Hey you writers of horror. Have you ever scared yourself with your own story? I've spooked myself twice now while writing my horror movie. I think I'll only work on this project in the daylight hours.
Screenwriting : Too scary? by Gerry Barrett
Too scary?
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Primal fears will always keep people up at night...
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No. My job is to use techniques that I control to scare others.
Once, I was doing re-writing completely alone in the office during the late night...It was't exactly horror, more of drama with supernatural elements, but one scene where main character sees his dead young brother jumping outta grave gave me goosebumps...latest one I've got with the guy stalled in elevator, not scary but got me to avoid using elevator late at night at my workplace...I know it's all just suggestive...but never can be 100% sure :))))
When I read back a short story, that I'd forgotten about, that I'd written many years ago, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I realised I had something and turned that into The Roots of Evil, my first horror novel. The sequel, The Deeper Roots of Evil, is out next Friday (the 13th).
Well i tend to only write horror if it is something that genuinely terrifies me. So yes, there are times when i will give myself an existential crisis while going to sleep. I don't think it is a solution to work on it during daylight, because it is something where i want to capture that genuine fear.
Here is a thought experiment that might make you lose sleep:
What if every time you fall asleep, you die and are replaced with something else from another plane of existence that thinks it is you? How do you know you were not born this morning and you will die tonight? Does the darkness of losing consciousness not terrify you now?
...what if when you look in the mirror, it is not you, but something else staring back?
Sweet dreams. ;)