Halloween

Hey everyone!

As you know today is Halloween!
So in the spirit of this awesome holiday let's dress up in our witch, vampire or zombie costumes and write scary stories! :)

Alright, so writing a scary story actually isn't as easy as it sounds (I tried). People get scared a lot, some people get scared all the time. But there are different kinds of scaries (Yes I said scaries lol).

There is the scary feeling you get when you have a test.
Or the feeling you have just before the big drop on the rollercoaster.
Or the scary feeling of asking the person you've been crushing on for a date.

And then you have the haunting, terrifying, oh my god a ghost is haunting me while there is a vampire knocking on my window scary.

I'm actually pretty good at scaring myself and creeping myself out. For instance if I'm walking on a perfectly summer evening, all alone, I can really creep myself out by getting all paranoid and imaging people walking behind me or something stirring in the shadows...

If you actually do want to write a scary story (or just have something frightening happen in your novel) make a list of all the things that would scare you. It can be anything. Here are some of mine:

Creepy clowns.
Spiders.
Ghosts standing next to you while you're trying to sleep O.o
Manikins (they creep me out)

being trapped in a tiny room, with no way out, while the walls are closing in (yes I'm a bit claustrophobic)

Writing stuff like this down can help you think of things to happen in your story. But you should remember that things that scare you, don't scare everybody. For instance some people weirdly enough find manikins exceptionally ordinary. And they love clowns and their balloon animals.

But we can pretty much state that most people won't like ghosts or for instance being buried alive.

Anyway now that you've figured out some scary stuff it's time to make a story.

First of all the main character. It should be someone the audience can relate too. So make them a normal average person. If people can relate to the character they can actually see it happening to themselves--which makes the story all the more terrifying.

think of the setting. Make it something perfect for odd and scary stuff--but reasonable. For instance the main characters bedroom can be a perfect setting, or maybe a cinema. Again the reader will relate to it more than for instance a hidden tomb in the basement.

Now it's time for the scary stuff! There has to be a "villain", someone or something who will do the creepy stuff. It can be a ghost, or a person, zombie, vampire (Oh yes I totaly put that up there so I can post a Brad Pitt vampire pic haha) , werewolf, mummy, hypnotized-suddenly-creepy-killer-friend. etc. Think of how the villain gets to the main character and what he'll do. let the creeping out commence!

The important thing is to convey a feeling of primal fear. Of need to survive, a threat against your live or your very soul. Put scary feelings into the readers mind.

For instance my friend told me this terrifying story which took place in the kids bedroom (a place we can sympathise with) and he feeling for his dog under his bed .... only what was under his bed ... what he kept touching every time being reassured ... that wasn't his dog.

This was an amazing story and maybe I should tell it here... it was so creepy... I don't know yet. Anyway what made it so amazing was the comforting setting--our bedrooms. The place we sleep, are vulnerable yet always somehow feel safe. And the kid was comforted as well, being with his dog. But then all that comfort is taken away and replaced by pure fear--which makes it all the worse.

If you are actually going to tell scary stories tomorrow night, make sure the setting is right and make your voice low, like you don't want to be heard by anyone. Try to be creepy and conspiratory, like you are telling them an actual story that shouldn't be told. And raise your voice at all the right bits) Have fun!

haha ok I hope that actually made sense haha. I was going to write something else but then decided I wanted to do something Halloween-ish :)

So I hope you all have a wonderful halloween! Personally I'm not really doing anything special. I'm going shopping at day and then at night I'm gonna watch scary movies with my sisters, and eat candy and maybe tell some scary stories to freak them out hahaha.


What are you doing on halloween? What are you dressing up as? Please let me know in the comment! :)

(It occurred to me that some people may not know how to comment. You either press the tiny comment  thing below or you click on the title of this post, which will take you to a separate page where jus this post is on. Scroll down and you can comment :) Please do people I love reading them!) 


Happy Halloween! 


And Keep Writing!

Xx LordKiwii

Kiwi Time #5

Hi everyone!

How are you all?
I have been busy, busy, busy.
I'm really enjoying my year here in England so far. My host family is great and so is my EF sister (who I share rooms with).

Let me tell you a little bit about the school.
It's completely different from what I'm used too. First of all, you only have 3 to 4 subjects. Back home I had about 9 of them so that's a big change. Then it's not just one big building but separate buildings. The younger students have to wear uniforms (sixth form doesn't!) and we have our own common room, where only year 12 and 13 can come.

I choose only three subjects namely: Art, Design & English Literature.

Art has been great. I never took art at my old high school so it's a little demanding for me, but luckily I haven't sat still all those years and drew a lot in my own time (mostly places and characters from my story. Drawing a character, or details of a building, a scene, can help me describe it better. Does any of you do the same?).

Design isn't at all what I thought it would be. I thought it would be more like designing objects and maybe fashion and stuff like that. We are designing some things like chairs, but it's a lot more technical and we're working more with wood & metal, not fabrics. But it's still fun!

English Literature is great, of course! :) I'm pretty much taking A levels in subjects that I've never had before haha. We never really had literature as well (we had Dutch literature at our old school but not English). We're working on Much ado about nothing (my favorite Shakespeare play!), Measure for Measure and Wuthering Heights. I've read two of those books, only measure for measure is new to me, so I think I can handle it. (Yes I was a weird child who liked reading classical English books when I was about 14 lol)

I've also joined the gym and just came back from a morning session of body balance, all stretched and relaxed. Perfect for writing!

I'm still working on the rewriting of my first novel. It's hard and kinda boring work (I'm a first draft person). And I don't like chipping bits off, but I can't wait to see it finished! How is your writing going? Good I hope :)

OK I won't bore you for much longer.
It's just that I wanted to write something, but don't have many idea's at the moment for a post.

So please!! If you have any questions, things you don't really get about writing, problems, or maybe just something you understand but think I can make an interesting post about for others please leave a comment! I need your help guys because I'm temporarily out of ideas! :)

Well I'm going to write some more! I hope that all of you who have a week off for half term right now enjoy their holiday! And do lots and lots of writing!

Xx

LordKiwii