Neil Jopson's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing"
How to write a great ghost story
MR James created some of the greatest English ghost stories. An academic at King’s College Cambridge, his straightforward, spine-tingling tales were written at the beginning of the 20th century. If you’ve ever wanted to write your own English style ghost story, the good news is MR James left a clear blueprint for you to follow.
Here is his method:
1. Use an everyday setting. Somewhere your readers are “fairly familiar” with. Somewhere safe and mundane.
2. The ghost should be malevolent. No Casper the friendly ghost or lost soul trying to right the wrongs of the past. Unquestionable evil is the name of the game.
3. The living characters should be normal people. Men and women like yourself and your friends and colleagues. No superheroes or ghostbusting exorcists. How would Jim from HR react when confronted with an evil spirit?
4. Build tension. James described it as “the nicely managed crescendo.” Start with a normal day, a normal setting, a normal person. A “placid” scene, “undisturbed by forebodings.” Then gradually allow the evil to intrude, until it dominates the story.
5. Don’t make it too contemporary, but keep it recent. “A slight haze of distance is desirable. ‘Thirty years ago,’ ‘not long before the war’….” Today we could set it “Not long after 9/11,’ ‘just before the 2012 Olympics,’ ‘a week or two after the Brexit vote,’ etc. Familiar, but just that little bit removed from the contemporary atmosphere.
6. Objects are important as the vehicle of evil. For James it could be a whistle, a tree, or a book. They’re not obviously unusual or strange items.
7. The short story is the best format for the ghost story. It needs to be well crafted and pack a punch.
8. Don’t over explain the ghost or malevolent force. Leave questions unanswered. The reader should put down the story with a lingering sense of mystery alongside the unease.
9. For it to be a specifically English ghost story, avoid the shock and gore. MR James describes his approach as ‘reticence.’ “Reticence conduces to effect, blatancy ruins it, and there is much blatancy in a lot of recent stories.”
10. And remember: the sole reason for writing a ghost story is to create “a pleasing terror in the reader.” Think about your reader throughout the writing process.
These tips are all taken from MR James’ own writing. My story The Tarn is modelled on James’ style. I wrote it after I read his collected stories, but before I read his thoughts on how a ghost story should be constructed. I feel I have hit most of his points. It would be great to hear what you think.
Anyway, why don’t you have a go at writing a ghost story? It’s a fun way to spend your time.
The Tarn
Montague Rhodes James
Here is his method:
1. Use an everyday setting. Somewhere your readers are “fairly familiar” with. Somewhere safe and mundane.
2. The ghost should be malevolent. No Casper the friendly ghost or lost soul trying to right the wrongs of the past. Unquestionable evil is the name of the game.
3. The living characters should be normal people. Men and women like yourself and your friends and colleagues. No superheroes or ghostbusting exorcists. How would Jim from HR react when confronted with an evil spirit?
4. Build tension. James described it as “the nicely managed crescendo.” Start with a normal day, a normal setting, a normal person. A “placid” scene, “undisturbed by forebodings.” Then gradually allow the evil to intrude, until it dominates the story.
5. Don’t make it too contemporary, but keep it recent. “A slight haze of distance is desirable. ‘Thirty years ago,’ ‘not long before the war’….” Today we could set it “Not long after 9/11,’ ‘just before the 2012 Olympics,’ ‘a week or two after the Brexit vote,’ etc. Familiar, but just that little bit removed from the contemporary atmosphere.
6. Objects are important as the vehicle of evil. For James it could be a whistle, a tree, or a book. They’re not obviously unusual or strange items.
7. The short story is the best format for the ghost story. It needs to be well crafted and pack a punch.
8. Don’t over explain the ghost or malevolent force. Leave questions unanswered. The reader should put down the story with a lingering sense of mystery alongside the unease.
9. For it to be a specifically English ghost story, avoid the shock and gore. MR James describes his approach as ‘reticence.’ “Reticence conduces to effect, blatancy ruins it, and there is much blatancy in a lot of recent stories.”
10. And remember: the sole reason for writing a ghost story is to create “a pleasing terror in the reader.” Think about your reader throughout the writing process.
These tips are all taken from MR James’ own writing. My story The Tarn is modelled on James’ style. I wrote it after I read his collected stories, but before I read his thoughts on how a ghost story should be constructed. I feel I have hit most of his points. It would be great to hear what you think.
Anyway, why don’t you have a go at writing a ghost story? It’s a fun way to spend your time.
The Tarn
Montague Rhodes James
