Convenient Mistakes

[shinigamiinochi]

yet another 'has this ever happened to you' topic. I was writing solstice today and when I went back to my room to type it up, I noticed a little mistake I made. Ok, so it's not really a mistake so much as something that I over looked. Anyway, Inigo's family is experiencing a black out. His mother wakes up and notices that the power is on and notes that it is 3:02 in the moring. She goes into her son's room to find that he has been startled by his radio. Since the power just came back on, his radio turned on on max and he scared him. She tells him that when the power goes off, then comes back on, clocks reset. When I typed this scene up, I realized that the mother's clock should have been blinking 12:00, not a steady 3:02 since the power came back on and she did not fix the time on the clock. I slapped myself in the head for this blunder and thought that I would have to find some sort of crappy, half assed explanation for it (since the 3:02 thing is very significant to the story and I couldn't take it out) when I suddenly realized what a blessing this mistake was. Since Solstice is a horror story, I could use this sort of subtle, off moment to build up creepiness. yes, the clock is weird, but it works into the plot quite well if you've read the first chapter. So, this mistake was actually great, cause I wouldn't have thought to do that and subtle creepiness is a major theme in the story. This, of course, leads me to another topic. Has anyone put in a major theme in their story, but since it's supposed to be subtle, worry that their readers don't get it? For example, I've put in 3:02 AM in a bunch of creepy places to point out that none of these things are coincidences, but I'm worried that no one is noticing that these bad things are all happening at the same time of the day or that they notice it, but just think that it's a coincidence or that I'm too lazy to come up with another time. Trouble is, subtle creepiness is so much better than wacking a reader with a skillet with 'horror' written on it, so if no one notices it, I'm not going to change it. I mean, the scariest moments in Stephen King's IT is the little things, things so subtle that you have to read it a couple of times to get all of them, but they make the setting so... wrong and wonderfully freaky.

[Guest Monsterking]

We are all mortals so mistakes are to be expected so dont sweat it brother man!

[Guest Zyx]

writing the same number a bunch of times stands out, trust me

Though you should emphasize the creepyness of the clock to make sure people don't think it's a mistake.

[shinigamiinochi]

I think the reason why numbers are so creepy is that there is not grey area for them. Numbers simply are and there is only one answer, so when something that abides by such a rigid system of rules starts acting in a way that defies its nature, its creepy. I mean, look at the Cube movies. They're really just survival situations using mathematics, yet you get freaked out when watching it. 'Hell is repitition', sayeth my man Stephen King, so for any other aspiring horror writers out there, create a theme and stick with it. I've gotten several reviews lately saying that my constant use of crows and the time 3:02 have creeped them out and they can't figure out why. Once again, repitition, and it can't hurt that I give absolutely no explanation for these things (ok, the crows have been slightly explained in chapter 2, but apparently they still freak people out). It's like The Mist. At the very beginning of the movie, the camera stays on the open door of the pharmacy for several seconds, which is strange and it stands out. At that moment in the film (unless you read the short story which also mentioned the door at the beginning in a subtle, creepy way) you don't know why that's important, you just DO. I love moments like those ^^ 'course, I guess I'm just weird like that.