Journal #23 scary stories

I do not know if I have really read a scary story, but I have seen a few scary movies. One of the most significant techniques used is probably suspense. The building of suspense is always a good cause for a scare. This is always seen when there is a killer going after a character in a movie, and the character is hiding. Sometimes the killer will not find the character, and the suspense will seem to have disappeared. Then, after it has been quiet for what seems like forever and the killer is gone, another character will be right there and say something, which makes the audience startled because it was just unexpected. Suspense usually goes right along with sound effects and other mechanical tools to dramaticize the event. The music could build up for a while or there could just be a sudden boom, which is seen at some point in almost every scary movie. The camera angle is also important. Going back to the character in hiding, it is important to have the point of view with that character so the audience feels like they are also hiding from a murderer. I think the big element in writing a story would have to be suspense though. Of course the story can be written in the character's point of view, but it cannot make a booming noise, it can only have the word "boom" or other interjections. It is somewhat easy to make a movie scary because there are so many different mechanical and technical elements to be implemented, along with coming up with new ones, but writing a story that is supposed to be scary is a lot harder. They have to frighten a reader just by the choice of words and selected literary devices. Most people probably will not scream or get really scared from reading, so the writer has quite a difficult task that has to be developed very carefully.