But I'm the master puppeteer! I'll make my characters do whatever I want. I am in charge!

Wrong. Your people, the characters of your horror story, are not puppets. If you want to play with two-dimensional, paper doll characters, you can force them to jump through your hoops. But if you want three-dimensional, "Is it live or Is it Memorex?" characters, no way. Writing with three-dimensional characters is kind of like herding ducks. You can guide them in a general direction, but they're going to go where they want to.

That sounds like a lot of work. Why should I go to all the bother, if two-dimensional characters are so much easier to work with. After all, horror is about PLOT.

No it isn't. Horror is about how people react when they encounter the plot.

Even the coolest monster gets dull fast without a protagonist we can really care about, someone who act in an intelligent, realistic way.

Take the movie The Creature From the Black Lagoon. The Gill Man. One of the coolest monsters ever created.

One of the dullest movies ever made.

Why? Because the supposedly intrepid and scientific exploration team was dull and dumb. They jumped through plot hoops instead of acting as individuals.

"Plot Hoop," a definition: When a character does something really dumb, or so far "out of character" that the response is:

Yo! Why are you chasing that zombie motorcycle gang into the dark room by yourself when backup's on the way?

Why are you going into the vampire's lair at midnight, when you could wait a few hours and do it safely in daylight?

Plot hoops are what make people put down your book and turn on the TV, walk the dog, or call up Auntie Em for a long chat. No one wants to read about puppets jumping through plot hoops.

So, what can you do?

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