Openings: Writer's effect

This is where the dragons went.

They lie ...

Not dead, not asleep. Not waiting, because waiting implies expectation. Possibly the word we're looking for here is...

. . . dormant.

Guards, Guards

• setting atmosphere

• building suspense

• mystery

• engaging reader's curiosity

It was a warm spring night when a fist knocked at the door so hard that the hinges bent.

A man opened it and peered out into the street. There was mist coming off the river and it was a cloudy night. He might as well have tried to see through white velvet.

But he thought afterwards that there had been shapes out there, just beyond the light spilling out into the road. A lot of shapes, watching him carefully. He thought maybe there'd been very faint points of light . . .

• setting atmosphere

• building suspense

• mystery

• engaging reader's curiosity

It was a moonless night, which was good for the purposes of Solid Jackson.

• setting atmosphere

• building suspense

• mystery

• engaging reader's curiosity

The wind howled. Lightning stabbed at the earth erratically, like an inefficient assassin. Thunder rolled back and forth across the dark, rain-lashed hills.

The night was as black as the inside of a cat. It was the kind of night, you could believe, on which gods moved men as though they were pawns on the chessboard of fate. In the middle of this elemental storm a fire gleamed among the dripping furze bushes like the madness in a weasel's eye.

• setting atmosphere

• building suspense

• mystery

• engaging reader's curiosity

Rewrite the following paragraphs to make them more effective for the horror/ghost genre:

1.

PORTMAN SQUARE, LONDON, 1911.

It was an old house which stood on the corner of the street.   The corridors were very long and not very well lit.   The sun didn’t shine in the windows , and so the house didn’t have a good view.

At night, the house grew very dark.   As well as being difficult to light, the house was always very cold.

2.

I entered the room and closed the door behind me.   The room was big with bay windows and there were lots of dark corners.   The blinds were drawn as were the curtains but I could hear the wind and rain outside.   The bedside lamp was lit and there was a fire in the grate.   Two large mirrors were hung high on the walls and on a wooden shelf stood two large brass candlesticks.   I could hear the ticking of the grandfather clock

3. Choose which of the words in bold you think is most effective in describing the following setting, OR suggest an even better option and write them below

For example:

It was a old/large,rambling/strange house which stood on the corner of the street.

You would write: large, rambling

3. Choose which of the words in bold you think is most effective in describing the following setting, OR suggest an even better option and write them below

The road up to the castle was littered with/covered in/full of stones

3. Choose which of the words in bold you think is most effective in describing the following setting.

that were so big/sharp/uneven that they caught the traveller unawares

3. Choose which of the words in bold you think is most effective in describing the following setting, OR suggest an even better option and write them below

The road up to the castle was littered with/covered in/full of stones that were so big/sharp/uneven that they caught the traveller unawares and cut/tore/sliced through his shoes or threw him off balance so that his ankles were sore/tender/racked with pain.