How To Write Local Horror

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You are itching to write a ghoulish story. Against your best judgment, you tell your friends about it. They get excited too and tell you to write something like Bram Stoker's Dracula or Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire. A few minutes into the conversation, you begin to feel that your great idea is not so great after all. There are hundreds of vampire stories out there, with every plot imaginable. Does your new idea even have a chance among all these other stories?

Know the Monster in your Backyard

Remember, there is nothing new under the sun. All horror stories run along a similar line: A monster terrorizes a group of people, or an individual. Regardless of the theme of your story, whether it is historical, romantic, dramatic, or pure horror; a scary monster is the reason why you have the story in the first place.

So before you give up, ask yourself: What kind of monster do I need? Consider the vampire - something that looks beautiful and human, but kills to eat. There is usually a similar monster in your locality. For example, in Iban culture we have a monster called the Koklir. She can appear as a beautiful woman. She does not suck blood though, but she eats male testicles. She lures a man with her beauty then she tears the testicles off him. In some stories she kills him, but in others she leaves him to bleed to death. 

Any difference between the monster of your original idea and the one you get locally can be used to create subplots. Ibans believed that a woman who dies at childbirth can become a koklir. If you have a copy of Remang, you can read my short story "Visitor at Dusk", to find out how I created a plot around that belief. Look about your local area or your culture. Maybe you have a similar monster that you can use instead of a vampire.

Sensory Information from Familiar Settings

To bring the terror to life, use settings you are familiar with, or at least one you have visited, because the actual experience from your 5-senses can help add flavour to the story. For example, where I live, mosquitoes are notorious after 5 pm. I have experience them before when I am caught outside in a park or jungle trail in the evening. Koklirs are also believed to come out after 5pm. So it is easy for me to imagine the desperation of a character who is trying to hide from a koklir while tolerating the mosquitoes. 

You can use your own local knowledge in similar manner. Even if the story is set like 200 years ago, the climate, food and natural fauna and flora will still be the same, so the experience of your 5-senses are useful here too.

Let's be real here. Very few people have ever actually experienced confrontation with a monster or a headhunter, but many of us have experienced the fear of being in the vicinity of an angry, violent person. That is the kind of visceral fear you can apply in your story.

Writing by Sight alone

If you write a setting that you have only seen in film or photographs, your use of the setting might end up being limited to the visual sense. A simple example is fabric. Is the fabric soft, starchy, or coarse? Is it light or heavy? How does it handle sweat? or water? This simple information can add to your character's comfort or discomfort. If you have only seen the fabric on films or photos, you will not be able to use the sensory information from them effectively to advance your story.

The most you can do, in this kind of situation, is use adjectives or adverbs to describe your characters situation. Compare the two examples below,

• He is embarrassed that she sees him in his dirty overall.
• He took a step back from her. He could smell the mud and days of un-washed sweat oozing out of his overall. There was no breeze. Oh God, the smell lingered about him, like a fog. Should he bow, shake her hand, hug her? In these clothes?

The first example - he is embarrassed - gives the reader a subjective view of the character's feeling. The second example allows the reader to experience his embarrassment. This is possible because it lets the reader connect with him at a sensory level. Many of us have experienced embarrassing ourselves in front of people we want to impress: we spilled our drink, we tripped over, or we farted.

How much or how little information you put in will depend on your readers. Local readers tend to be familiar with the culture, so you do not need to put in too much detail. Non-local readers will need more details to help them get their bearing within the story. Write at a level that is comfortable for you first, then get feedback from people you trust. They will tell you if the story is clear or confusing, and you can add or cut out from there. I must admit, I only worry about this for my first novel, Iban Dream. You can read the review to see how different the needs of local and non-local readers are. Once I know the level of details that readers need, I just write accordingly.

Local Customs Add Twists

Also don't forget the local customs or superstition. Sometimes they can be used to create a new form of conflict. For example in the Iban culture, when guests arrive for a wedding, they will be asked if they have come across any kind of omen during their journey. Call of birds and the direction of animals that crossed their path would be discussed and interpreted. A bad omen usually leads to a postponement of the wedding. So, to make sure that nothing will jinx a wedding, about a mile or so from the bride's longhouse, the groom's entourage will start making noise with drums or horns to send those pesky omen animals on their way. Look deeper into your own culture. There will always be something that can give your story an interesting twist.

Good luck with your writing.