I'm signing myself up for sleepless nights.

Itzika — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:43:37 -0800

I'm a wimp. I can't watch horror movies--I saw part of The Ring and spent the next several months with a towel over my TV. Doctor Who freaks me out. I actually spent the night in my mom's room after watching The Empty Child, and slept with the light on after Blink and Silence in the Library. I don't do the horror thing. Yet my latest story is taking a turn for the creepy. Two pages in and my MC is in a ghost town with no idea who he is or how he got there (I've told him he better have a really good reason for pulling the amnesia card on me, but I'm going with it). I get creeped out just writing that this "perfect suburbia" has no signs of life. I have no idea how I'm going to handle anything else he throws at me, and I have a feeling he will. Why am I doing this to myself? And how do you write horror without getting scared?

Re: I'm signing myself up for sleepless nights.

Fantasy-Is-Reality — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:41:22 -0800

I'm pretty much the same. I struggle with even the most non-horror of horror movies, books I fair slightly better with though. Yet, for camp this year, I'm doing a horror plot. I have no idea what it's actually going to be about but I'm sure that'll come to me eventually...To make it even more creepy I intend to set up my tent in the back garden and write from within it. What are we doing to ourselves!?

Re: I'm signing myself up for sleepless nights.

Itzika — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:52:14 -0800

I don't know! I didn't even set out to write horror--my MC just informed me "Oh, by the way, this is going to SCARE THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF YOU. You might want to write my story only when it's light out." He wasn't even nice enough to tell me this when it was light out so I could get ready! D: And you are much braver than I am--I need lights on and other people in the house to write horror.

Re: I'm signing myself up for sleepless nights.

Faeiri — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:24:04 -0800

...I think your thread's title might have just given me novel inspiration. Can I please have your permission to use it?

Re: I'm signing myself up for sleepless nights.

Itzika — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:25:08 -0800

Go right ahead! May I ask how it inspired you?

Re: I'm signing myself up for sleepless nights.

Faeiri — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:49:37 -0800

I'm...not entirely sure. It's just a vague idea at the moment. One of my characters might say it about a horror he finds out is real. It just...fits, somewhere, and I'll find a place for it. Thanks!

Re: I'm signing myself up for sleepless nights.

anotherHOLiC — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:22:35 -0800

I feel for you! I am creeped out by even the smallest thing, but my newest endeavour into the writing world (it will eventually be a webcomic and hopefully I can get it published locally) is one that features a lot of dark horror and supernatural things inserted into the real world. And my MC will probably die in the last chapter of the story, something else I've never done. Most of my researching and scripting has to be done during the day...! The biggest reason for doing this, though, is a challenge to do something I wouldn't normally do. I will suffer from even more paranoid insomnia as a result of this...though it might also harden me to those sorts of things. :)

Re: I'm signing myself up for sleepless nights.

littlepieceofheaven — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:16:36 -0800

Horror/Supernatural is one of my BIGGEST inspirations! I totally love it! The adrenaline rush when you read/watch something super scary or disturbing is amazing! I have this really bad habit of staying up ridiculously late, watching scary films whilst eating cheese on toast. Crazy, warped dreams ensue. I embrace them and try to remember/write down anything I can remember in the morning (I try to do this with all dreams). I know its not everyone's cup of tea and some people just can't warm to it whatever they try, but if I were you I'd dive straight in head first and just go for it. If your character is taking you on a scary ghost train ride, just let them for the time being! Good luck :)

Re: I'm signing myself up for sleepless nights.

Red Queen — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:25:58 -0800

That sound SO much like my brother complaining that he has to watch yet another horror flick with his girlfriend...^^ Funny thing is, as much as he freaks out when having to watch a horror movie, I am the one who freaks when having to actually write horror myself. I bloody love horror movies, my shelf and hard drive are full of them. Yet, whenever I write horror myself, I somehow manage to creep myself out to the point I sleep with lights on... explanation, anyone? ô.O Anyway, good luck with your ghost town dude, and if everything else fails to calm you down again: watch Scary Movie, I guarantee it will help^^