 Horror/Scary: October 24, 2012 Issue [#5326] |
  Horror/Scary
This week: Through the Veil ~Past the Mundane Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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Welcome to this week's edition of the WDC Horror/Scary Newsletter.
Writing horror opens a dialogue, interactive, between the writer and reader ~ and perhaps beings that have been here all along ~ watching, and waiting. And the dialogue is as varied as the writers and readers who embrace this otherworld, be it supernatural or mundane.
All that I see or seem is but a dream within a dream...
E.A. Poe |
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Greetings, most writers of horror and speculative fiction have a tendency to include a non-human character or two in their novels, stories, poems these days.
But how many writers actually take the time to research their non-mortal counterparts? How do we envision and interact with Non-Human Characters - reach beyond the veil?
Our human culture and physiology arose from our planet's ecology; from the spectrum of colors, images, taste, touch, that we perceive with our mortal bodies and minds. Our basic survival instincts were formed according to the surroundings we were raised into. Even our speech patterns, accents and mannerisms are formed of the region, the planet, we were born into.
Why then, would a writer assume that an alien being, who looks different to the humans around him, would still walk and talk and think the same way, if he was raised in extremely different circumstances. If the character exists in a spectrum we as mortals do not see or perceive? What we mortals call supernatural is but a different form of natural. If we open our minds, these super-natural characters will emerge and give life to the story or poem we imagine, and create.
Consider the following when composing your non-human characters, not from our mortal perspective, but from theirs as we recognize them in our imagination:
 What ecology spawned this life-form?
How hostile is the environment?
How do they reproduce?
Do they breath oxygen, or hydrogen, or breathe at all?
What is their economy based upon?
Is their history sprinkled with violence or oppression?
Is their culture flavored by their history?
Keep going ~ get to know them as your vision of their story evolves
We often use lush prose to describe magical worlds, to convey a sense of the arcane or the possibility thereof. Also, we may want to convey a heightened sense of aesthetics -- a majestic dragon, an imperious queen, a shimmering pendant, and so forth. In a story about physical or social science, on the other hand, we often use more precise, terse prose to convey a sense of practicality, to make our images, what we imagine and learn, feel possible.
Pay extra attention to the voice of your point-of- view character(s). Does their language arise from their world view and culture? Is it consistent through the story, only changing as the character undergoes deep change? Consistency of the characters' voices can bridge differences in the narrating voice. In a story about a time-traveling shaman, for instance, the shaman's appearance (form or formless), vocabulary and way of seeing the world could be the reader's touchstone as the narrative voice describes both shamanic rituals and bird-counting ecological studies.
Now that you see our world through the eyes of your faerie or dragon or undine or shaman, consider sharing your story in verse or prose as you cross the veil between the mortal normal and the super-normal as we approach Halloween, when the veil between worlds can become transparent.
Write On!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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See the alternate realities that members of our Community share with us ~ they're not all superscary - there's even a bit of comic relief if you look far enough across the veil ~ show how 'engaging' they are with a comment or review, perchance
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Thank you for joining me in this exploration of life beyond the pale.
Happy Haunting one and all
Write On
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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