Introduction

I wish I had more news for you, but I’m still sitting on contracts. That said, I do have some fun things coming up in April, including the ENTER HERE anthology kickstarter which starts April 1! If you believe in this anthology of speculative and marginalized voices, please consider contributing what you can. If you want to submit, guidelines are here!

Also coming up are my story in Flash Point SF on April 18 and my story in PUSH: An anthology of childbirth horror on April 30, as well as one of my favorite stories ever in the April issue of The Deadlands. All three are horror…so let’s continue with a horror topic.

Why didn’t you just leave?

A while back, Cursed Morsels press put out a horror book: Why Didn’t You Just Leave? All the stories are specifically about why people don’t leave scary situations. (I actually submitted to this, although my story, The Creeping, one of my faves, was actually published in another venue, and will be available sometime this year in Penumbric Speculative Fiction.)

The Creeping is about a woman who encounters a paranormal phenomenon in her bedroom while she’s in the middle of a depressive episode, and because of her severe depression, keeps making excuses not to leave.

So why do they stay?

This topic came up again recently in my sub discord. Someone asked, how do I make it realistic that my character stays in a haunted house? We came up with a bunch of different answers, but I think the most interesting one was the plot goal. The want. What does this character want that can only be served by staying in the house?

For some, it’s money. They’ve been poor. They’ve been bribed. They need a place to stay and this house is their last chance. Think The Conjuring, when they’re just moved the family to a new place for a new start, or I am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House, where a home health nurse takes a needed job.

For others, it’s a place to hide from an abusive ex or someone else in their life they’re avoiding. In Housebound, the MC is literally avoiding the justice system on house arrest.

Still for others, it’s adventure. They want to prove to themselves that they can. Which may wrap around to money again. Think Paranormal Activity and The Houses October Built.

The reasons go on and on.

Want vs Horrors

The important thing is, their want must be proportional to the horrors. If they just want a cheap thrill, they’re probably going to nope out pretty quick when the lights start flicking and blood comes down the walls. But if they want to impress that girl they’re obsessed with, now that’s a stronger motivation.

The horrors must also be gradual. If Satan is manifesting in the middle of the night day one and the people decide to stay, audiences aren’t gong to suspend their disbelief. You gotta boil the frog slowly. Draw your bath while you’re sitting in it (does anyone else do this? Just me?).

If someone major happens right away, ala Hereditary, where something horrific happens in the first act, it’s going to cause major shifts in the story and whether the people stay will be determined by the iron strength of their want.

The book The Spite House by Johnny Compton does this well. We get some serious hauntings up front, but this is a man in a (a) desperate situation with (b) literally nowhere else to turn, so he’s more than wiling to subject himself to whatever it takes, even physical harm, to save himself and his daughters.

Conclusion

I love a good haunted house mystery. But you can liken it to an abusive relationship. If the person is staying, they have to be getting something—safety, stability, money, freedom from worse harm—from the relationship that’s so enticing they don’t go.

It’s the same with the haunted house. It entices us in gradually with the promise of meeting our wants, and then slowly shifts our perspective.

What do you think? Comment with some of your favorite haunted house stories/movies and why you think they work!

If you appreciate what I do, buy me a ko-fi or grab a $10 query or short story critique.