Real-Life Horrors

[GearMagical]

What do you think about real-life horrors? For example: illness, the mafia, the elements, battles? Would you like to write about them or have you read about them?

 

[Hasako]

Alternate world battles can be brutal once you write and do enough research, even inspiration flows.
While if we're talking, irl, just being mortal and the common issues from reports of battles, etc., are horrific once you are in there.

 

[BearlyAlive]

You forgot the worst horror of them all: Needing to wake up early on a Monday...

 

[Poleg]

What do you think about real-life horrors? For example: illness, the mafia, the elements, battles? Would you like to write about them or have you read about them?

The slowly encroaching entropy that will consume all things.

 

[Dawnathon]

Some of the scariest real life horrors are the ones that make sense why they happen, while also being things the victim had no control over. One that's always stood out to me was the use of non-functioning anesthesia but fully-functioning paralytics during intensive surgeries. You see, anesthesia alone wouldn't be enough to keep patients still even while unconscious, so paralyzing drugs are also used so that they won't twitch or spasm during the operation.

The problem is that since the patient can't move at all, they can't do anything at all. Not even being able to signal that they're still conscious because the anesthesia didn't work. But it's the sedation of anesthesia that lets them not experience the pain of the procedure. The paralytic only locks them in place while they feel every second of the operation. Just temporarily experiencing locked-in syndrome by itself can lead to lifelong trauma. Experiencing that on top of feeling their bodies being sliced apart and having things shoved in or ripped out? It can directly lead to suicide for the patient. There are few things that can make you feel that helpless, and it's all because of an oversight from one of the professionals, nothing you have control over.

 

[AliceMoonvale]

Insomnia, chronic anxiety and sleep paralysis are pretty spooky.
I would know.

 

[HungrySheep]

Bills.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

How the universe can fall apart because a single electron chose to do a little wiggle at the wrong time.

 

[TinaMigarlo]

had sleep paralysis *once*, one time only thing. I was young, and never slept on my back... since.
wow, was that a weird experience. didn't find out what it was, until years later.

I was awake for surgery once.
I was having my face rebuilt, after getting hurt bad.
They gave me a shot in my room, wheeled me down to the cutting room.
i was woozy. They told me to count down from 20 to 1.
i was told, you can't make "one'. Naturally, I fought like hell to make one, cause you know, a challenge.

never made one.

I did however, watch with open eyes, unable to move.
as my *face* got worked on and rebuilt.
I saw everything. I heard everything. I felt everything. later described the procedures to a capital T.
even ID'd the guy that worked on my face. They tried to trick me, too.
said pick him out of a "line up" of three dudes. none of them. you? over there, in the back? it was you.
I can tell you what grinding a facial bone sounds and *smells* like.

when they finally started stitching me up, it didn't really hurt to have skin snipped and stitched.
it was pleasure, as compared to the rest. knew I was almost done.

it was a fun time.

what else. guy standing right next to me, got shot in the face. that was a fun time.
that involves talking to the state police investigators, prolly like 20 straight hours. fun times.

the awake for face rebuilding, i put that in one novel. too good not to use, and I *know* that's written realistically, lol.
same for the guy getting shot in the face scene. Changed the names, but the scene is molecule for molecule how it went down.
they're both in different books.
oh yeah, PTSD. Seeing the images or little movies? That's a feature in more than one book.
not a subject I know nothing about.

when i read violence in print, sometimes i get a clear sense the author is just trying to write about something they have zero experience with.
same goes for dealing with the violence, how they act afterwards, all that.
I call that "cartoon violence", when I read that.
something as simple as a hunting scene, people that do it regularly can tell when the author is just winging it.
gun-fu shootouts... hand to hand fights... using a knife on a human, most military scenes... these are the worst offenders, it stands out the most.

accident scenes are another one few people do well. or should I say like real life.

 

[Tabula_Rasa]

Fucked up things some governments did to destabilize other countries because of greed, that you find out about years later when it gets declassified, and then realise that it is the reason why there are some terrorists and extremists. And then realise the feed back loop of escalation and cycle of conflict is not defusing but growing every year and you are now riding the roller coaster spiral of more and more violence that are spewing out to every strata of global society and culture.

 

[Jerynboe]

One of my favorite stories about screwed up shit in war was the time the CIA completely exsanguinated bodies to make the superstitious locals think there was a vampire stalking them. And to be fair, whether or not the locals thought it was a vampire was largely academic at that point. Because let’s be honest, “the CIA is kidnapping members of our organization and draining them of blood then leaving us to find them” is at least as scary as a vampire.

As for spooky things that happen these days? How about the hot girls who stalk certain resort cities with the explicit intention of drugging rich idiots on holiday and getting them to drain their own bank accounts. Survival after that point is down to whether the closest thing we have to a succubus in real life modern day values operational security or the last shreds of her humanity more.

There’s also the organizations that specialize in facilitating illegal immigration. Setting aside any politics, people who do illegal things off the books with a clientele consisting entirely of desperate people going off the grid temporarily do not really have all that much incentive to be nice to their clients.

And yes. If I saw an opportunity to make good use of these concepts I’d absolutely draw upon them for inspiration. I don’t write in modern day settings much though.

 

[LiteraryWho]

One of my favorite stories about screwed up shit in war was the time the CIA completely exsanguinated bodies to make the superstitious locals think there was a vampire stalking them. And to be fair, whether or not the locals thought it was a vampire was largely academic at that point. Because let’s be honest, “the CIA is kidnapping members of our organization and draining them of blood then leaving us to find them” is at least as scary as a vampire.

Ah, the old Vlad the Impaler technique.

 

[TinaMigarlo]

One of my favorite stories about screwed up shit in war was the time the CIA completely exsanguinated bodies to make the superstitious locals think there was a vampire stalking them.e.

exsanquinated... nice word drop. well played.

As for spooky things that happen these days? How about the hot girls who stalk certain resort cities with the explicit intention of drugging rich idiots on holiday and getting them to drain their own bank accounts. Survival after that point is down to whether the closest thing we have to a succubus in real life modern day values operational security or the last shreds of her humanity more.

I used that one in a novel, lol.

 

[Lmae]

I get enough horrors from the news.

 

[N0xiety]

You can easily write a real life police horror. And getting ideas is really easy, just gotta watch videos of police cam on youtube or some other uncensored sites. Some of the police reactions to finding effed up stuff is quite something. And sometimes they get the help of people like locksmiths, or there will be bystanders, family etc., which then add to reactions.

Like for example, police goes for a wellness check for an old woman who hasn't been seen for some time. They get a locksmith, and while picking the lock of the door some sketchy looking huge dudette suddenly opens the door as the locksmith gets scared and backs up. Spins some story, acting all nervous. Cops make him wait outside with another, as they search the home. They can't find anything for some time, but the place is turned into a shithole with trash and stuff everywhere. Looks like it was a nice place before tho, it looks recently trashed, or at least that's what it looked like to me. Right before going out, one of them gets some clutter off and lifts a blanket, finding a locked freezer under it. He faintly notices a smell. They call for the locksmith to open the locked freezer. With the clutter and blanket off for some time, now they can all smell the death, especially the locksmith with his face close up as he is trying to pick the lock. Locksmith doesn't wanna see whatever is in there, asks them to wait for him to leave for them to open. One cop opens the lid before the locksmith can get out anyways, no idea why just hasty i suppose, or just not thinking when adrenaline spikes. And yea... they are all pretty shook there. You can guess the rest.

Anyways, so many things like this happen all around, most people just don't get to see any of it. This one is actually pretty mild all things considered. There are way worse stuff. Stuff that can make some of the cops lose their shit, cursing, crying, retching. Some of them can't handle it and leave it to others who are less effected to deal with. Well, veteran cops look less effected, but you can see that they aren't all fine with emotion leaving their face etc. That's real life horror for ya.

 

[Placeholder]

> That's real life horror for ya.

Or the NY cops who murdered that blind guy.

Blind refugee dies in New York after released by immigration

Immigration authorities say the Myanmar refugee was dropped at a "warm, safe" location, but New York officials say he was left outside a closed coffee shop.

www.bbc.com

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

What do you think about real-life horrors? For example: illness, the mafia, the elements, battles? Would you like to write about them or have you read about them?

I am writing about my personal horrors as a way of therapy.

 

[Ai-chan]

There are plenty of real life horrors, such as taxes (Ai-chan still can't figure that out), racism, neighbourly malice, motorcyclists, food poisoning and rat piss. But Ai-chan doesn't think any of those are scary to anyone other than Ai-chan, so Ai-chan never wrote them.

 

[JayMark]

Dealing with superiors and coworkers who levy unrealistic expectations.

 

[SouthernMaiden]

We all deal with real life horrors everyday. At least tinge it with a little bit of the fantastical.