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It feels like I've been away a lot lately.
There's a lot of stuff going through my head these days. It feels very full. I don't know. I made a promise to myself to get things done before talking about it, and I thought I'd worked through it, but I guess there's still something there that requires examination. Hm. Hmmmmmm. Well.
Sorry for the serious!face! It's been a long time since I made an actual post-post, rather than a fic post. Oddly, there are only two fic posts on my lj "front page" atm. That's what I get for not posting my contest drabbles here yet. Um. EVENTUALLY.
I wanted to dump a little about inspiration, mainly because of my horror attempt w/Somnambulist. I love horror and spend a lot of time trying to figure out how horror movies and stories try to scare me, because frankly, writing a narrative that scares/unsettles somebody is completely alien to me. I just have no idea how to do it. I obviously have things that freak me out and I can get that sort of thing down on paper, but of course (like so many parts of writing) it's never quite right or I can't get it to work from a storytelling standpoint.
It's something that I want to work on and get better at - I think, largely because I'm really impressed by writers who do it well (and avoid the gore angle). Movies are one thing; you have a visual there, complete with musical cues and scary noises and screaming people and dead bodies, etc., etc.. But in a book, all you have is the words. The words aren't going to jump out at you and there's no soundtrack. It's all in the reader's head. And man... how do you even begin to do that?
Obviously those are rhetorical questions. Setting that aside... I went on a creepypasta kick back in February/March of this year and discovered a few personal favorites (I hate the Lost Episode variety, not because they destroy cartoons for me but because they're fucking stupid, and if you know anything about the process of how cartoons are created/produced you'll just be sitting there the whole time glaring at your computer screen because of HOW MANY DETAILS THEY GOT WRONG like me, because I'm a bitch about stupid shit like that), including Waking Up (which Somnambulist was based on) and Candle Cove. Candle Cove, btw, utterly terrified me, and if you're looking for a good, creepy scare...
(Ironically enough, the Candle Cove creepypasta was presumably the inspiration for the whole Lost Episode genre of creepypasta. Why does something I love so much bear the responsibility for creating something that I hate?)
Anyway. Both of those share something I really appreciate in a good story - not just a good horror story, a good story, period - which is a well-handled Reveal. Good twists are few and far between. And Waking Up in particular seemed to work well with Boomer, or at least it did in my head. I would have liked to have done a horror story with one of the Girls at the center of it, but I wasn't keen on implying violence was being done to a female character, especially personal favorites of mine. I suppose that's pretty sexist, but it's kind of a staple of the genre/media in general, and I wanted to avoid it. Frankly I don't like seeing good people get hurt, regardless of gender, and Waking Up ends on a pretty down note.
Without getting into my personal interpretation of Boomer's psychology (which I've gotten into quite frequently enough already, or at least dropped enough hints about), my other primary inspiration for the story was Owl City's Fireflies. I didn't immediately connect it to what eventually became Somnambulist, but there's something about these sorts of songs that everybody presumes are so innocent and sweet that I always seem to find something off about. Namely, it was the actual line in the song about saving fireflies and keeping them in a jar. See... in my head, I was reading this as a Blues song, and the fireflies were a metaphor for... well, put two and two together. And now the song becomes about possessiveness, and it doesn't seem quite as innocent or sweet.
So Fireflies did eventually get tied into Somnambulist, though it isn't dwelled on, only sort of alluded to. You know, draw your own conclusions sort of thing. At least, that's what I was going for. I didn't want to state explicitly how Boomer got into the situation; part of the draw for me when it comes to horror is the not knowing why certain things are the way they are, and part of the draw for me when it comes to stories in general is the conclusions you reach upon your own reflection after the story's over.
I also thought a lot about Terry Gilliam's Brazil when I finally got around to putting Somnambulist together. There's other songs, too - not specifically like how I interpreted Fireflies, but variations of creepy songs that I like applying to the Boys and Girls. Mostly the Boys, admittedly. Some Girl stuff in there, too, that will eventually become another story. Blossom-centric. YEY.
Wow, I apparently had a lot to say on this topic. Um, hey. What about you guys? How do you feel about horror stories or unintentionally creepy songs? What do you love (or hate) about them? Any good creepypasta you want to share? Thoughts in general about anything I mentioned?
Aw, I miss you guys.
ETA: If anyone feels like snagging Fireflies, here you go. (DL link provided for preview purposes only.)
Sorry for the serious!face! It's been a long time since I made an actual post-post, rather than a fic post. Oddly, there are only two fic posts on my lj "front page" atm. That's what I get for not posting my contest drabbles here yet. Um. EVENTUALLY.
I wanted to dump a little about inspiration, mainly because of my horror attempt w/Somnambulist. I love horror and spend a lot of time trying to figure out how horror movies and stories try to scare me, because frankly, writing a narrative that scares/unsettles somebody is completely alien to me. I just have no idea how to do it. I obviously have things that freak me out and I can get that sort of thing down on paper, but of course (like so many parts of writing) it's never quite right or I can't get it to work from a storytelling standpoint.
It's something that I want to work on and get better at - I think, largely because I'm really impressed by writers who do it well (and avoid the gore angle). Movies are one thing; you have a visual there, complete with musical cues and scary noises and screaming people and dead bodies, etc., etc.. But in a book, all you have is the words. The words aren't going to jump out at you and there's no soundtrack. It's all in the reader's head. And man... how do you even begin to do that?
Obviously those are rhetorical questions. Setting that aside... I went on a creepypasta kick back in February/March of this year and discovered a few personal favorites (I hate the Lost Episode variety, not because they destroy cartoons for me but because they're fucking stupid, and if you know anything about the process of how cartoons are created/produced you'll just be sitting there the whole time glaring at your computer screen because of HOW MANY DETAILS THEY GOT WRONG like me, because I'm a bitch about stupid shit like that), including Waking Up (which Somnambulist was based on) and Candle Cove. Candle Cove, btw, utterly terrified me, and if you're looking for a good, creepy scare...
(Ironically enough, the Candle Cove creepypasta was presumably the inspiration for the whole Lost Episode genre of creepypasta. Why does something I love so much bear the responsibility for creating something that I hate?)
Anyway. Both of those share something I really appreciate in a good story - not just a good horror story, a good story, period - which is a well-handled Reveal. Good twists are few and far between. And Waking Up in particular seemed to work well with Boomer, or at least it did in my head. I would have liked to have done a horror story with one of the Girls at the center of it, but I wasn't keen on implying violence was being done to a female character, especially personal favorites of mine. I suppose that's pretty sexist, but it's kind of a staple of the genre/media in general, and I wanted to avoid it. Frankly I don't like seeing good people get hurt, regardless of gender, and Waking Up ends on a pretty down note.
Without getting into my personal interpretation of Boomer's psychology (which I've gotten into quite frequently enough already, or at least dropped enough hints about), my other primary inspiration for the story was Owl City's Fireflies. I didn't immediately connect it to what eventually became Somnambulist, but there's something about these sorts of songs that everybody presumes are so innocent and sweet that I always seem to find something off about. Namely, it was the actual line in the song about saving fireflies and keeping them in a jar. See... in my head, I was reading this as a Blues song, and the fireflies were a metaphor for... well, put two and two together. And now the song becomes about possessiveness, and it doesn't seem quite as innocent or sweet.
So Fireflies did eventually get tied into Somnambulist, though it isn't dwelled on, only sort of alluded to. You know, draw your own conclusions sort of thing. At least, that's what I was going for. I didn't want to state explicitly how Boomer got into the situation; part of the draw for me when it comes to horror is the not knowing why certain things are the way they are, and part of the draw for me when it comes to stories in general is the conclusions you reach upon your own reflection after the story's over.
I also thought a lot about Terry Gilliam's Brazil when I finally got around to putting Somnambulist together. There's other songs, too - not specifically like how I interpreted Fireflies, but variations of creepy songs that I like applying to the Boys and Girls. Mostly the Boys, admittedly. Some Girl stuff in there, too, that will eventually become another story. Blossom-centric. YEY.
Wow, I apparently had a lot to say on this topic. Um, hey. What about you guys? How do you feel about horror stories or unintentionally creepy songs? What do you love (or hate) about them? Any good creepypasta you want to share? Thoughts in general about anything I mentioned?
Aw, I miss you guys.
ETA: If anyone feels like snagging Fireflies, here you go. (DL link provided for preview purposes only.)