Time to run?

[tefnut_]

Oh hey, you know that moment when the main character of a book / movie enters the spooky house, with a spooky music running in the background, and doesn't turn the light on but comes in while tripping over bloody cadavers

Comments

[rwday]

I had a situation like this once - dark, spooky, possibly haunted place and heroine has to go there for plot reasons, but I didn't want her to come across as a total moron

[tefnut_]

The point that I took away from the panel was that it makes sense for the character to go towards the danger if the stakes are high enough - if he or she has a compelling reason to go forward. Something worth the risk.
Thanks, that makes all sorts of sense. It put my three neurons into gear. :D

I now have a general idea of what could convince my heroine to follow the ghost; she needed secrecy, and the ghost disrupted her. It's still not strong enough a motivation. She could just move the stuff she was doing elsewhere.

I'm going to sleep over it.

[silverjackal]

Heh. Yes, this scenario is a classic, but it also has considerable personal resonance. I had a set of repeating nightmares growing up that featured me going towards (and eventually into) an absolutely horrific house. It was ordinary enough, and nothing bad happened per se, but the experience was acutely terrifying. Oddly, the time between dreams was *years*, but I recognised that wretched house when I saw it again. (Even though it didn't resemble anything from real life.) The first time I went after a large furry black dog (like a Newfoundland, but smaller). The second time it was a little boy with black hair and dark eyes, and I only realized he was the dog after I had followed him into the house, because I wasn't going to let him go into danger and not go after him. It's been decades, but if I think about those dreams I still experience fear, and at the time I woke up in absolute *terror*. This is what makes such stories work -- the grain of truthful personal experience. :)

[tefnut_]

Oh yes these dreams.
I have a house where I go to at night, too. Last time I tried to warn everyone around me the floors were rotten. They wouldn't believe me, until the house collapsed on everyone (me included, as, of course, I was stupid enough to go in as well).

But yes, I remember the feeling. I *had* to go there, even though all my instincts told me to run away. I can work with that.