z

Young Writers Society



Camping horror

by Bookaddict2000


"This looks like a good spot." Frank's father said as he pulled the minivan into the camp ground. Frank's mother reluctantly agreed. "I really wish we could have stayed at the resort instead," she said, "vacations don't usually include carnivorous insects and strange canned meat products." "There ain't nothing wrong with spam, honey. And I packed but spray, besides, this will be good for Frank. He's turned into a weetie, honey." He has not! Don't say that!" They turned to the back seat. Frank sat sleeping, his half dissolved lollipop stuck to his striped shirt. With his love for video games and big Macs, he was, in fact, a weetie, a pretty plump one at that. His dad thought a week of tent camping would toughen him up. He imposed a no-electronics rule for the entire week, which was met with resistance not only be his son, but his wife as well. "Seriously, dear, these games are helpful for him, what if he wants to be a programmer or a web designer when he grows up?" Frank's father failed to see how flappy bird would benefit his son's education. They woke Frank up, and he sat with his mother in the car while his dad set up the tent and got a fire going. Soon they were all sitting around it, smelling the chunks of spam that were roasting on Frank's skewer. "Honey, but spray is flammable. If you put anymore on I'm afraid you'll spontaneously combust." Frank's dad said "oh, please," she said, drenching herself with more of the poisonous liquid, "I won't be getting malaria because my dead beat husband decided to take us camping." Frank's dad sighed. "Okay, Frank you don't want to burn it." "Alright dad." Frank said, pulling the spam out of the fire and blowing on it to cool it off. After a few minutes he took a bite. "It's not that bad, mom." He told her. " whatever, dear." She said, nibbling at a ricecake. The rest of the night went surprisingly well. (Maybe Frank wasn't bored enough yet.) They settled down for the night, and after everyone was comfortably in their sleeping bags, (or uncomfortable on their air mattress in Frank's mother's case) Frank said, "I have to go to the bathroom." "Well then get up and go." His dad said.

"Get up and take him."

"The bathroom is fifty feet away, the kid can walk himself."

"He's scared!"

"I'm not scared," Frank said, "I'll be right back"

And he left the tent without further argument, he stumbled to the bathroom and struggled to open the heavy metal door. He squinted into the darkness at the non-flushing camp toilet. He heard a faint rustling noise coming from it, and, inching closer, saw the gleam of sharp, white teeth. He groped for the door handle as the creature emerged from the darkness and lunged. He felt the slimy fur of the toilet badger on his neck. He screemed, and flung the thing off of him. He pushed the door open, and teeth sunk into his legs as he ran blindly down the gravel path, his panic causing him not to realize that he was running in the opposite direction of his parents tent. The toilet badger kept a death grip on his leg as he was knocked t o the ground, and then lifted hundreds of feet into the sky by a giant pair of wings. His heart thumping, Frank saw the red, glowing basketball size orbs that were the creative's eyes. He gazed at the huge dusty wings and the insect like legs that held him. He felt his night shirt being slowly eaten away from his body. Soon his chest was bare, and the toilet badger moved from his legs to the tender skin covering his rib cage. Moth man then started on Frank's socks, hanging him upside down, and paying no attention to his polyester shorts. Soon Frank was dangling by his left leg as moth man finished off his second sock. The badger was sinking his claws and teeth deeper and deeper into Frank's abdomen. And as his sock slipped off, Frank let out a final blood curdling screem as he fell


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27 Reviews


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Reviews: 27

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Wed Jun 15, 2016 1:59 am
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MandlynProductions wrote a review...



In my opinion, this story is not bad, but far from scary.
For one, the family dilemmas seem far too bland and only seem to be there to give frank a reason to go camping.
For two, the reveal of the monster seems to be rushed and the moth man seems to just appear out of nowhere.
And for three, there is no atmosphere, sure they are camping, but that's it, there are no unusual atmosphere changes or actually scary moments.
In my opinion, if you want a better story, you should put subtle or discomforting things to let the reader know that something is wrong.




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Tue May 31, 2016 3:39 am
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decco6226 wrote a review...



Hey! Great story! Loved it!

Now, I'll get the improvements out of the way first, then get to the stuff I loved about it!

First of all, at the beginning, when you're dealing with dialogue, you should start another line when immediately beginning the next line with a different person. For example:

"Let's go to the store!"

"Ok!"

Instead of:

"Let's go to the store!" "Ok!"

You did that in the beginning of the story, but not at the end. Might wanna fix that!

Now for the stuff I loved! I love the mom's argument at the beginning, especially when she said that vacations don't involve canned meats! That was the best! Also, I love the ending! Not a lot of horror stories/movies end badly these days, so that was really awesome!

All in all, I loved it! Keep on writing!




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Sat May 28, 2016 2:46 am
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jwes wrote a review...



I really like the monsters you introduce, and I love how the toilet badger seems to come out of nowhere after a seemingly normal intro! I also like how you portrayed the relationship between Mom and Dad- you did a great job of showing the strain between them through their dialogue and bickering- it's a great example of showing instead of telling!

A few things I noticed-

Your paragraphs are really long and packed with different actions, which makes them difficult to follow. I would really recommend reading through and finding nice points to split it up- for example, I would start a new paragraph for the introduction of the Moth Man.

(yes I know someone already mentioned this one, but) you need start a new paragraph each time a different character starts to speak. It's not only a grammar rule, but helps to avoid overly-long paragraphs as well.

I know writer also already said something along the lines of this, but I would take your time and expand upon your scenes. I know a good outline of who Frank is- a soft, chubby kid who spends too much time in the digital world- but I don't know much about what's going on inside of him. One great way to make your story more suspenseful is to get your readers emotionally attached to the characters. Right now, I don't have much personal investment in Frank's life; I don't know how he thinks, or how his parent's relationship impacts him, or really whether he wants to make the camping trip work of if he's being pleasant enough so that he can his dad stays off his back.

Same thing with the creature attacks- feel free to throw your readers a rope, only to have it snap. I would recommend adding to your suspense by leading us to believe that Frank is almost safe, that he can make it out of this situation alive and (maybe) intact. The contrast of between hope and destruction is what (in my opinion) really helps to keep a reader on their toes.

I think you've got some awesome ideas a I love the way you use dialogue to illustrate your characters! I really hope you find some of this review helpful!






I would appreciate it if you would take the time to write your own reviews instead of plagiarizing.
Please take this down.



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Fri May 27, 2016 9:10 pm
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Sundancer wrote a review...



Wow. That's really...thrilling. I love it, but I do have a suggestion: (sorry, I'm a stickler for details) could you indent every time there's a different person speaking? Kinda like this:

Ash said, "Hi Alex."

Alex nodded to her, "Sup."

Otherwise, I really like your story. Keep writing them thrillers/horrors.
:)




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Fri May 27, 2016 9:07 pm
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Sundancer says...



Wow. Very scary. I would just like to suggest (I'm a stickler for details, sorry) if you could indent everytime a different person is speaking:

Ash said, "Hi Alex."

Alex nodded to her, "sup?"

Kinda like that? I hope I'm not being too picky. Keep up the good work!

:)




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Thu May 26, 2016 10:20 pm
backroadstraveler wrote a review...



Hey there Bookaddict- backorads here for a review!

I really like the monsters you introduce, and I love how the toilet badger seems to come out of nowhere after a seemingly normal intro! I also like how you portrayed the relationship between Mom and Dad- you did a great job of showing the strain between them through their dialogue and bickering- it's a great example of showing instead of telling!

A few things I noticed-

Your paragraphs are really long and packed with different actions, which makes them difficult to follow. I would really recommend reading through and finding nice points to split it up- for example, I would start a new paragraph for the introduction of the Moth Man.

(yes I know someone already mentioned this one, but) you need start a new paragraph each time a different character starts to speak. It's not only a grammar rule, but helps to avoid overly-long paragraphs as well.

I know writer also already said something along the lines of this, but I would take your time and expand upon your scenes. I know a good outline of who Frank is- a soft, chubby kid who spends too much time in the digital world- but I don't know much about what's going on inside of him. One great way to make your story more suspenseful is to get your readers emotionally attached to the characters. Right now, I don't have much personal investment in Frank's life; I don't know how he thinks, or how his parent's relationship impacts him, or really whether he wants to make the camping trip work of if he's being pleasant enough so that he can his dad stays off his back.

Same thing with the creature attacks- feel free to throw your readers a rope, only to have it snap. I would recommend adding to your suspense by leading us to believe that Frank is almost safe, that he can make it out of this situation alive and (maybe) intact. The contrast of between hope and destruction is what (in my opinion) really helps to keep a reader on their toes.

I think you've got some awesome ideas a I love the way you use dialogue to illustrate your characters! I really hope you find some of this review helpful!

-backroadstraveler




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Thu May 26, 2016 9:09 pm
Guerillix wrote a review...



I'm not really sure about this story. It had a nice cadence to it but you might want to explain the slang, and give more context.

First off: "And I packed but spray" and " but spray is flammable." I am pretty sure this is meant to be bug spray, you might want to change that.

Secondly I think the plot could use some firming up. It is silly and fun, but it doesn't make much sense.






Oh gosh I didn't mean to put but spray XD wow lol sorry I'll fix that



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Thu May 26, 2016 8:44 pm
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writer1204 wrote a review...



All righ, helloooooo! Writer1204 here!! :)

So, I was cooking some food and decided to check out some works here, and so I came across yours. Now, I'm definitely intrigued by the plot, and I have to say I've never read something like this before--story wise.

There's a really interesting context to this and I assume you have an amazing background story on your mind, which is good, but I reckon the reader cannot fully understand it--at least I, personally, didn't. I came across several things that made reading harder for me.

First of all, I noticed you didn't separate their dialogues in the first paragraph. This is completely fine in some specific cases, but you should take into consideration that it makes the reader get a tad lost very so often. Also, I felt like there was a bit of mess in some parts as you narrated events. Take your time building up the story, where it is, who are in it, what they're thinking.... I really think you could exploit Frank's character a lot more than just leaving the reader with the whole, "He's just a weetie". Go crazy! Shove reality into your words and build a new realm for your characters!

Another thing I noticed was the story's sort of climax. Now, I don't know why, but I kind of felt it a bit anticlimactic rather than having me cringe and twist my hands with the intensity of it. Maybe I'm just being too picky--and I apologize if so, haha :)--but I believe you can do SO much with this idea!!! <3

Trust me, it is better to go over it, take your time developing scenery and stories--especially characters--and I guarantee you this will turn out even better than you expect it to. Really, really good job and keep on putting effort and dedication every time into your work!!

Sincerely, Writer1204. :)





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