 Horror/Scary: July 14, 2010 Issue [#3847] |
  Horror/Scary
This week: The Body's Reaction to Fright Edited by: Leger~  
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| I'm Leger~ , your guest editor for the Horror / Scary Newsletter this week. I hope you find my article informative and interesting. |
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The Body's Reaction to Fright
As a writer of fright, it is crucial to understand the body's response to fear. Built into our human genetic code, is a "fight or flight" animal response mechanism, once used to deal with threats to our survival. When such a threat is perceived, a part of our brain called the hypothalamus kicks a series of nerve cell firing and chemical release (adrenaline) into action and gets the body ready for response - running or fighting.
These patterns of nerve cell firing and chemical release cause our body to undergo a series of very dramatic changes. Our respiratory rate and pulse increases. Blood is shunted away from our digestive tract and directed into our muscles and limbs, which require extra energy and fuel for running and fighting. Our pupils dilate and tear production is inhibited. Tunnel vision can occur. Hearing loss could be a response. Our perception of pain diminishes and our immune system mobilizes with increased activation. Flushing, paling or sweating can happen.
It is also helpful to know that the rational mind begins to bypass what we would see as "normal" and begin to perceive everything around us as a threat. And if the body is unable to react, for example - in a car crash, inappropriate fight reactions might occur as the body needs to react to the stimulus from the adrenaline. Males tend to react more with a "fight" response and females tend to activate the "flight" response and turn to others for help, or attempt to defuse the situation – 'tend and befriend'. During stressful times, a mother is especially likely to show protective responses toward her offspring and affiliate with others for shared social responses to threat.
Stress response can also be a result of mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, in which the individual shows a stress response when remembering a past trauma, and panic disorder, in which the stress response is activated by the catastrophic misinterpretations of bodily sensations. The trigger for these can be a myriad of things, smell, a sight, even words.
Knowing how your character's body should respond in a "fight or flight" situation is important, whether you decide to twist that response in your scene or use it to enrich your description. Using the right responses will give your story authenticity and your character more dimension. Write on!
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Excerpt: Herman, yes that is his real name, slammed his large meaty paw against his beautiful teakwood desk and cursed. He explained, in his neat demeanor that my readers were of the sort that they expected me to be a certain way. That certain way was the way I had always been; mean and jaded only the way a drunk could be mean and jaded. But I had enough. The readers of An Angry Anarchist were just going to have to get used to a new me, a sober me. Besides, I argued as Herman boiled, I don’t think I have to be drunk to be mad at this shitty world. The steam slowed from under Herman’s collar and the desk quit shaking under his assault. He started to listen as I sold him on the process. I would write down my experience of this for the whole world. Every stupid word of a shaking, detoxing alcoholic would twitch unto the page for him to sell in his weekly rag. Herman smiled. I knew he wanted it. He even offered me a drink to celebrate my new idea. I nodded unconsciously before my mind caught up to itself and I flipped him off.
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Excerpt: Slivers of moonlight fell through gaps in the barn’s roof and cut across a pig carcass. The lines of light swayed as the ripe mound shifted. Chomps and slurps thrummed from inside the pale-pink body.
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Excerpt: Sean stood outside his door and peered inside. It was dark except where the moonlight shone through the window. His curtains filtered the pale light so even that was subdued. The hall light was at the far end, so very little of that reached inside his room. In a corner lay a glowing green skeleton that he'd hung outside for Halloween last week.
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Excerpt: In the dream, there was a click of a cigarette lighter cover being flipped open in the dark, and the dry rasp of the striker wheel scraping against the flint, the spark, and then the young girl’s white summer dress flowering into flames. Then he heard the screaming, as the darkness dissolved under licking tongues of yellow light
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Excerpt: It's almost time now. I can feel it running through my veins, entering my body as if a disease. I can feel it streaming, overriding my own blood. Slowly, its destroying the only thing left of me as I’m changing into the creature I fear the most.
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Excerpt: Lisa was beginning to feel sick, she reached up and tugged at Billy's sleeve as he craned his neck to get a glimpse of the newest arrival shuffling through the curtains.
"Uhhh, that's gross," she said, her hand covering her mouth as her stomach lurched
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Excerpt: Have you read something dark, scary or fantastic lately? Let that author know you got the shivers by sending one of these suitable cNotes.
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