8th Grade Horror and Suspense Writing Workshop

Today is the first day of our horror and suspense writing workshop. In order to complete your assignment properly, it is important to review the difference between horror and suspense.

Suspense writing keeps the reader at the edge of his/her seat, while horror is more gory.

Here are the elements that make a great scary story!

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1. Fear

Fear is by far the most important factor of a great horror story. The real trick to constructing a story based on fear is making sure you can scare people with fears they may not have. 

Think about it: Not everyone is afraid of spiders.

Along with establishing fears and connecting them with audiences, it's important to keep an element of surprise. 

2. Surprise

Getting someone to fear what you've created isn't the hardest part; making the fear surprising is. We looked at the example of spiders earlier, lets come back to it again. Once you can make someone fear spiders, you have to keep the surprises going. 

How many ways can a spider story go? If you try to jot them down, you might end up with a page of ideas or so. Right off the bat, I scribbled down about 49 ways. 


 

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3. Suspense

Some of the greatest stories are also the most suspenseful.

Some surprises come at the end of a long suspense. The best scenario consists of someone waiting for something to happen, and when it does it's completely unexpected. An expansion on the same scenario includes fear. We might even know what will happen to character based on their fears, but there's still the anxiety of waiting. 


A better horror story is one that builds up the suspense. We don't just want minor chords and POP-OUT scary faces, we emotional connection with the characters and we want to live out their stress rather than face obstacles akin to a garden snake popping out from behind some vegetables.

 

Of course, a nice touch to suspense is a good mystery.

4. Mystery

Unless it's in the form of whodunnit, many readers have strayed away from mystery within different genres of literature. Rather than let it go, I embrace a strong element of mystery in an eerie tale. Actually, my personal taste is to process as many unknowns in a story as possible. I enjoy understanding a story during one moment and realizing I know nothing the next.
 

5. Spolier

You may or may have not realized this, but you love spoilers.

 

The main character freaks out at the sight of a spider, so you know they're gonna face one at some point. This can be positive anticipation with surprise and suspense. 

You might realize there's a false sense of identity in a novel. Therefore, you suspect the narrator might be a little unreliable. This adds to every element, especially mystery.

But spoilers are the little nothings authors give away at the very start of the tale. Batman is Bruce Wayne. Freddy Krueger can kill you in your dreams. Fears, anxieties, dislikes, etc.

 

YOUR TASK

 

Write a short story, play or book of poems using horror and suspense.

 

• Stories should be 3-4 pages typed and double spaced. HINT: Use paragraphs and dialogue
• Plays should be  4-6 pages. Use proper play formatting.
• Poetry books should be 5-7 pages. You must put this together as a book and use images (either drawn or found.)

REMINDERS

• You may plan with another classmate, but each of you should create your own assignment. For example, you may plan a play with another classmate, but each of you should write your own act. See me with questions on this.
•  If you need more resources/help, I have planning documents and links to help you. SEE ME.

DUE DATE

• This is assignment is due on Wednesday, October 21, 2015
• I will check rough drafts/progress this week!