  Horror/Scary
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| Action as the primary vehicle propelling the 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 issues we discussed Character and then Setting as the central vehicle for propelling a story. This issue we will work with Action.
First, let’s look at what Action is.
1. It isn’t difficult to see Action as physical movement. Action can also be:
2. Mental movement (thinking)
3. Emotional movement (feeling)
4. Reaction, physically, mentally, or emotionally, to Action
5. No response, physically, mentally, or emotionally, to Action. It has been said that not making a decision is also making a decision. From my experience, this is also applicable to Action.
Rather than go into a lengthy discussion of this, we are going to look at some examples of the genre to which these elements are applicable, and how: Action/Adventure, Erotica, History, Hobby/Craft, Horror/Scary, How To/ Military, News, Parenting, Political, Sports, Thriller/Suspense, Transportation, War, and Western are all genre that could use Action as the central element telling the story.
Many to most of these genre depend on the Action/Reaction element as the central vehicle. Many are also straight forward Action.
Action/Adventure generally has interchangeable Characters and Settings. This genre can also focus on one or the other of these vehicles as the secondary vehicle supporting Action. In this example movement is important. So is the reaction to movement: mental, emotional, or no action/reaction at all. Each of these will profoundly effect the outcome of the Adventure and/or other Action.
Horror/Scary can also be defined in the above example when using Action as the central vehicle for the story; so can Thriller/Scary, War, and Western.
Erotica is about the Action of stimuli and the Reaction to it, be that physical, mental, and/or emotional---or, again, no reaction at all.
History is often about events taking place and the Reaction of Character and Setting to them. This is also true of Military, News, Political and War genres. These genres can certainly have emotional and mental responses within them, but the Reactions are generally confined to physical.
Hobby/Craft is Action, to Action, to Action. It can also include such things as if this Action creates this, another Action will correct it or enhance it: if you drop a stitch in knitting, use a crochet hook to pick up the dropped stitch on the next round and put the dropped stitch back into place (correction). If you put lacquer over your wood painting it will cover the painting and protect it. The How To and Parenting genres can also be included in this example.
In Hobby/Craft the Action is almost exclusively physical (even though one can really have a violent emotional reaction to dropping a stitch!). There is, of necessity, a degree of mental reaction on the part of the reader, but not within the article itself.
Parenting articles can also have emotional and mental elements within the article/story, but these are generally Reactions to Action as the central vehicle and/or stimuli for the Action. That is, ”What Do You Do When You Suspect Your Child is on Drugs?”.
The Action of Suspicion (mental) is the impetus for Action on the parent’s part. The physical Action taken can elicit an emotional and/or mental response on the part of the child.
The Sports genre usually centers on the physical Action that has taken place and the Response to it.
As we look at these examples of Action as the central vehicle for propelling the story, we can easily see how genre once again dictates the form of the Action, just as it dictates the form of Character and Setting.
This month’s exercise: Find a story where Action is the central vehicle of the story. Note how the genre effects the kind of Action used.
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Horror/Scary: November 15, 2006 Issue [#1370]
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