Hi everyone. My goal is to write horror short novels and I would like to know what scares you? I want to know all your fears so I can learn more about what scares people and get inspired. It can be something you saw in real life, in movies or read in a novel or in a non-fiction book (ex; an animals, a monster, a ghost, demon ...). It can be a sound that scares you (ex; animal call, drop falling on the floor when it's very quiet, tunderstorm ...). It can also be a smell or a place you are afraid of (ex; old barn, abandoned building, asylum, alone in the woods, trapped in a close space, big crowds ...). Thanks for your help!
Losing control. As in being restrained, confused, so dizzy I'm falling over, falling, unable to get away, etc. I generally fear things I can't comprehend, things that just don't make sense. Reading about an eldritch being doesn't scare me because it's a story with descriptions I can comprehend - but if one suddenly rose from the depths? Hoo boy. Also drowning, because I cannot swim and had a near escape in the ocean as a kid.
Mhmm. Never really been one that scares easily, but I suppose there is a few things. Firstly. Children. Those small humanoids aliens are just downright creepy and scary.... seriously though..... scary. Secondly. Any place with no stimuli. I am not talking about a dark hallway but a fully isolated room, no light, no sound, nothing. I was once in a room with no light. No sound, no furniture, absouletly nothing for about 8 hours.... it was just scary as my own mind started playing tricks on me.... not keen on doing that again...
Powerlessness, a lack of self control, and impending doom by the hands of others. Responsibility in general scares a lot of people (especially in recent times) therefore I'd focus on that if I wanted to write an inspirational story. A simple story about a young man or woman seeking to both get married, make and raise children, as well as live okay and in a decent neighborhood, has all the conflict it needs to be tense yet hopeful by modern standards as there is so much potential for failure. Like, one by one: The young woman could choose the wrong man, thus screwing herself forever from getting a good man and getting the rest of her life right. She could become pregnant by him and then either he is unreliable (and thus cannot/will not provide) or he is outright abusive (perhaps he's a drug addict who speaks vivid horrors in front of his children). Raised in such a chaotic environment, the children will struggle massively to become remotely decent adults and prevent this cycle from occurring again (and the key mistake was choosing the wrong man--how does the next generation choose the right man/woman?). You could easily reverse the genders and have a similar situation. This situation is horrifying but the next generation might be able to make the right decisions and thus change it for their own children. Or, alternatively: you could focus on a couple who are initially fearful of each other but share the common goals of marriage and children. However they both come from broken families and have a lot of emotional and historical baggage to organize lest it spills into their parenting and thus harms their children. Perhaps they successfully evolve into a good couple and so when they raise their children, they do so well and when those children are young adults they're in a much better position than their parents. This is an ideal trajectory rather than a horrifying one, but it has potential since the children could go on their own life-journeys. Either way you have a horror (adult responsibility) and a hope (making good decisions, avoiding bad decisions, and going against the bad trends and thus starting good trends). Whether you choose to make it mostly dark and depressing (like the first example) or worrisome but ultimately happy (like the second) is up to you. I prefer the latter as I am a product of the former and prefer to read about going against the bad trends and making correct life decisions rather than the crap that led to the bad situations (from the perspective of the adult children of the example 1) in the first place. I prefer a solution and example of it working over a known problem and predictable results of not fixing that problem. Example 1 is horrifying but has the potential to be hopeful at the end; Example 2 could be a sequel to Example 1 as it is hopeful and begins (and grows) with the fear of becoming Example 1 (which was presumably the story of the parents of the couple in Example 2). Like I said, I prefer Example 2 but ultimately which you prefer is up to you. And I think these sorts of stories have the greatest potential for horror due to be the most realistic and realizable.
Heights are one. I'm okay if I know I can't fall, so air travel doesn't bother me. But when there's an unguarded drop, even if I'm nowhere near it, there's a morbid fascination about what would happen if I went just a bit closer to the edge, or what it would feel like if I did fall off. Dying is another one. Not death itself (once that happens, I'll either have other things to worry about nor not be around to worry), but the process of dying and anticipating death, especially if it's slow and drawn out. I'd prefer my end to be sudden and unexpected. On a side note, my neighbour died a few months ago, and I helped look after the house on behalf of his family (checking mail, drawing curtains, turning lights on at night to deter burglars, etc). Out of curiosity, I switched the lights off and just sat down and listened one night. You wouldn't believe how many noises a (probably) empty house can make, and I was just too creeped out to do it for too long.
The unknown is the scariest thing to me. Authors often use the unknown far more effectively than they can use a monster. Jaws wasn’t scary because of a shark, it was scary because once below the waves, the shark was invisible. The Shining wasn’t scary because of the dad with the axe, it was scary because something man was never meant to tangle with had taken over said dad. Personally, I like to isolate my main character as well and try to take something important away from them to make them feel vulnerable.
Thanks severine for answering my question. I am taking note of losing control and fear of the unknown. Feel free to add any other things that scares or creeps you. Thanks Necronox. I never tought of this one, a place with no stimuli. Very appreciated Thanks Azuresun for your help. I am taking notes of heights, dying and noises in an empty house. Wow, very cool idea you got to isolate your main character. Thanks. I would like to have more of those ideas from you so feel free to let me know what are the things that scares or creeps you or that you have read or seen in a movie. Thanks again for all your ideas.
What scares me is some combination of the unknown and questions arising from the unknown. For example, in the first Silent Hill game, in one of the schools, you walk in a room and theres a piano with blood all over the keys. That throughly creeps me out. Who's blood is it? What happened to them? Are they still alive? It's worse when you know you'll never be able to find the answer.
Thanks @GlitterRain7, I agree with you. I just try to imagine novels and movies that used this tactic (now giving the answer) and I find them way more creepy. Ex; The movie "Blair Witch Project". At the end, we don't see much of what is happening. The only thing we see and hear are the two survivors that run in deep woods and in the middle of the night to help their friend that is yelling. They discovered an abandoned building and decided to go in. After a few seconds of searching for their friend, we see that the camera fells on the ground. The final scene is one of the survivor is facing a wall staying still. We never see the witch or anything else but I found this movie very creepy.
I am presently writing about the tings of mental illness. So, yes, I'd go along with loosing control. Beyond that, not much scares me. Many more things fascinate me.
The body snatchers situation. When you know that you can't low the guard but you'll eventually have to do it. When you know its only a matter of time the monster gets you, don't know when and how. You just keep going relying only on the childish hope the mind is forced to assembly to survive. And you know it all along.
Zombies, but I've never read a book where they were scary. What always gets me in writing is the tone of the piece of work. "Pet Sematary" is one of the creepiest books I've read because of the tone. It sort-of ties into zombies with bringing back the dead, though.
Monsters have always been fun to me but I would have to say the only movies that have ever gotten to me have been psychological thrillers. Despite it's bad ratings I actually really liked Dream House with Daniel Craig, Get Out was also very good. I just love where everything seems normal and there's only a slight weird thing here or there, and then more weird things, and then it's too weird to ignore and it picks up momentum and then everything is crazy and twisted. I think the "Everything is fine until it isn't" trope is great. It's even better when the movie/show/book doesn't look like horror and you just start watching/reading it and then it gets increasingly more and more uncomfortable. The anxiety of the buildup and not know what is going to happen gets me every time. Not knowing what is coming is by far the most terrifying thing. It's the reason we're scared of the dark because we can't see what is out there, the reason our heart beats a little bit harder when when we hear a misplaced sound in a dark room. With a monster it's a bit more predictable, you know the monster's going to be there; you hear a noise, guess who... not nearly as compelling in my opinion but there are definitely some skin crawling beasties out there, most of which are actually human.
loss of memory/identity clones, doppelgangers, evil twins spooky houses accusations (like Kafka's the Trial) psychological horror -- mental breakdowns in pairs -- i.e. one person has a psychological break and the other is so attached they're dragged into the vortex with them. sentient objects -- evil dolls, teddy bears, robots, etc. I also like the idea of taking a fetish and turning it into a kinda horror -- I loved that aspect of the Edible Woman where she kept tricking her self into not eating this or that until she couldn't eat anything.
Knowing that each choice, movement, breath, whatever, has the power to instantly change the course of your life.
I dont think that anyone’s mentioned this one, but I’m scared of myself. That’s to say, scared of what I could do, what I have the potential to do. Both to myself and to other people. And exqually I’m scared of being denied privacy, perhaps because that could lead to some of my vilest thoughts being exposed, one way or another. I don’t think that I am particularly evil; I believe that if there was heaven hardly anyone would deserve to even see its gates. I think I’m just very aware of the beast within. Edit: not sure why it posted twice, it’s not even like I pressed the button twice.
Things that lurk out of sigh, and/or you don't understand. I'll post fairly long excerpt from the Wandering Inn here, because this gave me nightmares.
You know, I thought about it some more. My grandparent worked for 30 and 40 year in the same factory. Over the year I have repeatedly said that this would be my worst nightmare. Ruminating on that and what seems to be the most reoccurring idea here, which is the ancient and universal fear of the great unknown, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am in fact a deviant. In my previous post I said that what scares me is my awareness, my knowledge of what my imagination and physical ability combined can achieve to the detriment of humanity. Here I said that my greatest fear is working the same menial job for decades. My conclusion is that what scares me the most is the Known. The expected long stagnation, slow decay, inevitable pain, wasted potential, regretful past, the cynical nature of life.
I used to have nightmares as a kid of being trapped in a burning house. Or of my sister/father/mother trapped inside and me outside, helpless. I'm weirdly paranoid about someone following me. Not crazily so, I mean, I'm not thinking everyone is out to get me or anything, but if I'm driving home and there's a car that just happens to be making all the same turns and stuff, my mind immediately jumps to "Are they following me?" and it creeps me out. Of course, this probably stems from the fact that I'm a corrections officer and worry about being followed home by a former inmate or something like that. But creepy horror movies where the main character is walking down the street at night and there's someone behind them (whether they are actually following them or not)...that gets my heart pounding.
Very good tip fjm3eyes. I am also very interested in learning more about mental ilness and how someone who seems totally normal just flip and do the unthinkable like murdering his neighbor. I just began to subscribe to a few blogs about criminal minds and newsfeed related to crimes that are happening today. I must say that there are very creepy stories. Hi Artifacs, at first, I tought you were talking about the 1977 movie "Invasion of the body snatchers". It was a great film, very strange and creepy because you don't really know what is happening. I loved reading "Pet semetary". I think it's one of the first horror novel I read when I was a teenager. The movie was not as good as the movie. I also love zombies stories but not all of them. I really liked the series "28 days later and 28 weeks later". People trying to hide and escape from the deads without knowing what is really happening. I especially like the fact that they were kind of apocalypse, end of the world stories. @ReturntoEarth I agree 100% with you. Today, I am really not afraid of monsters. The thing that creeps me out is normal people becoming insane or something along those lines. And like you say, I love when the story gets more and more uncomfortable and especially when we don't know what is going to happen next. I will leave the monsters to the kids Hi @peachalulu, what do you mean exactly by sentient objects and doppelgangers? When you are talking about mental breakdowns I am thinking of "The shining" story where Jack becomes crazy and it affects his wife and kid along the way. Hi @FifthofAscalante, very interesting idea you have; Scared of yourself and what you could do to do to yourself and to others. It could be a great story to write about this. Someone normal that just flips in a second. Hi @l nimbus, I really like this idea too, something that follows you in the middle of the night but you don't really know what is it. Thanks. Wow great idea again @FifthofAscalante. I really like this, you know you are going to do this crappy job for the rest of your life with the same people ... It has the potential to write a good psychological horror. Thanks again Hi @Stormsong07. Yes being trapped in a burning building must be aweful. Very good idea. Someone or something following you is also a thing that, I think, most people are afraid of. And I understand your phobia because you are a correction officer. I totally understand that. One of the ideas I wrote for a futur story was about something happening in a prison but I don't know much about the subject yet. I should contact you to get to know the environment you live in. You are just giving me an idea for another post on the forum. I will propose members to write the job the are doing today or they have done in the past so if somebody wants to write a story about correction officer, he will know who to ask for info. I think it could help us in many ways. Thanks again @Stormsong07
That’s kind of the plot of Falling Down from 1993, but in this case, rather than remain stagnant at the fear of what he might do, the main character acts in a villainous way m before thinking. Psychological if not action packed...
Losing control of my temper, or just stopping to care about other human beings. And yes, I fear that even when I imagine a situation where I have no other choice i.e. getting assaulted while being alone and have to defend myself. On a lighter note, I absolutely hate to imagine things beneath my feet when I swim in a lake. Says the scuba diver who loves sharks .
