THE STORY SPOT

What is it about scary stories? We, collectively, just can’t get enough. Whether creepy wet girl-child, voraciously sexy vampire, gangrenous undead, or senselessly psychotic scythe-wielder waiting to kill, we keep coming back for more. Horror consistently tops the bestselling and box office lists, whether presented as out-and-out gore or more seductively as true crime or psychological thrillers. Just what is the secret to keeping an audience on the edge of their seats when they know the bloodbath is coming?

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In all these years, believe it or not, I’d somehow managed to avoid writing a good old-fashioned, dragged-through-the-mud, elbow-to-the-eye battle scene. Until now.

Like you, I have certainly read my share. From hissing cat-fights to laser-gun fueled space war, I’ve read scenes that were so animated and spot-on that I had not a word to say. Or, in other cases, I had given notes that asked the writer to please, for goodness sake, use the generic situation (the fight) to convey story information (character growth, plot advancement, etc.). But somehow none of my rewrites or personal projects required more than brief physical confrontation.

Today is a different day.
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