Though they don't always have to be set in fog, weather is incredibly important in ghost stories. As is suspense: you've got to turn the screw very, very slowly.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
In a ghost story, usually you've got to hang on until daylight, and you'll be alright. But if daylight's four months away, then you have a problem.
It would be difficult to write a convincing ghost story set on a sunny day in a big city.
I think of setting as almost a character of its own, influencing the other characters in ways they're not even aware of. So much of the success of a good ghost story rides on creating a creepy atmosphere; details of the landscape itself can help create a sense of dread.
I have always been a pretty big fan of ghost stories.
Ghost stories really scare me. I have such a big imagination that after I watch a horror movie like 'The Grudge', I look in the corners of my room for the next two days.
I've wanted to write a ghost story for years, and my main aim was to write the most frightening ghost story that I could think of.
Everyone has a ghost story, or at least that's how it has always seemed to me.
Perhaps because my town was so naturally gothic in its architecture and relative isolation - the roads often closed in winter - my stories tended toward the ghostly and the creepily suspenseful right from the get-go.
Most traditional ghost stories feature rather hapless protagonists, who have nasty things happen to them.
But I love Halloween, and I love that feeling: the cold air, the spooky dangers lurking around the corner.
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