aBIGsheep
12-16-2008, 09:56 AM
Some things I came across and felt like sharing. It was intended for a scary story site.
- Choose a theme, and stick to it.
Any hack can put a bunch of ominous-sounding words together and call it a scary story. But what's the purpose? Without a theme, a story lacks meaning and focus. While making creepypasta meaningful might not be the most important thing in the world, focus is still a good thing to keep in mind. The theme will most likely be the central fear that the pasta is trying to tap into. You have your fear of death, fear of pain, fear of insanity. There are also other, more deeper fears that can be written about. Fear of fate, abandonment, the afterlife, sudden transformation. And that's only the beginning. With so many themes to choose from, there's no excuse for not having one.
- Keep an audience in mind.
Just who are you writing for? Think more specifically than that. If it's set in a subway or factory, chances are you're writing for city-dwellers. If it involves losing a child, you're probably writing for parents, or at the very least, someone's older sibling. You might want to return to your theme to get a general idea of who your story might appeal to.
- Structure the damn thing.
If it doesn't look good, it won't read well. If the piece reads too awkwardly, or if people have to read the thing twice to figure out exactly when something ends and another thing begins, it won't scare anyone. Except for maybe your English teacher. Paragraph breaks should be logical. They are used when the setting changes, a new conflict is introduced, or when a conversation begins. They can also be used to indicate a brief pause in time. Time pauses can be useful to help create a sense of rhythm, making a story more poetic despite the language not being so. Repetition of a certain phrase between paragraphs helps as well. Even if you have a really short pasta that's only a paragraph, it still has to read well. Try reading it out loud and see if it still makes any sense.
Don't be scared to have some sentence variety. Don't start with the same word over and over again. Don't try to be boring. Don't say don't at the beginning of every sentence. Try and spice it up a bit.
READ EVERYTHING OUT LOUD! And don't read it to yourself the way you want it to be read. Read it plain and straight and see if it flows. One of the most natural things about writing is that it's just like a story except that it's on a piece of paper. If you read your story out loud to yourself, you'll hear all the odd inconsistencies. It should flow naturally, like something rolling off the tip of your tongue. Take the time to read out loud to yourself and iron out all the unneeded clutter of your work.
Take the time to go back and check your grammar. When you're writing something, you want to be taken seriously. You don't want your article to passed off as another mindless rambling, am I right? Take pride in your work and take the time to fix your mistakes.There are some things that can be forgiven, like commas and semi colons and the occasional typo. but if u start typin lik dis den who iz guna tak u srsly? Not me. Your pasta may look pretty appetizing but if it doesn't have all the minute mechanics of a regular English paper, it's just another sloppy mess.
One, of my, pet peeves, is going crazy with commas, one of the tendencies for a fledgling writer, is to put a comma, wherever they think, you should, pause for a split, second. Same . . . thing . . . with . . . ellipses.
The only time you should use a comma is when there's a natural pause in a sentence; when you're listing things; or when you're about to being a new clause.
An ellipsis should only be used when you're citing something or when you're wanting to hack off anything that you don't deem necessary to be read. An ellipsis is meant to shorten a sentence. But if you . . . use . . . too many . . . ellipsis . . . then it just becomes an eye sore.
- Choose a theme, and stick to it.
Any hack can put a bunch of ominous-sounding words together and call it a scary story. But what's the purpose? Without a theme, a story lacks meaning and focus. While making creepypasta meaningful might not be the most important thing in the world, focus is still a good thing to keep in mind. The theme will most likely be the central fear that the pasta is trying to tap into. You have your fear of death, fear of pain, fear of insanity. There are also other, more deeper fears that can be written about. Fear of fate, abandonment, the afterlife, sudden transformation. And that's only the beginning. With so many themes to choose from, there's no excuse for not having one.
- Keep an audience in mind.
Just who are you writing for? Think more specifically than that. If it's set in a subway or factory, chances are you're writing for city-dwellers. If it involves losing a child, you're probably writing for parents, or at the very least, someone's older sibling. You might want to return to your theme to get a general idea of who your story might appeal to.
- Structure the damn thing.
If it doesn't look good, it won't read well. If the piece reads too awkwardly, or if people have to read the thing twice to figure out exactly when something ends and another thing begins, it won't scare anyone. Except for maybe your English teacher. Paragraph breaks should be logical. They are used when the setting changes, a new conflict is introduced, or when a conversation begins. They can also be used to indicate a brief pause in time. Time pauses can be useful to help create a sense of rhythm, making a story more poetic despite the language not being so. Repetition of a certain phrase between paragraphs helps as well. Even if you have a really short pasta that's only a paragraph, it still has to read well. Try reading it out loud and see if it still makes any sense.
Don't be scared to have some sentence variety. Don't start with the same word over and over again. Don't try to be boring. Don't say don't at the beginning of every sentence. Try and spice it up a bit.
READ EVERYTHING OUT LOUD! And don't read it to yourself the way you want it to be read. Read it plain and straight and see if it flows. One of the most natural things about writing is that it's just like a story except that it's on a piece of paper. If you read your story out loud to yourself, you'll hear all the odd inconsistencies. It should flow naturally, like something rolling off the tip of your tongue. Take the time to read out loud to yourself and iron out all the unneeded clutter of your work.
Take the time to go back and check your grammar. When you're writing something, you want to be taken seriously. You don't want your article to passed off as another mindless rambling, am I right? Take pride in your work and take the time to fix your mistakes.There are some things that can be forgiven, like commas and semi colons and the occasional typo. but if u start typin lik dis den who iz guna tak u srsly? Not me. Your pasta may look pretty appetizing but if it doesn't have all the minute mechanics of a regular English paper, it's just another sloppy mess.
One, of my, pet peeves, is going crazy with commas, one of the tendencies for a fledgling writer, is to put a comma, wherever they think, you should, pause for a split, second. Same . . . thing . . . with . . . ellipses.
The only time you should use a comma is when there's a natural pause in a sentence; when you're listing things; or when you're about to being a new clause.
An ellipsis should only be used when you're citing something or when you're wanting to hack off anything that you don't deem necessary to be read. An ellipsis is meant to shorten a sentence. But if you . . . use . . . too many . . . ellipsis . . . then it just becomes an eye sore.