Creepy Scary Stories Notes What you need to

Creepy Scary Stories Notes What you need to know to be effective

Writing a Scary Short Story • Before we begin… – Free write for the next five minutesjot down any ideas that come to mind pertaining to the scary story you want to write. You don’t have to write in complete sentences.

Reality Check • Good fiction is a lie that can be believed • It takes a lot of reality to create a story that gives readers the frights they won’t soon forget

Reality Check: Setting • Write about what you know • The very ordinariness of such settings works because readers are familiar with the ordinary; they live there, and if you start with a really creepy setting, you’ll be hard pressed to spring surprise on your readers who anticipate something bad to happen in that kind of place

Reality Check: Setting • Write about what you know • When the ordinary is invaded by the terrifying, extraordinary horror happens • It’s the intrusion of the extraordinary, the appalling unusual into the lives of ordinary, credible, that makes for compelling shock fiction

Reality Check Setting • Authors, such as Stephen King, a Maine native, has lived in Castle Rock and Salem’s Lot. Even though he changed the names of the towns, his writing is realistic and believable, because he knows everything about these places.

Reality Check: Characters • A good horror story character is a fictional someone who’s every bit as alive and as much a unique individual as anyone we know really well out here in the real world. He must be for readers to care about him. If readers don’t care, it won’t matter what the character does or what happens to him.

Reality Check: Characters • Don’t use stereotypes—write about what you know. You know people and how they think/feel when someone lets them down. You’ve experienced disappointment, joy, anger, love, embarrassment, and pride so you can create credible characters that experience those emotions.

• The real characters you create will hold out a welcoming hand yank readers into your waking nightmare—and keep them there!

Shift from Blood and Gore • A modern horror story can’t simply rely on pointless violence and shock value to disgust its reader—it must work hard to instill genuine chills. The writer needs to unnerve the reader enough to make her flick on an extra light and lock the back door, just in case.

Find the Fear • What does society fear today? What do you fear? Go to the root of these terrors. Are you afraid of the dentist because of the pain or does it go deeper? • Ex. Stephen King’s “Quitter Inc. ” is on the subject of giving up smoking—with a terrifying consequences

Find the Fear THEMES such as • Breaking the rules and shortcuts to success are perfect vehicles for ruin. In W. W. Jacobs’ the Monkey’s Paw the idea that nothing is for free is explored when a family is given three wishes, which come at the price of their son’s life.

Find the Fear • Horror stories can lurk anywhere. What makes them terrifying isn’t the unknown but the familiar stretched out over a very unusual canvas.

To create a setting for your reader you need to describe 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. what the place looks like if the place is light, dark, or has certain colours what the weather is like what sounds there any other impression made on the senses – touch, taste, smell All writers let their readers know WHERE and WHEN the story takes place by describing the setting. This usually happens at the beginning of a story. (but not always!)

Student Activity • Notebook Title - Setting Elements • Write on separate sheet of paper than your notes and complete all activities. • These activities will be turned in before the end of class.

A. Read the passage B. List the elements used to describe the setting. C. Decide which of the elements are most effective. It was a strange and rambling house, full of old oak stairways. Long and narrow corridors seemed to hold dark and evil secrets. Windows gave no warming sunlight, only gloomy views of shadowed courtyards at the back and the blank, blind faces of houses at the front. After sunset a shroud of darkness seemed to wrap itself around the house before creeping slowly inside. Blazing log fires hardly seemed to warm the rooms and hissing gaslight was strangely dimmed. But the house was cheap. ‘Spooks’ by Terry Deary

Now read the passage which was written by a student. The two paragraphs come near the beginning of the scary story. List the words that describe the setting in the two paragraphs. • The car engine seemed to cough a few times before it finally shuddered to a halt. Ben sighed in frustration. Fifty miles from home, in the middle of nowhere, half past midnight. His choice was simple: stay put in the icy darkness till the morning or leave the car and see if there was any sign of human life nearby. • The moonlight glimmered on the white frost which covered the road like a gossamer sheet and on the tussocks of grass standing stiffly and blackly along the roadside. The bushes cast strange shaped shadows in his path and a solitary owl hooted from a nearby wood. He felt the skin at the back of his neck prickle with cold sweat. The clouds momentarily cut off the moonlight and the shadows melted into general darkness. The air was thick with darkness, so thick that he could almost touch it. His breath seemed to materialise into something solid in the icy air, and he could hear his heart beat like a drum. Something touched his face, something as cold as the grave and his teeth clacked and chattered uncontrollably.

Decide which of the words in the red print works best. List your word choices, share them with a partner, and explain why you chose them. The road up to the castle was littered with/covered with/full of stones that were so big/sharp/uneven that they caught the traveller unawares and cut/tore/sliced through his shoes or threw him off balance so that his ankles were sore/tender/racked with pain. Around the castle there ran a deep river whose surface was covered with green weeds/slime/vegetation. A wild raven floated hopelessly/uneasily/sadly in it, their feathers dull and drooping. Overhead grey/stormy/cloudy skies cast a dull/dark/dead light over the castle. It seemed that the thick clouds would perpetually stop any sun from reaching/warming/touching the castle with its rays. The walls of the castle were hidden/entwined/covered with tangled creepers which seemed to be trying to choke the life out of it. The creeper had pulled/dragged/wrenched stones from the wall so that the whole building threatened to/was about to/might fall on anyone who entered and kill/crush/hurt him.

THINKING ABOUT AND CHOOSING EFFECTIVE WORDS Read the extract where Jamie has been dared by his friends to pay a midnight visit to a grave that is supposed to belong to a vampire. With your partner, CHOOSE words to fill in the blanks, trying to create a frightening atmosphere. All the words should be verbs. A half-moon ----1 ----- in the sky amid scudding clouds; the slight breeze ----2 ---bushes, making dim shadow patterns ----3 ----along the gravel path. Jamie ----4 ----his fists, willing his feet to move steadily forward, one in front of the other. White stone angels appeared to be watching him with sightless eyes from between the serried rows of crosses and granite headstones. No matter how carefully he tried to walk the gravel ---5 ----noisily underfoot. Jamie---6 --- off the path, tripping on a cornerstone. Gritting his teeth he made himself ---7 --doggedly onward to where the foreign graves stood. Bong! The church bell ---8 --- out the midnight hour as he arrived trembling at his destination. The green-bronze door of the tomb ---9 ----cold and forbidding in the moonlight. Wind ----10 ---- mournfully through the rhododendron bushes and clouds ---11 ----across the night sky like shrouds torn from long ago corpses. James ----12 --- to the steps trying to keep his mind off the next ten minutes.

You are to create a WORDBANK based on the five elements. In your group or with your partner BRAINSTORM useful words for your story under these headings. • • • Describing words Light/Dark/Color words Weather words Sound words Words to describe impression made on the senses • Make these words a list in your notebook after your scary story notes

A Word Bank Example • • LIGHT/DARK/COLOUR WORDS Dim dark dull gloomy rusty Black dusky gleam • • • WEATHER WORDS Frosty cold cloudy icy Rain hale downpour torrential • • SOUND WORDS Howling thundering shuffling Clanking screeching shrieking Yelp moan • • SENSES Mouldy Mildewed stricken shadowy Moonlit glow sinking sun beating creaking Wailing swishing damp decayed clammy stale Breathless shivering Grey Wintry sighing groaning screaming rustling musty shudder stuffy dead stormy breezy frozen snow Grinding crashing yell Whimper Slimy Slobbering swaying faded chilly mist jet fog scraping blowing Gasping tapping blood-curdling cry trembling dazed dewy creepy Dusty odour stench panic-

Writing a Scary Short Story • Rough Draft 3 -10 pages handwritten or typed 12 point font double spaced • Include vivid description of setting and characters (imagery) • Includes two examples of figurative language • Include one example of foreshadowing • Include one example of flashback • Include one example of irony (verbal, situational or dramatic) • Rough Draft due October 13 – Rough draft must be 3 -10 pages