What makes a great ghost story? – Part 3

Just what exactly is it that makes a great ghost story? The greatness is based on numerous factors. It is the atmosphere in which the story is told, it is the plot and of course the emotion behind the story telling. Aside from the previous mentioned factors, the best ghost stories are those that touch our senses. A ghost story can be told correctly and keep you on alert mode all night, or a ghost story can just bore you death. A great ghost story contains creativity, it contains mystery. So before you set out to tell that ghost story remember your key factors and remember your main character.

Lets get a little more in depth about creating a great ghost story, begin with the atmosphere. The atmosphere is the surroundings of the story, it is where you want your readers to be, the atmosphere could be the “other side”, it is where you want your listeners or readers to be, it is the place where all their senses will connect with all the elements of your story. The atmosphere, will be your most important area of the story. Your atmosphere, can contain any setting, but make your atmosphere creative enough to give them chills.

Your plot needs to be something created on your own part. As a reader, I get bored with the same over and over plots. Why? Because, they are all are almost always predictable and your imagination seems to stem towards a story you have heard before. Your plot should draw your audience in, so give it mystery, make it ghostly, make it scary.

Last but not least, use emotion to tell your story. Here is where you can draw your audience in to feel how the character of the story feels, be more realistic as that will draw your audience into being scared if it sounds a little more believable, rather than something that could never happen. The more believable, the more the emotions of your audience become involved.

Set the stage to give a memorable story time, dim the lights or have a friend help you along with the props of the story. If you are telling a great story your audience will be so focused and little creaks here and there will really get them going. What really makes a ghost story so great is, as humans we are intrigued by the paranormal and the things we can not see. However, a great ghost story that you have heard or will tell has been or will be related to some sort of personal experience they or you yourself have had with the paranormal.

What makes a great ghost story? – Part 7

I love a good ghost story. My preference is the sort told in hushed voices in a dimly lit space. To me a great ghost story is more than just a tale of a spirit come to haunt the living.

If you’ve ever tried to share one around the campfire you probably know just how hard it can be to spin a great one. Maybe you got halfway there but your ending fell flat. Maybe you were trying to relate something true but no one got the creeps. Fortunately making your story great isn’t as hard as it seems.

If you want to make a -great- ghost story you’ll need these elements:

REALISM: You want your audience to think “This could happen to me.” You want them to wonder if it will happen to them for the rest of the week. To do this you’ve got to set it in terms they can relate to.

Make the setting nearby, make the characters people they might know, or make the ghost seem familiar. Your goal is to give them something to ponder later as they dare themselves to turn off the light for bed.

DANGER: Casper is a great comic book character but when you’re in the mood for a ghost story you want to be scared. You can add friendly ghosts but you’ve got to either imply danger or spell it right out. Otherwise, if your aim isn’t to scare, why tell a ghost story at all? You could save yourself the trouble and tell about baking your favorite cookies.

LAMENT: Your ghost has got to have a reason for coming back. Regardless of how they deal with their sorrow (anger/tantrums/threats/crying ) this element is crucial to remind your audience that they don’t want to end up like the ghost. The fact that they could will be chilling. The urge to make things right will keep their attention.

MYSTERY: This walks hand in hand with the lament. What went wrong and how can anyone make it right? Can you you still find the bones? Unsolved mysteries are a great way to pull in an audience. Revealing secrets bit by bit will hold the attention of even the biggest skeptic.

UNCERTAIN RESOLUTION: Even the best stories must come to an end, but with a campfire ghost story the best ending is hardly an ending at all. After all, the story isn’t quite finished yet is it?

What makes a great ghost story? – Part 12

A great story in any genre has certain qualities that make it great. A great ghost story will share those qualities, and add one more; it has to scare the pants off you! Why do we enjoy being scared? Most of us love a heart stopping; take your breath away, THRILL. There is something about being scared silly that is just plain fun!

A great ghost story has to have the backbone elements of any good story. It needs a plot; a riveting storyline, and a good ending. The very best ghost stories are realistic. Ghost stories are told as true stories. Even when you don’t believe in ghosts, (or so you tell yourself) a great ghost story will have you looking over your shoulder and jumping at noises.

Ghost stories are best told with an accompanying atmosphere; outdoors, around a campfire in the woods, or even better yet, in a graveyard. The listeners will be on the edge from the beginning. If told indoors, the atmosphere can be enhanced by dimming the lights, and lighting candles.

Ghost stories have been around for centuries. How did they originate? Perhaps, the first ghost stories were not stories at all. Maybe they were eyewitness accounts of what someone saw on a dark lonely road, in the middle of the night.

What makes a great ghost story? – Part 16

What makes a great ghost story? Ghost stories should have suspense, as a rule, like many horror stories. There really is no “scare factor” without it. Anti-climaxes and plot twists will always make for an unexpected ending and surprises for the reader. It is also important to “force” the reader to feel what the narrator or the main character is feeling, like what Edgar Allan Poe was able to do in many of his works, though not necessarily ghost stories. However, he was able to instill horror through just his words, which was unknown until then.

Ghost stories should also have unique story lines- anything predictable will not be as interesting as stories with twists that people never expected. This is especially difficult in writing, because you need to absorb the reader in. Think far away from those horror movies and stories that many people have already read. If you have to, go far back in time and read some horror myths and stories to get inspiration.

My favorite ghost stories usually have a factor of inevitability. Something will happen, and no one can stop them, whether it is that you are going to die, you can’t escape, etc. However, the protagonist will usually make it out. Ghost stories should also have some sort of romantic twist, or a twist in another genre. The most common is usually historical fiction. Science Fiction and Mystery are better than legends and folklore.

If you really want to be unique, don’t stage the story in a clich area, like a graveyard of creaky old house. Do something more unique, like the plot of the movie, “The Ring.” Try something original, but not to the point where it’s just plain silly, like a mall dressing room. A ghost boy that hides in a slide in a park is better (it gives me the chills just thinking about it), or a ghost that eats you by walking out of a certain mirror every time something looks at it a year that ends with a “6″ like 1906, 1916, 2006, 3006, etc. Did those ideas creep you out at all?

Having several genres creates room for a larger audience which is something that people should strive for in order to be successful.

I love an air of mystery in a story, which is different from the better known plot where a person will know that they will die at a certain time if they do a certain thing, although I do enjoy reading both kinds.

While writing, make sure that whatever you do, make the reader squirm in his seat and be uncomfortable. Being comfortable is never a sign of a chill coming up that will

Ghost Story – Investigating The Old Agnews Hospital

Unsuspecting commuters and distant travelers pass by a neglected old Lafayette Street landmark, not realizing that within its massive exterior dwells something from the other side of reality…something that makes one’s skin tingle and envelopes one’s body creating labored breathing and sweaty pores.

Just the sight of this immense structure during daylight will evoke a feeling of apprehension and viewing this structure after sundown will evoke a much stronger apprehension. The whole area looks dilapidated and in disarray. The paint is peeling and flaking off its walls, windows are boarded up, withered vegetation clings to rough edges around the structure as if in a death grip.We were introduced to the property’s caretaker. He and his wife speak of mysterious happenings in and around this old structure after sundown. The caretaker points to the bushes outside this old convalescent hospital, stating that they will react strangely as people pass by. The wife is in fear for her baby, and because of this she says she keeps a loaded gun near her at all times.No one has spent the night inside this old structure since it closed down almost five years ago.We decided to investigate this old convalescent home and attempt to determine if there really was anything going on that would cause such fear in people.We arrived at the old hospital a little after 6 p.m. and met with a handful of workers who were taking some of the fixtures out. The building was destined to be demolished in about two weeks. The workers continued working until 8 p.m.

During the time that they are still there, we wandered throughout the dusty hallways and climbed up and down the creaky stairs to get a feel for where everything was and became familiar with the floor plan. When the sun went down, there would be no lights and someone could trip over something or worse, get lost in the maze of rooms there are in this building. Even in daylight, this building has an unusual way of making you feel on edge. It is almost too much for me as I walk slowly past the open doorways to the rooms in the convalescent hospital.I tried to imagine what it must have been like when old people walked these halls or were taken to the various areas of the hospital. We walked into a bathroom and I noticed that the tubs are now caked with dirt and dust from years of neglect. Dirty stains encircle the tubs and toilets and the mirrors are fogged.We all feel pretty safe with our flashlights and equipment and the workers not too far away. Sounds of drills and saws fill the air but soon they ceased. The workers left and we were alone in this building.Slowly we made our way back to the front of the building and took a look up the stairs one last time before the workers were all gone for good.

The workers leave and wish us luck. Someone tells us that no one has ever been able to stay in this building for a few hours let alone overnight. We tell them we were here to investigate and why. Why is it that no one can stay here? We wanted to find out why things were happening in this building. We might not get another chance.

We decided to start on the first floor and work our way up to the third floor. We decided to stay together. Even though we had walkie-talkies and everyone was buddied with another, we decided it would be safer to be together. We were unsure about the stability of the floors or the building.The sun had gone down but faint light filtered through the windows. The rooms were getting dimmer and dimmer until it got totally dark. Although there were streetlights and the safety of the street was not far away, I felt very apprehensive at that point.

We started to make our way through the first floor. There were boxes and barrels and construction equipment all over the floor and we had to watch our step as we made our way through room after room. If not for our footsteps on the floor and an occasional clicking of cameras or changing of tapes, the whole building would have been deathly quiet. We reached the end of the first floor. We had taken a lot of readings and a lot of pictures for documentation. By my watch it was 10 p.m. We started to make our way to the second floor. We began to settle in to our tasks and joked a bit. In the middle of a joke, someone said to no one in particular – do you hear that? We stopped in our tracks about halfway up the stairs. Suddenly, arms go up and recorders are turned on. We wait breathlessly. There it is again. It is faint, but audible. So faint though, I don’t think our recorders can pick it up. A lady is calling someone. The voice, small, yet quiet…young sounding. “Come here”. Pause. “Come here”. Four out of five in our group heard it. It was coming from above us. Don’t know where. Don’t know from whom. We had not yet reached the landing of the second floor. A member of our group stopped suddenly. He was feeling a tingling moving slowly up his legs. We stopped and waited to see what would happen. Suddenly, there were clicking sounds. The type of clicking sounds that happen when someone would “flick their Bic”. They happened in no regular pattern…3, 4, 5, 6 times. They stopped and then another voice…faint, strained — “nurse”. Pause. “Nurse”. An old man calling out, his voice strained as though he could barely talk. We all were standing still, motionless. Our eyes were all fixed on the landing in the darkness ahead of us. These sounds were coming from up there, apparently from outside a room or in the darkened hallway. They had an echo quality to them.Then they were gone. As soon as the sounds came, they were gone and then dead silence. We were definitely aware of everything going on around us. Our senses were extremely heightened. We waited for what seemed like hours. It was probably only about 15 minutes. We all decided to go on. We got to the second story landing and looked to the left down the long hall…nothing – and to the right and there is nothing. Nothing moving, nobody breathing and darkness for as far as the eyes could see. We heard sounds, which we attributed to the building.
We opted for the left side first. We walked halfway down the hall and heard a few noises, we all stopped dead in our tracks. It was nothing. The creaks and groans of an old building. We walked all the way to the end without anything further happening.We just started to make our way down the right side of the hallway. This floor had to have about 28 rooms on this floor, 14 to the left and 14 to the right. All the rooms were various sizes from small patient rooms to larger, perhaps office-type rooms. Some had bathrooms, some didn’t. As we approached what was maybe the third room on this right side of the hallway, one investigator went into a room and immediately came back out and told us of a cold spot. We had two more people go in with him and the rest stayed in the hall. In this area, the hair on the back of my neck stood up, the girl next to me told me she was getting really cold and then we looked across the hall to see and hear the remnants of a door slam shut. The people in the room came out quickly and asked what that was. We told them the door behind us just slammed shut. They said it was really cold in that room and that they felt like they were being watched. We switched places with them and indeed the room was cold, very cold. We all took readings and pictures and video. After a few more minutes of waiting we decided that since there was nothing further in the hall or in that room we would continue on. We completed that floor and ascended to the third floor. There was nothing up there. It was as quiet as the first floor. There was just a bunch of old rooms with boxes and papers and dirt all around. We decided to make our way down to the first floor.As we passed through the second floor, two people decided to detour into the cold room we were in earlier and discovered it was no longer cold. The door that had slammed shut earlier was now open again. As we descended the second floor, one person told us to stop and we did. You could tell she was straining to hear something, even turning her head toward whatever she was listening to. The rest of us didn’t hear anything. She said she couldn’t make out what it was but she heard a faint voice.We all went home that night knowing that this was the last time we would be able to go through this old convalescent hospital because in two weeks the building would be gone for good. They were going to put up a Sun Microsystems campus on that very spot. We wondered what would become of the people left behind…the old man calling out for his nurse, the woman calling out for someone to ‘come here’ and the other things that were happening on that floor. We checked and double-checked our readings, pictures and video from that evening. We did catch pictures of orbs and although we feel we did catch EVP from one room that night, it is very, very difficult to hear. Our thoughts still wander to that night and wonder if those people are now wandering the halls of Sun Microsystems. We felt that this was one of those places that we would have loved to go into again and to research it differently. We feel very lucky to have had that opportunity and one day we will contact Sun Microsystems and see what is happening on the second floor these days.

About the Author

Gloria Young has been a ghost hunter and paranormal investigator for over 10 years. She has dedicated her life to researching paranormal activity. She has written, “Faces of a Ghost Hunter” as well as three other books. She founded the paranormal research group, “Ghost Trackers”. She has co-produced two documentaries on ghost hunting. (www.ghost-trackers.org)

What makes a great ghost story? – Part 8

A “ghost story” is quite different than a horror story, a fantasy, or an adventure, although the latter three may often involve ghosts. The classic ghost story maintains a mood of suspense and mystery with a touch of drama. More importantly, it exhibits an eerie verisimilitude by using a set of events that are almost plausible in order to tell a supernatural tale. A classic ghost story leaves us jumping at noises and feeling nervous in the dark as a part of the mind wonders if a haunting encounter could happen.

Supernatural manifestations in a work of fiction should be subtle, especially at the beginning. A story that starts with a man chatting with his dead grandmother or a poltergeist hurling furniture will make it difficult to suspend disbelief. When the otherworldly communication is more subtle we can relate to the events. As the protagonist receives messages from the dead in the form of malfunctioning electronics, inanimate objects that don’t stay put, and pets that spook at nothing, we find it easy to identify. It’s fun to imagine that perhaps the oddities in our own lives are the result of an encounter with the great beyond. Maybe a vengeful spirit stole my USB drive, perhaps a lost soul pushed the coffee can off the shelf. Could my dog be responding to a call from beyond the grave when she perks up her ears and stares at nothing for no discernible reason?

The setting in a ghost story should be spectacularly ordinary. The fact that a simple object like a bathroom mirror or car stereo can be a link with the dead combines the real and the surreal, giving the story a sense of immediacy and verisimilitude. The protagonist should be as average as possible so that we may readily identify. Other genres of fiction thrive on extraordinary characters because they entice us to “fall in love” with the protagonist that we may care about his fate. Ghost stories are different, as they attempt to evoke an entirely different set of emotions. To truly experience a ghost story, we must feel afraid in a way that raises goosebumps and induces us to jump at sudden sounds. We can’t have such feelings unless we are truly able to put ourselves in the protagonist’s place.

As the supernatural encounters continue, a good ghost story will drop clues regarding the reason for the spirit’s presence while still leaving room for questions. What tragic event could warp a human soul enough to bind it to this earth long after the body is gone? Is the ghost

The Ghost Glove Puppet – The Ultimate Fun In The Making Of Halloween Crafts!