Scary Stories - Blog Posts

Ok, so the scariest nightmare I had is a horror game esque type of thing. It kinda starts like Doors or FNAF with the whole exploring a creepy place type of thing. It's where my grandparent's super old house got ransacked and the only place to hide is in the basement. One trip to the basement later and I hear a scratchy voice as my brother gets impaled and his head bitten off. One trip down a broken garbage chute later and I'm running around in a white mental facility that's built like an ant hill and is decorated for little children. The monster looks like Slenderman but is more spider-like and has the hearing of the creatures in The Quiet Place. Like in Mr. Hopp's if I trip on a toy or run too much it can hear me. I have to hide in toy chests and closets. If it finds me I get stabbed multiple times in the main body, get eaten alive, and brutally maimed. Only after the fact I wake up and wherever I got hurt I can feel. I'm also in the body of a small child since I've been having this dream since I was 7.

Have fun with this!

Nightmare ideas

I'm trying to make the scariest nightmare sequence I can in a story! So what scares you the most?

Halloween: A Holiday Rooted in Tradition

Halloween is by far one of the most popular holidays celebrated in the United States. It's marked by dressing in costumes, trick-or-treating, haunted attractions, pumpkin carving, many other fun activities that range from scary to whimsical. But what is Halloween? Where did it originate? Why do we celebrate it the way we do? The origins of Halloween date back many thousands of years.

The celebration of Halloween, or All Hallow's Eve, dates back thousands of years to the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain (pronounced Sow-in). The Celtic people, who inhabited the Isle of Ireland, Great Britain, and Northern France, celebrated the new year on November 1, which marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. The Celts believed that on this day, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead was thinnest, which allowed spirits to cross over into our world and allowed divination to become easier. To commemorate the event, the Celtic people would build large bonfires, and the bones of animals kept for slaughter were thrown into the flames as a sacrifice. People would wear costumes or carve masks out of gourds, such as turnips, in order to trick the spirits into believing that they were ghosts as well.

The practice of carving vegetables also originated in Ireland. According to Gaelic mythology, there was a man named Stingy Jack, who had a reputation for being a drunkard and a cheat. One night while drinking at a pub, he encountered the devil himself and Jack offered to share a drink with him. Afterwards, Jack admitted he had no money and convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin in order to pay. The devil did so, and Jack placed the coin into his pocket along with a silver crucifix, which prevented the devil from changing forms. Jack promised to let him go so long as the Devil left Jack alone for one year. Once one year was up, Jack tricked the Devil again by asking him to climb a tree from a piece of fruit and carved a cross into the bark, so the Devil couldn't climb down. Jack let him go on the condition that he wouldn't claim Jacks soul once he died. Jack eventually died and he wasn't allowed into Heaven and, keeping to his word, the Devil wouldn't let him enter Hell. So, Jack was cursed to wonder the Earth for eternity, with nothing but a lit coal inside a hollowed-out Turnip to light his way. He was called 'Jack of the Lantern' or Jack O'Lantern. The Ancient Irish would carve out turnips and other vegetables with scary faces to frighten away wandering, evil spirits. Irish immigrants arriving in North America began to use pumpkins because they were easier to carve.

By 43 A.D., the Roman Empire conquered the vast majority of Celtic territory, where they would rule for over 400 years. The Romans introduced two holidays of Roman origin and combined them with Celtic celebrations. The first was Feralia, which was a day in late October meant to celebrate the dead. The second was a festival that honored Pomona, the Goddess of trees and fruit, which occurred in November. The symbol of Pomona is the apple. Some believe that this is where the tradition of apple bobbing came from.

On May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon of Rome in honor of all Christian Martyrs, establishing the feast of All Martyrs Day. It's believed the church sought to supplant the Roman festival of Lemuria, a festival in which malevolent spirits were exercise from homes, with a Christian holiday. Pope Gregory III expanded this festival to include all Saints as well and moved the celebration to November 1, as the Church sought to replace the Celtic traditions of Samhain with a church sanctioned holiday. The day was called All-hollowmas (from Middle English 'Alholowmesse' meaning 'All Saints' Day') and thus the day before began to be called All Hollow's Eve. In 1000 A.D., the Church established November 2 as All Soul's Day, a day to remember the dead. All three became the festival of AllHollowtide.

During the celebration of All Saints Day and All Souls Day, poor people in England and Ireland would go from door to door of the wealthy and ask for small cakes called Soul Cakes in exchange for a prayer for the givers deceased family members. Children soon took up this practice. They would sing songs or perform small acts in exchange for small gifts of food, ale, or money.

In the 19th century, millions of Irish immigrated to the United States. They brought with them, the Catholic faith and the celebrations of Halloween. These celebrations were limited, as the United States was a majority Protestant country. However, the immigrants celebrated however they could, and a popular way was pulling pranks or 'tricks'. This usually amounted to nothing more than pulling the wheels off wagons, placing livestock on barn roofs, uprooting vegetables from gardens, and tipping over outhouses. However, these 'pranks' got more violent round the 1930's, with acts of violence becoming commonplace. In theory, tricks could be prevented by giving small treats to the neighborhood children.

By the mid-20th century, Halloween became a community centered holiday with haunted attractions, ghost stories, parties, and trick-or-treating becoming immensely popular. This leads us to the classic Halloween celebrations we know today. Today, Halloween is one of the most celebrated holidays in United States.

playing pool with my friends turned into exploring the liminal spaces

how to write creepy stories

over describe things

under describe things

short sentences in rapid succession build tension

single sentence paragraphs build dread

uncanny valley = things that aren't normal almost getting it right

third person limited view

limited expressions

rot, mold, damage, age, static, flickering, espsecially in places it shouldn't be

limited sights for your mc - blindness, darkness, fog

being alone - the more people there are, the less scary it is

intimate knowledge, but only on one side

your reader's imagination will scare them more than anything you could ever write. you don't have to offer a perfectly concrete explanation for everything at the end. in fact, doing so may detract from your story.