Hello, help would be appreciated ;P

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What appeals to you the most in horror fiction?


  • Total voters
    34

Dana Jean

Dirty Pirate Hooker, The Return
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
53,634
236,697
The High Seas
Welcome Night Creature. Personally, I don't need a lot of gore. I just need a good story plot with believable characters fleshed out enough to be familiar, you know, just real folks. Good dialogue and interesting dialogue. When the people are anchored in reality and familiarity, anything that happens to them supernaturally or otherworldly is totally something I will get on board with. If I made any sense there.
 

blunthead

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2006
80,755
195,461
Atlanta GA
I like suspense, mystery, stuff that makes me think. I'm with Deej in that I like the characters fleshed out, realistic, interesting, either likable or not, and easy to get to know. I appreciate detailed description, but think a boundary exists which needs to be honored which encourages the reader's imagination to roam.
 

HollyGolightly

Well-Known Member
Sep 6, 2013
9,660
74,320
54
Heart of the South
Hi and welcome! Interesting question. I agree with character development - once you are interested in and really care about a character, anything creepy, scary, horrifying that happens to them effects you. That's what makes a good story, in my opinion. I don't like to read about serial killers or child molesters and the like. That kind of stuff disturbs me deeply. I come away feeling like I need to wash my mind in holy water.
 

VultureLvr45

Well-Known Member
Mar 15, 2012
2,650
13,707
Maryland
2014-04-11-20-13-23--2070169509.jpeg

Hi Night Creature. I write but am not published (yet). I get lost with too much description of meaningless things (color and cut of clothing, weather, and droning minutiae). I like details but not too many. It is a tough balance. Keep on writing though, practice makes perfect.
 

Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
61,289
239,271
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
View attachment 2116

Hi Night Creature. I write but am not published (yet). I get lost with too much description of meaningless things (color and cut of clothing, weather, and droning minutiae). I like details but not too many. It is a tough balance. Keep on writing though, practice makes perfect.
every time I see your welcome cookies I get hungry! nom, nom, nom VultureLvr45
 

Walter Oobleck

keeps coming back...or going, and going, and going
Mar 6, 2013
11,749
34,805
Hi Night Creature, I'm Walter Oobleck, one of the common double-o Ooblecks. I like description if it is coupled with character action and dialogue an even balance...or uneven. I rarely enjoy anything too-descriptive in the way of fashion statements. But if something is entirely new, something out of the norm, then I'd like to know what it is. I don't want...the creature was simply too terrible to describe! And I think I've read some corn-dog sentence like that in a published work. There is a great description in Bram Stoker's Dracula...you got the good doctor in his room in the castle, you got him looking outside, and you got him seeing the Count exit a window and crawl down the side of the wall...like a bat. I liked that one and remember it still. It shivered my timbers. Gore works if applied gorily. But...I do not remember anything specific line by line to recount it here for you...although I am thinking of a few instances from King stories. Why can't I remember them exactly? Too gory? I don't know. I've read stories that have described all manner of murderers, have seen too much television, too many movies, and yes...murderers who toy w/people are right up there on my hit list.
 

FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
44,082
175,641
New Zealand
Hey Night Creature, good to have you here--you can call me Flake. :)

I like lots of different things in my horror, but most importantly I need to have a hero--or a couple of hero's... nothing will scare me more than the possibility of losing someone I care about, so... make me care, deeply.
I'm more afraid of the human monsters, so some gore will be effective--but the mind messing will terrify me more.
 

Haunted

This is my favorite place
Mar 26, 2008
17,059
29,421
The woods are lovely dark and deep
542680~Welcome-Mat-on-Forest-Trail-Posters.jpg
Hi...what creeps you out when it comes to horror? A scene from Dracula that always gets me, is when Jonathan wanders into the wrong room in the castle and encounters the seductive sisters, eeeeee. Also from 'Salem's Lot, in the cemetery after the little boy was buried and the sun is going down on the gravedigger, or the last scene in Pet Sematary when the mother comes back.