How to Write a Cosmic Horror Story without making the readers go insane while reading it.

Exactly what the title says.

If one read the works of Lovecraft, the true horror comes after one is done with reading the story and start thinking harder about it in the aftermath.

However, there's horrors that are so relevant in the Cosmic Horror category that it's fully capable of, and dangerously so, to drive people insane in real-time before even getting to the end of that story, leaving it unfinished in terms of reading it through.

I don't want that to happen. (The point of people never being able to finish a story I write, that is, due to the message getting through too good.)

So how do I avoid this scenario where the reader goes either walloping mad or suicidal just from the revelation brought to them by reading it page-by-page until they can reach the end and then let the horror sink in properly?

I'm seriously asking this, since I don't want to have anyone sent to a mental hospital for life (or worse) because I needed to get it out from my head somehow in one way or another.

Any help would be appreciated, so would any advice regarding how to proceed in this endeavor as well.

Edited by TitanJump on Aug 11th 2019 at 10:47:03 AM

I somehow doubt yours let alone Lovecrafts works could scare someone that badly. It might leave them with a bad case of Fridge Horror or expose them to serious Nightmare Fuel though.

A cosmic horror story is based on a fear of the unknown.

Yeah, I don’t think that’s really a realistic danger to worry about. Just write what you want to write, and I can guarantee you it will not drive anyone insane.

Edited by archonspeaks on Aug 11th 2019 at 5:09:43 AM

To his credit, Lovecraft did base a lot of his ideas on his nightmares.

Yeah, if readers have that extreme a reaction, they're likely unstable to begin with, and therefore it isn't your fault.

That said, you can still make a downplayed Cosmic Horror Story.

Dont worry about it. Writing such a thing would drive you insane, so you won't be able to finish it anyway.

Edited by DeMarquis on Aug 12th 2019 at 5:55:12 AM

Have you read up on Roko's basilisk, and the reaction to it? That might be a better start than Lovecraft, unless one considers that Lovecraft's writings might have been a disinformation plan attempting to discourage those readers who'd be interested in such topics from pursuing those interests, whether for or against the basilisk's interests.

Roko's Basilisk isn't a Cosmic Horror Story, it's a thought experiment with terrible implications if such a thing were ever a reality.

Not even a good thought experiment.

Don't include graphic depictions of violence, sadism, rape and/or depravity for shock value. Books are guides for the imagination, readers don't need a blow-by-blow of every horrid thing that is going on. It will just make it harder for you to find outlets to post on. Stories can't cause insanity, because nothing in them is real.

To be frank, it's the greatest artistic challenge to write a kind of literature that would literally drive your readers insane. This is something you should aspire to as a writer, not run away from it.

Doesn't mean that the goal itself is admirable, though. Or achievable, for that matter, but it will help you to get into the right mindset when approaching writing.

Edited by Millership on Aug 29th 2019 at 10:26:38 PM

Thank. You, for saying that. It was really inspiring to read and ignited my spirit to finally get started, (story selected, just lacked the courage to begin due to fear.)

Appreciating all responses thus far, Thank you all for sharing your opinions and voices on this matter.

It gave me plenty to think about...

I don’t think there’s a single instance in recorded history of a work of fiction spontaneously driving someone insane, so if you can manage it that would certainly be historical. I really wouldn’t worry about that outcome though.

Well, not really...

There is one piece of literature that actually have been recorded to drive plenty of individuals of humanity insane from having too many readings from it through the passage of civilization's history and all the way to present day even...

...it's called "The Bible".

Edited by TitanJump on Aug 30th 2019 at 8:58:28 PM

I’d remind you religion-bashing is generally not very nice. Maybe let’s not go there.

Either way, the Bible doesn’t leave people “walloping mad” or require them to be to be “sent to a mental hospital for life” like you were implying your literature would. In fact, no literature does that.

Edited by archonspeaks on Aug 30th 2019 at 12:08:38 PM

The Malleus Maleficarum probably came the closest...

I mean, that depends how you define “insane”. It certainly inspired people to do some pretty brutal stuff, but at the time it was considered essentially an academic or legal manuscript. It certainly didn’t drive anyone gibbering mad like eldritch knowledge tends to do in stories.

Wasn't religion-shaming. (Since the bible is just a work of fiction after all), just pointing out that people have gone insane from reading it, not all of them, but some, and that it still happens in the present.

As said up above, "if you go insane from reading a work of fiction, then you most likely were crazy to begin with".

Just to clarify.

I wouldn’t technically describe religious texts as fiction, for obvious reasons. They kind of occupy their own category.

Either way, there are no recorded instances of the content in the Bible causing someone to spontaneously lose their mind. There are no recorded instances of the content in any piece of literature doing that, that’s just not how mental illness works in real life.

The scenario you described in your OP is simply not plausible.

Edited by archonspeaks on Aug 31st 2019 at 3:34:03 AM

"No recorded instances" is the key word here, since the origin of many horror stories comes from the POV of those individuals who have witnessed something they were never meant to and were marked as crazy. That is another thing the OP can instill into his narrative. Exploring dark cover ups in innocent every day parts of human life is a great way to generate that creeping realization that many authors strive for.

Stories that make you doubt your current reality and seek out the darkness, and then being disturbed at how endless and deep that pursuit gets. Your favorite pet dog becoming a monster someday. Your government eliminating you for learning too much. Your beloved religion turning out to be evil personified under the guise of life improvement, the family you always loved being the very enemy you've tried to escape from, your dream girl setting you up as the scapegoat of a terrible crime, or worse, the prey to a sadistic psychopath. Horror tackles these dark fears and makes them more flammable, so that you can set your own paranoid mind ablaze. OP, you won't drive people crazy with your fiction, but if written well enough you can make them suspicious and paranoid of everything they have ever come to accept as real and positive, which is still a remarkable feat. Making them scared of things that aren't there is true success in horror.

L. Ron Hubbard had a novel he refused to release because it was supposedly so good that anyone who read it would commit suicide.

Don't be like L. Ron Hubbard.

Edited by Wheezy on Sep 3rd 2019 at 6:27:43 AM

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH -airhorn-

To take this idea seriously for a moment, the main theoretical objection is that you would have to formulate these mind destroying ideas in a written language, which are specifically designed to facilitate communication between sane, intelligent people.

The only report of which I am aware of a work of fiction that allegedly drove someone insane concerns Oh! Calcutta!, but that person could have been unstable before seeing it, and given the source, the whole account could easily be a lie. So I wouldn't worry.