could combine some of them to get a plot idea.

I suppose from what you're saying by writing about things that scare us we might be able to describe the feeling a terror more vividly and therefore have a better chance of passing on this fright to others. I like it.

I doubt I can make a very scary story about a picture of jupiter though [lol]

What about fictional creatures? Do you think it's possible to stay fresh? I feel anything "new" is just the reinvention of something else. Even if I was to invent a half-elephant half-tiger monster it would still just be... a monster.

Should the origins of such a monster be explored/explained or should it remain a mystery? I find zombies in zombie flicks a lot scarier when I don't know where they're from.

Yep that's what I'm saying. Also, I think you need to analyze why Jupiter is scary so you can capture and intensify that. Maybe try just staring at the picture and writing a few paragraphs about how you feel and what you imagine when looking at it. There are several primitive classes of things people are afraid of: contagion, invasion, unnaturalness, incomprehensibility, paralysis, isolation, and loss of boundaries and references to name a few. What type(s) of fear does Jupiter inspire in you? Does it lurk, loom, overwhelm? If it has a personality or was plotting evil, what kind of personality and plan would they be. That should answer your question about which details contribute to the scaryness.

About monsters, rather than trying to invent a monster that just looks scary, how about one with a behavior or ability which is scary? Or try reading some mythology, they had lots of really wild monsters that are still scary today. As for the origins of the monster, they should probably only be explored if the origins are themselves scary or disturbing.

I think two of the keys are foreshadowing and mystery.

Mystery is essential because when you know little about danger, you usually assume the worst. Describing the danger as a physical half-elephant half-tiger monster is not very scary, no matter how many tentacles it has. When the character sees a figure in white robes with oversized black eyes from the corner of his eye (and it disappears when he looks), it's scary because you don't know what is it, what it wants and what it could do. The same happens when you discover a tattoo saying "best before 07/07/2007" on your forearm one morning, or when you catch a glimpse of a greek theatre (comedy) mask hovering above your right shoulder when you look at yourself in a mirror, and your face's reflection bears the traits of a tragedy mask for a short moment.

EDIT: un-scaried picture.

Foreshadowing has the reader expect certain categories of scary things instead of actually mentioning them. This is actually synergetic with mystery, since you let the reader's imagination build whatever he thinks most horrible. For instance, a roleplaying game I led some time ago had the following sequence:

The storm rages on in the night, and you can see trees bending under the wind outside through the cold panes of the inn windows. Or at least, you hope the dark silhouettes are trees, even if you have never seen one bend like that. The wooden floor creaks under your boots as you walk the corridors to your room. Silently, the upset dust shimmers in the dim light of your eerie host's lantern. Quite a silent fellow, with a constant and livid smile and wild looks. His white, ghastly skin flashes for one last moment as a gust of wind kills the unsheltered flame and plunges you into pitch-black darkness.

Silence and darkness all around you. You remember those ghost stories your sister used to tell at night to scare you when you were little. Only now, it's for real, and a real, cold hand is touching you from the darkness.

The cold hand was actually an NPC bard's mage hand spell having fun with a female PC's right ass cheek.

The fear I guess has to do with just how helpless I feel when I look at it. I suppose it fits in to it being overwhelming. I'll feel the same way when I'll stare at the sky at night. It doesn't scare me to the point where I can't stare at it but it makes me feel uncomfortable.

As far as monsters go I wouldn't base my creature's scary level on it's physical appearance. I think the alien aspect (the unknown) would contribute a lot more to fear. An alien movie where the aliens are humanoid isn't very scary. Signs for example, IMHO, was not scary while Chulthulu(sp?) definatly is... "Qu'est-ce que sa mange en hivers?"

I think feeling helpless does indeed help. Imagine you're asleep and suddenly you're woken up. The cthulhu stands right before you're bed and you're terrified. Now what would be scarier:

A)Not knowing what to do but to just wait in fear to see what's coming.
B)Knowing you need to blast the creatures head off to kill him.

If you're a normal human being option A would be scarier. Because you feel helpless, do not know what to do, the creature gives a feel of power. You can't harm it and with that it controls you.

just my 2 cents...

- Stenny

You might consider approaching your problem from a different angle. Writing horror is different from writing somethign for the purpose of scaring someone. Monsters for example are never JUST monsters in good horror. Every feature is most likely symbolic. Think about primal fears. Jupiter scaring you is a good one. Now ask yourself why? Let's say that the answer really is that Jupiter is big, as you put it. Ok... where do you go from there? A horror story about giants? Meh, you could try. Or maybe you could take the converse- you're not really scared of big things so much as you are frightened of being small- dwarfed by things larger and more powerful than yourself. Well there are dozens of things that can accomplish that effect in a story. And you don't have to be literal. You can use your symbolic monster here or try to be even more creative than that (try writing a dystopic story for example, where society (it's inherently bigger than you, right?) is warped in a twisted way that makes the individual feel incomparably small and insignificant. It treads upon the individual in all sorts of horrific ways (now you can throw in gore or taboo or whatever you want). I feel like there's a lot more potential there than starting by saying what kind of monstrosity can I think of? Or, what kind of freaky scenario hasn't been done yet? If you set out just trying to be original you'll flop.

Quote: Original post by sanch3x
I'm afraid of outer-space. Looking at a real picture of Jupiter makes me feel uncomfortable (I suppose I have a fear of REALLY big things) but I realize this might not be the case for everyone. So lets discuss!

Dude, I'm so with you! I once had a dream of outer space, and it was terrifying. Just imagine, you're in a place with no ceiling, no floor, or walls. Every side is endless darkenss. I don't know how those astronauts do it. It's different then being afraid of heights, since the typical solution for that is not to look down. When you're in space... well... "down" is sorta everywhere.

I used to be an astronomy major in college, and for a while I studied black holes. They are predicted to be in the center of every galaxy, since it's the only thing which could produce a strong enough gravitational pull that would make millions of stars swirl (hence spiral galaxies and the like). But one day I just sat down at computer staring at artists renditions of black holes. Imagine something a hundred times bigger than the sun, entirely black, and while it's swirling stars and interstellar dust is being sucked into it. You do know that when anything gets sucked in a black hole nothing can ever get out... theoretically. But yeah...

So yeah, big things like space and black holes scare me (did I make that clear enough :P ). I think this was mentioned before, but I think the reason why big things seem scary is that it may provide a means to diminish the human ego. In a sense, they are reminders that even though we are the top of the food chain on Earth with a vast control over technology and knowledge in general, we are still belittled by the big object that seems to overshadow us with merely its size. That's just my theory. Another guess is that big things are usually dangerous and much more threatening than whatever is small. Hurricanes, tornados, asteroids, earthquakes, tanks, jets, volcanoes, lightening, conflagrations, tsunami, floods, and some types of animals can be very big and very threatening. But that theory can easily be countered by fear of spiders (although I'd probably choose a spider over a tornado anyday).

My third theory goes with what everyone else said: curiosity of the unkown. Space is huge, and scientists continue to do daily research on it. There are a lot of unanswered questions about space, with extraterrestrial life being one of the biggest questions of all. Jupiter is quite enigmatic if you look it at carefully. It's hard to imagine that most of the planet is composed entirely of gas. We really don't know what's underneath all that gas. We have only theories.

I don't know if this helps with anything that we've mentioned before, but those are my theories. They have holes (I counted a million) but that's probably why I stopped majoring in astronomy... and moved on to... "PHOBIALOGY"! ;)

I was trying to make jupiter scary... and it turned out like this:

scary?

hey, at least I tried.