Thread:Kefke Wren/@comment-25067262-20140616145105/@comment-4332975-20140617105904

It's funny, actually. I saw a lot of stories that were named [something].exe, or .avi, or whatever other file extension. After a while, I just thought to myself, "With all these evil files out there, ther has to be something making them. What would a program like that be like? How might being exposed to seeing how horror can exist in anything affect someone?", and I decided to write a story about that.

Of course, there was a bit more to it. A lot of the time I try to change up my style, based on what kind of feeling I want a story to give the reader. The style of a letter seemed like a good way to do it for Unknown Format. It let me slowly unveil the horror a little bit at a time to the reader, and let the narrator be a little unreliable, while also giving off a feeling of being someone familiar and friendly/trustworthy. Then I could use the change of narrators at the end to have a shift in tone as I pulled back the curtain all at once to reveal the real monster of the story, just as they were looking almost heroic. I think that gives it an extra "sting" to make the ending stand out a bit more.

That's probably my main "trick" in writing creepypasta, in fact. I always try to end on a note that will invite the reader to think a little more about what they just read. The only exception is when it's a Mindfuck pasta, and the goal is to get the reader to speculate first, make the wrong guesses, and then slam into the real answer hard enough to take them by surprise. Even in those cases, though, I find it important to use some of the same techniques. So, hmmm...

If I were to give some advice on how to write, I guess it would be this. All is ultimately nothing more than my opinions.


 * Foreshadowing is king. Throughout most of my stories, I have an idea of what the "real story" is. I try to sprinkle hints and double-meanings throughout, so that if someone goes back through knowing the ending, they can look at those meanings and say, "Oh wow. I didn't see it, but the answer was here all along!".


 * Don't write to scare people. Write to scare *yourself*. When you read your own scary stories, it should make your skin crawl. Even knowing the ending, you should dread what's coming, and have parts that make you cringe. If you find yourself wondering if maybe there's something to all this and looking over your own shoulder as you're typing the story out, then you're probably doing something right.


 * There is no such thing as a "first pasta", nor "still learning". I can't stress this one enough. If you take none of my other advice to heart, remember this. Don't ever make excuses for yourself, or you're setting yourself up to fail. When you treat a story as just practice, or write with the expectation that it will be bad, it shows in the writing. Instead, you should be careful, and take your time. There's no rush, you can go take a break and do something else, even spend a few weeks or months on a story. You don't even have to start writing right away when you have an idea. Treat every story you write as an attempt to do better than your last, or than your favourite pasta, or both...or anything else that drives you. Give it all your attention, and try to make it the best story you can make it, something you can call The Best Story Yet. Do that, and that will show in the writing instead. It's worked pretty well for me.