Date:         Sat, 7 Sep 1996 18:50:36 EDT
From: one tink over the line <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
Subject:      EXERCISE:  Is That A Monster in Your Pocket?

[or are you just happy to meet me?]

drawing on How To Write Horror Fiction by William F. Nolan, ISBN
0-89879-442-0

Do you need a monster for your loathsome tale of supernal menace?

[Say, did you know we will be doing a contest?  Halloweeny stories,
grilled over an open fire, waiting for the flickering light to reflect
from the slitted eyes behind you...take up the browser of your
selection and visit http://web.mit.edu/mbarker/www/hall96/hall.html
for further details...now open those veins and bleed...:]

Pick a number from one to six, then try:

1.  Old Ghoul, New Approach!  Ghost, vampire, werewolf, demon, zombie -
take a conventional monster, and think about fresh insights, fresh ways
of presenting the old blood and guts.  Make us feel for them, make us
think about the humanity and depth, the inner fears and uncertainties of
the real monster.

2. Multiple Monsters.  Often, the "human" partner of the macabre is in
some ways even more monstrous than the physically bizarre ones.  Mix and
match, let us cheer for the witch who is protecting her home town from
the zombies or make us shiver when we realize that werefido is just a
lapdog for the real monster.  Be careful to avoid losing the sense of
reality, though!

3.  Keep those powers in check!  If your monster has the strength of
ten, it should also have severe hayfever.  Or maybe the undying heroine
also has a broken heart, crushed by rejection, looking for the one lover
who can see past the wrinkles...

4.  Human monsters.  Take that criminal, and remove human compassion,
human guilt, other ordinary feelings.  Normal emotions and feelings
either aren't there, or are twisted and perverted to the point where
they are no longer human.

5.  The mechanical, the robotic, the electrical.  Cars, computers,
massive machinery - there is a subtle fear of these which you can use.
Imagine that machines sometimes grow tired of their slavery to humanity,
and stalk the night, looking for revenge...

6.  The unseen and hidden.  What lurks in the shadows?  Outside the
edges of sight, below the street in the sewers, chittering in the walls
of your apartment building, waiting for you to close your eyes?

There are a few possibilities that might help you get started.
Remember, think about your monster, think about what drives them, what
thirst and hunger draws them, what evil calls them to act.

And don't forget the stakes!

"...summing up, the monsters you create for your stories and novels must
be credible; whether human or supernatural or robotic. ... They must
pose a significant threat to your main characters.  They must be removed
from the norm.  And they must _not_ be all-powerful."

Short start?  How about...

    "Every night in the year, four of us sat in the small parlour of the
George at Debenham--the undertaker, and the landlord, and Fettes, and
myself."

Have at it, fiends and other writers of the dark underside, have at it!

And never, ever feed them after midnight...
tink
<mbarker@mit.edu>