#1  
Old 10-28-2003, 03:26 PM
cypher2004's Avatar
cypher2004 cypher2004 is offline
Scares Little Kids
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Silent Hill
Posts: 10
UK Author needing help...

ok, this will sound really lame, but i am a 17 year old kid in the UK and i am working on my own horror novel.

the basic storyline is a man and woman are in a car accident and the man passes out. when he awakens, the woman is missing and he notices a small town so he walks towards it. when he gets there, he realises that theres something more than him and the occupants (well, wots left of them) there.

then it generates into a story on how he runs into a group of the occupiers who r holding up in a barracaded building who r trying to escape the town and the strange creatures.

now, im not developing names or answers to questions such as 'what they are', 'why they r there', etc etc as they would care about that.

anyway, i need ideas on how it can become more of a horror. anything, from styles of writing to what would scare you in a book form.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
__________________
"In a world full of Evil, the only defense is to attack"
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 10-28-2003, 03:35 PM
josh's Avatar
josh josh is offline
Evil Dead
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: hell
Posts: 138
i think you should have the pm thing
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 10-28-2003, 08:52 PM
SoUl SuRvIvOrS's Avatar
SoUl SuRvIvOrS SoUl SuRvIvOrS is offline
Evil Bitch From HELL
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: The world where the DEAD and the living COLLIDE
Posts: 747
kinda sounds like Silent Hill the Game....minus the daughter..you might wanna put a twist add something about his past..maybe give back ground about the town that the reader will only know and the guy has yet to find out.. Just a suggestion nothing more.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 10-29-2003, 01:19 AM
cypher2004's Avatar
cypher2004 cypher2004 is offline
Scares Little Kids
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Silent Hill
Posts: 10
u just named my favourite PSX game, hence my influence...

what could be the twist?

anyone????
__________________
"In a world full of Evil, the only defense is to attack"
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 10-29-2003, 08:37 AM
SoUl SuRvIvOrS's Avatar
SoUl SuRvIvOrS SoUl SuRvIvOrS is offline
Evil Bitch From HELL
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: The world where the DEAD and the living COLLIDE
Posts: 747
Twist..thats hard to do when you've seen so many horror flicks you really dont wanna bite off of someone elses...Good luck ...sorry I couldnt be a bigger help.:(
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 10-29-2003, 09:09 AM
ChaoticMinister's Avatar
ChaoticMinister ChaoticMinister is offline
Evil Dead
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: CT, Sadly
Posts: 210
Send a message via AIM to ChaoticMinister Send a message via Yahoo to ChaoticMinister
Post Some Tips on Horror Writing

A few tips I'll write out for you (I'm no master or anything, so judge and apply for yourself):

Tip: Use vivid details when describing important objects/places in your story. (Setting, time, atmosphere, and tone all play incredibly important roles in any work... Try giving some macabre history behind a church or town square, as told by one of the people that the character meets [for example: hangings were performed there, a bloody feud erupted there, etc.] This will help give a better atmosphere... The more the reader can taste the fog in the air, the more they will enjoy your piece.

Tip: The senses play an important role. If you can get your reader to see the light that glides through the window, smell the rich smoke, taste the rotting dog-flesh, hear the scratching of claws, and feel the rough texture of the monsters skin, your story is sold. Don't use every sense when describing something, it will get cluttered and bothersome.

Tip: Use lots of details when describing creatures (control your descriptions, try not to give too many... Hefty descriptions that take up a full page before the monster/creature does anything tend to boths low down the flow and hinder the readers creativity and imagination... The reader doens't need/want to have your exact image... They want to create their own monster in their mind... The descriptions are to be vital and important to how the monster acts and what it can do... If the creature is to be a fast runner, try simply stating that it has hind legs like a dog [the form of the dog follows it's function: it needs to run fast at times, so it needs legs that can]... A background in basic biology can help you with that.) Just remember: form follows function in most cases. If it didn't, the creature probably wouldn't last long enough to do anything major to the character.

Tip: If you keep beating on your character, you'll go blind. Don't let your character lose gallons of blood or break too many bony early on, because, should he continue, it would seem outlandish that he does.

Tip: Symbolism tells us more than what is obvious in the piece. It tells all sorts of facets about your work that no one else might see upon first glance. Here's an article I found early last year on it: "Plumbing For Symbolism" By Jessica Davidson

Tip: (Something I learned today about drama: ) The more questions asked towards the beginning of the novel, the more there have to be answered by the climax. Don't give yourself a challenge that you can't handle on your first go. be sure to answer every answer sufficiently so that if a person were to read about just the questions and the answers themselves, and nothing else in the piece, they would be able to "get it."

Tip: Build up plot twists and turns from the beginning of the story. This is known as "Ressurecting Elements." Say he comes across a newspaper lying in a gutter on a street, with an eerie headline which contains some information that the character will only acknowledge when it's too late or just right.

Finally, and most importantly:

Tip: Remember that there is no perfect novel, and that you cannot please everyone everywhere all the time and in everyway. If you strive to make the perfect novel, it will come out all wrong. When you work too long on a novel to make it better, you become absorbed in a world of that novel so much so that you assume tha the reader will get everything based on this "higher knowledge" you might have about your own work that the reader has no previous knowledge of in the first place. Sometimes, you just gotta let go. It /is/ preferable that the reader either loves or hates your piece as opposed to being simply indifferent

It would help if I knew more about the story, and what you plan for the characters to do, so I can act like an editor, but otherwise, I can only give you little tips. But, since you seem fearful that someone here might steal your story, best leave it to yourself.

:D Good Luck (to you and all aspiring writers):D

*FADE OUT*
__________________
"People hear that I am a horror writer and they think that I must be a monster, but actually I have the heart of a small child - I keep it in a jar on my desk."
Robert Bloch
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 10-30-2003, 03:16 AM
cypher2004's Avatar
cypher2004 cypher2004 is offline
Scares Little Kids
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Silent Hill
Posts: 10
wow! :eek: that was fantastic! thanks a lot dude! *bows*

hope i can use that and please at least one person!

*EDITED*

do u think anyone will blame me for not giving a lame idea and reason for the creatures to be in the town or not???
__________________
"In a world full of Evil, the only defense is to attack"

Last edited by cypher2004; 10-30-2003 at 04:22 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 11-04-2003, 02:33 PM
downside's Avatar
downside downside is offline
Undead
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 72
A couple key ideas in a horror:

Seclusion: Assuming there are few survivors, make sure they cannot simply walk a mile to New York City. Not having the ability to simply run into a well populated area is key in a good horror synopsis.

Mystery: Make sure none of the survivors from the town knows absolutely everything. This will give too much of the story away all at once. The worst thing you could do what be to have this main character stumble into these survivors and have one of them explain who the creatures are, why they are here and how they can be stopped. Instead, have the survivors explain the day that it all started, making sure to keep them as confused as the main character is. KNowing something is going to kill you is scary...not know why or where it came from or anythign about it is scarier.

Drama: A good way to get attention is to remove a key player. A child or a person that character that you've grown through the first chapters. When someone the reader is getting know dies, it feels more real. As opposed to a nameless joe getting his head torn off. If the reader knows more about who just died, they will feel more into the book.

Location: Establishing location can be tedious, especially in a book that requires detailed locations such as this. Unfortunately, moving the characters from location to location, even if it is just from room to room, keep interest, and adds different tones. Along with this point, moving from the darkness to a well lit area will even be refreshing to readers who are simply imagining this. Likewise, moving the reader into a dark area will also make their skin crawl.

Sound: In a book, it is hard to distinguish sound. But, as well know from movies, the hard deep breath of a ghoul coming down the hall (not seen) can be as freightening as seening the ghoul itself. Sometimes even more so. So again, although this may be tedious, describing sounds, textures, colors and smells as well as you would the sight of it all will bring a more vivid picture to the reader.

Hope any of this helps. If this all takes of, send me a copy.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 11-06-2003, 04:15 AM
Colm O' Toole Colm O' Toole is offline
Scares Little Kids
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Dublin City Ireland
Posts: 24
Hey man congradulations for getting into writing there aint enough horror writers out there. I've written five novels so far and plan to be the next big horror writer (hopefully) It is a brillant thing to get into.
You should try buying Stephen King's book 'On Writing' it is a book on how to write novels and he talks about everything from thinking up ideas to developing charecters. It is really a must read for a hopeful writer.
Also play on the things that make you scared and movies that scared you. Once you get into writing it is hard to get out and you will love every second of it.
By the way the general storyline sounds really good keep working on it.
The best of Luck Man. :)
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 11-12-2003, 02:05 AM
simonlogan
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
No Rule

The only thing i think you should know is not to listen to a damn word anybody says - not neccessarily here, but anywhere. Advice is fine on structure and paragraph construction but you're best to just learn that yourself through experience.

Write what you want to write, what occurs to you and don't force twists into stories, they have to arise naturally otherwise they always seem forced and can be seen coming from a mile. Never listen to what someone else wants to read unless you are writing purely to be successful and not to express yourself.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 02:00 PM.