Our first listener question. Yes, we do those.
My name is Ken Mears. And I'm Melissa Fales.
And welcome to Writer's World.
Today is a very special episode. We have in the house with us Jacob.
Jacob reached out to us through our email, WritersWorldPodcast.com.
And his question was, I want to write a horror story. How do I start?
And so there was so much we wanted to say and so much that we wanted to know that we decided to reach out to Jacob and have him do this episode with us.
So why don't you go ahead and say hey.
Hi, I just got to say how big of a fan I am of the show.
I think it's really cool what you're doing.
Thanks, Jacob. We're so glad to have you on the show.
So do you have any ideas on potential stories or what are you thinking?
Do you have any ideas or are you starting from the very beginning?
I have a couple ideas. First of them being, well, last few nights I was thinking, you know,
a bad guy could just like come in through my window and kill me.
I was like, oh my gosh, that would be such a cool story. I think I would read that.
So I was like, how could I write this story?
And well, I know I want some person to try and do harm.
So this is where you're lost.
Yeah, exactly.
Okay, Ken, do you have any thoughts?
Well, I would say you probably should start with kind of what you want the start and end to look like
and what you want the status quo to be and what you want the end product,
what will have happened by the end of the story before you go any further.
That's very good advice.
Yeah, that's a good point.
So you know what you want of this theme, but does it have a happy ending? Is it sad?
That kind of stuff can be really helpful.
How many characters are you thinking of having?
No more than 10. It's going to be a smaller cast list.
Mostly about, well, me and someone else.
Ken, how would you recommend starting characters from the very beginning?
Well, I would start out with probably obviously names are a good thing
and figuring out kind of where each person comes from, kind of a little bit about their backgrounds,
how they're related to the other characters,
whether that be related by blood or friendship or marriage or anything like that.
That's all important stuff because that really affects your character dynamics
and how the story progresses from there and of course, physical descriptions.
Okay, that's good.
Would you recommend that somebody like start with saying a story like,
oh, I'll start in the first person or I'll start in the third person or do you think that they should just like figure it out?
Well, in Jacob's case, I'd recommend he goes with whatever you'd like.
If he wants to have some exposition set up, perhaps having it in the third person.
If he wants a more personal experience from the get go, probably first person is probably the best.
Just so everyone knows, first person is when you're telling the story from the perspective of like,
I watched the bad guy come in versus third person would be like, the bad guy came in.
That's kind of the difference.
Jacob, what are you thinking? What kind of way are you thinking?
Well, yeah, these are very good points.
I'll definitely have to decide what character I want to tell it from, what person I want to tell it from.
I would also be very useful to kind of plan out how I want it to end.
I think, I don't know, I think first person is scarier.
And I feel like that's most of the stories of horror that I've read.
Like Dracula is written through like letters or like through diaries.
What would you recommend Jacob write?
I would in fact recommend probably first person for a horror story because then we know,
we as the reader only know what the main character knows.
So we're just as surprised as the main character because it's being told by said main character.
Yeah, in a past episode we talked about like the three types of monsters.
And one of them is this abstract monster who plays on our own internal fears.
I think that first person kind of would do that.
Well, I guess I think we could talk about setting next.
What do you think?
Yes, for sure. So where is it set?
It's set in my house because that's what I'm most familiar with.
And I was thinking, oh, I can make a really good story about something I know super well.
Like I could identify exactly what scares me and then write it down.
Okay. So if everything happens within your house, then...
Well, not like, just like the like the climax and stuff.
Okay. Well, then you need to determine where kind of key events happen, you know,
where are the key locations where somebody is going to be killed off
or there's going to be them trying to fend off the monster or what have you.
Yeah. And it might be kind of fun challenge in the horror to like a lot of horrors,
like the fears that you have and stuff.
So it may be fun to write a story about like this person scared of sleeping alone
and somehow they end up sleeping alone and they're in the house by themselves.
And like I think that you could really develop a character and like they have to face this fear.
And if you do decide first person, then like they have to face this fear
and they're like trying to deal with their fear.
So they journal writing and then they're like, oh, no, someone's in the house or something.
Well, what are you thinking for your ending?
Well, I'm kind of torn on what to do.
I don't know if I want the main character to die or not.
Right now I'm leaning on the side of he lives because that'd be a good way to go.
Ken, would you recommend that Jacob start with an age bracket so he knows like how dark he can go?
Yes, that's always a good start because that kind of sets the bar for how much gore
and how scary it ends up being.
So what's kind of the age bracket you're looking at here, Jacob?
Well, it'd be a slow progression because, you know, I know that we fear the unknown
and, you know, if it goes on very slowly over like a year or something to the climax,
that would I think that would be really cool.
Like every night he notices like something and then like it gets like closer and closer.
I don't know.
Ooh, I got chills. That sounds good.
Yes, slow progression. That's not something that's usually covered in horror, is it?
Yeah, it is.
So you would be aiming for like, kind of like Edgar Allan Poe is kind of like high schoolers or adults,
kind of more young adult?
Yeah, I'd be like a teenager, probably.
Again, I think I'd basically make character of me.
So would the bad guy, I think something that could be helpful in writing this would be identifying more of the setting,
like Ken talked about.
So is there anything supernatural or is it all like 100% could happen?
Oh, I want this to be 100% real because, you know, that's the scariest.
And I've been, you know, over in October, I was listening to a lot of like, like real true crime stuff.
And I was just like amazed on how like real a lot of the horror is.
I was like, oh, maybe I could start writing a story.
It's based off of real stuff. I mean, not real stuff, but like.
Could happen.
Yeah, it could happen. It could happen.
And that's where you were a real way to go.
So what you're saying here basically is that the monster is either a person,
which honestly is one of the scariest things is how people can be monsters in their own way
or kind of their own internal monster psyche kind of psyching them out.
How can how would you recommend that somebody write in like the real world?
Because both you and I kind of talk in like fantasy science, science fiction world.
What are some tips I guess we could help Jacob with?
Well, clearly keep it grounded.
Like if anything seems too remotely far from the real world and what could actually happen,
like kind of try and avoid that clearly like knowing basics of the real world,
like how we clearly do not have fairies or hideous monsters that are made out of pure darkness
or anything like that, like clearly stay stay away from that stuff.
OK, how how would you recommend the character development here?
I think like I definitely think because Jacob, you talked about how you want like he has a fear of of being alone.
So he has this fear of being alone.
OK, since Jacob is a little bit unclear of his ending and he seems to be a little bit confused,
you know, like starting a story, you can get confused. Ken, how would you recommend that Jacob go about with his character?
So Jacob has this idea that this character is scared of being alone in his room at night.
What do you think could be some like possible endings to this?
Well, clearly there are kind of two ways to go with the character arc, I guess, of the main character.
One, they can overcome their fear.
So having them progress towards this penultimate ending where they are OK with being alone in the dark
and maybe even that the whatever they're fighting against or go the darker route where it just gets worse and worse and worse.
And it's kind of a descent into madness and where they are just completely intolerable of that.
Hmm. Yeah.
I would kind of like to combine the two that he slowly goes into madness and then something comes out of it somehow.
Because you ultimately you want a happy ending.
Yeah, I do ultimately.
But you want you want the struggle of, you know, the character struggle of it all.
So is is your story, do you think you want like in your monster?
Why is the monster in this character's face?
Do you know?
Well, I think for like ninety nine point nine percent of the story, the monster will not be there because I think that is the scariest form is when you don't know what's happening and when there's a threat of violence.
And it's you're putting the character in a situation that could lead to violence with the bad guy.
Ken, what is some challenges that.
Jacob's character could go through then.
To like he's just going crazy with his fear.
Well, I mean, there could obviously be development without the monster, right?
Where perhaps he's a bit too obsessive about not being alone, you know, to the point where it perhaps drives the people closest to him away to a degree.
Oh, the person coming into his room could just be a result of like his madness or his fears coming out.
Yeah, that can be a good story.
There's just so many routes to take.
You're like, where do I start?
I think especially reading in like a suspenseful story.
You know, like, what do I go?
Well, do you want the monster to be defeated at the end or does the monster escape or does it not really matter to you?
I don't think I've gotten that far in this story.
OK, so what's the greatest way we could help you?
Would it be to give you help you figure out your ending or to figure out a solid start?
Yes, a solid start would be a great place.
OK, Ken, let's hear all your thoughts.
All right.
Well, if you want a solid start, you want to quickly establish kind of your setting, like kind of who your your main character is and his internal fear, right?
This fear of being alone in his room in the dark at night.
So you probably want to start out with some sort of scene like a good example of this character being alone in his room at night and showing that fear through, you know, imagining shapes shifting on the walls and that sort of thing.
You know, that'd be a good way to have a solid start and kind of establish the setting like most of the setting seems to happen in his room or his house and establishes his psychological fear of being alone in dark.
Oh, something, an idea I had was when Ken was talking about the setting was the setting is that he's home alone with his brother and his brother was supposed to be home at like nine o'clock, but he's not home.
And so that could be an interesting setting.
Yeah, it could be.
Like someone called the character a baby and to he's going to like, I don't know, he like brings a gun, he puts it under his bed and he's like, I'm going to sleep alone.
Or, I don't know. So I think setting would be an interesting situation.
I think the third setting idea that I have was something about the setting feels unnatural to the character. So, like, he's in the house, but like, the house is making noises.
And you could describe how the house, like, something about the way the house is making the sounds like is the characters like, oh, like something starts freaking the character out, or, like, somehow the house is telling is making the boy slash girl character, like, scared or something.
I think that would be another idea. Ken, what are your ideas?
Well, so a couple ideas here.
Since this character is afraid of being alone, you know, they likely try to have a decent sized friend group, it would never hurt to have them be maybe, you know, at a party at the park in the dark or something like that.
And then be separated from their friends and see some panic through that because they're so afraid of being alone, you know.
Another idea could be having the character have a definite confrontation moment where they confront the real or imagined monster of the story, right?
They could think that they've conquered the fear, and then like, the bad guy comes out and they're like, actually, no, I haven't. They like freak out again. I don't know. Sorry, keep going.
Yes, so something along those lines where that could be a turning point, that could be at the climax, right? Where they either, depending on which way you want your story to end, where they either defeat the monster real or imagined, or they don't and they descend into madness or killed or what have you, having that pivotal moment is, of course, important.
And one last thing that comes to my mind anyways is having some sort of major event outside of this main setting of the house or his room, you know, having something major take place at school if they're school aged or at work or what have you, depending on, you know, what kind of person this main character is.
That's a, I think I like that point and also like, it's kind of scary when like you find out the monster's not there, and I think it's kind of interesting how you talked about that. So I think what we really wanted to do was like help you get your wheels turning. How are you feeling?
Inspired.
Yeah. Awesome. We hope today's episode was helpful.
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Our email is writersworldpodcast at gmail.com. And until next time, I've been Ken Mears.
I've been Melissa Fales.
I'm Jacob.
And keep on writing.