Brainstorming

I have decided to write a scary story this month and publish it before Halloween. There was not a story idea seeded, so I was starting from nothing. Sometimes, it helps to brainstorm and dump a bunch of ideas onto the screen and see what sticks. 

This was from a good session. I still don't know what I'm going to write the story about, but I have some ideas to think about for the next day or so.

What is scary?

Loneliness is scary

People are scary. People who want to mess you up are scary. 

Not knowing if they want to mess you up is scary.

Not knowing what someone is capable of is scary.

Ghosts really are scary, but only real ghosts or the threat of ghosts?

Are monsters scary? I mean, I guess yes if they are coming for you, but if you are the reader, what will that monster do to you in the comfort of your home, coffee shop, or on an airplane?

What might scare a reader? What could scare someone sitting in their own house? 

What has scared me?

House of Leaves, the house really, the unknown and unnerving nature of that darkness. The realization that the house is bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. The fucking of reality scared and gave me goosebumps. I have had dreams of finding a room or even a surprise apartment attached to my house sometimes. They are usually time capsules like they were once used but left just the way they were when the inhabitants left, like the images of the apartments in Chernobyl where the people who left expected to return one day.

Shit, IT scared me too. When I was thirteen, walking home from the library in November, in the dark, across the dirt mill parking lots and over bridges crossing the canals. All I could think about was that god damn clown spider monster thing.

Other stuff that has scared me aside from people is walking past dark stretches of a forest where the edge closest to me is actually close, but I can't see into it. 

I'm not sure nature is scary but stumbling around in the dark is. Maybe I'm afraid of the dark?

I have been scared in houses depending on the houses. The farmhouse my mother lived in for a little while was scary. It had odd corners in the house that were perfect for a night hag to curl up and wait for someone to walk by. That old farmhouse was also scary because in the basement was a set of rooms for slaughtering animals (hopefully). It was bright with the raw fluorescent lights, but they acted more as spotlights leaving a large portion of the room in shadows. Shadows in a slaughterhouse… now that is scary. 

Being out of control. That is my new scary. My scary dreams involve hopping on a bus in a city I'm not familiar with, getting off at the wrong stop and realizing I don't have my wallet or phone, and I don't know where the hell I am or how I get back to someplace that is familiar or makes more sense. This is more my anxiety rather than something that is actually scary. It's not like I'm someplace unsafe when I step off the bus. I just don't know what I'm supposed to do next. 

Do I write a story about anxiety? Maybe?

What scares me the most is losing everything and starting from scratch, and that kind of points back to my first answer to what is scary. Loneliness. 

Do I write a story about loneliness? Is that scary enough for the reader?

Let's say the main character is lonely. Where are they lonely? Are they in a city? In the forest? 

Do they have a job? Do they still actually see people? 

What actually makes that scary? What's the story arch?

Being scared of losing everything implies that someone has something to lose, which already puts them in a fortunate place. Is that someone I want to write about? Maybe not.

I'm not sure if this brainstorming session amounted to much, but it is a handful of thoughts.