MB Prompts H'ween/Suspense #6

Date:         Sun, 5 Oct 1997 12:45:17 EDT

Subject:      EXERCISE: Fear and Trembling...

Well, well, well...we are in the midst of our halloweenies contest, and
you still don't have an idea?  (you could always do a piece about a
writer facing a deadline without an idea, and the agonies of that
position, but perhaps that is a bit too recursive for you?  a bit too
far into the hall of mirrors, reflecting each other each other each
other...:)

Let's try an experiment.  First, pick a number from one to six.

1.  Fear is sharp-sighted, and can see things under ground, and much
more in the skies.  Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605-15), 1.3.6, tr. Peter
Motteux and John Ozell.

2.  Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources
of cruelty.  Bertrand Russell, "An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish,"
Unpopular Essays (1950).

3.  Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act
humanely or to think sanely under the influence of great fear.  Bertrand
Russell, "An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish," Unpopular Essays (1950).

4. Present fears / Are less than horrible imaginings.  Shakespeare,
Macbeth (1605-06), 1.3.137.

5.  Horror causes men to clench their fists, and in horror men join
together. Saint-Exupery, Wind, Sand, and Stars (1939), 9.3, tr. Lewis
Galantiere.

6.  Penetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable.
But there it sits nevertheless, calmly licking its chops.  H. L.
Mencken, Minority Report (1956), 364.

So there you have a little bit of a quote about fear...and maybe you
could pick again?  One to twelve this time...some of the flavors of
horror and fear, as given by the Microsoft Bookshelf thesaurus:

1. fear, healthy fear, dread, awe, respect
2. abject fear, cowardice
3. fright, stage fright
4. wind up, funk, blue funk
5. terror, mortal terror, panic terror
6. state of terror, intimidation, trepidation, alarm, false alarm
7. shock, flutter, flap, tailspin, agitation
8. fit, fit of terror, scare, stampede, panic, panic attack, spasm
9. flight, sauve qui peut
10. the creeps, horror, horripilation, hair on end, cold sweat, blood
turning to water
11. consternation, dismay, hopelessness
12. defense mechanism, fight or flight, repression, escapism, avoidance

[The Original Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases
(Americanized Version) is licensed from Longman Group UK Limited.
Copyright c 1994 by Longman Group UK Limited. All rights reserved.]

You probably got several words there.  Pick one of them, and think about
that particular shiver in the back of the neck, that specific clench in
the abdomen, that lovely pasty shade of fear...make yourself remember
when you felt that horrified.  What exactly had happened?  What did your
mouth feel like?  How about the back of your hand?  Your toes?

[horripilation, incidentally, is "bristling of ... body hair, as from
fear or cold; goose bumps" from The American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language, Third Edition copyright c 1992 by Houghton Mifflin
Company. Electronic version licensed from INSO Corporation. All rights
reserved.]

Now, imagine that your quote was on a little brass plate (or maybe
nicely framed, waiting to catch your eye?  how about embodied somehow in
another character?  perhaps simply floating in the shared knowledge and
understanding of our reality, waiting to be reinvented?)  So there you
are, facing your horror (or running from it?) and the words, or at least
the sense (or nonsense?), of your quote slaps you hard in the cowardice
and stiffens your spine...

(pssst?  Make a list of five ways that your quote and your fears go
together--and conflict...)

Now, put it all together.  Imagine a character out there, with fear.
What kind of activity are they engaged in?  How many other people are
helping or hindering them (don't forget your antagonist!)  Put them into
that scene, and make us believe it, make us live it.

Then how does the horror creep in?  Or does it leap from a shadowed
alley, drop out of the blue blue sky, or merely slink along on soundless
paws, silently pursuing the victim with flickers on the edge of sight?

As the horror grows in power, how does the character struggle?  Do we
try to tell people, only to find that they don't believe that the kindly
old parish priest doesn't seem to have a shadow?  Do we look around in
fright, then start to run, and run, and run...?

(maybe two or three scenes here, with the protagonist investing more and
more in fighting the horror, and the horror growing stronger, more
pervasive?)

Finally, with the life, liberty, honor, and sanity of the protagonist at
stake (or at least whatever stakes you want to put up...not in, just
ante up)--does the protagonist face their fear?  Or does the horror
remove its face, revealing a truly gruesome gaping hole?  What is the
climax, the point toward which your horror story builds?

[you put the right foot in, you shake it all around, then drop it in the
pot... you put the left foot in, and stir up the piranha, then let them
strip it to the bone... that's how you do the horror stew?]