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PSA: My scary writing prompt turned into a joke by accident
I used a prompt about a ghost haunting a library, but I wrote the ghost as a bookworm who just wanted quiet. During a workshop, everyone cracked up at the ghost shushing people instead of scaring them. Now my serious horror piece is known as the funny library tale in my group. I guess mixing up tones can create unexpected laughs.
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the_faith7mo ago
Hey, your point about mixing tones making laughs is cool, but I'd say you actually flipped the horror genre on its head. That ghost shushing people isn't just funny, it's a fresh take on haunted places. It's not about mixing scary and silly, it's about giving a classic idea a new job. Your group laughed because it was smart and surprising, not by accident. That means you wrote something with a strong point of view, which is hard to do. So yeah, your funny library tale might be better than a straight horror story.
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norag387mo ago
Yeah, exactly. It's when you take the thing everyone expects and just... give it a different goal. I tried to write a zombie story once where the main zombie was just super sad about his ruined garden. All the tension drained right out because you just felt bad for the guy trying to water his dead petunias. It totally broke the genre, but in a way that felt more interesting than another chase scene.
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lane.joel7mo ago
Totally get that. It's like the best kind of twist, when the monster just wants some peace and quiet. Makes it way more fun to write.
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