Rayne Hall - Writing Scary Scenes Blog Tour: guest post, review & giveaway
Welcome. Que scary music. We are today's stop on the Writing Scary Scenes blog tour presented by Reading Addiction Blog Tours. This book is informative for any writer regardless of the genre(s) one is writing for. Rayne Hill has also provided us with a helpful guest post, our review is below and there's a giveaway.
Writing Scary Scenes by Rayne Hall
Non Fiction - Writing Craft
Ebook, 83 pages
Date Published: 7/06/12 by Scimitar Press
Are your frightening scenes scary enough? Learn practical tricks to turn up the suspense. Make your readers' hearts hammer with suspense, their breaths quicken with excitement, and their skins tingle with goosebumps of delicious fright.
This book contains practical suggestions how to structure a scary scene, increase the suspense, make the climax more terrifying, make the reader feel the character's fear. It includes techniques for manipulating the readers' subconscious and creating powerful emotional effects.
Use this book to write a new scene, or to add tension and excitement to a draft.
You will learn tricks of the trade for "black moment" and "climax" scenes, describing monsters and villains, writing harrowing captivity sections and breathtaking escapes, as well as how to make sure that your hero doesn't come across as a wimp... and much more.
This book is recommended for writers of all genres, especially thriller, horror, paranormal romance and urban fantasy.
WRITING
CRAFT: CREATING EXCITEMENT WITH SOUNDS
by Rayne Hall
Of all the senses, the sense of hearing
serves best to create excitement, suspense and fear, so use it liberally.
Mention and describe several sounds, and
insert those sentences in different sections of the scene. This technique suits
all stories in all genres. It works especially well if the scene is set in
darkness, because the sense of hearing is sharpened when the vision is reduced.
Action Sounds
Use the sounds of the ongoing action, especially
of the threat: the villain's footsteps clanking down the metal stairs, the
dungeon door squealing open, the rasp of the prison guard's voice, the attack
dog's growl, the rattling of the torture instruments in the tool box.
Background Sounds
In addition, use the background noises
which aren't connected to the action. Think about the noises of the setting.
Examples
A shutter banged against the frame.
A car door slammed. A motor whined.
A dog howled in the distance.
The motor stuttered and whined.
The ceiling fan whirred.
The wind whined.
The rope clanked rhythmically against
the flagpole.
Computers beeped, phones shrilled, and
printers whirred.
Waves hissed against the shore.
Waves thumped against the hull.
Thunder rumbled.
Rodent feet scurried.
Water gurgled in the drainpipe.
Extreme Suspense
A few 'sound' sentences work wonders for
the atmosphere of your scary scene. You can insert them wherever it makes sense
- and even in random places.
The most powerful use of this technique is
to make a suspenseful moment even more suspenseful.
By inserting a sentence about an irrelevant
background noise, you can slow the pace without lowering the excitement. This
turns the tension and suspense up several notches.
Here's an example:
Before
The knife came closer to her throat. And
closer.
She squirmed against the bonds, knowing
it to be useless.
The cold edge of steel touched her skin.
She tried not to swallow.
After
The knife came closer to her throat. And
closer.
She squirmed against the bonds, knowing
it to be useless.
Somewhere in the distance, a car door
slammed and a motor whined.
The cold edge of steel touched her skin.
She tried not to swallow.
Collecting Sounds
Whenever you're away from home and have a
few moments to spare, listen to the noises around you. Jot them down in your
writer's notebook. (If you don't have a writer's notebook yet, get one: a small
lightweight one with ruled pages is practical.)
If possible, describe what the noises sound
like, using verbs (a car rattles up the road or a car whines up the
road)
By observing and noting the noises of one
place per day (365 places per year), you can build a fantastic resource which
will come in handy for future fiction projects. This is also a handy way of
killing time, especially in boring meetings, at the laundrette, at the railway
station, in a queue, and in the dentist's waiting room. Use the time
constructively for writing research.
You can even swap noise notes with other
writers. Your writing buddy may be working on a scene set in an abandoned
mine-shaft - and you may have notes about the sounds in such a place. Or you
may write a scene set in the Brazilian jungle - where she took notes during her
trip last year.
Questions?
If you're a writer and want to discuss this
technique, leave a comment. I'll be around for a week and will respond. I enjoy
answering questions.
Rayne Hall has published more than forty books under different pen names with different publishers in different genres, mostly fantasy, horror and non-fiction. Recent books include Storm Dancer (dark epic fantasy novel), Six Historical Tales Vol 1, Six Scary Tales Vol 1, 2 and 3 (mild horror stories),Six Historical Tales (short stories), Six Quirky Tales (humorous fantasy stories), Writing Fight Scenes and Writing Scary Scenes (instructions for authors).
She holds a college degree in publishing management and a masters degree in creative writing. Currently, she edits the Ten Tales series of multi-author short story anthologies: Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires, Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts, Scared: Ten Tales of Horror, Cutlass: Ten Tales of Pirates, Beltane: Ten Tales of Witchcraft, Spells: Ten Tales of Magic, Undead: Ten Tales of Zombies and more.
As a writer, I never stop picking up books about "the craft" and learning as much as I can. Rayne Hall's Writing Scary Scenes may be short at eighty pages but packs a ton of information writers can readily use. Scary doesn't necessarily mean just horror or thrillers. Scary can also mean increasing the tension in particular scenes to excite your reader into reading more. The information here is invaluable and I know I will be applying some of the tips in my own works. I will also keep the author's tips in mind when revising. The examples were helpful and the author's style was easy going and fun.
Irregardless of the genre you may be writing for, the tips included in Writing Scary Scenes by Rayne Hall are useful in many ways and can applied to different genres. Recommended.
Rating: 4
Cover comment:
Don't car for the cover at all.
Book source:
I received a promotional copy in return for my honest review during a blog tour.
Next up on the tour:
March 12 - The Book Faery Reviews
March 13 - Stressed Rach
March 14 - RABT Reviews
March 15 - Le Vanity Victory
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