Horror Writing

[Revenant]

I love the fantasy adventure stuff we (I?) write here. Good action fantasy stuff gets me excited, gets the blood pumping and the adrenaline rushing, draws me in. Swords, magic, fanged beasts and whatnot. Good times.

But even more than that I love horror stories. I'll say that I'm pretty jaded and it takes a bit to really creep me out, but when I can find something that does I wind up absorbed in it it a way no fantasy story has ever done. I get all squirmy obsessive, thinking about it constantly, feeling my skin crawl. Its great. I get it a bit with good horror/thriller movies but despite the amount of crap pumped out, those are few and far between. And they still don't give me the same white-knuckled feeling that good horror writing does. It's that old adage that your imagination makes things so much worse.

That being said. I just rediscovered this gem and wondered if anyone else has seen it?

The Dionaea House (http://www.dionaea-house.com/)

I love it!

Does anyone else have any really good horror stuff that they've read? I'm certainly interested.

[Revenant]

Here is a link (http://sciencenordic.com/your-dna-loves-horror-movies) to an article discussing a theory that our fascination with horror is coded in our DNA. And interesting idea, though I myself tend to lock up and stare when horrified. Not exactly the best survival instinct in the world.

[Luned]

I'm really into horror stuff, but more the quiet "oh shit" moments than shock factor. One of my favorite books is The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers –– definitely worth checking out (plus it's free on Project Gutenberg!), very weird stuff.

[Slayer of the Rot]

I got one word for you that I'm thinking you already know; creepypasta.

Yes, pasta. To find the good stuff, you gotta dig deep. Its not easy too find creepypasta that's well written, and its just as hard to find something you haven't read a million times before, or a new story that's just a rehash of something you read a million times before. I spend a lot of time on /x/ because there is that rare occasion something new, or something rare of the blood chilling variety will get posted there in a pasta thread. The greatest obstacle with finding good pasta is sorting out the wheat from the chaff; most misunderstand, and write what's nothing more than torture porn. Buckets of blood, by the gallon. While a bit of gore is good once in a while, its hardly satisfying. I prefer tales that find terror in atmosphere or the simple unknown. This (http://www.creepypasta.com/notes/) is a personal favorite of mine, Notes. Also, The Russian Sleep Experiment, a.k.a. Orange Soda (http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Russian_Sleep_Experiment) is considered a classic in the circle of gourmets for this particular pasta, as well as Tulpa (http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Tulpa).

Good creepypasta is everywhere, often lurking in the shadows.

[Revenant]

Excellent!

I find most of my creepypasta (very familiar with the term) on links from the SCP Foundation (http://www.scp-wiki.net/), which isn't all horror but has some really good stuff in it. The links portion is where I found The Dionaea House.

edit: alright, finished those Slayer. Notes was decent, and the payoff was particularly nice. Eh, on the Sleep experiment and Tulpa, moreso on the former. I'd saved it for last because I'd had the highest hope for it too.

[Revenant]

Here's a link to another story that I enjoyed: (slightly NSFW)

normalpornfornormalpeople (http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Normal_Porn_For_Normal_People)

[Sagequeen]

The Dionaea House made me late for work last Friday. ^^

[Revenant]

I lost the better part of a day to that story, reading all the side add-ons and whatnot. Great story. The writer used it as a springboard to launch his Hollywood writing career.

[Sagequeen]

The side add-ons were what made it so authentic! I loved them!

[Lavinian Ambition]

http://www.dibbukbox.com/story.htm

Got about a third of the way through before I quit. Story creeps me out every time...

[Revenant]

http://www.dibbukbox.com/story.htm

Got about a third of the way through before I quit. Story creeps me out every time...

I hadn't read that one before, but a paragraph into it I realized that I had seen a trailer for a movie that is being made about it (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0431021/).