It's also the time when horror and ghost story competitions are all the rage. What makes a good horror? I have no idea. I know what I like in a horror story. I want a monster that hides until the final reveal. I want creeping dread at every turn. I want a twist that genuinely takes your breath away.
But I want hope!
Too many current horrors create terrible situations that there is no hope of the protagonists escaping from. This leads to ultimately dissatisfying endings where the badguy has won and to no purpose. Did the protagonists have character growth? Yeah, but so what? They won't get to do anything with their newfound knowledge of how the world works, because they died.
One of my favourite horror films of recent years was Paranorman. Not only was it a great story with an amazing BBEG, it showed how the world can grow as a result of a shared horror. That's what I want my stories to be.
So, I'm writing a horror. I'm trying to create a feeling of dread, where there is potential for innocence to be lost, for a real hero to rise, but for a community to grow as a result of the shared horror, even if someone has to make a sacrifice to "win" in the end.
I finished the first draft today and some of that is missing. I have some spare words that I can use to build some more into it. I want the threat (Triangle Man) to be unsettling and dangerous. I want the hero (Alex, age 10) to be weak but determined. What I'm lacking at the moment is a reason for him to be considering dying to save others. That's what's not there at the moment. I just need time to fix it, and I will fix it.
