Ghost Stories and the Sense of Fear

Summary:

Discussion about ghost stories and spooky stories in general, and how to capture fear.

Ghost Stories and the Sense of Fear

Doctor Pann 31 May 2021 05:41

So I wanna write a ghost story. The thing is, I need some guidance on how best to capture the unique fear of a ghost story. And just for clarification, I'm talking about the kind of ghost stories that are told around campfires. So what makes a ghost story good? What makes a ghost story actually scary? How does one capture the right mood of a ghost story? Feel free to give synopsis of any good ghost stories you know and explain what specifically makes that one good to you. :)

Re: Ghost Stories and the Sense of Fear

Piano_WL 31 May 2021 08:08

From what I've gathered about scary campfire stories, it seems like a big part of the experience isn't specific to the ghostly/spooky aspect at all. The technique is to immerse your listeners in a vivid and highly detailed story first, and while they're leaning in and paying attention, that's when you bring the story around to something that the specific audience can relate to. Be it the full moon, or the specific forest y'all are in or whatever. But before that, as I said, it's including absolute tons of human detail to the story to captivate your readers and listeners. I'm sure there's plenty more to it, but that's my input.