Telling Scary Stories Part 3:

Telling scary stories part 3:

At Timp tellers we had a presentation on how to come up with scary stories. Here are my notes, part three.

Story craft and development: April

Are your characters developed so that your audience cares about them? Find a way to endear your audience to your character. Did the character continue through the story?
If you have extraneous characters who don’t add to the story, cut them out. Make sure your characters are important to the story. Every moment and character in the story needs to serve a function. If you describe a smell it needs a reason.
Did your beginning draw the listener in? Is the ending unsatisfactory? You disappoint you audience if you don’t wrap the story in a way that is satisfying.
Originally: it doesn’t matter if it’s an old folk tale. Make sure it’s your own. It becomes your story. Decide a different perspective that makes the story interesting to you and your audience.
Is it an old tale with an original flair?
If it’s someone else’s story, you need to get permission to tell it.
e.: can you do a (Allen Poe) story in a short time and still be effective?
Effectiveness: did you get to the audience. Did they jump? Making people jump can wear out with overuse.
Voice modulations growling, high low can be a good alternative to dialects. People need to be able to understand you.
Chill factor> does the story cause a physical shiver of the bones? Did it make your spine tingle? Not blood and gore. You don’t need a lot of dripping blood.
A teller can tell less and let the audience embellish it with their minds. Drip drip drip, have only that only that. Felt steal against him.
You can present something that is in the head that isn’t real.
The scary story involves scary stuff throughout the entire story not just one section like the ending.
Did the teller user voice, actions
The Ending: needs to be resolved.
Look up urban legends on the internet> need to change it. Most are not well-developed. You can develop it.
Love story > teacher falls in love with a ghost and her students watch her waste away.
Good practice to tell a 6 min or 10 min story.
Use smells sights, motions and tastes to make it more real