Reach Into Your Childhood Fears to Fuel Scary Stories

Now that Halloween is approaching, you might want to write scary stories. But what if you can’t dredge up fears? Try to remember what it was like to be a child.

Fears are a powerful motivation for characters in any genre.

A Stranger in My Home?

One day, when I was a toddler, my father took me out shopping. When we came home, a strange woman answered the door! I thought someone had replaced my mother. I screamed and cried and was inconsolable.

OK, OK, it turned out to be my mother showing off her new hairdo.

Still, for a couple of minutes there, I thought my mother had been replaced. And worse, that my father knew and was trying to persuade me that this was my real mother.

Another One! (I Was Often Scared)

Then there was the time I thought a monstrous face had crashed through the window of my bedroom. I woke up screaming. Because of course, this was a nightmare. And my parents had a nightmare of a time calming me down that night.

Now that I’m older, if I had a similar dream, I’d probably laugh my butt off. Or is that a defense mechanism against very basic fears? Of a home being invaded. Of being attacked.

As a child, I endured all the usual fears. The dark. Things under the bed reaching out at night. Monsters in the closet. The mundane thing that becomes a “ghost” in the dark.

Scientists believe those basic fears exist for a reason. That’s why they’re universal — and still so terrifying.

Nightmare Fuel

Do you remember similar scares from your childhood? Many of us do. Some of us have tried to forget them because they embarrass us now. Or we look back and laugh while forgetting the real fears at the root of those feelings.

We forget that being a toddler is terrifying. You’re dependent on those around you. The world is confusing. Mundane things alarm us because we don’t understand them yet. Then, you have a weird dream, and you don’t understand why your parents are laughing and telling you it’s OK.

Don’t be afraid to use fears from later childhood, too. Let alone your teenage years.

Take the Next Step

Instead of laughing at your old fears, you can use them to create a new story.

Look. We all know that my mother hadn’t been replaced by a stranger. She just looked different because of a new hairdo.

But if you want to create a story from this, take the next step. Author Theodore Sturgeon used to tell writers to “Ask the Next Question.”

What if my mother had been replaced? That fear fuels many horror tales. What if my father knew she was someone else and was trying to make me go along with it? (Shades of The Stepford Wives.) What if he was fooled along with everyone else except me?

Eek, right?

You Don’t Have to Write About Children

Even if your story is inspired by childhood fears, that doesn’t mean you have to write stories about children. Just use those memories to remind you of being afraid. Very afraid. To remind you how terrifying the life of a toddler can be. Those long-forgotten fears can fuel terrifying tales about adults.

Imagine your heroine coming home from a business trip. Her husband answers the door, but she senses something is off. She tries to tell herself she’s imagining things. But she starts to feel that her husband is not quite himself.

This story can go many ways. What if she’s right, and her husband has been replaced with a pod person, just like in Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Or in John Carpenter’s The Thing?

Wait! What if she’s the ultimate unreliable narrator? What if she’s wrong and fueled by paranoia and doesn’t realize she’s the villain?

And that face coming through a window? Home invasion horror movies (and novels) personify that very basic fear. So does that famous window scene from the Salem’s Lot miniseries. Maybe that fear can inspire your next story.

Postscript

What happens next is up to you. The next step is in your hands. Remember, only you can… Ugh. Now, I’m beginning to sound like Smokey the Bear.

Instead, it might be more fitting if I close this with a narrator with a spooky voice. Pick your poison. Imagine Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, or Tobin Bell narrating this:

“Delve into your childhood fears and base a story around them. If you dare.”

Insert maniacal laughter here.

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