Yesterday I ranted about the horror story ideas thrown at me by non-writers. I suggested that while these ideas could stand alone as art they lacked the essential element of a commercial horror story. Today I want to explore that deeper – and hear your comments about it.

Please know that I have commercial aspirations as a horror writer – and that’s it. I don’t aim to write literary fiction or fiction of cultural importance. Like the blog’s tag line says, I Want to Scare the Hell out of You. That said, this post is about horror stories as commercial fiction rather than anything that critics might rave about.

Please also know that not long ago I would’ve not only agreed that the story suggestions were excellent, I’d have started writing them – immediately. In fact I did exactly that more times than I can count. I never wound up with a story, though, at least not one that someone might buy, put out as a book or turn into a movie… This perplexed and troubled me. The solution was right in front of me, of course. It sat at the foundation of every horror story I’d ever loved and it was:

 CONFLICT

A story has many elements. It begins with a cast of characters, one of which is the protagonist or central point-of-view character. This protagonist moves through the story and experiences certain events as plot points. Some of these things exist in the two ideas, at least partially. Let’s assume that the living will be the heroes and the dead will be the villains. We still don’t have a story because neither the heroes nor the villains have a goal. Without a goal, the protagonist has nothing to be heroic for. He has nothing to gain and, even more important, nothing to lose. The same is true for the villain. The ideas hold a distinct hint of danger, yes, but it’s not the kind of danger that requires battle. It’s not the kind that’s worthy of a story. The ideas lack conflict and therefore they remain ideas and not really stories.

We could make them stories by asking a bunch of what if questions. What if Park Ranger Jones was murdered? What if he was killed because he did something very bad? Finally, what if he’s a cunning and malevolent ghost hell bent on destroying the people who put him in the grave?

Okay, now it’s getting exciting. We have the makings of a decent villain. We still don’t have a story, however. We won’t have one until something opposes the goals of our villain. So let’s ask what if questions again. What if people start to disappear in the woods? What if the new cop in town somehow finds out about the park ranger’s demise? What if he has to enter the woods and battle the dead park ranger to keep more people from disappearing? We could summarize it as:

Park Ranger Jones died in a horrible accident. At least that’s what everyone wants Robbie Robbins, the new Police Chief, to believe. But when Robbins stumbles upon a secret, he opens the door to a past the town would rather forget – and an evil force he may not be able to stop.

It’s a hell of a lot closer to being a story than, “It had a park ranger’s hat!” Now, it’s got a hero, Chief Robbins; and the hero has his hands full with an antagonistic force, the ghost of Park Ranger Jones. The antagonist’s not too happy about being dead and therefore he’s coming back to extract some serious vengeance. It’s Chief Robbins’ job to protect the citizens of his community and he must do so. Will he succeed or fail? Will he win the battle or fall victim to the dark forces of evil? No matter what happens we have CONFLICT and within that we have our story.

Again, I’m not talking about art. I’m talking about mainstream commercial horro fiction, the kind non-artsy guys like me aspire to be good at. I’m eager to hear your thoughts on this as well as how you’ll respond the next time someone tell you, “I’ve got a great story for you…”

Now please join my hero as he battles an evil force for the soul of his best friend and the safety of the world in an online horror story. I’ll see you next time.