Horror Stories

Hello Students!!

In today’s lab we will learn how to create a horror story and to identify its main parts.

ACTIVITY 1

 Let’s remember some famous horror stories:

• Do these films scare you?
• What is frightening about these films?
• Why are there considered “horror stories”?

Definition of a horror story:

 Horror fiction is a genre of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural. ...

It is typical for a horror story to show certain characteristics that make them distinctive of the genre. Most of them feature stories that depict, address, or explore people's nightmares, hidden fears, phobias, and psychotic and neurotic tendencies. The genre intends to evoke emotions such as fright, terror, panic, disgust, or shock to the viewers through scenes revolving around morbidity, murder, disease outbreak, or supernatural events. There are no exact distinctions that could brand a decade to be more explicit in showing gore than others. Eras mainly differ on the more specific graphic elements used than the degree of explicitness shown.

Some characteristics of a horror story are:

 Evil Forces and Their Victims

Horror movie characters can include just about any type of person, animal or creature, or sometimes, even objects like dolls and trees, whether they are based on reality or are fictional in nature. Yet, there are some very popular evil forces that typically appear in many horror flicks. These include vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demonic spirits, savage beasts, zombies, serial killers, and psychotic beings. Meanwhile, their victims are often physically or emotionally weak characters who tend to succumb to these dark forces or win over them.

Dark and Eerie Atmosphere

Mounting scenes that initiate fearful thoughts makes it possible for viewers to see through foreboding elements and apprehensions seen on screen. Some popular elements that incite a dark and eerie atmosphere in a horror movie include a close-up of a scared main character slowly walking towards a creepy door, the blackness of the night, the shocking look of a dismembered doll or human body, or a number of weirdly broken items seen around a creepy room.

Graphic Scenes

Graphic scenes rely on the use of horrifying shots or special effects, which can be mechanical effects that are shot live during filming or optical effects that are later added to the footage using computer-generated imagery (CGI). Explicit gore and jump scenes coming from the irrational or the unknown provide shock factors that can make moviegoers jump on their seats or cover their eyes because of the horrific intensity of shots shown on screen. However, horror movies don't necessarily show detailed explicitness all the time. Movies with R ratings usually have longer graphic scenes shown. Some of these commonly used scenes include slitting throats, mutilated or tortured bodies, and exorcism scenes.

Creepy Sound Elements

A horror movie's creepy sound elements maintain certain types of shocking factors to them. Some prominent ones include a sudden loud bang, an unlikely falling object, a darting animal, the chopping of body parts, or the suspense-filled opening of a squeaky door. Interestingly, even dead silence properly set in between disturbing sound elements can also contribute to a movie's tense-filled moments. Musical score and sound effects also help establish frightful and sinister scenes.

 

ACTIVITY 2

 Watch this horror film and determine why it is considered as so.

1. What terrifying elements can you find in this movie?
2. Did it scare you? Why?
3. Can you perceive some scary stereotypes or clichés in the scene? How could you notice them? Why do you think they cause horror in the viewers?

Short Stories

Hello students!

As you know we have already started with the narrative writing section of this course. So far we have seen personal narratives writing about personal events and travel journals. Today’s lab session will be about short stories.

Discuss with the class:

• Why do we tell stories?
• What makes a story great?

The short story is a sub-genre of the Narrative. Other sub-genres are the novel and the micro story.

Short stories tend to be less complex than novels.

Usually, a short story will focus on only one incident.

They have a single plot, a single setting, a limited number of characters,  and cover a short period of time

• What do you remember what each consists of?
• What do you remember about the plot line of a story?

Activity 1

Because of their short length, short stories may or may not follow this pattern. Some do not follow patterns at all. For example, modern short stories only occasionally have an exposition. More typical, though, is an abrupt beginning, with the story starting in the middle of the action. As with longer stories, plots of short stories also have a climax, crisis, or turning-point. However, the endings of many short stories are abrupt and open and may or may not have a moral or practical lesson.

Now, you’re going to watch a short film called “The Elevator”. How many elements from writing a story can you identify? Take notes if necessary.

Click on the link to watch the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-TQQE1y68c&feature=related

Activity 2

If you need to start writing a short story, it is also important that you start reading some as well.

Click on the following link: http://www.writingclasses.co.uk/story114.html

That will take you to a short story sample called “The Betrayal” written by a writing student in the UK. Read the story and identify its parts using the worksheet given by the teacher.

Writing a Travel Journal

Memories the Old-Fashioned Way

Hello students,

Today in the lab we will have a look at what a travel journal is. You probably remember the travelogue you had to write about a year ago. Even though a travel journal is similar to a travelogue in certain ways, you'll realize that a journal is a more personal kind of writing.

Writing a travel journal is a major part of many travels - they can be among your most prized possessions.

Why keep a journal when there are so many other options - you could create a blog, use social bookmarking, email, phone...?

Because there is something special about turning the pages of a new notebook on the first day of a trip, writing your name, the date, and the name of the place you're in.

Sometimes, when on the road, thoughts and feelings still flow better with pen and paper. Somehow filling a page sitting on a beach or under a jacaranda tree feels more 'foreign' than the Internet café.

People have many reasons for writing a travel journal. There is the reportage function - simply recording the facts, such as the location of a great food stall or a particular train timetable, etc.

Writing a travel journal is also a way of sharing your journey - with new friends along the way, or with family and friends back home when you return.

Your journal can also be intimate and private, never to be shown, to be guarded preciously.

Sometimes, a journal is a friend. Some people mostly travel alone so putting their thoughts and feelings down on paper is often the only way they have to discuss them with anyone.

And the travel journal can also be a mirror. When you write, you’re at your most honest. Since you can't really erase or delete what you've written, once your words are on the page, that's it.

What do you write about?

Here is a list of the common parts of a travel journal:

• What you see when you look around: colors, textures, people, houses, nature, cars, children, anything out of the ordinary or that sticks in my mind
• People you meet: what they look like, what they're wearing, what they say, what gestures they use, their language and customs
• What you hear: opinions, stories, random conversations
• Where you stay and eat: memorable hotels, huts, coconut vendors
• Your day-to-day occurrences: what you do that's different from what you would do at home - take a shower outdoors in the tropical rain with a bottle of baby shampoo as soap would qualify.
• Your feelings: are you lonely, tired, happy, curious, homesick, exhilarated, recently showered.
• Your thoughts: how things are different, what upsets you and why, new things you've learned

And what about the writing itself?

Here are a few basic travel journal writing rules:

• Write like you speak.
• When in doubt, read out loud. You'll know immediately how it reads if it sounds cumbersome or unclear.
• Keep it simple. No convoluted ideas. One thought, one sentence.
• Use active verbs: He bought the bag - NOT the bag was bought by him.
• Use evocative words. Rather than 'the sun was very bright', try 'the sun was luminous'. Rather than 'my clothes were very wet', try 'my clothes were soaked'.
• Speaking of picture, draw them in your mind. A sentence that paints a picture in the reader's mind is a strong sentence.

 Activity 1

Let's have a look at a writing journal sample. Click on the following link.

http://emilyschooley.blogspot.com/2007/09/sample-travel-journal-personal.html

Go through the travel journal and answer the following questions:

1. From the ones described above, what parts of a travel journal can you identify? Quote.
2. What positive and negative adjective are employed to describe Japan? Make a list. 
3. What kind of adjectives are used the most? How does this affect the impact of the journal?

Activity 2

Watch the following extract form the film "Cast Away". Write an entry in your travel journal considering the parts and the rules of travel journal writing described above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUDEjulbqzk