Thursday, October 21, 2010
Discussion of the Elements of a Short Horror Story
What are the elements of the Short Horror Story? There is not necessarily a correct answer to this. I want your thoughts. When you hear "short horror story," what do you think about? Just give me a list of your thoughts and what you believe to be elements that are native to the short horror story.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
A short story is relatively short--certainly not longer than thirty pages. It generally has one main conflict that is resolved (or not) throughout the piece. This is way different than a novel, which juggles several themes and conflicts at once.
ReplyDeleteA short story can be read in one sitting. The horror part of it is something scary and probably means that someone is going to die or be dismembered. There will be blood and guts!
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of a short horror story, I think of a story with a main theme and plot. It must be short and simple. When I think of horror, I think of something scary or dark.
ReplyDeleteA short story is really short, like, hopefully 4 or 5 pages. Horror is scary! I don't like to read it. I think its cause my mom says I'm suggestive. But I don't know what that means.
ReplyDeleteA short horror story is a great genre to read for this month, considering it's almost Halloween! To have a true horror story, I'm guessing there needs to be a major conflict, a death or two, and a mysterious killer.The setting needs to probably take place at night in a scary haunted house, or haunted woods(scary)! Without these elements, I cannot see a good horror story occurring.
ReplyDeleteWell, it definitely needs to be dark out (some how it always manages to be night for longer than normal amounts of time in scary stories), and there needs to be some sort of threat or death. When I think of horror short stories, Poe is always the first guy to pop into my head. That whole raven, pendulum, and thumping dead heart stuff is CREEPY.
ReplyDeleteOh, and don't give me forty pages and try and tell me that's a short story --- Hello, key word: SHORT.
I'm with Alex, short stories should be SHORT! That is one element I do believe most authors get WRONG!
ReplyDeleteI feel a short horror story must have a dark mood, evil tone, quick pace, great climax, horrible plot or escape routes(this means you tight sweater wearing girls that seem to always die first), exaggerated characters (refer back to the dummies that run into the traps), a catchy theme but nothing too moral (no one learns anything except to NEVER: run up the stairs, crawl through small windows, or go out and actually look for the darn creeper that will kill you!), and an old abandoned area for the setting (No one believes the fear if they know the area is friendly and free from danger).
Basically the same elements as a short story but sinister... (I probably spelled that wrong).
When I think of a short horror story I think about a ten to twelve page story that has an amazing attention getter and can keep me reading non-stop until the end. I want to feel chills once i am done with the story. There have been a few short horror pieces that I have read that have done so and I will never forget them. :)
ReplyDelete