Writing Doesn't Have to Be Scary... But it Can Be!
Writing prompts from the Nantes Writers' Workshop
Hello, writers! Welcome to the Nantes Writers’ Workshop newsletter. This missive from Anna Polonyi and Emily Monaco seeks to whet your quill nib, as it were, with inspiration for your next piece of poetry or prose.
If you want to spend even more time honing your craft through writing prompts, feedback-based workshops, and more, consider joining us for our next week-long workshop in Nantes this June!
Writing Prompt: The Seeds of Fear
The leadup to Halloween has got us thinking about fear and horror. What makes us scared? How can we harness that fear in our writing to impart that same feeling of terror on our readers?
Fear can take many forms in fiction. There’s horror and suspense; there’s the surprise of a cinematic jump scare or the turmoil of knowing there’s a murderer in your midst and having no idea who you can trust. But at the end of the day, no matter if it’s blood and gore or it’s all in your (or your protagonist’s) head, fear in fiction often stems from the discrepancy between the known and the unknown, between the familiar and the unfamiliar. It’s often when the most familiar things are taken out of their context to become unfamiliar that we feel the most deep-seated fears, which is why stories that demonize innocence (cursed dolls, possessed children, toys that come to life…) often prove the scariest.
While many of the most memorable scary stories, from Dracula to Frankenstein, capitalize on the unfamiliar, we’re going to ask you to do the very opposite.
First, imagine a very familiar place, person, or object. Take a few moments to sketch it out in as many lines as it takes to render it real and tangible: What does it look like? Smell like? Feel like? Sound like? What is so reassuring about it?
Now, imagine a small, unexplainable or unexplained change that could transform it into something slightly other-worldly… and therefore scary.
Things We're Reading
Stephen King may be the reigning king of the scary story – and he underwent his own horror story in the summer of 1999, when he was struck and nearly killed by a driver on Maine’s Route 5. He shares how the experience changed his life – and his writing – for NPR.
Agatha Christie’s whodunnits definitely surprise readers, but the mystery writer actually relied on a host of well-honed techniques explored here in Women on Writing.
Carmen Maria Machado and Kelly Link have opted to commandeer the horror and fairy tale genres for their wholly contemporary work. In this interview for the Orion, they unpack their approaches to narrative and genre.