Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-4849011-20150305001912

We’ve all read bad stories on here, so I have a question. In the case of bad pastas, how often is it due to the content, how often is it due to the writing style, and how often is it a combination of both? This isn’t a poll, just something I’d like to hear people’s thoughts about.

On one hand, some subjects don’t make for effective Creepypastas. I’m not saying that it’s impossible to write an effective horror story about a cell phone that suddenly makes animal noises, soggy food, gastrointestinal distress, or glasses (eyeglasses, sunglasses, drinking glasses, etc.) which stay smudged no matter how much you try to clean them; I’m just saying it would take a genius on the level of Edgar Allan Poe or Shirley Jackson to do it. However, if you do have a good theme, you still need to write about it effectively. Let’s take a look at these scenarios. Wouldn’t you find these scenarios at least a little unsettling if they actually happened to you? I’d say so. Would Creepypastas using them be good stories? That depends on how they’re written. Someone could have a great topic and do a poor job of writing a story (confusing grammar errors, plot holes, claiming it really happened to the writer firsthand, yet switching from first person narrative to third person omniscient and back, etc.). Of course, this is why, as has been mentioned before, it helps to use the Writer’s Workshop.
 * You’re at a public library, Internet café, or some other place in which people can come and use computers. The person next to you is obviously frustrated.  Suddenly he or she angrily rises up and in his/her rage inflicts a deep bite to his/her own arm.
 * You’re in the break room of your office building when clouds of toxic gas began to billow from the air vents.
 * You’re sitting at a desk or watching TV when there’s a loud, unexpected crash to your side. You look and find the remains of a lamp smashed against the wall.  You look behind you and all around the room, but see no signs of anyone who could have thrown the lamp.
 * You look at your window one night to see what looks like a stray dog on your lawn. Then the “dog” stands erect like a human and stares in your direction with a pair of dead eyes.
 * You’re unwinding in a chair when you feel a prick on your arm or on the back of your neck. Within moments you find yourself completely unable to move.
 * You’re reading or listening to the news when you see or hear an announcement that you’ll die later that day.

The two parts, content and style, work hand-in-hand. If you botch just one, the story is ineffective and not what it could have been. Unfortunately there have been stories in which both are botched. In addition there are examples of stories which weren’t the best because they were told in the wrong medium – which is why there are so many bad movie adaptations of books and bad novelizations of movies. Personally I’ve adapted scenes and plot-lines from my comic books into pastas and had mixed results. So, to reword the question, how often are bad pastas due to poor choice of subject matter, how often are they due to ineffective writing, and how often are they due to a combination of both? 