Friends, I am BEYOND excited to host the incredibly fantastic Laura Bickle on the blog today! Laura is the author of the supremely creepy vampire series, The Hallowed Ones, about an Amish girl named Katie who must figure out a way to survive the vampire apocalypse. They’re excellent. Laura was nice and wonderful enough to put together a guest post and answer some bookish and Halloweenish questions. Thanks, Laura! Take it away!
Writing in the Dark
Scary stories have existed since humans first gathered around campfires and made shadows with their hands against the firelight. Flames outlined frightening figures and beasts, gnashing teeth and slashing tails. Listeners shrank close to each other and edged just a bit nearer to the warmth and the light of the fire.
I think we know a scary story when we hear it or read it, when it quickens our breathing and causes us to leave the lights on after dark. But what really makes a story scary when we’re crafting it? Is there a way to consciously figure this out as we put it on the page?
I think so. I think the first step is dealing with a topic that scares you. If we don’t feel the fear, we can’t expect others to feel it or respond to it authentically. We gotta deal with topics that scare us in order to most effectively communicate that fear. What scares you? Is it being alone? Being trapped? Getting lost? Those clown slippers that your grandma gave you when you were four?
You think I’m kidding with that last one, but only sort of.
Find something that really disturbs you, and you’ve got a good start. Think about the stuff that keeps you awake at night. You’ve just got to be willing to really force yourself to examine it.
And I don’t mean something that shocks you. A shock is a shock and is good for what it is. It’s a jolt and it leaves your jaw hanging. It’s a great tool to open or close a chapter with a hook.
But fear is something different. Fear is deeper and it lingers. It gets inside your ear and crawls around your head like a spider. A shock is a trick, a device, a thunderclap. Fear is a theme. It’s a storm. It can be quiet or violent, but it lasts longer and is much more interesting to work with.
The second part of creating a scary story is translating that individual fear to a universal fear. As humans, there are a lot of atavistic fears we’ve got, rattling around in our collective unconscious. We’ve all heard of the common fears, like snakes and spiders. They’re relics of our primitive attempts to survive, when such creatures could bite us and leave us twitching and drooling. Those critters appear pretty darn often on the creepy movies of the week, often in giant form. They’re also a really good reason why I make a lot of noise before opening up the shed to drag out the lawn mower.
But what about the really deep stuff that’s still relevant to modern life? There are a lot of fears that have been around a long time and aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. The dark. Imprisonment. Loss of youth. Abandonment. Powerlessness. Screaming and no one being around to hear us. Being buried alive. Contagion. Being separated from the herd and forced to survive on our own. Injury. Death with no happily ever afterlife.
We’re wired to fear these things. If you can relate your individual fear to something larger that we all share, then it can be worked into a theme, to something that will feel real to you.
- Claustrophobic in elevators? Tell a story about being buried alive. Go watch the scene in KILL BILL when Beatrix punches her way out of a coffin. Hey, what would it be like to be buried alive with all these people in this elevator with you? Especially that dude in the back with the bad b.o.? Would you fight that lady for her bag of Taco Bell? Hm. What happens when the first one dies?
- Do germs squick you out? Read Camus’ THE PLAGUE. Now put down your hand sanitizer and think about germ warfare in the modern world. Also, use the word “bubo” in your first sentence.
- Scared of being alone? Maybe your protagonist needs to get lost in the woods for a very long time. Remember THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT? Go watch it and then go for a walk in the great outdoors. What else do you think is out there in the woods that could stalk your protagonist? And yes, your protagonist’s cell phone is absolutely dead. He is absolutely on his own and has to pull a Survivorman on this situation. No fair giving him superpowers or making him the Chosen One in this episode. Bonus points if he gets all Bear Grylls and drinks his own pee.
- Clown slippers? Yeah. The whole uncanny valley thing. Stephen King’s IT. Now go see ANNABELLE. Go out and buy yourself a creepy doll at a flea market and stare at it awhile. Betcha don’t sleep, but you might get some ideas about robotics.
Take your small fear, feel it, and blow it up big in the format of a story. Really touch it, taste it, and feel your pulse pounding in the back of your throat. Challenge yourself.
And if you are afraid, when you start making shadow puppets on the walls, your reader will be, too.
1. Do you consider your books horror? Paranormal? Genre-bending?
I think there’s a strong horror element, but I didn’t necessarily start out wanting to go that route. As I dug deeper into the story and explored Katie’s connection with life and death, and the viciousness of Old World vampires, the horror side grew organically.
2. What is the creepiest thing about the vampires in The Hallowed Ones, to you? (I know my answer to this question!)
Hee! I think the creepiest thing, for me, is that once you’ve let them in, you can’t kick them back out. Katie discovers this the hard way – once the door has been opened to darkness, it’s war.
3. What do you think is scarier: a vampire apocalypse like in your books or a zombie apocalypse?
I’ve gotta say, zombies really freak me out – well, the FAST zombies do. Maybe not the slow ones. I think that vampires have a good deal of evil intelligence and deviousness, but there’s something straightforwardly horrible about shambling creatures that have only one goal: eating your brains.
4. Do you think vampires are the scariest paranormal creature? Or did you write about them because they scare you the least? (Asks the chicken who would probably write about the latter.)
Hmm! I think that there are a lot of scary paranormal creatures – ghosts, especially. I wound up writing about vampires because they were a good adversary for Katie. Her Amish community is holy ground, and vampires historically were unable to cross into holy ground. So…it made the most sense to make my creeping evil something vampiric that obeys some rules that are near and dear to her world viewpoint.
5. Is horror your favorite genre to read? If not, what is?
I enjoy horror, epic and contemporary fantasy – if there’s a supernatural element, I’m all over it! Dragons, ghosts, sorcerers – bring it on!
6. Do you find it easier to write the scary parts at night or during the day? What time of day do you generally write?
I don’t think there’s a best time for me to write the scary stuff – it comes when it’s gosh-darned good and ready to show up. And the same goes for writing – I write whenever it fits into my day. That said, I never get anything done in the morning. It’s usually afternoons and evenings for me. A critical mass of caffeine must be achieved before my muse wakes up and makes an appearance.
7. Have you ever scared yourself while writing?
Let’s just say that my husband gets yelled when I’m writing with headphones on and he taps my shoulder to get my attention. I inevitably jump and shriek:
“Gah! Quit sneaking up on meeeee!”
8. What’s your favorite Halloween candy?
When I was growing up, the guy next door would pass out full-sized Hershey bars for Trick or Treat. His house was definitely the place to hit. His wife apparently put him in charge of candy shopping for Halloween, and his approach was to dump all the boxes of candy near the register into a bag.
Scott’s dad, if you’re out there…you were the hero for every kid under the age of fifteen in the neighborhood. Just want you to know that.
9. What was your best/worst Halloween costume?
I was Wonder Woman for five consecutive years as a kid. Remember those plastic costumes with the masks that covered your whole face and made you sound like Darth Vader? Yeah. THOSE.
10. Creepiest setting: haunted house, old cemetery, abandoned hospital, or circus funhouse?
I’m gonna go with the haunted house. I can’t sleep in strange places, so spending the night in a haunted house would be an exercise in vivid imagination gone terribly awry!
And I know I’m weird, but cemeteries are always very peaceful to me. I love walking around cemeteries on sunny afternoons. I blame a grade-school teacher who took us to old cemeteries to do gravestone rubbings with crayons. Those were great field trips.
Thanks so much for hosting me today! 😀