When I say I love scary stories, I am exponentially understating things.
And when October hits, there is nothing I love more than a good scary story. I want them so badly.
But not every scary story hits the same. In this brief manifest-o* I will outline what kind of stories I want the most.
(*spelling to emphasis “manifest” the way a ghost will manifest and have fun)
1. Format
I prefer creepypasta-style scary stories over novels, generally. I mean, I would love it if I could read a scary fictional book and find it truly scary, but I can’t slow down my brain’s need to analyze for craft and art. So, I can’t suspend disbelief well enough for it to work.
Now, online first-person “this happened to me” scary stories? For those, all bets are off! I can suspend the disbelief and pretend this stuff is real, and could really happen (hopefully to me).
From a voice standpoint, these first-person, informal stories are also closest to the campfire stories of old, and I LOVE oral tradition for scary stories. It works well for the nostalgia factor, and also the “cautionary tale” warning aspect just hits harder in oral tales.
As a bonus, the more personal horror stories open themselves up to increased credibility (if done right, at least) in a way that more formal, self-conscious storytelling just doesn’t hit right.
These informal stories also have a lot of flexibility for length. For conscious fiction (as opposed to “this is true and it happened to me”) stories, I think the short story is the superior format for scary. Generally speaking, the scares just land better in tighter, more focused pieces (without the horror lingering around long enough for familiarity to breed contempt, or for subplots to clutter and undermine the scary-sourced tension). But if the story is true (at least, allegedly)? Then I’m not limited to short form superiority and can hang around in it much, much longer.
To summarize: I’m looking for any length, first-person informal stories with an oral tradition vibe.
2. Content
I like my scares MALICIOUS. I don’t want misunderstood strangers or granny coming back for one last hug to say everything will be okay. I want PRIMAL EVIL THAT IS HUNTING PEOPLE. I don’t want soft landings. Near misses are fine so long as the threat is clear and awful. It doesn’t matter if the threat is a ghost, demon, human, or something else, just so long as it is indeed threatening.
And if the threat has a perfectly good explanation that means everyone was safe all along? Sometimes, but only sometimes this is okay. It has to be truly surprising and unexpected.
(Sleep paralysis demons may NOT apply. Seriously, go hang with the Hat Man and learn how not to be obviously not a threat and a documented, perfectly normal phenomenon.)
I’m also very much okay with stories that have a perfectly reasonable explanation that the story doesn’t go digging for—that’s what I do with my own scary experiences. I might quietly theorize what was actually happening, but I’m not going to loudly debunk my own fun and ruin it. If the story is compelling, I won’t debunk; I’ll just enjoy.
That said, plausibility still matters. If someone is telling me a “true story” that happened to them and there is a body count? You’d better back it up with newspaper articles and obituaries, or I’ll assume everything you say is as credible as a politician’s campaign promises. Not just your story, but you in general too! The “real” and indisputable factual parts of the story must pass the sniff test for the crazier parts to land well.
3. Random Things I Personally Like to Find in Horror Stories
Urban Exploration and Abandoned Places
For human horrors, the abandoned and decaying offer wonderful places for your near miss ne’er-do-well to hide. For more paranormal, I love the idea of echoes remaining, of some sort of bad event seeping into the walls and dirt, attracting more predators to the spot. And any story that can take a liminal place, capture that liminal spirit (lol pun), and then manage a “break” in reality without immediately dispelling suspension of disbelief? Gold, babies, pure gold.
Things That Follow
I love it when the storyteller encounters the Bad Thing at The Bad Spot, only to accidentally lead the Bad Thing home with them. It can be an actual human who stalks after an encounter, or a malevolent entity that attaches itself to the narrator. What matters is that escaping the encounter doesn’t end it!
Road Trips
I don’t know exactly what it is that road trips just land so well for me in scary stories. I mean, if I sat and thought on it long enough, I could probably come up with a whole argument, thesis, essay, dissertation lol. But give me weird vehicles following, creepy motels that just reek of wrongness, isolated dark stretches of road, inexplicable wrong turns and missing time.
Please note that this is not a complete list of the only horror topics I like. It’s merely a few of my favorite things.
Other things I get delighted to see in scary stories: Ouija boards, actual serial killer encounters, dares & bets, Black-Eyed Kids, stories where there are two separate danger entities at odds with each other, anything to do with movement caught out of the corner of your eye.
What I don’t really care for? Bad things happening to pets, and such copious amounts of gore that it gets silly. I have a strong stomach for gore and medical awfulness and all things gross, but at a certain point it’s just like, c’mon, and takes me out of the story completely. Makes me think of a production of the Evil Dead musical I went to once where the first couple of rows were a “splash zone” with ponchos provided. Works great for comedy, but just isn’t scary.
So, yes, that’s what I’m looking for. If you have a story you want to share with me, PLEASE DO. You can hit me up on bluesky. (You could also hit me up there if you disagree with me on scary stories and wish to present your case!)
Oh, I figure I should also, in the spirit of Put-Up-Or-Shut-Up, link here to some of my own real life creepy stories. Here’s the index of my abandoned military base in the middle of the woods stories, available in text form on the blog or orally on youtube, links all there.
And in case I don’t update again before the month’s end, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
