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Q&A How can I Avoid Being Frightened by the Horror Story I am Writing?

I little trick i sometimes use if my own writing gets "too close" for comfort (and i mainly write horror): Be your own comic relief. Maybe in your story, the murder is slowly creeping closer behin...

posted 8y ago by Andreas Heese‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:40:59Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24963
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Andreas Heese‭ · 2019-12-08T05:40:59Z (almost 5 years ago)
I little trick i sometimes use if my own writing gets "too close" for comfort (and i mainly write horror):

Be your own comic relief. Maybe in your story, the murder is slowly creeping closer behind his victim, and the reader can see that in the mirror, but the character can't. He is helpless, unsuspecting. Slowly, the horrible murder clown gets closer - and trips over his feet, falling down, hitting a cupboard, on which there is a vase, that falls down, and hits him on the head, knocking him unconscious.

Remember that you are in power. you are in control of your story, and your own story can only frighten you if you let it. From time to time we need to remind ourself of this. And if knowledge isn't enough, we need to prove it to ourselves, by destroying suspension, and making the "scary stuff" do "silly stuff". After you cooled down, just delete the funny scene and continue with the suspense... :)

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-10-17T13:16:35Z (about 8 years ago)
Original score: 1