The last two days have been quite interesting, between reading Thr3e and recovering from sickness, I was also suffering a sort of writer’s block. You’d think coming up with ten horror stories would be easy but it’s not. Limiting my short stories to 3000 words is also an issue, either there’s too many words and the story is short, or there’s not enough words and I have to cut the story short by removing “unnecessary” sections. It’s actually quite frustrating.
The Processor
So how do I come up with stories? Well first I have to find a topic that scares me and guess what? I have plenty. Spiders spilling out of a spider bite in my arm and crawling over my skin. *shivers* Waking up to find a faceless figure staring down at me then proceeding to erase my features while they slowly appear on his own face. Playfully checking under the bed for monsters and actually find one. The shadow on the wall starts to move.
I take these and, as an author, have to draw up the scenarios that would make them plausible. I process the idea and it’s facets to gain a clearer picture of the story I’m trying to tell. The spider bite is plausible on it’s own so what’s the story behind the bite, how did it happen, what was I doing while it festered etc etc. Maybe the horror is not in the fact that spiders are spilling down my arm but that I let them fester in the first place for some nefarious reason.
A faceless man? Why is he faceless? Why is he trying to steal my face? Did someone steal his face or is it actually revenge as I had stolen his face initially? The zombie apocalypse erased people’s faces? It’s a government experiment to infiltrate secure locations gone wrong and their rogue Experiment X is stealing faces? What is the story?!
The Pantser
Most of the time, a word or phrase or image catches my attention and I’m flying through the story without processing anything. It’s a convoluted mess and sometimes I actually step outside for a breath of fresh air and to think through the story. Instead I just stare into the sun, blink haphazardly and go back without any processing or insight to the story I’m writing because my brain is just buzz, buzz, buzzing. Characters, scenarios and all the horrors just sweeping in on a magic carpet like,
*Sings
“I can show you your mind. Shining, shimmering, scarrrry!”
I don’t have the depth that Ted Dekker has when he writes his books. I mean, wow, after reading Thr3e for my Wednesday Book Review, I’m starting to wonder if I’m just a shallow writer missing the profundity that sets Ted Dekker apart from many other authors. I mean, sure, you can write a book with a great story and fantastic characters and people are all la di da about it, but I think my goal is make people pull their hair out, write journals and life-long blog entries deciphering the twisted, mindblowing story I have written. Not because they are confused, but because the story was nothing they were expecting – it was just that amazing. I can dream though.
A-Scribe To Describe 