  Horror/Scary
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| How the choice of genre effects a story. |
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To develop a good Horror/Scary story one needs to develop a good story.
Recapping the steps to developing a good story, we need to
1. Break down the basics of the story to a simple one or two word definition.
2, Decide which slant of the story, or genre, we want to use
3. Establish which elements (character, action, and/or setting) are necessary to convey the story basic.
4. Establish which characteristics and descriptions are necessary to support the element(s) above.
In the last issue we discussed what is and what is not important in a story. This issue we will focus on how vital genre is to:
1. Which vehicle---Character, Action, or Setting---will be the central propulsion of the story.
2. Which vehicle(s) become necessary to support the central one, or if any of the others are necessary at all.
3. What kinds of descriptions are needed, if any.
Let’s begin with some of the genre listed on site and look at how a change in genre could completely change not only the focus of the story but the character of it as well.
”Romeo and Juliet” can usually be categorized in the Romance/Love or Tragedy genre. Think of where the focus would be if the genre was Friendship. In this genre Juliet would be necessary only as a supporting vehicle to stimulate the Action between Romeo and his friends. Kind of like ”The Three Musketeers”.
If the Cultural genre was used, we would have ”Madam Butterfly” Biographical, as well as Genealogy would center on the lineage of the Montague and Capulet families. Family could be in this category as well, if we threw in the inter-relationships between the members of the family. The Horror/Scary genre could use ”Dracula”, or, perhaps, ”King Kong”. Comedy might produce something like ”The In-Laws”.
The focus changes, sometimes drastically, from genre to genre. The story can move from heart rending sorrow to deep belly laughs. It can be destructive or instructive. It can change some of the seeds of the story, although other seeds can remain intact. If `tragic love’ is the seed, it can be changed to `friendship’, as shown in the first example. `Inter-tangled relationships’, however, pretty much follows any of the genre applicable.
How does the character of the story change? It changes from dark, to light (dying or scary lovers, to camaraderie or hilarity) from richly emotional to dry (from the heights of love to the depth of despair, then to recorded facts); from intense to frivolous (from deep emotion and action to flippant action and interaction).
As to descriptions, we come back again to what is important. To the Romance/Love genre, descriptions of the emotions are central. To the Action/Adventure genre, physical descriptions are central, recording all of the movements of the sword fights, for instance.
To the Cultural genre, descriptions of the Setting (time period, location, mores, etc.) are the most important elements. All of this is because of genre.
So what has all of this to do with a Horror/Scary Newsletter? Imagination and new ideas. If we use the elements of horror to replace just about any story in just about any genre we have a brand new story.
Few of us would put ourselves in the category of Shakespeare, but it’s good to remember that this gifted writer did exactly this. He took fact, fact, fact from historical writes and turned them into wonderful tragedies and comedies.
So. It has been my experience that genre is possibly the most important factor in writing/telling a story. For this reason, the exercise for this month is to read a story, any story, and re-write it in a completely different genre. Or, locate stories that can connect to one another in their central theme but have been presented in different forms.
If you locate any of the latter in the Horror/Scary genre please drop me a line. We will include them in the next Horror/Scary Newsletter.
Note: This article, as well as others written on developing a story that have been presented in this Newsletter will be found in | |  | Invalid Item
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Recommended Reading
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Ashamed again, I admit that one of you wonderful authors forgave my black book incident and sent me the link to the story I missed. Alas, I only have 112161 for the item link. To develop a good Horror/Scary story one needs to develop a good story. |
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Horror/Scary: June 28, 2006 Issue [#1114]
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