History SoYouWantTo / WriteACreepypasta

EldritchLocation or GeniusLoci can be the monster in and of itself, be it the No End House or Hell itself. Twisting the familiar is a tried and true literary technique- WebVideo/TheMonumentMythos ' bread and butter is warping the famous American landmarks into creepshows.

Stop me if you've heard this one before- Heavily scarred teenage serial killer in a hoodie, wielding a bladed weapon and a HealingFactor of some sort, usually white and male with a catchphrase they say on each kill. If you thought of Jeff the Killer, Ticci Toby, X-Virus, Masky and Hoodie...

When the genre began it was all about mascots- cute anime boys for fanart to Woobify into a misunderstood DracoInLeatherPants. Nowadays, while mascots are perfectly fine (certain ones like Smile Dog and Slenderman have indeed stood the test of time), there are only so many creepy photographs in the world you can spin a story around. The face of your Pasta should be yours, be it a shambling shoggoth or pony cannibal.

Just remember that real life serial killers aren't supervillains- To quote [[Film/TheAddamsFamily Wednesday Addams]], "They look just like everyone else."

Your readers are TheEveryman- and they have quite the ego about themselves. Adapt your character to the setting and time, but remember that slashers have among the most made fun of protagonists of any genre. Any subversion of its idiot ball tendencies are good. What would you do in this situation? MostWritersAreHuman, after all.

Then, of course, comes the fun part- Designing a monster. UncannyValley, GlasgowGrin, shrunken features and perversions of the natural order a beastie make. Determine where you want to sit on the scale from realistic to CosmicHorror, from ''Scream'' to ''Literature/TheMist''. If your threat is particularly corruptive, your very protagonist may become WasOnceAMan.

* Kris Straub's ''[[Literature/CandleCove'', considered by many to be one of the most brilliant 'lost-episode' creepypastas.

Creepypasta is a frequently ridiculed genre. Its beginning to shake the reputation it once had, but a particularly bad story will never be forgotten- the Internet loves a punching bag.

* ''[[WebOriginal/JeffTheKiller Jeff the Killer]]'' (more specifically the 2011 version), to the point where the story was moved to the Trollpasta wiki.
* ''Fanfic/SonicExe'', another pasta so bad it was moved to the Trollpasta wiki.

Then, of course, comes the fun part- Designing a monster. UncannyValley, GlasgowGrin, shrunken features and perversions of the natural order a beastie make. Determine where you want to sit on the scale from realistic to CosmicHorror, from Scream to TheMist. If your threat is particularly corruptive, your very protagonist may become WasOnceAMan.

* Kris Straub's [[Literature/CandleCove Candle Cove]], considered by many to be one of the most brilliant 'lost-episode' creepypastas.

* [[WebOriginal/JeffTheKiller Jeff the Killer]] (more specifically the 2011 version), to the point where the story was moved to the Trollpasta wiki.
* Fanfic/SonicExe, another pasta so bad it was moved to the Trollpasta wiki.

* A group of friends visiting a local forest,
* Waking up in an unfamiliar room,
* Waking up from a disturbing vision,
* Walking somewhere and get the feeling that you're being stalked,

The biggest part of a creepy pasta is, as the name suggests, the creep factor. However, what exact type of horror we are dealing with varies from story to story, ranging from DeathOfAChild to ZombieApocalypse. You must first determine what frightens you the most. The boogeyman, lurking under the bed? A businessman with no face? Inexplicable stairways to nowhere in the middle of the forest? Forgetting your child in the car on a hot day? Ghosts? The end of the world? The devil himself? Or the possibility that you're already dead and this is your DyingDream? Horror is as varied and diverse as humanity, and as the author of that horror, you must tell us where we are in the Twilight Zone.

* WebVideo/BadCreepypasta chronicles these, as well as pointing out for each one just *why* it doesn't work.

So... You like to read creepypastas don't you?

* TheSlenderManMythos is one of the shining examples of the readers making the monster and NothingIsScarier.

Then, of course, comes the fun part- Designing a monster. UncannyValley, GlasgowGrins, shrunken features and perversions of the natural order a beastie make. Determine where you want to sit on the scale from realistic to CosmicHorror, from Scream to TheMist. If your threat is particularly corruptive, your very protagonist may become WasOnceAMan.

!!Suggested Plots

!!Props Department

And of course, there's the ending- assuming the protagonist gets anything outside a DownerEnding or a PhyrrhicVictory, readers will expect them to EarnYourHappyEnding.

And of course, there's the ending- assuming the protagonist gets anything outside a DownerEnding or a PhyrricVictory, readers will expect them to EarnYourHappyEnding.

!Where To Start

The biggest part of a creepy pasta is, as the name suggests, the creep factor. However, what exact type of horror we are dealing with varies from story to story, ranging from AdultFear to ZombieApocalypse. You must first determine what frightens you the most. The boogeyman, lurking under the bed? A businessman with no face? Inexplicable stairways to nowhere in the middle of the forest? Forgetting your child in the car on a hot day? Ghosts? The end of the world? The devil himself? Or the possibility that you're already dead and this is your DyingDream? Horror is as varied and diverse as humanity, and as the author of that horror, you must tell us where we are in the Twilight Zone.

* VideoGame/SonicExe, another pasta so bad it was moved to the Trollpasta wiki.

!!Alternative Considerations

Since the "haunted video game" and "lost episode" classes have been done to death, there are various alternative settings you might want to consider. A demonstrative backstory takes the perspective of a character from a game itself, examining the events of the in-game world from their perspective, establishing a backstory for them, before eventually revealing who they are and their motivations within the game world.

Traditional horror allows one the simple ability to imagine a psychological or cosmic horror story and post that over the web. For advice on these types of stories a simple look into the "How to Write a Horror Story" page would be recommended.

!!Making the characters believable

When it comes to creating characters (Be it VillainProtagonist OC or otherwise), it's crucial to try and make them interesting. Perhaps the POV character is a LeadYouCanRelateTo struggling to survive the horrors thrown at them, or the main character goes through a gradual process of ProtagonistJourneyToVillain due to circumstances that pushed them too far.

If the protagonist isn't believable or relatable, you usually end up not caring about them. This means that Mary Sue characters are even worse than usual, because nobody's perfect and that includes the reader. As such, you should give the protagonist flaws, interests, motivations, and/or redeeming qualities.

For further tips on creating a character, see SoYouWantTo/MakeInterestingCharacters and SoYouWantTo/DevelopCharacterPersonality.

!!Words to watch out for when writing

Among other things in creepypasta to watch out for is what words have been overused to the point where it makes the story redundant or cliché. From a narrative standpoint, words such as 'hyper-realistic' became a constant in poorly written creepypasta with little understanding to the meaning behind it. From the profiling of a character standpoint, one of the most common titles used on characters is 'the Killer', which only serves to create a Self-Insert Character clone of pre-existing OCs.

* [[WebOriginal/JeffTheKiller Jeff the Killer]] (more specifically the 2011 version), to the point where the story was moved to the Trollpasta wiki.

The biggest part of a creepy pasta is, as the name suggests, the creep factor. However, what exact type of horror we are dealing with varies from story to story, ranging from AdultFear to ZombieApocalypse. You must first determine what frightens you the most. The boogeyman, lurking under the bed? A businessman with no face? Inexplicable stairways to nowhere in the middle of the forest? Forgetting your child in the car on a hot day? Ghosts? The end of the world? The devil himself? Or the possibility that you're already dead and this is your DyingDream? Horror is as varied and diverse as humanity, and as the author of that horror, you must tell us where we are in the Twilight Zone. Read up on HorrorTropes.

* [[Literature/JeffTheKiller Jeff the Killer]] (more specifically the 2011 version), to the point where the story was moved to the Trollpasta wiki.