Nightmares!

In a previous post I spoke about different kinds of sources where writers might draw inspiration from for novels. And by far my favourite source (as might have been evident) are dreams. I hope you bear with me on writing about this yet again, but I wanted to explore a different take on this inspiration source: nightmares!

As I said, dreams are my favourite inspiration source. The best ones have you moving about a world which makes sense (often in a very illogical manner) and has it's own rules and barriers. And best of all, you believe it totally. I don't know if I'm alone on this, but I've had dreams before where some idea which would sound wacky to anyone in broad daylight is the foundation of the whole world I'm seeing at night.

Flying monkeys in the sky? Why of course. Anyone would be a fool to doubt that monkeys could fly. Just like anyone would be a fool to wonder why these dimensional vortexes keep opening and closing sporadically around us for no apparent reasons.

But dreams aren't a "one size fits all". Okay, you might see a good dream which is a great idea for a book plot. However, what kind of book would it be good for?

Picture courtesy of Chance Agrella
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There a different kinds of dreams, and not all of them will fit into every genre. The kind which I described above might be good for a Sci-Fi or "Alice in Wonderland"-ish novel, but I don't think it would do much for a romance or western. You see? What scene you see often also sets your genre. And honestly, some of my most favourites are nightmares.

"Why," I hear you say, "would anyone be mad enough to like nightmares?" Excellent question. To be honest, it's purely for the plot value. I like horror movies and stories myself. No, not the kinds with blood and guts thrown all over the place and no plot. The kinds where you have that unknown, creeping horror happening! Think of The Ring and Blairwitch Project. The stuff that doesn't have you cringing from the fake blood but rather adrenaline-shot from wondering "where is the monster?" type thing.

But alas, I find horror is becoming harder and harder to write and direct. Too many are falling for the "go with the obvious" approach. Result? You're sitting there bored or, even worse, laughing and wondering why you squandered a good tenner on the two-bit piece of rubbish in front of you now. Being so hitched onto my Fantasy writing as I am, I have tried and found that writing in other genres has me crippled. It takes more work, but it feels like the harder I try to "make it go right" the more awful the text becomes!

Picture courtesy of Mark Sylvester
freerangestock.com

Nightmares. This is where they truly come in handy. I feel  like nightmares come from the essence of fear itself, from something that actually makes you scared. And that's why they can make for some really interesting horror-story bases.
One of my favourite nightmares was one which involved a creature that looked remarkably like The Groke from Moomins. This thing, although very much a cartoon character, had scared the living daylights out of me as a kid. Especially this scene from the TV series! I mean look at it! This dark, hulking creature, that's supposed to freeze you to death if you touch it, standing motionless in front of you and just staring with eyes as white as floodlights!

Although I'd not watched the Moomin animations for years, one night I had this dream with a creature that morphed between human and Groke form and ate souls. Yes. Freaky. To me at least.
Needless to say that I felt like I'd gone through something of an adrenaline rush when I woke up. But now I had an image in my head that I knew was terrifying. Something different, but something that others too might find scary.

One of the key things about writing is not trying to please others but writing so that you are happy about your story. And I can think of no better gauge of horror-story-goodness than how fast it makes your blood race! And while there may be many people who aren't afraid of the Groke, there are still plenty of frightening things associated with the dark.

Are you a fan of horror?
What kind of sources do you draw your inspiration from for a good horror story?
Which movies and books do you think have got it right, and which ones failed the mark?