155 - Swinging in No Wind
155 – Swinging in No WindWrite a narrative about a playground swing that is
swinging with no wind.
So, this prompt is the first time we’ve had to think about genre in a narrative because the idea of a swing swinging with no breeze falls quite nicely into the genre of horror, but not the monsters and jump-scares kind of horror. This prompt is about the uncanny and spooky techniques that help to create tension in good writing.
STARTER – What is Genre?
Before we start on the spooky stuff, we should really have a
recap of genre. What is genre?
Genre is a classification, it’s the way we group stories by
their general theme or idea; Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy,
Romance, Western, Adventure and more. Stories are rarely just one thing, so
you CAN combine genres and have something like Fantasy-Adventure or Science Fiction-Horror.
Each genre has particular themes or tropes, which are the expected elements. For
example, a western will always have a dusty frontier town with a saloon and cowboys
and a shoot-out at some point.
So, for the Starter task this week I have this table. You can
copy/paste or just draw it out and fill it in. These ideas are not fixed, some
of the tropes do straddle genres, but what we’re looking for is the typical
things you will find in the setting, locations, characters and events of
different kinds of story. Take 5 minutes to fill in what you can.
|
Genre |
Settings |
Locations |
Characters |
Events |
|
|
A far away kingdom |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A sheriff, Native
Americans |
|
|
Science Fiction |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Castle, Haunted House,
Dark Forest |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A boy meets a girl and
they fall in love. |
Don't Scroll Down Yet!
I have given you a few ideas here, you will probably have
more of your own and, if you really think about it, I expect that you can add to my other column and list books or films that fit into each genre.
|
Genre |
Settings |
Locations |
Characters |
Events |
Examples |
|
Fantasy |
A far away kingdom |
Village, Castle, Swamp |
Prince, Princess, Witch,
Ogre, Dragon |
A Quest, A Battle, A
Wedding |
Shrek, Tangled |
|
Western |
America, the Wild West |
Frontier Town, Saloon,
Gold Mine |
A sheriff, Native
Americans |
Shoot-out, Posse Rides
Out |
True Grit, Gunsmoke, The
Gunslinger |
|
Science Fiction |
Space or a Laboratory |
Space Ship, Alien
Planet, Experimental Lab |
Crew, Aliens, Inventor |
Space Battle, Alien
First Contact |
Star Trek, Star Wars |
|
Horror |
Transylvania |
Castle, Haunted House,
Dark Forest |
The Monster, Victims,
Hunter |
Monster Attacks, Hunting
Party |
Dracula, Frankenstein |
|
Romance |
‘Real World’ |
Party, Coffee Shop,
Restaurant |
Boy, Girl, Ex-Boyfriend,
Family + Friends |
A boy meets a girl and
they fall in love. |
When Harry Met Sally |
Idea Developer - The Uncanny
It is really hard to write a horror story with jump scares and
Boo!-moments, so instead we use different techniques to create tension and
build up the emotional effect. Most of those effects come from the idea of the
Uncanny.
The Uncanny is when we take something we know well, which is normal and light and friendly, and then we change the description until it feels uncomfortable. Take this example…
You wake in the night, convinced that there is someone watching you. You can see a dark figure in the doorway, looming over you, you reach for the lamp in panic. You feel relief as soon as the light comes on, the shadow was the jumper hung on the back of your door.
In this example we’ve taken something you know well, a warm
and comforting jumper, and turned it into something unnatural and scary by
changing its description. Creating uncanny descriptions from normal things is
the best way to build up tension without needing to introduce a monster. Sometimes
the monster we imagine is more terrifying than the one that actually arrives.
There are five things we can change that help to turn comforting things into
the uncanny, here I have given you some idea of the kinds of words that you can
use for each of them…
|
Size |
Time |
Weather |
Malignancy |
Wrongness |
|
Looming Intimidating Helpless Claustrophobic Exposed |
Midnight Timeless Witching Hour |
Stormy Lightning Misty Cold Darkness Tempest |
Morose Peculiar Suspicion Creep Lunge |
Gaunt Pallid Suspicious Macabre Ominous Neglected |
First the SIZE – Changing the size of objects or places makes
a character feel small and defenceless, or giving an object unnatural size makes
it feel threatening. Closed in or very open spaces can also create tension
because there is either little room to move in, or no protection from the
wilderness.
Second the TIME – Daylight isn’t scary, so placing the
narrative in darkness, the witching hour, midnight or the early hours already
makes it a little uncomfortable. These are quiet times and, historically, times
of darkness are the times when beasties and monsters lurk and you should always
give them shadows to lurk in.
Third the WEATHER (Or Atmosphere) – Horror stories are often set during the
coldest times of winter, or during lightning storms, or when the air is thick
with mist. Cold makes us uncomfortable, but not being able to see clearly, or
sudden flashes of lightning that blind in the darkness really build the uncanny
feeling and tension. Likewise, unexpected warmth in a cold place can be
alarming. Remember, full darkness isn’t as scary as half-light. The shapes and
shadows of things are often more uncanny than the full reveal.
Fourth is MALIGNANCY – The word Malign means bad, so to
describe something as malignant in this case is to give it bad intentions or
strange intelligence. If you can describe an object as thinking bad thoughts,
or moving in strange ways it creates tension. And if you can turn its normal
movement into something unnatural, that develops the idea of the uncanny
intelligence behind it.
Fifth is WRONGNESS – Essentially, if things feel wrong that develops tension. Silence or strange, unexplained noises, shapes that change without reason. If it feels wrong it creates the uncanny feeling. Wrongness is hard to define, but easy to identify once you have it.
Using these ideas, we should think about our prompt and bringing
the uncanny to a playground. So, to develop our ideas we’re going to start with
a playground in daylight. Think about a playground and its activities –
Not the swing yet – whatever you remember in your favourite
playground, or you can google a few images to work from. I’m going to start
with a climbing frame and describe it as I see it.
Now, I’m going to use some of the five Uncanny ideas to turn
this into something spooky.
Looming towers of faded plastic, the skeleton of a strange
beast rotted by the sun. Shadowed by faint moonlight the gaping mouths unfurled
long tongues, waiting to snatch up the unwary. Caves, connecting to caves, each
holding the ghosts of old memories in their cobwebbed corners. A place of
uncertain echoes.
Can you see how I’ve taken each sentence and changed the
feeling, made it uncomfortable and uncanny? Now, I want you to pick another
playground element, not the swing yet – this is just practice. Look at your
sea-saw or slide or whatever, and describe it in daylight, then make it
uncanny. Take 10 minutes, you might find these words useful.
Challenge - use all 5 of the Uncanny ideas.
|
Adjectives |
Nouns |
Verbs |
Adverbs |
|
|
Aghast Defenceless Exposed Fearful Gaunt Helpless Intimidating Looming Morose Pallid Suspicious Vulnerable Claustrophobic Deserted Ghostly Isolated Unusual |
Macabre Melancholy Obscured Ominous Secluded Shadowy Alarming Ancient Curious Dusty Locked Neglected Ornate Peculiar Shocking Shrouded Dismal |
Anxiety Curiosity Despair Desperation Determination Fear Hatred Suspicion Terror Trepidation Unease Uncertainty Clouds Darkness Drizzle Fog Tempest |
Ascend Creep Descend Evade Hide Leap Lunge Peek Pursue Tiptoe Uncover Murmur Crackle Creak Cry Gasp Howl |
Abruptly Cautiously Creepily Eerily Furtively Ominously Suddenly Surreptitiously Tentatively Wordlessly Soundlessly Silently Morosely Creakily Continuously Sneakily Slimily |
155 – Swinging in No WindWrite a narrative about a playground swing that is swinging with no wind.
- Imagine your narrator – your viewpoint – moving through a playground at midnight.
- Describe 3 elements in turn, finishing with the swing, so a paragraph each. Use the word bank above to help you, and the Uncanny ideas to change things to seem more sinister.
- This is a narrative piece so we need to think about the flow of ideas and how we’re directing our focus.
- This piece is short, so you should have plenty of time to DARE and really craft your ideas and build a really spooky location.
- Imagine this is the opening to a story so that you can really set the scene.
- Think, why is the swing swinging? Is it important to know, or does not knowing make it spookier?
This should take about 15 minutes.
CHALLENGE - Can you finish on a cliff-hanger?
REFLECTION
This playground is/is not a scary place, because…
I enjoyed writing… because…
One thing I struggled with was… to improve this I will…
My Writing – The Playground
The mist was thick in places, swirling as I moved across the
grass and up onto the rubber playground floor. It moved beneath my feet, like
the skin of a sleeping creature. Distant yellow streetlights gave the air a
sickly glow as looming towers of faded plastic appeared stranded on the rubber
sand like the skeleton of a strange beast rotted by the sun. Shadowed by faint
moonlight its gaping mouths unfurled long tongues, waiting to snatch up the
unwary. Its ribcage was a line of caves, connecting to caves, each holding the
ghosts of old memories in their cobwebbed corners.
My questing
foot finds a can in the gloom, it cannons away and strikes something with a
sharp clang. Echoes are swallowed by the mist. Swaddled by silence I move to
where the sound began. A face appears, bold and comic and bright. A manic
smiling ghoul painted on the side of a yellow hump. The eyes are chipped and
slightly uneven, white catchlights giving it a manic energy. Arms stretch out
to either side to cradle, or to grab. I step beyond its reach.
The spindly
frame of a gallows appears, then fades back beneath the mist. Spidery thin
metal legs rise on an angle to a central spine with old hooks and dangling chains.
Water droplets gather and fall down the metal, clinking ghostly from link to
link. One seat remains, the cage-like baby seat. It swings, slowly as the chain
crackles and creaks beneath the weight of memory. I reach out to still it. The
seat is warm.
Extension Task
I have finished here with a cliff-hanger - a warm seat amidst the cold. Try and build a cliff-hanger into your own piece, then continue to write, add another 3-4 paragraphs building up the tension to another cliff-hanger.
Terminology Check
Scroll back up to the word bank, how many of these words do you know? Look up the ones you don't and try to use them this week.
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