Forums » Smalltalk » Fear Interest Check

Now hang on. This sounds like an rp, but it isn't.

I want to write a horror story, so would all of you FIIINE people tell me what scares you the most?
What is creepiest to you? What makes your skin crawl? What's completely revolting to you?

Hmmmm.... I actually don't really get scared all to often the and generally find 'creepy' stories pretty interesting.... but what I do find interesting in the stories is the ominous feeling of being watched all the time... good luck in writing the story btw!

for me, it's the kind that enhances paranoia, causing my own mind to fill in the blanks. my advice would be to try and keep shock imagery to a minimum so it's more effective when you do use it, and to instead imply that things are not what they seem. a reveal can sometimes diminish the experience.

Lovecraft says it well: 'The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.'

leave things up to the reader's imagination, and they will bring the shadows to life with their own fears.

try checking out http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FridgeHorror if you haven't, and related horror tropes for inspiration (and don't be discouraged by the concept of a trope, tropes are good things!). this is the stuff that sticks with me.

Edit: Forget it

ticks... oh boy. i'm usually okay with insects in general, but clusters/swarms of them make me want to jump off the planet.

i'm really enjoying this thread! horror is a big interest of mine and i love to hear others' opinions on what makes it work and what doesn't. with written horror, i've found that the most memorable ones for me have been short stories with a twist/stinger at the end. very short example, but here's one of my favorite twists: www.creepypasta.com/the-portraits/

perhaps it might help to dabble in a few shorter pieces before jumping into a big project? you can get an audience's opinion easier with those and then expand on it if people like the concept.

Helplessness, I would say. Being in a hopeless situation, or being forced to make a horrible decision, or seeing the people, laws and great works you care about being destroyed in front of you. Having yourself taken away from you, too. Losing your mind, or your morals, or your sense of purpose and meaning. That's what I would find most horrifying.

The unseen horror that might not even be there, it's just you going nuts!

Spiders Some shows give me nightmares like Supernatural or Deathnote. I didn't find the shows particularly scary, but I stopped watching them as soon as I got a nightmare about them Oh and trypophobia. I came across that... surfing the web or something and it's soooo ew. It makes me shiver and wanna like.... ew. It's awful.

locked-in syndrome

Seconded.

Maybe also if a wasp crawled into my ear for some reason. That would suck.

the unknown...the only fear that can bother me...

I used to think it was a childish fear of the dark but came to realize the fear was not of the dark itself but a fear of what was in it...I always makes sure I know where i'm stepping and find it hard to try new things for this reason...the fear of things I can't see or a more paranoid feeling of being watched if i'm unable to know what is watching me drives me to near insanity...

I look at anything else as if I were watching a movie...with distanced eyes...but my fear of the unknown (Xenophobia) is bothersome...

Dictionary definitions of xenophobia include: "deep-rooted fear towards foreigners" (Oxford English Dictionary; OED), and "fear of the unfamiliar" (Webster's). The word comes from the Ancient Greek words ξένος (xenos), meaning "strange", "foreigner", and φόβος (phobos), meaning "fear".