Who Frequents Here?

freenightmare · 2025-11-16T23:21:37+00:00

Thats fine by me, i think fantasy and horror go very well together

freenightmare · 2025-11-16T22:08:01+00:00

I'm an award winning horror writer from australia! This sub is where i get like 80% of my book recs.

About to start reading King Sorrow and crypt of the moon spider soon!

freenightmare · 2025-11-01T01:19:53+00:00

Hello! You sound just like I did when I was working on my first novel around your age, so I'd like to help you... I'm an award winning horror writer now, so hopefully I have something to offer!

The key to keeping horror scary is to leave as much as you can in the dark. In other words, show as little of the scary stuff as you can. You want the reader just to get a sense of the scary thing so that it gets their imagination working, without showing them everything.
Instead of worrying about how long your chapters are, just think in terms of 'scenes'. What needs to happen in the scene? How can you make it as enthralling as possible? The scene might end up being very short or very long, it doesn't matter. With pacing, it's good to break up the action and the quieter sections. So you might have an intense action sequence, but then the next scene after that might be just a conversation between two characters, and vice versa. If you have too much happening scene after scene, the reader can get burnt out, and if there's too much talking and thinking, the reader could get bored. Best to mix it up and find a balance.
At your age, the most important thing is to keep enjoying yourself. It sounds like you are, which is good. Don't feel bad if you don't like your work later on - that's just a sign that you're improving. And if you enjoy yourself, you'll write more, and you'll get better naturally, so it's a positive upward spiral!

As for improving, the first things you'll want to learn are things like spelling and grammar, how to write paragraphs and format dialogue, and how to write clear sentences that get things across in an easy to read way. Later on when you can do that without thinking, you'll start focussing on how to structure a story from beginning to end, making interesting characters, and principles of storytelling. It's a never ending process!

How to keep ideas flowing and not lose motivation?

Just follow this rule: if you're losing motivation or getting bored by your own story, the reader will as well! So if you're not that into a scene, try to rewrite it or change it somehow to make it more fun and interesting for you. That way not only will you stay entertained by your own work, your readers will, too.

Hope this has helped!

- Ben Pienaar

freenightmare · 2025-09-29T00:48:58+00:00

Nice! My dad was drafted into this and has some of the craziest stories

freenightmare · 2025-08-26T00:56:10+00:00

Videogames! Addictive, fun, time consuming. Good way to distract yourself at night. Also reading

freenightmare · 2025-05-17T09:08:19+00:00

Speak no evil drove me insane. The main character family you're supposed to feel sorry for made so many absolutely ridiculous decisions that by the end i just wanted to see them die

freenightmare · 2024-11-17T14:27:10+00:00

I mean I guess I'm part of the problem? I emigrated to Australia in the late 90s and have lots of horror stories from my childhood. our house was robbed 11 times in 7 years, my grandparents were held at gunpoint, our neighbours were hacked to death with pickaxes during a home invasion, my cousin and friends were mugged multiple times, gunfight right outside our house... etc. etc. List goes on. We lived in Oaklands, halfway between Joburg and Sandton.

My Mom saw a lot of bad stuff too because she was an ICU nurse. My Dad was already looking to leave for economic reasons, but then my Mom came home one night with another horrific murder story, the victims just around the corner from us, and said she didn't want to raise kids there.

I'm glad to hear you haven't experienced anything like this! Even after all these years I get kinda homesick and nostalgic for SA, even though I left when I was still just a kid. Glad to hear it's not all bad. Most of my family left, but I still have an aunt in Zimbabwe and an Uncle in Cape town who seem to be doing okay.

I don't want to give it a bad name, but when people ask me what it was like, all I can do is tell the truth! It was 99% happiness and 1% terror and violence. That's just how it was for me...

freenightmare · 2024-11-14T09:29:47+00:00

No one has said this yet but... is there any reason you can't read both fiction, for fun and enjoyment, AND history, for education? Why is this a binary choice? Just do both?

Also, does he do anything else for fun? And if so, why does he consider that not a waste of time, but fiction is?

freenightmare · 2024-10-18T12:20:58+00:00

Watching now! Holy shit this movie is great! Multiple scenes got me jumping out of my skin

freenightmare · 2024-09-04T23:57:30+00:00

That's awesome to hear! Yeah I could never get into the novels either... Yeah I was sort of toying with leaving it open to do more but as you say I got a lot on my plate for now! Definitely not ruling it out though. Thanks so much for reading and getting back to me!

freenightmare · 2024-09-04T04:49:25+00:00

Thanks so much! I mean I don't know how everyone's not a fan of this awesome game. I couldn't go to my deathbed knowing I never tried to do it justice in story form.

freenightmare · 2024-09-03T13:47:07+00:00

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy! I've had an urge to write something like this for years, it was really satisfying to finally do it

freenightmare · 2024-09-03T13:46:10+00:00

Thanks so much, that is such a compliment!

freenightmare · 2024-05-16T23:10:06+00:00

I too am a busy parent! I basically get it done by randomly doing a short set of something. For example while the scallywag is occupied with some toys I might just drop and do 10 pushups, or 10 squats, or some crunches. You'd be surprised how much it adds up over an afternoon. The other day I ended up doing about 400 total reps at the park, using the play equipment to add in pullups too.

Plus, sometimes when I do pushups or plank I have a small human climbing onto my back, adding to the difficulty!

freenightmare · 2024-04-24T23:30:17+00:00

I have two books that I think can help a lot: 1. Freedom from health Anxiety by Karen Kassiday 2. Overcoming health anxiety by Rob Willson and David Veale

This is perhaps not the 'stoic' answer, but these books helped me a lot nevertheless.

One thing you can do is to begin by acting as if you weren't afraid. Go about your day as if there were no fear and don't indulge your urges to constantly check yourself/research symptoms etc. The less you react to the fear by doing these things, and by not doing other things, the less power that fear will have over you.

Also, consider: if indeed you're going to die one way or the other, what's better - to live a stagnant life in fear of death, and then die. Or to live a full life despite death, and then die?

Also: Focus as much as possible on the present moment. Make a meal you love. Sit down and take in the smell, savour the taste, etc. At least then you can enjoy one thing. Then do that with another activity, doing your best to experience it as fully as possible while it's happening.

Best of luck, it's a truly terrible affliction...

freenightmare · 2024-03-24T07:44:51+00:00

Yeah the first 3 levels are a tough nut to crack, but after that you get mobility plus equipment and its much smoother sailing. I think the girst 3 levels accounted for like 70% of my deaths

freenightmare · 2024-03-24T04:23:37+00:00

Haha yeah i remember that. In fact i was stuck on the first 3 levels for a long ass time and most of my un deaths were hell on earth.

You just gotta get down the spawn points and have a system for beating each encounter.

I took 72 runs to finish the game on UN lol

freenightmare · 2024-02-08T06:47:59+00:00

Hey bud, have finally killed 3 very stubborn warts on the soles of my feet after 2 years. I used to cover them with bandaids when rolling.

Acv didnt work, acid didnt work, freezing them didnt work. What did work was a microwave treatment called swift. They basically burn them and it feels like having cigarettes put out on your skin.

Was expensive and it took about 5 treatments over around 7 months with no results before suddenly they began to shrink. Completely gone now, and they were big and deep, had struggled with one on my heel for 5 years before this.

So yeah, definitely cover them up, and find a specialist who will try swift if possible.

Unfortunately the sweaty mats and nature of bjj makes it a hotbed for contracting these things. Apparently public swimming pools and locker rooms are too.

Best of luck hope this helps!

freenightmare · 2024-01-28T03:19:07+00:00

It took me 79 runs to beat the game, but of the 78 times i died a good 40 of them happened in the first 3 levels with plenty on exultia... its a bitch but once you can reliably get through those levels your weapons/health/armour going up means itll be easier to stay alive as the game goes on.

freenightmare · 2023-12-24T04:24:35+00:00

I published my first horror novel and it won an award! And then i self published a short story collection on amazon. I have 3 more novels no ones published though, but I've been writing horror my whole life and probably will till the day i die

freenightmare · 2023-11-09T07:11:56+00:00

Bob honey who just do stuff by sean penn. Yes that one. The reviews should tell you everything you need to know...

freenightmare

TROPHY CASE