Thread:Danatblair/@comment-4740494-20131113031753/@comment-7706473-20131115133551

Danatblair gives good advice.

I'll mention it might be a little annoying when you feel a character you identify with as the author is misintreprted by others - but if it allows for the audience to more readily emaphize with the character/s, then isn't keeping the protaganists neutral excellent indeed?

Similarly - In addition to strongly suggesting that it is more ridiculous then frightening the number of times I read lines like "... and then I walked home from work and my pregnant girlfriend sister wifes head was on the table... garnished with parsley! AAAAAA! and then I played some video games and it wans't mentioned again - ", I feel that religious horror can be somewhat overdone; both are parlance for caring without giving the reader any reason to (with some rather unfortunate aftertaste, aha!).

Just telling the reader that some devil or monster is present or evil doesn't give us reason to be scared of them. Make your villains - whether they're supernatural, psychotic, or sympathetic - do something distinctly scary, something that harms the NARRATOR, or makes the READER feel frightened. Better still - try to write a pasta with no clear 'villain' at all, but an unexplainable presence, something that frightens the reader without giving them a clear target.

Avoid making your narrator/protaganists too powerful. If they can shoot, or kill, or defeat the forces of darkness, what is there to fear?... If you do give them the ability to fight, show the consequences of their actions - maybe the narrator becomes as, or more, terrifying then the things they destroy.

Good luck!