Writing in the Dark: July 2021

Sunday, July 18, 2021

The Waggoner Fiction Formula!

I’ve served as a mentor for the Horror Writers Association for a while now, and one of my current mentees recently sent me an email to ask where I get my ideas for stories. She told me about a time in third grade when she was afraid of one of the school restrooms – something about it just seemed wrong to her – but she wasn’t sure how to use that experience as fuel for a story.

The only way that I could think to explain my process to her was to literally work through my story-generating process using the experience she told me about, as if it was my idea that I wanted to turn into a finished story. After I sent my reply to her, it occurred to me that other people might find it useful/interesting to read, so I copied it and have pasted it below. I don’t know if you could call it a formula for writing a short story precisely, but it is the closest I have to one.

Dear ______

Over the years, I've trained myself to look for horror story ideas. If I see or hear or read anything that strikes me as odd or strange, I write a note to myself about it (usually using the notepad app on my phone). I write down phrases and images that I encounter while reading and watching TV/movies that seem weird too. Then when it's time to write a story, I go through my idea list and pick two or three items I like, but which aren't necessarily related. Sometimes I might have a cool-sounding phrase in my idea list that might make a good title. I then try to connect these ideas to some kind of experience I've had so I can give the story an emotional core. I don't follow all the specific details of my experience. I change them as needed to fit the story, but the emotional core is still there.

I was never afraid of a bathroom at school, but let's pretend I was. I did have an experience in junior high where two bullies waited in the restroom for me and one punched me in stomach (not too hard). They did this two days in a row and never bothered me after that. So I could use that experience to give the haunted bathroom story an emotional core. Maybe I'll create an adult character who encounters the same young bullies that bothered him in junior high in a restroom where he works. The kids haven't aged a day, and each time they bully him, their actions are more violent. One of the phrases on my current idea list is Wolves in the Woods. That could a make a cool title for the story because the bullies are like wolves hiding in the woods waiting to pounce on a victim. Once I have these things to work with, I think about my character, who he is, where he works, what's going on in his life that might be causing him to relive the humiliating experience from junior high, only it’s so much worse now. I ask myself what would he do? The first encounter with the bullies would be unexpected, and the character might think he hallucinated or is going crazy. He might try to forget about the experience, but then it happens again. After the second time, what does he do? Avoid the bathroom at work? See a therapist? Do the bullies start harassing him in other places? Does his therapist suggest he confront the bullies in the hope that their attacks will end? I like to give my stories an unexpected ending that takes the basic concept/theme of the story and turns it on its head. So during the last confrontation with the bullies, they taunt him to the point where he attacks them and beats them up severely. The bullies, all beaten and bloody, say that he's just like them, he always was, he just never had the courage to lash out. The bullies have come to bring out the bully in him. In their minds, they're doing him a favor. The bullies fade away then, but I'd have traces of their blood remain in the bathroom to make the reader wonder if they were real or not. The main character leaves the bathroom, and he becomes a bully finally. Now that I know the ending, I'd go back to the beginning and have the character be humiliated by someone at work -- a boss who berates him, a co-worker who's taken credit for something he did, maybe someone who's rejected him romantically. Or maybe I'd have all three of those people humiliate him. Then at the end, because he's now a bully -- one who's killed two maybe-real, maybe-not-real kids -- he's going to go kill the people at work who humiliated him. As I start drafting the story, I might change any of these story elements if better ideas occur to me, but once I have a story plotted out this far, I usually don't make any huge changes when I write it. As i write the story, I focus on the main character's thoughts and feelings, trying to show his fear and his slowly rising anger at the bullies (to set up the ending), and I'd try to create an atmosphere of dread and suspense throughout. To start it off strong, I'd begin the story with the last encounter with the bullies in progress, then I'd flashback to the day when the main character was humiliated with his co-workers (and I'd show a flash or two of anger that he doesn't act on). Then I'd write the first encounter with the bullies. I'd show the reader that he was bullied by these same two kids in junior high (maybe by having him check an old year book to make sure it's them). To make things weirder, I'd have him check social media and discover the two bullies are alive and are adults. I might even have him email one bully who apologizes for being a jerk in school to him. I'd intercut his investigation of the bullies' current lives with one or two more encounters with the young bullies. At this point, I probably wouldn't want to add any more characters, so I'd drop the therapist character and have the adult bully write something in his email about the importance of confronting one's past, etc. That would motivate the main character to have one last confrontation with the kid bullies. By this point, the story has caught up with the opening scene, and I'd finish it as I talked about above and end the story.

Once I have enough elements for a short story – the main character, his humiliation at work, the bullies in the bathroom at work, the adult bullies in real life – I stop adding elements and do my best to create the story from the ones I have, fleshing them out and connecting them, and making those connections tighter and stronger as I write.

I have no idea if any of this information helps, but it's a good description/explanation of where I get ideas and what I do with them to turn them into a finished story.

DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION

Short Fiction

If you’d like to see my process in action, you can read or listen to some of my stories for free on my website:

https://timwaggoner.com/stories.htm

You can also check out my most recent short story collection, the Bram Stoker Award Finalist Dark and Distant Voices.

“This is every card in the horror deck, played by someone who knows the game better than most of us ever will.” – Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Only Good Indians and Mongrels.

“‘Hell is other people,’ Jean-Paul Sartre tells us. ‘Especially the one we see in the mirror,’ implicitly says Tim Waggoner. Both give us the theme of Waggoner's splendid Dark and Distant Voices. Our children we don't quite recognize, colleagues not all that collegial, ghosts who silently speak the Truth ... They're all here and more in Waggoner's brilliant story collection."-Mort Castle, author of The Strangers and Cursed be the Child

Amazon

Print: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Distant-Voices-Story-Collection-ebook/dp/B07C1CCWLM/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=tim+waggoner+dark+and+distant&qid=1626639167&s=books&sr=1-1

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Distant-Voices-Story-Collection-ebook/dp/B07C1CCWLM/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=tim+waggoner+dark+and+distant&qid=1626639604&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

Barnes and Noble

Print: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-and-distant-voices-tim-waggoner/1129652960?ean=9781938644252

Nook: Not available.

Halloween Kills: The Official Movie Novelization

I was thrilled to get the gig to write the novelization of the upcoming film Halloween Kills. Michael Myers is my absolute favorite slasher icon, and it was a dream come true to get to write a Halloween story. The book’s due out Oct. 19^th, a week after the film releases, but it’s available for preorder now.

Amazon

Print: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1789096014?pf_rd_r=T3ZN1040TM7QC88PKW82&pf_rd_p=5ae2c7f8-e0c6-4f35-9071-dc3240e894a8&pd_rd_r=e3092045-b59a-404a-a03c-49acbd5505f9&pd_rd_w=2w0Er&pd_rd_wg=bfW1r&ref_=pd_gw_unk

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Halloween-Kills-Official-Movie-Novelization-ebook/dp/B092HR2N78/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Barnes and Noble

Print: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/halloween-kills-tim-waggoner/1139229840?ean=9781789096019

Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/halloween-kills-tim-waggoner/1139229840?ean=9781789096194

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Saturday, July 10, 2021

Horror Story Worksheet

HORROR STORY WORKSHEET

TIM WAGGONER

I’ve been writing and teaching writing for almost forty years now, and as you might imagine, I’ve given feedback on a lot of student stories – I mean, a lot. I see many of the same problems with beginners’ fiction, especially horror and dark fantasy, since that’s what I specialize in. While I know there’s no such thing as a fool-proof formula for writing a short story, as a teacher, I try to give students enough guidance in terms of structure to get them started on their way. This morning, as I was reading a couple stories for feedback, it occurred to me that it might be helpful for beginners if they had a story worksheet that they could fill out, and so I decided to make one.

A couple words of caution. A worksheet like this isn’t for everyone. If you find it stifling rather than inspiring, don’t use it. (Although, if you ever find yourself blocked, you can give it another try and see if it helps.) You don’t need to provide information for every item. Fill in however much or little you want. Hell, you can just read over the worksheet then sit down to write without filling in anything. This isn’t a school assignment. It’s a tool to use however you see fit. Also, the worksheet is a basic one. It doesn’t cover all the ways that a story can be structured. How could it? Each time we write a story, it’s at least a little different from any we’ve written before, than any story anyone’s written before. But I think the worksheet provides a decent framework for writers still learning how to write short stories. Also keep in mind that the areas I include on the worksheet are what I think are important for short fiction. Other writers would present items/have different advice – which is as it should be. You should learn from as many people as you can, take what works for you, and forget the rest.

One last thing to consider. I’ve created this worksheet to help people write horror stories, but it’ll work for many different kinds of fiction. For example, one item on the worksheet is the Bad Thing. In horror, that could be a killer, a monster, a malicious force, but in realistic fiction, it could be a decaying relationship or someone realizing they’re living a life that’s not genuine to who they really are.

Okay, I lied. Here’s the last thing to consider. Feel free to adapt the worksheet to your own needs, adding or subtracting elements as you wish. Feel free to use it in writing groups, and in classes and workshops you teach. I’ll be grateful if you give me credit for creating the worksheet, but I don’t care if you do. I only care that the worksheet helps people write more successful stories.

All right. Let’s get started.

MAIN CHARACTER

Normal or Not-So-Normal

Short stories should focus on a single main character and have only one or two supporting characters. They’re short, so there’s not a lot of room for a larger cast.

Horror stories tend to have one of two characters types. A Normal Person (for lack of a better phrase) or an Abnormal Person. Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a prime example of an abnormal main character. The character’s abnormality is usually a psychological one (such as a pathological fear of being caught outside in a thunderstorm) that may or may not have a direct bearing on the main story threat (although it often does). Having an abnormal main character can add to the overall weirdness of your story, but it might be harder for readers to relate to your character.

HOW DOES YOUR MAIN CHARACTER SOLVE PROBLEMS?

Does your main character directly confront problems? Indirectly confront them? Seek others’ help in dealing with them? Ignore them for as long as possible? Try to avoid them completely? Manipulate others into dealing with them? How your character deals with problems gives your story its shape. It’s the most important thing you can know about your character.

HOW DOES YOUR MAIN CHARACTER REACT TO STRESS AND DEAL WITH FEAR?

In horror stories, bad stuff happens. Characters are under stress and they experience fear. You need to know how they react to stress and fear, and what toll stress and fear takes on them. (This may overlap with how they solve problems.) Do they keep going despite stress and fear? Do they feel they have to stop partway through the story? (Don’t let them!) Do they deny bad things are happening? Do they find their sense of reality shaken? What will they do when pushed to their breaking point and beyond?

STORY CONCEPT

What makes your story different? A lot of beginners’ horror stories have only the most basic concepts. There is a ghost. There is a killer. There is a werewolf. Those aren’t full-fledged concepts, though, and there’s nothing different about them. Recently, I was asked to write a story for an anthology dealing with classic monsters. I chose to write about a werewolf, and the concept I came up with is that when a member of the pack gets old, he or she goes into the woods, and a loved one “hunts” them to give them a final fight and a chance to die what, to their kind, is a dignified death. Werewolf is a trope. The concept is the approach to or spin on a trope. It’s what you do with a trope.

BAD THING

A lot of time in beginners’ horror stories, the Bad Thing is merely a trope – a witch, a zombie, a haunted house. But a Bad Thing should have some connection to the character. So instead of writing about a character encountering a generic ghost, write about a character confronting the ghost – hopefully, an atypical one – with a connection to them. Maybe your character must confront the ghost of a dog that he or she failed to watch properly as a child, and the dog got out of the yard and was killed. The character feels guilt and the dog-ghost feels that its master betrayed it. I’d end this story with some kind of twist, like the dog actually wanting the character to die and join it as a ghost so they can be together again.

EMOTIONAL CORE

A short story should focus on a single emotional core. The dog-ghost story’s emotional core is guilt and that guilt is centered on one specific incident – the character’s failure to properly supervise the dog and the dog getting killed because of it. Everything in the story, whether directly, indirectly, or symbolically, should connect to the emotional core.

MAIN CHARACTER’S RELATIONSHIP TO THE EMOTIONAL CORE

For the dog-ghost story, the most obvious connection is the character’s relationship to the dog, and his or her guilt over the dog’s death. I’d extend this to the rest of the character’s life, and have them become hyper-vigilant as an adult, maybe working as a security professional in some capacity. If the character’s need to watch over others becomes pathological, then he or she would become an abnormal character.

ANTICIPATION/BUILD TO CONFRONTATION POINT

The Confrontation Point is when your main character is forced to confront the Bad Thing. It’s what your story builds up to. These are small encounters with the Bad Thing, incidents that may be direct or indirect encounters, and which become increasingly worse/bigger/more blatant as the story goes on.

CONFRONTATION POINT

Your main character comes face-to-face with the Bad Thing. What happens? In horror, the most clichéd ending is “. . . and then the character died.” Try to avoid that. See if you can have the Confrontation Point be something that both grows out of the emotional core and which also isn’t a cliché. For the dog-ghost story, I would have the ghost-dog chase and knock down the character. The character thinks they’re going to be killed, but the ghost-dog licks their face (which sets up the ending). Yeah, the character dies, but they end up as a ghost companion to their dog.

COOL ENDING

The encounter with the Bad Thing is resolved in a way that makes your reader say, “Whoa! I did NOT see that coming!” This could be a positive ending or a negative one. Your character succeeds fully in obtaining their goal, succeeds partially, fails completely, fails partially, succeeds or fails in an unexpected way. I often go for what I think of is a weirdly happy ending. I’ve already said that my hypothetical ghost-dog story ends with the main character becoming a ghost and staying with the dog. The character is dead (which is a failure to survive the encounter) but they’re happy being reunited with their dog and are free of the guilt they’ve carried for so long (an unexpected success). In horror, if you can give your reader a last scare, a final eerie image or idea, so much the better.

The following items aren’t necessarily horror specific, but they’re issues beginning writers of all types need to address.

NARRATIVE APPROACH

· Straight (Beginning, middle, end). In general, this is the best approach for beginners to take. When you get good at this, you can try more advanced narrative approaches.

· Straight intercut with flashbacks (Current event, flashback, current event, flashback, etc.).

· Frame (Present, Bulk of story is in the past, Present Ending).

· Nonlinear (This is like a mosaic approach; events are presented to the reader in whatever order you wish.)

NARRATIVE STARTING POINT

This is the beginning that your readers will read. Start as close to the Confrontation Point as possible – always good advice for writing short fiction.

INCITING INCIDENT

May not be the Narrative Starting Point. An Inciting Incident is what kicks off the story problem (which in horror is the Bad Thing). For the dog-ghost story, the dog’s death is the inciting incident. My Narrative Starting Point might be when the dog’s owner, now grown, drives past his or her childhood home for the first time since the dog’s death. (The family moved shortly after.) The ghost-dog follows the character home and the story gets moving.

BACKGROUND/HISTORY

Keep this to a minimum. Horror often has an aspect of the past impinging on the present, and there’s always the issue of the character’s background too. Too often, all this background/history overwhelms the actual narrative. In general, try to keep the background/history to only 10 percent of your story (if that much). If you have trouble restraining yourself when it comes to background/history, keep two files open as you write. One is for the forward-moving story, the other is for background/history. Jump back and forth between them as needed, but don’t put any background/history into the forward-moving story. When you’re finished, take only the most absolutely necessary background/history details and sprinkle them into your story.

That’s it for the worksheet. I’ll put the items without any explanation below, so you can copy them and use them more easily. I hope you find this worksheet useful! If there’s something you think should be added to the worksheet, let me know.