Anyone care to read and review my creepypasta? Also, what do you think makes a good scary story?

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theparsonski

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On October 6th 1998, in the small English village of Buckden, events unfolded that would shock the local community. I was a newly-promoted Detective Inspector with the Cambridgeshire Constabulary, and was eagerly awaiting my first case. I would not have to wait for very long.
That chilly morning I was called to Buckden along with my partner. Our first impressions were of a charming little place, what one might call a traditional English idyll. However, we learned upon arriving that that morning, a morbid scene had been discovered in a house named 'Rosemary Cottage', by one Mrs Laura Pym, who had decided to investigate after not seeing the owner of the cottage for over a week. We were shown to the house, and were told that what we might find in there was rather disturbing.

The villagers told me that Mrs Pym was inconsolable, and that she had locked herself in her bedroom and wept for over 7 hours. Before I go into detail about what we saw, I suppose I should start from the beginning and tell you what we know for sure:


On the night of the 30th September, 3 villagers who were passing reported seeing a deep crimson-red glow from behind the living-room curtains of Rosemary Cottage. One also recalled, after much probing, hearing faint but seemingly guttural laughter from inside.

The cottage was owned by Mrs Amelia Brannigan, who was 64, devoutly Catholic and had lived there for most of her life. It is said that she was a very kind, outgoing woman, who would always help her fellow villagers. One described her as a 'pillar of the community'. Nobody had any reason to dislike her, which made what happened even more shocking to them.

From the 30th September onwards, nobody heard anything from her, and no sign of life was detected from her house. It was only on the 6th October that Laura Pym decided to check the house.

When I was shown inside by a large but mortified-looking man, the first thing that struck me was the dank chill in the air. It was easily enough to make my hairs stand on end, and with it came a heavy sense of foreboding. The second thing that struck me was the walls and ceiling of the living room. The third was the corpse. Mrs Brannigan was bent over with her chest on the sofa seat.

From the outset it was clear that the woman had been murdered. Her body was brutally sodomised, and her throat had been cut, both of which were especially unsettling to me. But the most disturbing aspect of her death was something we discovered upon turning the corpse over. There was a gaping hole in her chest, and her heart had seemingly been torn out.

Even stranger, there was no evidence of any blood having been spilled anywhere in the house, nor in the garden. There was blood on her body of course, but absolutely nowhere else.

The most terrifying thing to me was, as previously mentioned, the state of the walls and ceiling. Written everywhere, on every wall and all over the ceiling, thousands of times in what appeared to be charcoal, were the words 'ALL IS WELL, FOR HE IS HERE.' One villager who could be persuaded to enter the house confirmed it as her handwriting, which most of the residents knew from the Christmas and birthday cards she sent out, but queried how it had got on the ceiling.

Ms Brannigan was little over 5ft tall, and there was no way she could have reached that high without the use of a chair, which would have been very difficult to climb onto due to her bad back.

Upon leaving the room, I noticed a wooden carving of the Virgin Mary by the door. Shockingly, the carving's head had been defaced, seemingly by large claws or a knife of some kind.

Nothing added up, as you can probably tell. There was no evidence of any forced entry, nor any signs that the murder had even taken place in the house. My partner was so disturbed by the situation that he left the investigation team.

The murder inquiry lasted for a month with absolutely no evidence being found. The villagers had seen and heard nothing else. Miss Pym, once brought round, yielded no further information. It looked for all the world that this murder could not have been committed by any human being.

I don't believe in ghosts. I don't believe in God. But what happened in that house was not performed by a man. That I am now certain of.

After one fruitless month the case was declared cold, and was closed. I tried to adjust to normal life, tried to be the best detective I could be, but whenever I thought back to that room I would feel very unnerved. I wanted to know what happened. I needed to know.

Since then, the memory of the case had haunted my mind. It had prevented me from living my life properly. In the most ordinary situations I would find my brain wandering back to that morbid scene. I would be making a cup of tea or having a shower, and I would get unexpected, unwelcome images flashing across my mind. It felt as if, deep down, deeper than I can consciously delve, I knew exactly what happened in that room. It is as if it was locked away for whatever reason, and I couldn't find the key. If I could have only found the key...

Some nights I would lie awake, thinking about what happened. Some nights I played out different scenarios in my head for hours. However, my mind always settled on one.

Now though, I don't really care. I don't really care about anything. I don't need to care about anything, because all is well.

For He is here.



Okay, so that was my creepypasta. I wrote it this morning, it only took about an hour. Any praise or constructive criticism would be much appreciated.

Secondly, so that this thread has a point other than you lot just reviewing my work, what do you think makes a good scary story?
 

Moderated

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"On October 6th 1998, in the small English village of Buckden, events unfolded that would shock the local community. I was a newly-promoted Detective Inspector with the Cambridgeshire Constabulary, and was eagerly awaiting my first case"
Really wordy and boring.

"That chilly morning I was called to Buckden along with my partner. Our first impressions were of a charming little place, what one might call a traditional English idyll."
Okay, be honest, did you write this for a vocabulary assignment? It seems like you are throwing out words no one would use for no real reason.

"Ms Brannigan was little over 5ft tall, and there was no way she could have reached that high without the use of a chair, which would have been very difficult to climb onto due to her bad back."
It was obviously murder, so how did it get on the ceiling if she didn't write it?!?!?! Oh yeah, we just said it was murder 5 seconds ago. Obviously the murderer wrote it.

"My partner was so disturbed by the situation that he left the investigation team."
Why was he in it if he cannot look at a dead person?

"But what happened in that house was not performed by a man. That I am now certain of."
???
>Saw something wrote on ceiling
DEMONS!~!!!!

The ending was lame.
TBH, the entire story was really boring, and it wasn't very well thought through.
It was way too wordy, used words for the sake of using them, and was just kind of stupid.
If I were you, I would just throw it out and start again.
 

theparsonski

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Moderated said:
"My partner was so disturbed by the situation that he left the investigation team."
Why was he in it if he cannot look at a dead person?
Because of the entire situation being unnatural and, to him, deeply unsettling. Even if the murder as a whole is not particularly well thought-out by me, it's still hardly your average killing.

Moderated said:
"But what happened in that house was not performed by a man. That I am now certain of."
???
>Saw something wrote on ceiling
DEMONS!~!!!!
The whole point is that he is now certain of it because he has met the demon himself. Not difficult to figure out, really.

Moderated said:
The ending was lame.
TBH, the entire story was really boring, and it wasn't very well thought through.
It was way too wordy, used words for the sake of using them, and was just kind of stupid.
If I were you, I would just throw it out and start again.

Okay, in the end once the writer has written it they no longer have any control, so it's all a matter of your opinion, and I can respect that. At least you were honest, even if that was some pretty scathing criticism. Any positives? At all?

Thanks though.

Just want to add, this is in no way a criticism of you, but are you sure you aren't just one of those people who can't stand stories that don't deliver the goods as much as you'd like and therefore dismiss them as 'wordy and boring'? Not saying that the story is great, or even good, but perhaps you shouldn't dismiss things as 'too wordy'. I have no problem reading it, perhaps it's just not your kind of writing. Would you dismiss authors like Virginia Woolf as 'too wordy'? Because she is far more complex in her vocabulary than me.
 

The_Blue_Rider

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Im gonna say straight up, I didnt like it. Creepypasta works better (to me at least) when it doesnt focus on gore, or detailed descriptions of it. A good example would be this one

There was a hunter in the woods, who, after a long day hunting, was in the middle of an immense forest. It was getting dark, and having lost his bearings, he decided to head in one direction until he was clear of the increasingly oppressive foliage. After what seemed like hours, he came across a cabin in a small clearing. Realizing how dark it had grown, he decided to see if he could stay there for the night. He approached, and found the door ajar. Nobody was inside. The hunter flopped down on the single bed, deciding to explain himself to the owner in the morning.
As he looked around the inside of the cabin, he was surprised to see the walls adorned by several portraits, all painted in incredible detail. Without exception, they appeared to be staring down at him, their features twisted into looks of hatred and malice. Staring back, he grew increasingly uncomfortable. Making a concerted effort to ignore the many hateful faces, he turned to face the wall, and exhausted, he fell into a restless sleep.
The next morning, the hunter awoke -- he turned, blinking in unexpected sunlight. Looking up, he discovered that the cabin had no portraits, only windows.

See that was creepy. Nothing necessarily bad happens to the main character, but the realization fucks with you none the less.

Heres another good one

A man went to a hotel and walked up to the front desk to check in. The woman at the desk gave him his key and told him that on the way to his room, there was a door with no number that was locked and no one was allowed in there. Especially no one should look inside the room, under any circumstances. So he followed the instructions of the woman at the front desk, going straight to his room, and going to bed.
The next night his curiosity would not leave him alone about the room with no number on the door. He walked down the hall to the door and tried the handle. Sure enough it was locked. He bent down and looked through the wide keyhole. Cold air passed through it, chilling his eye. What he saw was a hotel bedroom, like his, and in the corner was a woman whose skin was completely white. She was leaning her head against the wall, facing away from the door. He stared in confusion for a while. He almost knocked on the door, out of curiosity, but decided not to.
This disinclination saved his life. He crept away from the door and walked back to his room. The next day, he returned to the door and looked through the wide keyhole. This time, all he saw was redness. He couldn't make anything out besides a distinct red color, unmoving. Perhaps the inhabitants of the room knew he was spying the night before, and had blocked the keyhole with something red.

At this point he decided to consult the woman at the front desk for more information. She sighed and said, "Did you look through the keyhole?"

The man told her that he had and she said, "Well, I might as well tell you the story. A long time ago, a man murdered his wife in that room, and her ghost haunts it. But these people were not ordinary. They were white all over, except for their eyes, which were red."

Once again, nothing bad happens, but shits still creepy as hell
 

Moderated

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I don't know who that is.
My comments are almost always negative when reviewing something, even if I like it.
Oh, missed something. Change the number 3 to three. Numbers tend to stick out. The 30 probably should be changed too, but didn't seem to stick out as much to me.
Actually, just noticed something else
"On the night of the 30th September"
Should be 30th of September.
"Before I go into detail about what we saw, I suppose I should start from the beginning and tell you what we know for sure:"
We're already at the beginning.

You know, if you really want to rework the story, something that some online friends of mine have done is get a bunch of friends and give them a link to the story on google docs with it set to anyone with the link can edit. Then they can make a bunch of comments and revisions. Make sure to copy and paste it into a notepad file every once in a while just in case someone's a dick and deletes it all.

Did I miss a scene in which he meets the demon?
Cold air, sees stuff on ceiling, no demon meeting.

Actually, now that I think of it, why would the demon use his magical blood powers to stop the blood from dripping on the floor? Did he really like that carpet?

TBH, I can't think of a good part of it.
The_Blue_Rider said:
I liked the first one, but I hated the second. Seemed too stupid.
 

JoJo

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I disagree with Moderated on the language, I think that's fine and not overly complicated as long as you have a good grasp on English. The one exception is the numbers, they do need to be changed into their word equivalents. I'm with him however on the story, it's just not very interesting or scary, it doesn't give me the "chill" that a typical creepypasta would.
 

hazabaza1

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Pretty bad.
I don't read much Creepypasta, but the stuff that's good is shorter. More succinct. The twist at the end is normally what matters the most, and what really fucking spooks you.

The_Blue_Rider said:
Stuff like that. The second one in particular is one of my favourites. Very simple, very effective.

So yeah. Better luck next time, I guess?
 

RedDeadFred

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The_Blue_Rider said:
These two are classics. The first one I have always found particularly creepy.

OT: I didn't really like it. As soon as you started describing the room I first thought was "oh great, another generic demon possession story." I prefer pasta that focuses on the unknown. Also, I've never found the description of gore to be scary at all.
Here's another classic.
A few years ago, a mother and father decided they needed a break, so they wanted to head out for a night on the town. They called their most trusted babysitter. When the babysitter arrived, the two children were already fast asleep in bed. So the babysitter just got to sit around and make sure everything was okay with the children. Later that night, the babysitter got bored and went to watch TV, but she couldn?t watch it downstairs because they did not have cable downstairs (the parents didn?t want children watching too much garbage). So, she called them and asked them if she could watch cable in the parent?s room. Of course, the parents said it was ok, but the babysitter had one final request? she asked if she could cover up the angel statue outside the bedroom window with a blanket or cloth, at the very least close the blinds, because it made her nervous. The phone line was silent for a moment, and the father who was talking to the babysitter at the time said, ?Take the children and get out of the house? we will call the police. We do not have an angel statue.?

The police found all three of the house occupants dead within three minutes of the call. No angel staue was ever found.
 

BiggyShackleton

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RedDeadFred said:
The_Blue_Rider said:
These two are classics. The first one I have always found particularly creepy.

OT: I didn't really like it. As soon as you started describing the room I first thought was "oh great, another generic demon possession story." I prefer pasta that focuses on the unknown. Also, I've never found the description of gore to be scary at all.
Here's another classic.
The babysitter one has always been pretty creepy, although I prefer it without the last line. Just ending on the "we do not have X statue".

I gotta admit I quite like the whole Lavender Town saga and the Creepypasta for that is fucking huge, it also includes graphic descriptions and still manages to be pretty creepy.

OP, I think yours needs a more unnerving theme than just possession or a better twist. Length and vocabulary wise, you did a good job.
 

Rule Britannia

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You're being specific and vague at the same time, rather than specifying mrs Brannigan's age to an exact number you should describe her so that the reader can picture them their way.

Same with putting dates on, unless it's imperative to the story's integrity, it's unecessary.

I too suffer of a vast vocabulary, my English teacher tells me to tone it down.

Writing horror is difficult, you need a relatable protagonist and a special type of antagonist. While some people may tell you to start over, anew, I think you can modify it and make it much better.

http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/horror-protagonists

This video might help for writing your protagonist^
 

Berithil

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Mar 19, 2009
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I can't believe no one has posted the greatest creepy pasta known to man!

So ur with ur honey and yur making out wen the phone rigns. U anser it n the vioce is ?wut r u doing wit my daughter?? U tell ur girl n she say ?my dad is ded?. THEN WHO WAS PHONE?
I'm sorry. I had to :D

Anyway, as has already been said, the story seems to flip flop between detailed and vague, and the best creepy pastas are the ones that are shorter.

Even better are the ones that take something familiar and average and turn it into something creepy.
 

lacktheknack

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Berithil said:
I can't believe no one has posted the greatest creepy pasta known to man!

So ur with ur honey and yur making out wen the phone rigns. U anser it n the vioce is ?wut r u doing wit my daughter?? U tell ur girl n she say ?my dad is ded?. THEN WHO WAS PHONE?
I'm sorry. I had to :D
THEN WHO WAS PHONE: Making scary things easier to read since conception.

OT: The main problem I have with it is that it's the definition of formulaic:

-> Odd happening happens

-> The reader instantly figures out what did it

-> The writer appears to be next

Formulaic is all well and good for some things, but creepypasta isn't one of them. Plus, it's just not scary.

You know what would have made this scary? Finding out a conceivable way that she did it herself, and then describing a bit further how the author is following those footsteps. And even then, you'd have to set up an atmosphere of unease that this story simply didn't have.
 

renegade7

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Not the best I've read, honestly, but keep trying.

Here is some advice: horror is threat combined with mystery.

The main character is threatened by something he or she does not understand. There must always be an unknown-this is the difference between horror and action.

Take Quantum Conundrum and Amnesia. Both are physics based 3d first person puzzle games- ultimately the gameplay is similar. The difference is that Amnesia will scare the piss out of you. The reason is that there are threatening enemies, you can't always see them, and you will never fully understand them.

In the best horror stories, little information is offered and the imagination of the reader does most of the work. In addition, the character must be an ordinary, relatable character who is legitimately threatened by the antagonist.

For more information:
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/horror-protagonists
 

Gatx

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I think as far as creepypasta goes, the more brief it is the more effective it is. The idea of "pasta" is that you're copying and pasting this stuff onto forums and chats so no one's going to do that with a multi-paragraph thing. You're going for an urban legend type feel, something short that's passed around from person to person.

This is where a lot of creepypasta fail, even the more well known ones like "smile.jpeg" or "Jeff the Killer," they're just too wordy. I mean at least with that stuff you have a creepy photoshop.

A format that I enjoy and I think might work for your story is when the writer mimics the style of some kind of official document like a police report. I think it would help you out as the writer because then you would know to dial back on some of the details (cause you know, it's just a "report" not a "story") which would be integral in giving it that mystery element, and also makes it seem more "real," the literary equivalent of found footage (you know, when it's done right).
 

theparsonski

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Okay, I've accepted that the story wasn't very good, though I'm glad that many of you thought the vocabulary and grammar was okay. As I said, it only took about an hour to come up with and write, and I guess I didn't realise how formulaic it was, due to me finding the whole concept disturbing (when I was around 7 and really gullible, my Gran told me a story about how she had met Satan three times and ever since then I've found the whole demonic possession thing kinda terrifying). I'm not too downhearted, as it's the first time I've ever tried writing horror, so I'll keep working on it and see where it takes me!

Thanks for the feedback. :)