Tales of Horror: Writing Spine - Chilling Stories  - Workshop, Mumbai Literature Festival - 18 November 2016. Darryl Jones. 

Once upon a time there was a Ghost disguised as a serpent and his name was SATAN.

SATAN SATAN SATAN !!!!!!!!!!!!!  Wait a minute, i have heard this name somewhere. This sounds so familiar.

 HMMMMMMM LEMMMMMME THINKKKKK.

Oh yeah !!!!!!!!!!  This Evil Son of a Gun was in the Bible and especially in the Chapter Genesis. He was in the beginning and i guess will stay till the end.

So yeah he should be hovering around somewhere right now as i  try to write a spine chilling story at 1:00 AM in the night all alone in my room.

Well Satan after all is a Ghost. Why am i saying that ?.

Ghost does what Satan does at best. I have not really come across a friendly Ghost story. Think hard and all you may get is Casper and few others. Matter of the fact is that they were no friendly either.

Well like it or not the first  Ghost writer would have wrote the Bible. Well he was well aware of such a entity (Talking Ghost in a serpent). It should obviously be a ghost talking as serpents just HISSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!. All i have to say is WOW. Should i really be afraid of such a thing. Some say FEAR is False evidence appearing real and many say fear is human. I stick to being human. I for sure know that any ghost if out there can easily beat the fuck out of me. I have no coming back from it. Rather than being brave it is better that you run for your life. Rite now there is no clue of Satan around while i am writing this piece as Satan himself is writing  it.

Satan and me in union singing this song - The Ghost Whisperer.

The reason i consider my being with Satan is because of a story i concoct during the recently attended Literature Festival based on a actual persons real life story. May sound dumb and medieval bronze age shit but we all believe in it like it or not if you believe in GOD. He is the one who has come up with this Crazy son of a Biaaatccchhhhhh !!!!!!

Before i come up with the story i made i had the pleasure to attend a workshop given by Darryl Jones. He is a Dean of Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social science and a Professor in the School of English at Trinity College Dublin. He specializes in Genre of Horror. Thanks to him i come up with my very own modern day twist of Horror.

Few points i got from this workshop.

1. I will keep an open mind and will believe in it if you can give me an evidence to satisfy me is not what any Ghost writer should ask himself before he starts writing it

The thing that he should keep in mind is "I wont believe in it as such but while writing i did believe in it and i will make you believe". Well like it or not this is what the First Ghostwriter came up with. People today have been inspired and have come up with a twist of the original version. Invasion Of Body Snatchers is the twist that you get. 

First Horror story as per Darryl is the Classical Tragedy of Euripides/Bacchae/Mayhem violence. Like it or not it is a Representation of Religion, Cannibalism.

There is a difference in between Terror and Horror. Horror evokes reaction (Shock/Disgust) and Terror evokes fear. Fear though and extremely powerful force is expected and anticipated for many. (Shock/Disgust) is not expected otherwise. How many times will any one say that i am shocked rather than saying i am afraid. For certain afraid will be most of the time than shocked which is heard of only in a unnatural event

 Examples: Coming in contact with a Cannibal. (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) will evoke shock.
Terror and Fear will always go with movies involving war. I liked the Brad Pitt movie Fury in which a young guy fighting the war shits in his pants out of fear.

2.  While writing the Genre of Horror it is Terror (fear) followed by Horror (shock) and finally grossing one out. Grossing should be used sparingly while writing.

3. Lovecraft is a writer that has broken every rule of writing horror.  M.R JAMES is one of a writer that does well in it.

4. There always needs to be a mesmerizing dissolving decomposing sense of atmosphere while writing a piece on horror.

5.  Now comes the Classification of Horror

SATANISM:  Demonology/Occult. Like it or not comes in the classification  of Horror. This proves my point about the first Ghost writer who has used this concept effectively.

SECULAR HORROR: Madmen/Psychos. We are the monsters.

SUPERNATURAL: Paranoid disorder of order.

FANTASY: Eruption of supernatural in the real world.

MARVELOUS: Fairy Tales

UNREALITY: Epistemological/Uncertainty. Unease and Doubt. Tale of Madness.

So the genre i chose was Supernatural and this is my story Based on (Significant others/Member of the group) true events

Just a idea of the story 

Once upon a time there lived a honest Income Tax Officer working for the Revenue Services.  Suddenly while working he came to know about change in laws (Demonetization)  which was  going to affect the whole country. He was shocked just like any other. He agreed to co-operate with the government and worked hard towards keeping up with the plan. One day he gets a tip of illegal transaction taking place and acts upon it. Before he could do something about it he was killed.

Years and Years passed no one ever knew when and how all of a sudden a hardworking and a honest man like him disappeared. Suddenly one fine night a known acquaintance starts seeing strange things around him. Fear takes the best of him and is shocked when he starts to hear the voice of his lost friend. He then comes to know that he was murdered and takes him to the place where he was buried.

He was told to keep quiet about it. All he has to do is observe to see what comes next.
Man who killed the officer starts hearing his dog bark. Dogs keep barking and barking. He persuades them to keep quiet as he cant sleep. In a fit of rage he takes out his gun and shoots the dog. He fires a single shot straight in its head. Followed by that he goes in disbelief when he still hears the dog bark. The barking of dogs from his ears goes into his body. He is shocked and terrified and starts vomiting. He eventually comes to know it is the Ghost of the Tax officer who he killed. He realizes his mistake and immediately goes to the police station and confesses his murder. Police are shocked on listening to what he has to say and arrests him. He then spends his rest of the years living alone in solitude in shock.

The guys real story hails from Karad, Maharashtra in which he was contacted by the souls of few women who were killed (burned alive) in Dowry dispute . He unfortunately could not help them as he was not in a position to do it. I dont know how much of it is true but this was the gist of what he had to say.

If what he has to say is out there God alone knows what is really out there.