What makes a book chilling to you?

[chippewapublishing]

Is it more blood and gore or is it the eerie unkown? Do you throw in a little of both?

Rebecca
Chippewa Publishing
Now Accepting Horror Submissions
Up to 30,000 words
http://www.chippewapublishing.com

[MacAllister]

definitely the unknown, Rebecca. :)

Oh, and consider yourself invited to post a link to your site on the "Links (http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2714)" thread.

[Rose]

For me, it's the eerie KNOWN, not the eerie UNknown. For example, three seven posted a story a month or two ago that included a line about a rapist who waited for his victim to get in the shower before he broke into house. His reasoning was that the pounding water would feel her ears, rather the sound of him breaking and entering.

Ughh! I wish I could get that image out of my mind. Shiver.

[BlueTexas]

The eerie unknown. I dislike gore, unless it's really necessary.

[Liam Jackson]

The eerie unknown. I dislike gore, unless it's really necessary.

And it's so seldom necessary. :)

[ScottAJohnson]

Gratuitous gore in completely unnecessary for moving a story. In fact, it can detract from story telling. To me, it's the unknown, the known, and how I can relate to either. My favorite things to write and read are characters that have done the things I've done, or seem like someone I know or would like to know, then have their lives go down the horrifying chute. But gore? Nah...Don't really need it. Give me a creepy shower scene or a dark shadow under the bed any day.

[jdkiggins]

The really, really eerie unknown.

Of course, now that I've said that, I have to rewrite my book Roadkill, cause it's full of blood and gore.

But my WIP Unearthed is eerie unknown. So that makes up for it. :)

[BlueTexas]

The really, really eerie unknown.

Of course, now that I've said that, I have to rewrite my book Roadkill, cause it's full of blood and gore.

But my WIP Unearthed is eerie unknown. So that makes up for it. :)

If Unearthed is the same as the first Idol entry you posted, hurry up already! I wanna read it!

[jdkiggins]

Yes, the first Idol entry was an excerpt from Unearthed. I think after Idol is over, or after I get kicked off, whichever comes first, I may post a few more excerpts. :)

It's more of a suspense thriller than a horror, so there's not all the blood and gore that my other book has. :D

[jdkiggins]

Thanks for the encouragement to finish it. It's always nice to know there are a few people out there waiting to see what happens next. :)

[BlueTexas]

Shall I tap my foot for you? LOL!

[chelle21]

mine would be the dark ally the person starts to walk to when that person is being stalk now maybe i can use that and my new book I'm writing

[Liam Jackson]

What makes a story chilling?

Pick from any number of scenarios that "scare" us, then apply the right pacing. For me, pacing makes or breaks the "chilling" factor.

[BlueTexas]

I just finished reading a book that had rather chilling moments. It was a ghost story, and while I was dissapointed by the whole, one scene where the ghost was becoming flesh creeped me out quite well.

Take the freaky impossible and make me wonder if it's possible, and I'm chilled.

[brokenfingers]

One thing I like are stories that might be true.

Or that, of course, can't be true - but the author makes them very plausible and so causes you to linger upon it for awhile, wondering what if?........

[amazon_riot]

I enjoy something just so...freaky or weird that it sticks with you. Popping back into your mind later when your in bed and DON'T want to be remembering it. So absolutely the unknow. Gore rarely comes back to haunt me later.

[brokenfingers]

I wouldn't say this makes a book chilling for me - but I find myself drawn to books about good vs. evil; the battle of light against dark; religion, gods, angels and demons; and the fact that man might have strayed from the path he was destined for and much of the knowledge we were supposed to have held and maintained has been lost through the ages.

That we have forgotten that there are dark forces - and they walk among us.....

[Fractured_Chaos]

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." ~ Hamlet, Act I, Scene V

Once, while discussing the legends of such things as Vampires, Werewolves, etc, a dear friend said, "People see what they want to see; and things that defy logic go unseen by most."

Things that defy logic, but cannot be ignored, are often rationalized away.

I've seen a few things, myself, that defied logic. I've seen them since I was quite young. But they were rationalized away as overactive imagination, nightmares, etc, by well-meaning parents and grandparents. Unfortunately, I still see these things as an adult. I'm also well aware of my surroundings and level of consciousness, so I cannot rationalize them away.

But this sort of thing can make a book chilling to me. Little things that most people ignore, or pass off as inconsequential. Like "misplaced" keys. You're certain that you put them on the foyer table, where you -always- put them when you come home every night. But this morning, they're not there. You eventually find them, in an odd place. Perhaps on top of your dresser, or on the kitchen counter. You're relieved you found them, and you go on about your day without giving it another thought.

But what if it wasn't a case of you spacing them off? What if something else moved them?

And what if whatever is moving your stuff around was another life-form living in your home with you? A lifeform that is made of shadow? Perhaps it cannot really be seen by looking directly at it, but only as a hint of movement out of the corner of your eye?

And what if the reason you're so tired all the time has nothing to do with getting older, or having a busy life. What if something was feeding off of your life energy while you slept?

And what if that lifeform was malicious?

[Rhush]

Hey guys! My lil horror entry is out in the Idol contest. Like I might have mentioned, I think it might be more ewww than creepy. Ya'll will have to tell me what ya think.

[DiscoDan]

To me, there are lots of things that are quite chilling. Some of the scariest books can come from non-horror authors like Michael Crichton. I found Jurassic Park to be quite chilling because he made it sound absolutely possible. Another one of his books, Prey, was also brilliant in realism and quite scary.

Another type of story that can really creep me out are ones that takes place in a made ghost town (a small town that is wiped out by a killer). Dean Koontz's Phantoms and Stephen King's Desperation are stories that fall into this catagory, and I thought they were freakin' scary.

We are all scared of different things, yet ultimately all the same. You don't have to be a clownophobic to get freaked out by killer clowns or a silly school girl to be scared of spiders. The easiest way to tap into everyone's fears is to tap into your own. Odds are if it scares you, it'll scare everybody.