The Scary Storytelling Toolkit

Be The Bite Interactive is a multimedia studio, specializing in horror narrative  🕷️ 📓 My name is Izaak & I mentor industry revolutionizing horror fiction in every medium, resolving narrative issues thoroughly.   This blog is for motivation, full of evidence based methods for mastering scary storytelling.   If you want to become instantly effective in horror, my   1-1 mentoring is available now, sign up for it here:   Be The Bite Interactive's 1-1 Narrative Mentoring – Fill out form   I want to talk about return on investment, through the narrative building phase of your project. In pre-production, or in the ideation phase is where most people pour their time and effort into perfecting something. Not many professionals think about their time/energy investment into their stories, they just rush to get a final script ready and then just do things on the fly. These are not efficient ways of working, and definitely do not bring your ideas to justice. It'...

Be The Bite Interactive is a multimedia studio, specializing in horror narrative  🕷️ 📓 My name is Izaak & I mentor industry revolutionizing horror fiction in every medium, resolving narrative issues thoroughly.   This blog is for motivation, full of evidence based methods for mastering scary storytelling.   If you want to become instantly effective in horror, my   1-1 mentoring is available now, sign up for it here:   Be The Bite Interactive's 1-1 Narrative Mentoring – Fill out form   I need to talk you through making emotive impact with characters and why it should be effortless! There seems to be tonnes of information out there, I mean tonnes about making relatable characters. There’s a lot this: ‘make each character fit the trope for each sub-genre’…In my opinion, this should only be done if fans are literally begging you to go there. But if they are not, if you just want a far easier method to actually make emotionally resonant characters in your...

The evening of the the boy’s eighth birthday was met with both embarrassment and joy. It meant that he was finally ready to go out by himself for the first time, without Mildred. ‘There be monsters among men.’ Mildred warned the boy, ‘just be my brave son and rush back. My three shillings…’, she hands over the money. ‘Just buy everything that your eyes desire, my little scrumptious birthday boy!’ This feeble, dark haired boy was totally enamored. Mildred wasn't usually this rewarding but the boy sailed the momentary bliss. The embarrassment was as strong. The bullies from school stole his triple chocolate muffin & said they would return for the rest of his birthday bounties. ‘By the embankment the sweet shoppe is the…’ Mildred's tongue stuck out but the boy beat her to it. ‘The one with the burgundy door!’ the boy exclaims, realizing he could buy at least seven triple chocolate muffins. Bullies R.I.P.   ‘My boy, if I remember rightly…I’ve heard rumors that beggar...

Be The Bite Interactive is a multimedia studio, specializing in narrative horror & innovation🔮📓1-1 narrative mentoring now available, sign up here:  Be The Bite Interactive's 1-1 Narrative Mentoring – Fill out form  I want to talk symbolism in horror. Is symbolism in horror even important? The short answer is: yes. But the mistake that writers and directors make is intellectualizing symbolism. So let me break down the easy way to make symbolism work for your horror media. Symbols, by definition are recognizable imagery by the subconscious that imply meaning from cultures or by themselves i.e. bat, represents darkness, nocturnal-ism, inner reflection (cave) Basically, fiction relies on the written word. Even if spoken, put to screen or gamified. In literature, readers love to see meaning in texts beyond their initial intent. But in the west, symbolism is used to define something as finite. Not so much in the east, where representations of things can simply exist. Easte...

Be The Bite Interactive is a multimedia studio, specializing in narrative horror & innovation🔮📓1-1 Narrative mentoring available, sign up here: bio.site/bethebite  The most important thing when making horror fiction is…to make sure that your idea feels EXCITING. It needs to feel like you are buzzed about it. If you can’t rave about the fiction idea to one person, how do you expect to rave about it when it’s finished to thousands or millions? This is where vulnerability plays a big part in sharing ideas, I know how hard it can feel to express fiction ideas. But, find a way to express your fiction ideas in the easiest way possible. Some initial ideas: make a blog post, tell a family member, comment on a social media community group. There’s tonnes of great places online to share ideas, and here’s the thing…never be afraid to share you work, even if you are worried someone might steal it or it might lose its impact.  Being brave is getting the idea reviewed, before going fu...

I've heard of lot of you finding it tough to begin writing, to seeing projects through till the end. The easiest way and most effective way is to make things from the heart. If there is something you no longer love about your project, then maybe this is a big sign that you're heart is not in it. SO many times I've heard people give up on writing, and its OKAY. But all your projects can be saved, and gracefully illuminated by just listening into your own interests.  TAKE A MOMENT to suss out which elements of your creative work feels like garbage. Now listen into your heart, feel the rhythm of it. If you are beginning a project, like a new book or a movie script then this is your chance to write the version that is 'heart on the sleeve'. I've done in this on many projects, and its a really engaging process.   

I do not breathe, I do not need to read. Believe me, I tried to be evil. I hated it. Saints are just beggars of glory and might. For now there is no saint, no sinner, just ink. The ink stain bled messily on the map of The Sekries Mansion.  ‘Don’t move in there, there is only lies and we know the secret.' spoke a dreadful middle aged woman. 'But fear me, madrigal, for secrets are full of it. Fear me! Death, I am your master!' Thirty three years eariler, Madrigal enjoyed tying her lace with the tinged map in her mouth she had just found in the backyard, Jekyll her brother was only seven and knew all this time they shouldn’t be breaking in. The brown haired, brown eyed and malt toned Madrigal didn't know it yet, but she was madly in love with the mystery that she bore. They broke in through the back.  No need for a key, they had been told the backgate would be left ajar but tied with tape. Rip!   Time slips by us all, I think to myself. I know they're here. ...

I've been making horror stories for the last few years, and I've researched the mechanics of storytelling as to be honest...it fascinates me.   Be The Bite Interactive offers narrative consulting to elevate your horror storytelling, so sign up for that here: bio.site/bethebite  The easiest (and most ancient) format of storytelling is the monomyth. What is it? Why does it exist? Why is it important? If you haven't heard of the monomyth, there's some great resources out there by scholar Joseph Campbell. Basically, there is a recognizable format of storytelling that transcends cultures and ages. Bottom line is, storytelling is innate to human beings and provides spiritual and meaningful context to our lives. The monomyth, is the structure that moves the story along and has been seen in many ancient myths to modern ones. I'll go into depth into the Monomyth in a later post, for now all you need to know is the basic idea:  Main character(s) is required to go throu...

If you make the story insanely relatable , through emotional beats then everything becomes believable, (to an extent). Even if the stakes are ridiculous you can make people cry. By focusing on relationships , meaning and growth the audience will be just as thrilled by character development to make memorable horror fiction.   SO give your characters backstory, give them growth arcs, and make sure you put yourself in every characters shoes. This way, so does your audience.   Extra tidbit: The scariest stories rely on repetition. To enhance dread think about including symbols, relics and phrases that repeat. These become triggers, and they build tension easily. The key to mastering this one though is to ensure that each repetition becomes more sinister & more time sensitive. For more ways to master horror storytelling, go check out my free masterclass here:  bio.site/bethebite  

In my mind they scream my name. But I'm not J-J-Jonie. They tried to eradicate me, the bullies. I slay evil these days like, IRL. I do it for me. The bass runs through my big skull, bliss. The rage I felt from every kick. Skip track. Skip! Seditious -180bpm. Tap, repeat track. It's the RPG Maker stare-off. Just me & the 8K monitor I recently bought. Everyone says they see more with 8K, but I don't see more. //MINOS.respawn   I eradicate bugs. Delete. Minos isn't in my game, I don't remember it being in the game…maybe the mechanics got buggy. Slurp! My energy drink gives me momentary bliss. I'm not Jonie in my m-mind, that's because in the big event they define as…existing, Mr Z is my mental moniker.  Mr Z releases the best rpg maker game, steals boyfriends, receives bad review's!?  No! I ring my family immediately to cool it. Mr Z killed Jonie, so I'm blunt these days. Then back to the bass, back to Mr Z's dominion. I bash out the main ...

Be The Bite Interactive is a horror narrative studio, making mythic tales of terror. I'm consulting on projects to elevate your horror storytelling to be more meaningful & memorable, so sign up for that here:  biosite.com/bethebite    The monomyth and myth structure: Why is this relevant to horror? If you haven't already heard of the monomyth, it's the narrative structure that has been used through the ages and across cultures. Joseph campbell, a mythological scholar identified repeated patterns in stories across the world. The main thing you need to know about the monomyth, is:   The main character must fight enemies, move through trials and in doing so reveals the meaning of life. The journey they go on, is to uncover more about themselves and their relationship with god/a higher power. The main character then brings back knowledge/powers from the spiritual source that benefits the many. This isn't just religion, or spiritual stories.  This pattern i...