2.16.06 / 1:06pm
Nightmares are Hard.
I've been a bit quiet over the last week or so because I'm working on a writing problem. Specifically, I'm attempting to write a nightmare. It's not the whole piece - that's already done. It's not even the most important piece. But it's a crucial element all the same, and I'm having a very hard time getting it right.
There are several different problems I'm struggling with. First and foremost is that I don't want to take the easy way out. Anyone can write hack and slash and gore; in fact, when I first started writing, that was kinda all I wrote. Which is a bit odd when I think about it, because I'd never read any of that sort of fiction. I've read only one Stephen King short story (The Langoliers), and that was maybe 15 years ago, and I'm just not interested in the horror genre as a whole. It strikes me as an easy thing to do, and because of that, it seems less real to me. That slide into following the path of least resistance is what ultimately led me to scrap my first attempt at a novel. I was spending too much time working on gore and not enough time focusing on plot and character development. I was like a city planner, wrapped up in streets and culdesacs and unable to go beyond the boundaries of the little fiefdom I'd built for myself.
For example, one of the most prominent plot elements of my old story had to do with the treatment of women. I wanted to make it absolutely clear that the society my characters lived within was evil, that they had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. So I came up with what I thought was the worst thing I could think of - the brutal subjugation of an entire half of the population. One of the problems was that it was based almost entirely on physical discomfort, and that was the sole focus. This was not only too "easy" as a plot device, but it was also almost entirely unrealistic and one-sided. Any society is going to have dissenters, and they're probably going to be prominent in that most people will know about them. China has been jailing dissidents for decades now, and even Nazi Germany had Sophie Scholl and the White Rose movement. When you get right down to it, physical brutality is only a tool wielded by morally bankrupt institutions. When used as part of a government-approved process, the act of physical torture is usually the end result of a longer, dehumanizing and psychologically damaging process. In short, there are usually worse things to deal with in the run-up to the actual torture itself. And while torture is by definition a very personal attack, the actions and policies that lead up to it are usually felt by wide swaths of the population.
This is why I'm having a hard time writing my nightmare. It needs to be powerful, but I also want it to be entirely psychological, and as horrifying as I can make it. I have a good idea of how it's going to go, it's just very difficult to get it out of my head for some reason. It also doesn't help that I've never had nightmares of my own.
The nightmare began with a clear blue sky. There was no breeze, no birdsong, no crunch of earth against earth beneath his feet. Just clear blue sky and a soundless landscape...
There are several different problems I'm struggling with. First and foremost is that I don't want to take the easy way out. Anyone can write hack and slash and gore; in fact, when I first started writing, that was kinda all I wrote. Which is a bit odd when I think about it, because I'd never read any of that sort of fiction. I've read only one Stephen King short story (The Langoliers), and that was maybe 15 years ago, and I'm just not interested in the horror genre as a whole. It strikes me as an easy thing to do, and because of that, it seems less real to me. That slide into following the path of least resistance is what ultimately led me to scrap my first attempt at a novel. I was spending too much time working on gore and not enough time focusing on plot and character development. I was like a city planner, wrapped up in streets and culdesacs and unable to go beyond the boundaries of the little fiefdom I'd built for myself.
For example, one of the most prominent plot elements of my old story had to do with the treatment of women. I wanted to make it absolutely clear that the society my characters lived within was evil, that they had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. So I came up with what I thought was the worst thing I could think of - the brutal subjugation of an entire half of the population. One of the problems was that it was based almost entirely on physical discomfort, and that was the sole focus. This was not only too "easy" as a plot device, but it was also almost entirely unrealistic and one-sided. Any society is going to have dissenters, and they're probably going to be prominent in that most people will know about them. China has been jailing dissidents for decades now, and even Nazi Germany had Sophie Scholl and the White Rose movement. When you get right down to it, physical brutality is only a tool wielded by morally bankrupt institutions. When used as part of a government-approved process, the act of physical torture is usually the end result of a longer, dehumanizing and psychologically damaging process. In short, there are usually worse things to deal with in the run-up to the actual torture itself. And while torture is by definition a very personal attack, the actions and policies that lead up to it are usually felt by wide swaths of the population.
This is why I'm having a hard time writing my nightmare. It needs to be powerful, but I also want it to be entirely psychological, and as horrifying as I can make it. I have a good idea of how it's going to go, it's just very difficult to get it out of my head for some reason. It also doesn't help that I've never had nightmares of my own.
The nightmare began with a clear blue sky. There was no breeze, no birdsong, no crunch of earth against earth beneath his feet. Just clear blue sky and a soundless landscape...
I often find that the creepiest nightmares involve the most inane things. My worse ever involved Pink Panther, that bastard!However, I guess if you want to resonate to more people than just me, which I fail to see the reason for ;), then brutality, like the Nazi regime or something equally creepy. You first line is a good creepy scene setter. The best Stephen King story was Shawshank and probably Green Mile, because the scary stuff was not graphic, just scary!
You have never had a nightmare? How is that even possible? As someone who has had plenty of nightmares, I definitely think that a good nightmare does not have to involve gore. Think of what people are afraid of, then hint that it is about to happen. Terrifying.
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