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They lurk under the bed of every timid child. They are ever present in our nursery rhymes and fairy tales. They make frequent appearances in our mythology, legends and folklore. They have frequent starring rolls in our movies, songs and literature. They inhabit dark corners of our imagination and represent some of our very basest fears. They are monsters . . . Trixie and the gang have tangled with a Sasquatch and Headless Horseman. What other terrifying beasts await?
*****
At that moment, an eerie cry that originated at the head of the canyon hit unseen cliffs and echoed endlessly: fleep . . . fleeoweep-p-p-p! Cap jumped up and began feeding the fire with reckless haste. "You're using the morning kindling," Hallie objected. "So what?" Cap shot back. "Don't be a birdbrain!" "Look, I cut this. I can split more." Fire gobbled the dry pitch Cap threw. Light increased in intensity, and so did Cap's effort. Without understanding why, Mart, Brian and Jim began to throw on all the dry, small wood scraps they could find in the circle of light. Knut moved to the outer edge of the lighted area and stared up the dark slot of the canyon. Trixie hunched alone on the log Knut and Jim had deserted. She was sure she would hear that cry again.
-The Sasquatch Mystery ******
After the rousing success of Eric's Sarah Sligo Ghost Story Challenge and Eric's Pesky Poltergeist Story Challenge and the second annual Fright Night , Eric is back again with another terrifying circle writing challenge. Once again, you are being dared to participate in the scariest PWP of all, and continue the horrifying Halloween tradition of frightening fan fiction for a fun filled night of chills and thrills. This year, participants must write a story that revolves around a monster. What kind of monster is open ended. You can go with a vampire, or werewolf, or sasquatch. You can go with zombies. You can even go with a giant insect out of a 50s movie. You can take a creature of legend. Or you can completely make one up. Your imagination is the limit, so long as it's a monster. The follow rules exist for challenge stories:
The story must contain the following elements:
You must use one of the following songs. (Click on song title for lyrics):
****** How a monster story is written must be handled very carefully. Unlike a ghost or some other form of non-corporeal supernatural terror, a monster represents a tangible and known fear. Fear of ghosts and the supernatural represent fear of the unknown. Monsters are altogether a different story. Monsters or dangerous animals represent fears we know all too well. Fear of a monster is fear of being killed, dismembered, eaten, drained of blood, or some similar grisly and horrific fate. On a subconscious level, monsters represent our very basest fears of pain and death. Going all out with a monster story is to go into the realm of R rated slasher movies, rife with graphic and gory violence This does not mean however, that a monster story has to be a grisly and violent one. Take for instance, Scooby Doo. The monster was always a man in a costume just trying to scare kids away. The threat of pain and death was no more than a bluff in every case, and as any viewer quickly learned, there was never any real threat of the Mystery Inc. gang ever getting creamed. Move up a notch to Disney live action movies, other family TV shows such as Flipper. In numerous Flipper episodes or in movies such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, or The Last Flight of Noah's Ark, the characters are menaced by a shark. Now a real shark is a much more realistic and threatening villain than cartoon Scooby Doo monster. Yet it is still part of safe to watch shows and movies aimed at being safe viewing for children. Why? The threat of what may happen if the shark catches them is implied, and never shown. The shows or movies in question set up a very thrilling close call, but in the end, the characters escape the shark unscathed. Story excitement is set up with an implied threat rather than a graphically depicted one. It is left up to the viewer to imagine the consequences if they don't escape, to a level they feel safe with, without being scarred by watching graphic and upsetting footage of the shark actually catching it's prey. This formula was used very successfully in the Trixie adventure The Sasquatch Mystery. The beast appears, but never actually commits an act of violence. The thrills and the scares come from the implied threat: what will this shaggy seven foot beast do if it catches someone? Move up one more notch to a movie where the shark did catch some of it's victims: the immortal classic Jaws. Still not an R rated movie. Why? Even though Jaws kills and eats, the details of his attacks are still left to the imagination. The viewer is shown enough to know that something horrible has happened, but the horror is implied more than shown. A swimmer is suddenly yanked around in the water, and disappears. The water turns red with blood, and we realize with great alarm what happened. Still not a gruesome, appetite destroying gore-fest. There are of course, hundreds of examples of books, movies and stories that don't pull any punches describing what a monster does when it catches its victims. Examples of this go all the way back to classic tales such as Homer's Odyssey or Beowulf. Even above the level of depicted horror, tone can completely change how a story comes across. Consider for instance, the stories we tell children. Most don't blink an eye when telling their kids how the big bad wolf ate Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother, but any parent with good sense is going to keep these same kids from watching wolves eat people in The Howling or Silver Bullet. Most don't think twice about telling the tale of the witch bent on eating Hanzel and Gretel, yet they are not going to read to their children the stories of another infamous cannibal, Hannibal Lecter. To what level you decide to take this is completely up to you. I simply want to emphasize that you can still participate and write a great story without having to write a bloody carnage. The possibilities for a good G or PG rated monster story are limitless, and don't have to be any less scary than their R rated counterparts. If you do intend to go all out however, I will ask that you STRONGLY warn your readers.
Fright Night III: The Monster MashThis challenge will handle story posts just as previous Fright Night challenges have. Rather than posting stories as they're written, all stories will be posted at the same time so we can share in the monstrous experience while in chat one evening. All story links should be sent to Eric before Wednesday, October 26th. On Friday night, October 28th, the stories will be posted and as the sun's last weak rays die out in a final, desperate gasp, and the dark shadows creep silently into our bedrooms and studies, our libraries and offices, our dens and our work-spaces, we will gather in the chat room for the Village of the Damned Fright Night, ready for the scare of a lifetime! And what would Halloween be without a few tricks and treats? Even if you don't have plans to write a story for the challenge, mark your calendar for October 28th. We won't spoil the surprises, but you'll definitely want to be there! Email Eric with the link to your story submission by October 26th. Any questions regarding the challenge should also be directed to Eric. The Monster Mash Story Challenge. Shouldn't you be writing one? ****** Page Design and images created by Kathy K. Image courtesy of Trixie Belden #12, Mystery of the Blinking Eye. Monster image courtesy of Kathy K's husband's hard drive. Best viewed at a screen resolution of 1024 x 768. |