Younger members: I Need some advice from your point-of-view

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Heather
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well, I'm 16, but, I find scary clowns absolutely terrifying
ahhhh

Thanks for that markish - very useful info.

Can I ask - is it just scary clowns, or all clowns?

What is it about them that is unnerving? Is it that they don't speak, look weird, or something else?

For some reason, clowns are found to be scary by lots of folks (although I never really had a problem with them), leading - I guess - to the popularity of them in Horrors, like Stephen King's 'It'. I've just never been able to put my finger on why.

It's ironic, I guess, that something that's supposed to make kids laugh can have such an intensely-opposite effect; the amount of folks I've spoken to who've all had nightmares about the 'Ronald McDonald' clown is amazing!

Thanks once again for taking the time to help - it really is appreciated :-D

Rob

Well I'm a bit older than that age range, but I find the prospect of being watched or 'hunted' incredibly frightening. D:

I'm really scared when I think there's something to be scared by, but I'm afraid to go and see in case there's nothing here.
In a book, nothing that happens can be scary. What's scary is waiting for it.

xxx
{Rachel}

I'm fifteen, almost sixteen, but I find total darkness to be scary and the sense of not knowing what's going on around you to be unnerving. That's why I still check my closet and underneath my bed before I go to sleep (but I think that may be associated with my slight OCD problem as well). I'm afraid of something like a strange shadow coming out of my closet and Chucky coming for me from underneath my bed ever since I saw his films. That's why I also hate dolls. They freak me out with their unfeeling faces.

No wonder why I still use a nightlight with all the stuff I'm freaked out by. XDD But after all that, I don't find gore to be disturbing unless well, ya know, it's happening to me. Since it can't be fun having your limbs torn off you. I can watch the gore of the Saw movies easily and not become nauseous.

NaNo 2007: Lessons in Understanding (YA Novel)

Inflamed Mouse and Scriptix - thank you both SO much for your post; exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for (and hoping to hear!!).

Your comments about gore Vs. creepy-stuff are pretty much in keeping with what I suspected. Whilst the younger audience may revel in well-placed yucky scenes, I'd always imagined that the real scares come from the subtler images, sounds and textures.

Making something that's supposed to be safe and lovable (like a teddy) into something that becomes quite disturbing seems to be a common thread that quite a few folks find creepy :-D

Thanks once again to everyone who's helped out so far - keep those thoughts coming guys!

Rob

I JUST turned fifteen (five days ago).

I've always been afraid of getting myself lost and/or seperated from people... and then getting trapped. The Winchester Mansion scares the crap out of me. I don't like the idea of panicking, running up some narrow staircase, and then coming to a deadend. I don't like the thought of going up a staircase and then coming to a deadend period, actually....

I didn't like bathrooms for years because there was no other exit except the door I came in. (Windows don't count because that means putting my back to the room and leaving myself extremely vulnerable.)

I don't, however, mind seperating and heading off by myself in a 'Haunted' Cornmaze, and I treasure my privacy. I love any little, out of the way space that I can crawl into whenever I'm around a lot of people, too. As long as I know there's someone there if I run then I'm fine.

Mirrors also bug me. I like them. I like the word. But ever since the first time I saw a movie where something popped up in the one and killed the poor soul who happened to look at the wrong time I haven't been able to stand having my back to one. (I was four and traumitized by Chuckie)

Also! Any room where I can't see the entire layout from one corner bothers me to the point where I'll refuse to enter the room alone. I'm not even going to mention putting my back to it. If someone's with me then I don't care, but if I'm alone and I have to stay in it then I'll put my back to the corner where I can see the door and most of the room. And I'll stay there until someone comes in or I can leave.

Extremely loud noises and a lot of quiet spook me. Eh...hold on. I'm pretty sure the loud noises-thing is instinctual for virtually anyone, though...

Okay, then. A very quiet house creeps me out. Anywhere that's very quiet scares me. I always manage to convince myself that I can hear someone whispering, that there's footsteps, that water's running, that there's someone in the stall right next to me when I'm alone in a bathroom, that there's someone peeking over my shoulder, that there's someone behind me, there's someone at the window, there's someone down the hall...

...Yeah...

That's probably way more than you wanted. Sorry ^_^;

(And, just so you know, I'm still very much able to function by myself. I just really, really don't like being alone in a house or other area with no way to contact anyone. Even if I panic, though, then I can usually talk myself down, or read a book, or force myself to go to sleep - I wake up fine.)

I just scare the shit out of people when I come streaking out of the bathroom after every time I go in alone. ^_^ I managed to startle an older JROTC cadet badly enough that he thought there really was someone in there that had tried to hurt me.

He's also enlisted in the National Guard... I'm sure you can see where that went. It was very embarassing, especially since it's a completely irrational paranoia. *headdesk*

I'm POSITIVE by now that this is more than you want to know, however. I'm just a paranoid teenager.

I'll just shut up now...

I'm 13, and gore doesn't really bother me (unless it's really, really gory.)
It is the weird, sublte things that are scary - for example, things you see in your proipheral (sp) vision and you're not quite sure you see, or if something that happens which shouldn't (e.g.. you hear your mum downstairs when you KNOW she's gone out)
The dark is scary because you have no idea whats there, especially when you're home alone.
I don't worry too much about creaking floorboards or something in my cupboard, but sometimes I feel like theres something behind me...
Personally, I love it when a writer makes everything really tense subtley, and without realising it you're terrified - and boom, something horrible and unexpected comes along and scares the living daylights out of you.
Thats just me though ! :) hope I was of help.

Very helpful indeed, thanks hippodance and Seikk (and everyone else who's responded!)

I think I'm pretty much settled on the subtle things that slither under the bed, or pat our hands in the darkness now. So much so, in fact, that - since starting this thread - I'm now over 8,000 words into a Young Adult horror novel, as a pre-November warm-up.

I figure, if I can do 50,000 with no deadline (apart from a delf-imposed one), then the actual NaNoWriMo should seem so much less daunting!

But - please: Do keep these suggestions coming chaps - I need more shadows to cast across my pages!

Rob

I love spiders don't get me wrong. Have you ever heard of a Camel Spider? The things that get huge that looks part scorpion and part spider? Well, I am freaked out by waking up and seeing one of those like 14 pound spider things in my room. Kinda childish to be scared of that but you know, that is the only thing I really hate.

I'm fourteen--just barely in there. :D

For me, what freaks me out daily is what could be lurking in the darkness--even though I know that that's really illogical. (And, for some reason, whenever I'm in the garage I worry that some crazy guy with a gun will shoot me through the door. By chance. D=) Anywho, for me, it's mostly what's unknown.

I'm 14.

Nothing scares me, really. Nothing horror-movie-ish anyway. I can watch something with ghosts/zombies/vampires/whatever without being scared. Sure, I squeak when the monster jumps out, but that's just part of the fun. I don't get scared at all, I just laugh most of the time.

What DOES scare me is robots and spaceships and any futuristic sci-fi stuff like that. XD I can't watch any science-fiction movies without somebody with me. Yeah, I know, I'm weird.

My real-life fears are snakes, bugs, drowning, being trapped, and getting raped/murdered :3 You know, just the usual stuff.

I'm fourteen.

The thngs that scare me are subtle things. I mean, I watch scary movies and laugh the whole time because it's so obvious what will happen. But I have a couple of examples of things that really happened to me that SCARED ME SILLY. And I'm hard to scare.

First, at my school, it's next to a church, and a graveyard is basically on the playground, separated from our soccer field only by a fence, and it's pretty common knowledge that SOMETHING is up with the place. After Bingo Night last year, my friends and I were out back, and we looked in the window of our classroom for the heck of it. We ALL started running and got back across the field (by the graveyard, but we just thought of "away from the classroom")) and all swore that we had seen something walking in there. The lights were out, but it was glowing bright green and it was about six feet tall. All of us will still swear to it to this day.

Another time, I was putting a liner in the girl's bathroom because the trash got full halfway through the day, because kids just do that stuff at my school. It's normal, since we're a small school. ((Less than 50 kids)) The door to the bathroom locks but I only had it closed, not locked, because it's a small bathroom and it's pretty hard to move around in there with the door open. I had it closed pretty tightly, and I would have heard any footsteps, but the knob started rattling. I looked up, and it was TURNING. The door opened. But everyone else was outside at recess, and the teachers were in the library having a meeting. The floors conduct sound really well, so I would have heard anyone come even into the classroom or the library, both nearby. ((I got out of there FAST.))

Then I was at the theatre once, and everyone else was on break, sitting in the lobby. I was sitting in one of the seats in the front row with my MP3 player going, and it was a Martina McBride song that I've known for years (Concrete Angel, for those that know it), and it has no background singers, and really no sounds at all at one point. But I heard someone whispering to me, I couldn't understand though, so I looked over because I thought the rest of the cast might have come back ((one guy always liked to whisper weird things to people to see if they would say it louder, like in surprise or something, like "The director's in a car crash with a donut van driven by monkeys", but usually shorter....)). I was still alone in the theatre, so I ran into the lobby and started the song over. It went perfectly, so I knew it wasn't a skip in the song or anything. Also, another girl from the cast saw me sprint out of there, and she thought the set fell or someone broke in or something because I looked so freaked. ((I read a similar thing above, something about ROTC?))

This must seem like I'm rambling or something....sorry. But it's more subtle things that are scary. Or if they get into your subconscious.

I read a story when I was seven about a beautiful 20-something woman who died in her bedroom. There was a hole in the wall between that room and the guest room, but it was small. A traveler came and needed to stay a night, so he was put in the guest room. During the night, he heard music and saw a light through the crack. He looked through and saw a woman dancing. He looked toward the door in his room to make sure no one was coming, then looked back to the hole, but he could only see red, so he went to bed. The next morning he asked the owner of the house about it, and the man told the traveler about his daughter, who had died unmarried because of a "flaw" in her appearance. She had one red eye.

That one didn't phase me until my cousin wanted me to spy through the fence, at night, no less.

I'm fifteen, but only for a couple months now.

Something that really freaks me out, dunno if someone's already said this, but it's when I'm lying in bed at night trying to sleep, and I hear a thud. My eyes fly open and crap, but I don't hear anything else... makes me think some burglar's in the house and is gonna sneak in while I sleep.

I used to be scared by my door rattling due to air currents or something, but my cat rattles it now, so I'm kinda immune to it.

I also get creeped out if someone comes up behind me and I don't realize it, and then I suddenly notice them for whatever reason (I hear them, see them out of the corner of my eye, whatever). The idea that someone can sneak up on me is really scary.

Being trapped alone somewhere, especially if it's dark.

Like someone said earlier, being alone somewhere quiet. You start imagining things, and.... *shudder*

Having my back to anywhere dark or anywhere where I don't know there are people... cause then I get that feeling of being watched/followed.

Realizing suddenly that there's a bug of some sort crawling on me.

I guess, summing it up, what really scares me is anything I can't disprove enough to be able to relax. Like, sudden alien invasion? Yeah, right. However, person following you who you don't see? Totally possible, and freaky as all get out.

--

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."
"It's not the years in your life, but the life in your years."

-Script Frenzy 2008 - Hide and Seek - 105/100 WIN!
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The gore vs. sphych... That's a really good question. The only scary movie that has ever really scared the heck out of me was Carey because it was a mixture of both.

Yes, the floor board thing does scare me. Or it did. I have a cat who makes a ton of noise, and I've learned that most of the floor board noises are my cat.

One of the only things that really scares the crap out of me is coming home to an empty house when my parents promised they would be homw. Once (I can't remember if I was 12 or 13) when I came home from a friend's house at 9:30 and no one was home. My parents had said they were going to be home, but they weren't. The table was set and the dirty dishes were still on the table and everything. That scared the crap out of me. I ended up wondering aimlessly around the house with the butcher knife in my hand, and calling out random things like, "Hello?" and "Who's there?" Turned out, my parents were at the neighbor's house. That was the most scared I've ever been.

Another thing that scares the crap out of me is knowing that someone else is in the house with you, but you don't know who they are and they're not supposed to be there. When I was in fifth grade, I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and I heard someone walking up the stairs. Because everyone sleeps up stairs, that freaked me out. So I stood totally still. But then the foot steps came near the bathroom, so I hopped into the shower and hid there. So the person comes into the bathroom, and it's my dad. He had gotten up to get a mid night snack.

So those are two things that have scared the heck out of me.

And make your story in a setting that an average teen would go to every day. Makes it even more realistic.

And, like a lot of teens, I have an uncanny fear of stalkers. I was stalked earlier this year, and I STILL have to walk home, and even the slightest movement from behind me freaks me out.

2006: Dance of the Mamed (about 18000 words)
2007: Project I-12 (WINNER AND FINISHED!)
2008: Melt

Anything standing behinds me flips me out.
I've heard whispers that have said my name in it like "Come here, Jenna", but..Nobody was there.

Floorboards don't creep me out, but wavering blinds when my window is open does, and, when the AC is on in the house, and my airvent is closed, it still comes through and it makes a whissle sound, and it's really loud and creepy.

Pre '08 Nano Novel: Holly Pawlikowski
Nano '08: Holly Pawlikowski - The Fight for Freedom.

ok. hello, i am fourteen years old, and i am happy to help you out. :)

what scares me, you ask? definitely a lot of the subtle stuff, i.e. "the ring" like things, like things that you cant explain but are happening to you... or there's something there but you can't quite prove it? also, things like murderous sociopaths and psychos in your house or following you, and really chill-down-your-spine things that you can always put lots of plot twists into. things that keep you up at night!!

i hope i have helped. :)

I love teen horror as well! I get scared really easily and I alwasy insist on leaving my closet light on after reading a scary novel, so maybe it's not the best genre for me, but ghosts and mureders and such have alwasy fascinatied me. A great teen horror series is "Circe Du Freak" by Darren Shan. I just finished the first one and it was really good.

In regards to your questions-
1) Gore and guts scares the beejuzus out of me, but only if it's descriptive and image-conjuring. Just "Her hand was cut off" doesn't do it for me. I need something like "He watched as the blood began to pump from the raw wound where.." yada, yada, yada. Ghosts and the super natural scare me as well, but more in a "Better leave the light on and the bedroom door open at night" sort of way.

2) As for creaky floorboards and monsters in the dark- I must admit- I am a huge sissy about such things. If I ever see anything remotly scary, I'll leave my closet light on when I go to bed.

3) What scares the heck out of me? Alot of things, actually. I've always been susceptible to completely irrational fears. The dark is still extremely scary to me. And, this is going to sound quite odd, I've always had this uncureable fear of being punctured in the back of the neck. Probably comes from watching the CSI episode "Rashomama" to many times.

Good luck with your novel!

_________
"To days of inspiration, playing hookey, making something out of nothing, the need to *express*, to communicate."-La Vie Boheme A, "RENT"

I'm 14

Gore and guts doesn't really do much for me, or for people I know. I'd just roll my eyes. Id be more scared by subtle things.

Creaking floorboards only scare me when I know theres nobody else in the house, or when I'm babysitting. Another thing that creeps me out is my garage at night. The light is really dim, and we have these two big windows that put shadows everywhere. Its pretty freaky.

And this seems really strange, but I get scared alot of being blind. Like I'll wake up in the middle of the night, and it will be pitch black, and I cant see anything. So i feel blind, its a really weird feeling. Usually I'll get up and (clumsily) walk over to my lamp and turn it on, to assure myself.

For me, it's really a sense of disappointment, or letting someone down.

I really don't like Darren Shan, where there's very little suspense until the very end of the chaper.

I would think that shock values won't last as long as disturbed suspense, or a sense of isolation (particularly relevant during the emotional turbulence of puberty)

Most important, do not be patronizing (nothing hides under my bed!).

I'm 14, by the way.

"Can History then be said to have an architecture, Hinton? The notion is most glorious and most horrible."

I'm fifteen, so not too far off...

What always really scared me are things like Hannibal Lecter, because they get in your head. That and when your walking in the dark by yourself and you get the feeling that someone is watching you but you know you're alone.

I'm 14 and a bit of a wimp (I'll admit it)

I don't think its gore that gets me, because I watched Sweeney Todd and was like "COOL! BLOODINESS!" so that's not it.

I do get freaked out by a haunted house, but this is more the shock of things popping out at you, which is difficult to portray in a book. Its more frightening to have suspenseful situations. For example, I'm usually fine when I'm home alone- until I hear the doorbell. That makes me jump.

That being said, any creepy stangers are always good for a shiver. I read a book once (it was "Here Today" for those of you who've read it) where a preteen girl who was in a terrible mood was walking alone back to this really cheap, dirty apartment building at night. She saw a creepy guy smoking on the steps and he said something like "C'mon, step right up, don't be shy." The girl ran from him, but he chased her until she was able to get to a safe buisness to call her father. It was creepy. So any kidnapping or such would be appropriate.

Hope that helps. Happy writing!

The subtle, spooky stuff like a creaking floorboard in the dark corner creeps me out more than gorey stuff. Always has. I'm not in that age range anymore, but I used to read a lot of spooky mystery novels when I was much younger and that stuff really stuck with me, and made it exciting to go to bed, haha.

“You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're gonna get killed by eggs, or beef, or global warming, or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible. Like maybe you survive.”

I hope you're still looking for suggestions : )

Things that scare my pants off:

-Being alone. Facing the unknown, by yourself, is one of the scariest things I can imagine. I hate being home alone and hearing the doorbell; it's almost like every warning your parents have ever beaten into your head about not answering the door when you're alone is pounding in your head. Also, the thought of ever being left somewhere/seperated (like lost at some scary gas station in New Mexico) freaks me out. Bonus points if you manage to include some peppy sounding music from a jukebox in the back.

-The backseat of a car. My dad told me a story once of a man climbing into someone backseat when someone was paying for her gas, and I'm not sure I've ever recovered.

-Clowns. Scary clowns, regular clowns. I've never read Stephen King's "It" or seen the movie, but I have an unnatural fear of clowns.

-Smell! Have you ever been alone in your upstairs hallway and smelt an old fashioned, woman's perfume? I have. And nearly wet myself.

-Forests; pathways, especially at night. I hate the feeling of not being able to see. If you aren't familiar with the place, it's unnerving. Also, the fear can be awful if you don't know if there are thorns.

I'm fourteen as well. : )

The only book I've read that really scared the crap out of me was Crank by Ellen Hopkins. In it, the main character is kind of being taken over by someone else (crank, I'm assuming) and she loses control of herself. I have a fear of losing control of myself and doing something I would really regret, or never do. That is one of the reasons why I will never get drunk or do drugs.

Also, like a lot of the other kids here, I get really creeped out when i'm all by myself and it's really quiet. I'll start imagining footsteps, etc.

Hope that helped!

I'm fourteen, so I hope this will help. :3

Gore and guts do, on some level, freak me out quite a bit. I'm a very visual person and if there are details to the gore I can visualize it, and that is when I get freaked. Also, the mention of veins and the cutting of wrists scares the bejeebers out of me. Subtle things are more frightening though, not knowing exactly what's going on is really unnerving.

Yeah, I worry about the dark, and the weird shadows in my room at night.

Needles (IVs, sewing needles, vaccinations, etc.), hospitals, and my step-mom scare the crap out of me.

15, so close enough?

I think what scares me the most is, for example, if someone took my real phobias and forced me to live them... A good example of this would be the CSI episode Grave Danger, when one of the CSIs gets buried alive. For me it would be needles. I hate 'em.

The weird things too, they freak me out, but gore doesn't do it to me (watch too much CSI yay!) I hate the feeling of being watched, and if it's a good book, your reader will feel like they're being watched. I also hate it when someone stands right over my shoulder, it sends chills up my spine.

That's about it, I think.

I write what I know. In this case, I know band.

I'm fourteen, but not for much longer.

I am scared to death of quietness. Especially when there is a gust or a pet that makes you house creak... god i get scared. I also hate clowns and people in those big full-body costumes that kids are (for whatever reason) supposed to think it's the real cartoon character. o.O Freaky, man. I also despise the sound of bugs or the feeling of them crawling around on my skin... I have panic attacks if there is so much as a fruit-fly in my house.

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~Novelista~
NaNoNewb (but I write A LOT)

I'm thirteen and I'm still freaked by creaking floorboards and what might be hiding in the dark. Especially if it's night time. I'm not scared BY the dark but more by what's IN the dark.

I'm not much of a horror person myself but I'd say that I'm more creeped by the wierd, subtle thing. The blood and gore is more for older readers, I think.