HOME | DD

emthereviewer — How to Horror:Cliches in writing n' world building
Published: 2016-01-07 10:13:54 +0000 UTC; Views: 6570; Favourites: 39; Downloads: 0
Redirect to original
Description body div#devskin0 hr { }

How to Horror:Cliches in writing n' world building

Disclamer
Any copyrighted content used in this review is  used under the "Fair Use" law for commentary and Criticism. The following is simply a louse suggest on how to use horror themes and is by no way a guide line which must be followed at all costs, there are always variables! 
Find more reviews, ideas and my less edited though on my Tumblr,emthereviewer

Oh, I want to give a second disclaimer here to; during this How To Horror I'll be referring to multiple crappypasta and some creepypasta. The stories I'll be referring to will be linked where used; I do not promote or indirect the slander of any of these writers, do not harass them. One story I'll be referring to in particulate is one called "Creepypasta: Nemesis' Nightly Hunt ", which I'd not recommend you read. I rearly want to review Nemesis as an OC, but I know my advice will fall on depth ears. If you do read this darkangel6021 , which I bought you'll do, know I still haven't forgiven you for what you did or said to me, or how you used me. Next time you decide to put me in one of your stores (now deleted) and kill me off in one of the most ridiculous, disgusting ways you can, make it less obvious~ Now, I'm not putting your story in here for revenge, I'm simply including your literacy since it works well as an example for others. If you'd wish a full fair review on your charter form me, then feel free to send me a note.

Introduction
I couldn't get the title to fit! What is this madness!! Ok, so this is gonna be a slightly different How To Horror than I'm used to writing, but I think it'll be INCREDIBLY important for first time writers to read. Now, as I've mentioned before, I am Dyslexic, so I can't rearly talk about spelling perfection but I can still rant about bad grammar~ During this tutorial I'll, to the best of my ability, be talking about things you'll want to avoid when crating you're charters, horror themed mostly, backstory or any other thing you plan on writing related to them~ 


The facts
As is customary, time to shameless promote! If you follow my main DA page, ObsoleteGoat, you may know I'm a semi keen writer, though take a long ass time to get anything done. My writings relatively popular, getting onto some famous sights and, most importantly, getting stolen by a large number of people judge me for yourself if you like, feedback is always appreciated ~ 


Step one-Learning who to write)

Anyway, to become good at writing, you must become good at reading, or as I prefer, listening to or participating in stories. It's very hard to just sit down at your desk and write with no reading done; look at the analytical power of others, learn how they speak though the paper, in their charters. How is the story told? Is the story liner? What makes you feel for the charters, and are you invested in them? How many stories are taking place at this one point, how many lives does this prose tell of? Take in as much as you can, lean from doing, practise, grow and repeat.

Dapple in other writing genre, not just horror; writer fanfics, love stories, adventure, comedy, so on. Being analytically educated is the first step to good writing. See what other writers do well, and what they don't. Btw, Jeff the Killer's CreepyPasta isn't a well written stories, do not imitate something made in google translate! (Seriously, Jeff the killers story was originally written in Spanish and then put though google translate a few times, that's why it's grammatically broken and makes no sense)


Juff no spoopy, lul


Step two-The literal start)

So, you somehow got an idear in yo face, time to start writing. What are you gonna put? How will you start your grate story?
It was a dark and stormy night. The rain poured down like tears of sorrow while lightning came down, their roar like an angry lion in the dreary and corrupted city of Demorian. In the center of it all, a tall ominous building towered over all the others, where an evil man known as The Viper resides.
-Creepypasta: Nemesis' Nightly Hunt On a dark night about 13 years ago, I was home with my elderly grandma. She was very sickly and stays in bed all the time. That night my parents were out late from work and I was all alone in my room. I was happily watching TV when it started to rain. The rain turned into a storm and the TV and everything else that uses electricity went out. Thats when I heard a odd sound on my roof.
-The Scar It was a dark night. You were sitting on your couch, watching the television. It was around midnight and all of the neighborhood were pretty much asleep, comfortable in their own beds. You? You wern’t very tired at all. You were watching some late-at-night show, very bored as well. Suddenly, you heard gentle scratches on your window. Every eight scratches, they got louder and louder. After many scratches, they were very loud. You turned your head to the window, and saw nothing, then turned your head to continue watching the television,
-Carvy Has Come Ok, you've lost the readers attention with another genetic start that can't differentiate you for any other story. Pretty much every forgettable creepy past starts out like this, some decrypting of the weather, how dark it is or the season! People, no. This is probably one of the blandest openings ever. All these above stories are bland for a number of reasons but just read the first few lines of them alone-they all blend into one boring story and if you're starting off your work with another dull "twas dark n' shit" theme, people will probably switch off. Also, the grammar is bad meaning the flow is broken and clunky. Other bland openings include the speaker describing the main charter or their emotions, which are always sad, scared, or bored; some board decrypting to the day as a whole; or with someone literally saying "hi".

When you start a story you want to gain the readers attention, you want to emote something though not force it down their necks. For example, here's a passages I came up with that may be fun to start a story with.
It was a sickness, not one cured by medical or doctors, but a sickness more pungent than any cancer. They called it the human condition, a vile and self loathing state of mind in which though to proud would sit like crows and watch their lesser counterparts rot away, taking pleasure in the sight though never admitting to their own lack of empathy. Though cracks in faith for fellow man is what let "them" in.Strong start with enough questions asked, though not ever answered. For some readers this may be enough to hook them into the story, (this won't work for everyone but still) and entice them with the prospect of something that won't end up on crappypaster or in a review as an example of what not to write. My ranting aside, an investing and powerful start can rearly help attract people to the story. Your stories hook could be hidden within the first few lines, 100 words in or a few paragraphs in, you need something to catch the readers attention. Make us want to read it!

Though this may be against public opinion, I rearly enjoy the start of Ticci-toby's OriginPasta. The mood for the rest of the story is set in only a few words and starting off as a writer I wished I could start off stories as strong as this one. This doesn't mean this is how you should start off your story, and this doesn't mean this is the best story, but for me, this is one of the more memorable starts to a CreepyPasta I've read and I've read ALOT! This isn't my top CreepyPasta, and wouldn't make it onto my CreepyPasta top ten for story, but if I still love how this story begins~
The long road home seemed to go on and on. The road continued to outstretch in front of the vehicle endlessly. 
The light that shone through the branches of the tall green trees danced across the window in random patterns, every once in a while, obnoxiously shining in your eyes. 
The surrounding was full of deep green trees forming a forest around the road. The only sound was the sound of the cars engine as it traveled down the path. It was peaceful and let off a serene feeling. 
Although the ride seemed like a nice one, it lacked every form of ‘nice’ for both passengers. 
The middle-aged woman behind the steering wheel had neat short brown hair that fit her complexion quite well. She wore a green v-neck t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Diamond stud earrings decorated each of her ears which partially shown from behind her hair cut. She had deep green eyes which were brought out by her shirt, and the lighting seemed to make them more noticeable. There wasn’t much significance to her appearance. She just looked like any “average mother” that you’d see on t.v. shows and such, but one thing for sure made her differ from those “average mothers” and that was the dark bags under her eyes. 
-Ticci-Toby


this book looks interesting


Step three-Cliches)

I'm just gonna list off some things not to do in horror writing, since there are a lot and I don't wanna beat around the bush here. Please do remember though, these rules are not set in stone and can be broken, if it's logical sane to do so.

  • Starting the story off with a decryption of the weather or the main charter; It's over used and dull. Basically, listen to step two.
  • Throw the ending's climax in to early or don't hit at the outcome at all. When a CreepyPasta goes form 0-1000 in seconds, it's very jarring and confusing, that or rarely funny. When you're building up to the pinnacle of your story, hint at the ending, work your way up to the finishing point slowly but interestingly, then drop us in the pinnacle of the prose!
  • Using young teens in your stories/setting your stories in schools since teenage aren't rearly all that scary, strong, smart, or anything. Come on guys, in a fight between 14 year old Insane boy Harry and like all the teachers in the school, I think the teacher would win. I mean it's fine if you have a TeenPasta but everyone's pasta is below 18 these days. 
  • Bulling or domestic abuse; used as a reason as to why an OC has gone loco and is now a killer. Though this something is a legitimate motive, all charters in horror stories these days get picked on and have shitty parents. If you're creepy pasta story is just another copy and paste jeff the killer origin story, you need to re-work it. I don't own any OCs who are "insane", I own high functioning sociopaths, cannibalise, fetiches, kids who've been given the wrong medications for their depression, emotionally broken childless parents with Stockholm syndrome. Bulling and domestic abuse ALONE as a reason as to why the OC went cray is lazy writing.
  • Rape and pointlessly over the top violence. This could be put in with the above point, but using tropes like this, adding nothing to the story, tend to seem out of place and it's clear they've only been added for dramatic effect. If you've ever read into Clockwork 's story you'll find a lot of people dislike her for having random rape in her backstory. It's written as if it's nothing and for such a sensitive matter handled so poorly, people tend to turn their nose up against this OC (though I do like some of the themes sued in her OriginPasta.) 
    • Hyper gore; basically the same point again. Hyper gore turns people off the story or will just make them laugh. If Lovecraft has taught us anything it's that being sutler is key. Implications of things is more emoting than showing us the full picture. Having the charters react repulsed is a lot more effective then trying to repulse the reader with basically the script from saw. (Fyi, saw isn't scary. I watched it stone face and got bored like half an hour in.) Below is an example.

"This Just in. Notorious Crime Lord, The Viper, was found brutally murdered in his office at 8 o'clock this morning by the daytime security. The Viper was found with his arms and legs dismembered and minced, his stomach opened with half of his organs removed, and his bruised body pumped full of unknown poisonous substance. His bodyguards and his men that were stationed in all floors of the building were all massacred in the most brutal and inhumane way that no 'sane' person could do such heartless act. Two other bodies that were discovered beside the Crime Lord, who were identified as being local gang bosses, were found with their testicles sliced off, bound and gagged with duck-tape, strung upside down and their throats slit open. Although they have no physical evidence as to who was responsible for these deaths, the police suspect that whoever it was was someone who owed 'The Viper' money that there may have been more than one person responsible for the killings. His important files of all his clients were also set on fire in his office, so uncovering these suspects will be even harder to find. If anyone has any information connected to this incident, please call the police station immediately." 
-Creepypasta: Nemesis' Nightly Hunt Can I take a moment to talk about this story? Ok, so in this story a proxy, a weak 18 year old human proxy, kills about 80 armed men over the course of two/three hours. So where supposed to believe that no one out of 80 armed men, working under a drug lawed, had the innovative to shout her? Her weapon is a yo-yo. No one out of 80 men took it upon themselves to, A, leave the building, and B, short and 18 year old with a yo-yo. Also, why is a news reporting the murder in this much detail??

  • Having the main charter go INSANE; a lot of charters are quoted to go insane, often followed by laughing hysterically for a while, for no reason? Killing or punching, or even looking at someone in a dirty way, doesn't make you go insane. Legitimately, I've seen OCPasta go mental for someone just calling them a name, or for someone just given them a dirty look. Perfectly normal people don't just "go insane". Like I said in the Bulling Cliches section, this is just lazy writing.
  • Killing random family members/pets/friends; some stories just love to rack up the bodies. One of the main things CreepyPasta reviewers dislike is this trope. Death that ins't properly responded to or means nothing in the overall story other than to rack up the body count. Take the story of LaughingJack for example, in the story an undeveloped charter, the dog (can you call a dog a charter?), was killed close to the climax but the death meant nothing to the audience, adding nothing to the story. Also, some people use this trope as a reason for WHY THE MAIN CHARTER GOES INSANE! 
  • OriginPasta; this one's another pet peeve, like the bland opening, but pretty much all creepypasta charters, when their story comes out, doesn't have a scary story related to there actions or what they do but instead to how they became a killer. Like cool, they are a killer now, but why do we care? Most horror charters have the same backstory anyway so why do I need to know why they are a spoop? The thrill of a chase in a story, the horrible actions of this weather old monster, are always far more interesting than any how they became a killer. Case in point, I love no end house (not my top pasta, but still) and I like the follow up stories (they kind of ruin the ending of the first one, but meph, I can forgive). In the no end story we don't start off with how and why the house was built, the origins are only slightly hinted at in placed in parts 2 onwards, and even then I don't ever feel inclined to believe the charters. In my own pasta the origin of the "monster" is never rearly established other than "that kid was messed up in the head" and thanks to revelations later on it's apparent that what they know could all be wrong, people have been hiding information and perverting the system.
  • Involving cannon pasta; I see this mostly in Jeff the killer rip offs. Charters make reference to cannon pasta (I know there is no such thing as a cannon pasta, just it's an easy to use term) or stories cameo cannon pasta. What does the random appearance of eyeless jack add to the story, why is Sally involved, how come Smile.Dog is humping the man's leg?? I mean, proxy stories and slenderman are the accepting to the rule but the others, in stories only about one original charter, what does the appearance of the rake do to your prose?
  • Deep Wed and other pasta trends; I feel I'll get complaint for this one.... but it's true. Though I LOVE the deed wed stuff I've seen, basically in about a year I went from seeing no deed wed stories to fining every third pasta I read referenced or used the deep wed. Heck! I'm even planning on using it in an upcoming series, TheSkinCraft . The deep wed is very scary and a fun place to play in (regarding writing, I'd never go their myself; heck, I haven't even visited porn hub, let alone gore.com!) but it's getting a little over used. 
  • hA\/INg Oc SPek  Like Di5; Look at what I've just read... That isn't scary, you're not zalgo so stop using caps inert-spliced with lowercase letters and symbols. I don't see how this is scary. Similar, if you're writing like this-
em: You're not writing intelligently *sips tea*     It looks bad and no one's going to take you securely.
  • You're me and you're dead endings; though you don't see these to much any more, twist ending of "you're dead" or "I was never alive to begin with" or "I am you, form the future" literally make no sense. When these endings are used, they almost never fit with the story. Hell, the internet made a meme of this! You know a tropes bad when the internet memes you.

I've probably missed a few, but these are the ones I've seen being used over and over. Cliches aren't necessarily bad, they are just over used. You don't need to AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAUGE, as some people will have you know, but just keep in mind these are pretty over used and lazy~


You're almost as lazy as me kids!!


Step four-Make a story line)
I should probably practice this myself... Anyway, this is something I picked up form my bay, Chibi-Works , and it's something rearly good to practice. Now, what Tobi does is they keep a tone of note books. Every story they make is given a note book (or choice of note books) and any idear they have, any doodle they make gets put in thoughts books. All of IEPFB , is planned out in these note books, all of Normal (you don't need to know about that, yet
Step five-Charter development)
This is something I always enjoy doing. The process is a pain BUT the pay off is amazing! When you write a story make a mini bio for all the charters involved and thought your work hint at this bio you've made to give them personality and make them more lifelike. Take this as an example, in the starvation of angels 2, one of the new detectives has a crush on the head though she's asexual and doesn't realise someone's in love with her, leading her to think his strange behaviour is him being unable to like her, resulting in her feeling more isolated. How is his applied you say? The charter with the crush stutters and blushes around the main charter while the main charter never responds to this and mentions constantly how she feels no on care for her. This isn't an important plot point, but the charters, with more detail, have more soul AND are more relatable AND more likeable, meaning if something where to happen to them, the reader would feel more emoted and react more strongly. You don't need to make a huge bio, just some key points, and you don't need to shove it down the readers neck.

Step six-Leave your stories alone)
Kind of odd, right? Well no, every once in a while, you should step back, put all your work to one side and do something else. Come back refreshed with a fresh set of eyes and think about your content. Does it make sense, can you add anything? Get a friend to read your work, ask them to rearly nit pick and tell you what to do. Expect feedback that could be harsh, don't sugar coat anything! Annalise and scrutinise. What works well, what doesn't and don't ever rush writing.


How to apply

Kind of self explanatory, just repeat steps one and six over and over while writing, taking into consideration steps 2 to 5. You will mess up alone the way, expect re-writes and expect to scrap work. Think carefully about everything you do and whatever you do, don't give up!


What to avoid

//inserts sep 3//


Where to learn more
Check out some authors, like Poe and Lovecraft; watch Tv shows and films like "the sixth sense" and "Hannibal"; go outside and learn. Take in information, watch stories unfold, become inspired, go wild! I'm sure this section is getting more and more useless every time I write one of these

Closer
Wow.. this took to long to do... Anyway, I hope this helped... I'm gonna go nap for a bit



Related content

[ TEXT ]


emthereviewer - OC review: Insomnia

[ TEXT ]


DesdemonaDeBlake - 8 Tips for Writing Horror Stories

[ TEXT ]


Veidara - .:Things Stories Are Missing:.

[ TEXT ]


KomradApex - Creating a Slenderman Proxy OC

emthereviewer - Small's Guide To Making An Cp Oc

emthereviewer - Coppyright
Comments: 8

eiidolon [2016-01-07 18:26:17 +0000 UTC]

I've managed to give myself a back eye with a yo-yo once when I was like 7 or something but I don't think they'd be able to take someones dick off. Unless it's made of the string they use to thread your eyes brows, that shit will cut through steal.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

ObsoleteGoat In reply to eiidolon [2016-01-07 18:44:00 +0000 UTC]

If I remember right the yoyo has knives on it and the string is made of spider giz. All the components needed to hit small children in the face!!!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

eiidolon In reply to ObsoleteGoat [2016-01-07 18:52:53 +0000 UTC]

What, bitch the weight of knives on a yo-yo would weigh it down and make it awful to manipulate. What you would want is small tiny spikes going around each side of the yo,yo to keep the weight even. Also for a wire you'd want something similar to trip wire since it can withstand weight and damage. Not a knife attached to cob webs.
Yes, I used to modify yo-yos as a child...no I don't do it anymore...I'm not THAT nerdy
It would make sense to use it as bait or trip wire but not a whole weapon
Also how would you mince meat someones arms or legs, you'd have to remove the bone and then get a meat grindr...Too much hassle when you could just watch TV instead

I'm actually working on a journal about the deep web because this super cool hacker 420 blaze it want's the shitty deep web pastas to stop

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

ObsoleteGoat In reply to eiidolon [2016-01-07 19:31:58 +0000 UTC]

you are hat nerdy and you know it. you're analysing a yoyo. a yoyo with a knife on it.

I've read some sick awesome stuff about the deep wed, but like everything's the deep web now. it's to cool for it's own good bro!!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

eiidolon In reply to ObsoleteGoat [2016-01-07 19:41:31 +0000 UTC]

I am giving advice in case...you ever need to make a yo-yo weapon
But holy hell them writing you into a story is hella messed up. This crazed stalker I knew wrote a thing where she murdered people in the school and did nsfw shit with the poor boy she was stalking. So messed up.

The deep web is pretty spoopy
Posted an incredibly nerdy journal on deepweb, so if you're gonna be writing about the deep web go big or go home AmIright? Just basic shit...and sarcasm...

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

ObsoleteGoat In reply to eiidolon [2016-01-07 23:47:10 +0000 UTC]

I'll give it read~

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

eiidolon In reply to ObsoleteGoat [2016-01-08 08:14:07 +0000 UTC]

yea, went on dank meme web once, pretty lame. Only went on wiki leaks and a few drug/cult/tinfoil hat sites nothing ultra spoopy

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

emthereviewer [2016-01-07 11:18:40 +0000 UTC]

I forgot to mention prose in this. As a rule of thumb the best prose to use if first person as third person is hard to follow and second person is very hard to pull off. I've read completes against pasta that are done in the third person, and though it's not bad to write in the third person, it's a lot more unattached and harder to bound with charters (note point 5). Third person is hard to pull of well without making the story look below par. First person allows the reader to see though the speakers eyes. Second person on the other hand.... is rarely used for a reason 👍: 0 ⏩: 0