There is nothing as frightening as not knowing but still dreading. Ultimately, the most common fear is the simplest one: fear of the unknown. That hopeless awe is the inspiration behind most eldritch horror. When the line between waking and dreaming, reality and imagination blurs, that sanity-vertigo can make you want to fold into a little ball and scream. And with the original dream we also got the primordial nightmare. The first night that a human slept, we collectively started dreaming. This is commonly referred to as Simulation Theory. “What if we’re all just brains in a vat?”-Rehn How easy it could be that everything around us is a lie, unanchored. I asked some fellow NoSleep writers what scares them personally and how they transmute that onto the page:Īccording to u/rehnwriter, one of the most terrifying concepts is the fragility of reality. We do the same thing now, only replace the sizzle of a fire with the glow of a screen. They’d huddle around fires telling stories trying to keep themselves distracted while hungry horrors thumped and slid around outside in the dark. So much of it goes back to genetic-hardwiring back when our ancestors hid in caves at night. Common fears are often the oldest ones: fear of the dark, of being trapped in tight spaces, of falling, and of unseen things that fix their attention on us. When it comes to telling scary stories, I’ve always liked to aim for “danger at a distance.” At the root of it all, horror should tickle the lizard brain and make the reader uneasy, uncertain.
Everyone has different fears, phobias, reactions, regrets, worries. What scares you?ĭefining horror is never easy. If being a door-to-door nightmare dispenser appeals to you but you haven’t taken that first poke at the page yet, I gathered advice and thoughts from some of my favorite online horror writers about how they walk the long, deserted road from idea to story.
Trying to freak readers the heck out is both a joy and a challenge.
Have you ever thought about sharing a scary story online? If you enjoy writing, no matter the genre, there’s something intrinsically appealing about horror.
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