 
RuneHQ Index | RuneScape | July '04 Issue -- Remembering Our Heroes | News Archives | Credits |
||
Writing Horror Within Fantasy In order to write about Horror, one would have to understand it. Know what it means and how it is used. There are many ways to write horror and we will go over what horror is and how to use it in your writing. Horror is defined as: (Cambridge) an extremely strong feeling of fear and shock; (Wordsmyth) an overpowering and painful feeling of fear, shock, dread, or revulsion; (InfoPlease) an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting; a shuddering fear: to shrink back from a mutilated corpse in horror. Cambridge is a good dictionary for definitions and sentences. I’m using this to define different words relating to Horror. Revulsion: a strong, often sudden, feeling that something is extremely unpleasant. Shock: (the emotional or physical reaction to) a sudden, unexpected and usually unpleasant event or experience. Dread: 1) to feel extremely anxious or frightened about something that is going to happen or that might happen 2) a strong feeling of fear or worry. Fear: an unpleasant emotion or thought that you have when you are frightened or worried by something dangerous, painful or bad that is happening or might happen. Terror: Intense, overpowering fear (American Heritage) and [violent action which causes] extreme fear: They fled from the city in terror. (Cambridge) Though it is frightening to have a guy with a chainsaw or a large knife following after you, it always seems scarier to not know what’s going on. To not know why things are going wrong. Horror is an emotion, a very strong emotion. When one writes that a person is filled with horror, that communicates a more intense feeling than the person was scared. It all comes down to what you want to communicate. There are different emotions relating to horror. Dread, intense fear, terror, shock, horror usually is categorized by some writers into different groups. Let’s look at different types of horror in writing. Terror: (violent action which causes) extreme fear – Cambridge. It also means: a state (condition) of intense fear –Merriam-Webster. Suspense: The feeling of excitement or anxiety which you have when you are waiting for something to happen and are uncertain about what it is going to be. Terror and suspense are two things that go hand in hand. You know the threat is around but you may not know from where or who. When one feels terror or you write about terror, you’re writing about the person anticipating, waiting for something to happen. They know what that something is happening but may not know what it is. Suspense builds. Terror is immediate. It’s here and happening now. You see it in many movies and read it in comics and books. Terror is when the character walks into an underground cavern and sees bones lying about. When one sees Moss Giants roaming the woods not far from where they stand. When you drop into a pit and don’t know what’s at the bottom. Someone is trying to breakdown the door and you just had seen a trail of blood. When you see something that scares you, that is where shock comes in. It is the emotion you feel when you come face to face with what scares you. Revulsion is felt. Gore uses these often. One sees a dead body, feels the sword slice through their armor, sees the one who is killing the party off one by one. This is the horror they experience. There is revulsion at seeing the body. What they see is very unpleasant. Many people turn away. This is the shock of seeing, feeling, what one fears. Dread, the feeling that something bad is going to happen. Dread is one of the most frightening of emotions. Dread many times turns into terror. The reason why this is one of the more frightening of emotions is that you don’t know what’s going on. Everything is fine and then something happens that throws you off. There isn’t a source for this fear. Because of such, you start to come up with many situations. All sorts of possible situations fill your mind. Have you ever been walking down a road at night? You’ve walked down this road many times before but for some reason, this night is different. You get a strong feeling of fear and start imagining things. You wonder if someone is behind you or something is watching you from the trees. You or the character may experience a feeling of helplessness. Because you don’t know what you’re afraid of, there is no way to fight it. You feel it around you but cannot locate its source. Once you have an understanding of what horror is, you will find that you can use it in everything. You can have a story that is horror, one that is fantasy and use the types of horror to introduce monsters, villains, the unknown. Runescape is full of opportunities to include horror into your writing. There are instances of worshiping evil gods and demons, Dark Wizards casting evil spells, bringing the dead back to life but not alive, summoning demons to kill a hero. Even betrayal, greed, murder, lying, cheating, using innocents and theft are evil acts that can be used to create horror. A temple of an evil god can be within a quiet farm community. The trusted guard of the Gnome’s Grand Tree is secretly destroying it. A father and son’s freedom stolen by a General who forced them to fight in an arena. A circle of Druids seeking to bring a demon back to the land. There is a difference between writing fantasy and adding a touch of horror. Here’s an example of a warrior coming to a bridge that leads to the Chaos Druids’ Tower: The warrior passed the last hut of the town and saw the bridge not far in the distance. The sun shined down but thankfully there was a light breeze. As he approached he saw an Ogre at the bridge. It stood guard, unwilling to let anything pass by. Or you could use this same example and add a touch of horror: The warrior passed the last hut of the town as he made his way to the Chaos Druids’ Tower. Not far in the distance, he saw an Ogre standing guard at the bridge. It’s arms were crossed in front of its chest. Clouds covered the sun and cast shadows over the land. A cold breeze picked up and whipped his cape about his body. As he walked toward the bridge he saw a large, iron mace leaning against one of the bridge’s posts. He looked at the Ogre and saw it ridge with anticipation. He wondered if there was another way across nearby and went to the edge to look down at the river below. The strong current pulled the water downstream and the river splashed violently upon the rocks. Something seemed to be just beneath the surface of the river. Was it something or was it the shadows playing tricks on his eyes? The Ogre watched him as it stood in its ground… Adding a touch more description to the story can add more to it. It can cause a feeling of dread. Why is the Ogre there? Is this the only crossing? Is the weather going to turn bad? Was there something in the river below or was it just his imagination? The sword fight between the villain and the hero. The hero is without his sword and the villain is about to win. Suddenly the hero pulls a dagger from his boot and shoves it into the villain’s side. The villain is shocked. He was so certain he was going to win and now he feels the pain of the dagger in his side. Now you understand horror more and I’m sure you can think of ways to use it in your stories. Remember, horror can be a powerful thing. It doesn’t have to be full of blood to be scary. Sometimes the scariest thing is when you don’t know why you’re scared but you do know something is out there. By Ariendiablo |
 |
|
|
Mouse Operations: Left Click: Pause | Right Click: Grand Finale |
||
   This Editions Feature Sig Was Created By Shaw. Credits 
|
||