How to Write a Horror Story Based on an Urban Legend

Urban legends are fictional stories that are told as if they really happened. The origin of most urban legends is usually unclear. Urban legends are told throughout the world, taking on different details and outcomes depending upon geography and culture. An urban legend is most often related to horror, providing horror writers with a solid base for original fiction. Learn how you can expand upon an existing urban legend to create an original horror tale.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Computer Word Processing Software

1. Choose an urban legend everyone is familiar with. "The Legend of Bloody Mary" is one example. Many have heard this legend in one form or another. The basics of this legend, as well as others, exist in only the most general of forms, leaving room for you to develop a back story around the legend.

2. Create three-dimensional characters from the people involved in the original urban legend. This includes victims, unknown killers and supernatural characters -- even if these characters' roles are ambiguous.

3. Determine your setting and customize your plot so the setting becomes important to the story itself. The idea is to turn the legend into a real horror story. This means you need to remove your story from the realm of the urban legend, where setting is unimportant and generalized.

4. Add original elements to the legend. You want to use the urban legend as the basis for an original horror story. This means you will write material that gives your urban legend an origin as well as an original twist. You might even add new characters to help dramatize the history of the legend. Consider tying the legend to a real life historical event such as the Salem witch trials.

5. Leave the urban legend itself intact and recognizable. Since you're writing a horror story based on an urban legend, you want your readers to have an overall sense of familiarity as well as a feeling of being introduced to something new. Don't completely disregard the legend. Expand upon it. The combination of old and new will leave your readers satisfied.

References

• Urban Legends and Superstitions
• Horror Factor