I would like to start writing science fiction horror stories. I would like advice form the best, at creating something scary and giving people sleepless nights
>>20003938>quick characters intros>little exposition>mind fucking>end story The more you leave to the imagination the scary it gets, life is a mystery no a problem to solve.
>>20003948But how do i make them scary and not B grade creepypasta?
>>20003958Don't make edgy villains like Slenderman, smile.dog and Jeff The Killer.
>>20003958Look up the yt channel "Terrible writing advice"
>>20003938One of the defining traits of the genre of horror is that it provokes a response; emotional, psychological or physical, within readers that causes them to react with fear. One of H.P. Lovecraft's most famous quotes about the genre is that: "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." the first sentence from his seminal essay, "Supernatural Horror in Literature".In her essay "Elements of Aversion", Elizabeth Barrette articulates the need by some for horror tales in a modern world:>The old "fight or flight" reaction of our evolutionary heritage once played a major role in the life of every human. Our ancestors lived and died by it. Then someone invented the fascinating game of civilization, and things began to calm down. Development pushed wilderness back from settled lands. War, crime, and other forms of social violence came with civilization and humans started preying on each other, but by and large daily life calmed down. We began to feel restless, to feel something missing: the excitement of living on the edge, the tension between hunter and hunted. So we told each other stories through the long, dark nights...when the fires burned low, we did our best to scare the daylights out of each other. The rush of adrenaline feels good. Our hearts pound, our breath quickens, and we can imagine ourselves on the edge. Yet we also appreciate the insightful aspects of horror. Sometimes a story intends to shock and disgust, but the best horror intends to rattle our cages and shake us out of our complacency. It makes us think, forces us to confront ideas we might rather ignore, and challenges preconceptions of all kinds. Horror reminds us that the world is not always as safe as it seems, which exercises our mental muscles and reminds us to keep a little healthy caution close at hand.
>>20003967That sounds like pretty good advice but all horror ideas are called edgy now>>20003980I agree with Lovecraft's idea on horror by taping into primal instincts of fear. But most of these ideas are cliche.
>>20004019>>20003980In a sense similar to the reason a person seeks out the controlled thrill of a roller coaster, readers in the modern era seek out feelings of horror and terror to feel a sense of excitement. However, she adds that horror fiction is one of the few mediums where readers seek out a form of art that forces themselves to confront ideas and images they "might rather ignore ... [to challenge] preconceptions of all kinds."One can see the confrontation of ideas readers and characters would "rather ignore" throughout literature, in famous moments such as Hamlet's musings about the skull of Yorick and its implications of the mortality of humanity and the gruesome end that bodies inevitably come to. In horror fiction, the confrontation with the gruesome is often a metaphor for the problems facing the current generation of the author.Noël Carroll's Philosophy of Horror postulates that a modern piece of horror fiction's "monster", villain, or a more inclusive menace must exhibit the following two traits:>A menace that is threatening— either physically, psychologically, socially, morally, spiritually, or some combination of the aforementioned.>A menace that is impure— that violates the generally accepted schemes of cultural categorization. "We consider impure that which is categorically contradictory"
>>20003948>>20003967>>20003970>>20003980>>20004058thank you for the advice i think i know what i am going to do now.
>>20004160Good luck
Write something that makes you uncomfortable. If you feel strong feelings while writing it, then it's more likely that your readers will. If the thing you intend on writing isn't giving you a feeling in your own gut, it probably isn't good enough. Or it might be, there are never clear rules to art. Just don't write about slenderman.
