The ghost story is having a new lease of life. It was at its most popular in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, before being overtaken by the horror story, which began to thrive with the horror film. But think of coffin lids opened slowly by a skeleton hand and mummified corpses – and laugh. In piling it on so thick, horror quickly became comic.A good ghost story is never funny. It is too near to us. Perhaps in order to find it convincing we must believe that it could possibly happen. I do not know of any “true” horror stories, but there are thousands of true ghost stories, beginning with those told by the flickering firelight in the caves of prehistoric man. Every region of the British Isles has its local ghost stories, and every country and culture has its repeated tales.
To be any good, a ghost story needs a structure, characters, a narrative line (dialogue is optional). Above all, the ghost must have a purpose. It may be revenge for harm suffered. It may be to explain some past incident. It may be to protest, to offer information – the whereabouts or contents of a will, a murdered body or the identity of a killer.
I have never written a ghost story merely to evoke a shudder. I cannot see the point in simply making people afraid. I want to do more. I want the reader to ask questions, to ponder, to be intrigued and to create an atmosphere from which the story will emerge.
Atmosphere is essential to a ghost story. How does it come about? By evocative description and a sense of place – perhaps the traditional empty, haunted house at night. Buildings are important. But a deserted office block at night in an empty city centre could be a place full of ghosts.
Resource: telegraph.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llLN8rrvT8M&feature=fvwrel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0fJ3Bv1HsM&NR=1
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