Poll: Is this normal?

[Dfskelleton]

I recently wrote a short story to waste time, you know. I like writing. I decided to write a small horror story, but for some really irrational reason, I'm frightened by the creature I designed. I'll describe him(NOTE: Knida graphic/disturbing):

Spoiler

*Has the frame of a small, pale, thin child.
*Eyes have been gouged out and crudely replaced with white glass eyes.
*Body is decaying and appears to be boiled in some areas.
*Small tuffs of black hair.
*Lower jaw brutally torn off with tendons hang ing, and upper lip removed to show decaying teeth.
*Iron lung like contraption welded into his chest.
*A type of depressing look overall despite his features.

It's weird: I've seen many things worse than this, and yet I'm still frightened of MY OWN FICTIONAL CHARACTER.
I don't scare easily. I laughed at F.E.A.R. and breezed through Resident Evil. Why is this pathetic thing I've designed disturbing me so?
Is it because it's MY creation? Do I feel some strange fear bond with it?
I don't understand. Maybe I'm just really good at this horror thing,or maybe only good to myself. Has anyone else ever felt like this? Any type of strange emotion towards some character you've thought of, like love, hatred, anger, sadness, etc.?

 

[JoJo]

I often feel very emotionally close to characters I've created, I think it's a natural part of creating them. As for your character, maybe the fact you created it means that it's more real in a sense for you. In-fact, it might be expected considering you wrote the character to be scary so in a way it has been designed to scare you. I don't think there's any abnormal about that though.

 

[LarenzoAOG]

If you choose to create something scary you will create something scary to you, when you try to think of a scary thing your subconsiouness (bad spelling sorry) will project something that scares you.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Thanks everyone! At least I know I don't have any strange mental problems.

 

[joemegson94]

If you're that connected to your character, it's probably a good story. I wrote quite a freaky short story recently and creeped myself out a bit.

 

[Rockchimp69]

You understand characters you create better than anyone, it's understandable to be very affected by them. Completely normal.

 

[Sn1P3r M98]

Sounds totally normal, for reasons already stated. There's nothing wrong with that.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Well, if you went out to create something horrific, and you become terrified of what you made, i'd say you did a damn fine job then!

 

[Kakashi on crack]

It's perfectly normal, when I create a character, I either have to have some kind of emotional attachment with them, or they simply go into the waste basket. It's why when I create a monster, it creeps in the back of my head when I try to sleep, when I create a couple, my mind becomes romantic when I think of the couple. My characters reflect my emotional being, and thinking, but at the same time is never -me-. (and vice versa with the reflection part)

If emotion is not put into a character, how can we call them a character instead of a fictional being. The emotions, thoughts, passions, time we put into these people, that is what makes them realistic, and not simply a fake fictional being in a book.

If I were to guess your fears on a more psychological level, it has to do with the fears of the unkown, the fears of if this could become of someone you knew, or know, what you possibly once were, or hope never to become. You look at it as a child as you see a sense of sorrow, or emotional pain in the death of children. Maybe the way its designed is supposed to make you feel that sense of danger while looking at it, yet curiosity of if it is truly innocent or not, the metal lung piece representing a fear of technology, or perhaps of experimentation. I could go on and on, but this is just a hunch, and by all means could be completely untrue

 

[lemiel14n3]

this is your creation, a product of your psyche and your imagination.
The old adage is "write what you know" and we know what scares us. when asked to come up with something terrifying, we won't think of something that everyone finds terrifying, we'll think of what WE find scary and disturbing.
if you're at the point where you're asking these questions, it seems to me that the best move here would be to stop. to confront and examine this creature and figure out WHY it scares the piss out of you. What aspects did you give it to make it resonate with you on such a personal level.

 

[dmase]

Your afraid of what people will think of it because its kinda weird. The short story is yours and maybe on the surface you want people to gasp but you also don't want them to be alienated by a story.

 

[Zaverexus]

I recently wrote a short story to waste time, you know. I like writing. I decided to write a small horror story, but for some really irrational reason, I'm frightened by the creature I designed. I'll describe him(NOTE: Knida graphic/disturbing):

Spoiler

*Has the frame of a small, pale, thin child.
*Eyes have been gouged out and crudely replaced with white glass eyes.
*Body is decaying and appears to be boiled in some areas.
*Small tuffs of black hair.
*Lower jaw brutally torn off with tendons hang ing, and upper lip removed to show decaying teeth.
*Iron lung like contraption welded into his chest.
*A type of depressing look overall despite his features.

It's weird: I've seen many things worse than this, and yet I'm still frightened of MY OWN FICTIONAL CHARACTER.
I don't scare easily. I laughed at F.E.A.R. and breezed through Resident Evil. Why is this pathetic thing I've designed disturbing me so?
Is it because it's MY creation? Do I feel some strange fear bond with it?
I don't understand. Maybe I'm just really good at this horror thing,or maybe only good to myself. Has anyone else ever felt like this? Any type of strange emotion towards some character you've thought of, like love, hatred, anger, sadness, etc.?

Definitely, that's a greatly satisfying feeling when trying to write something disturbing: to scare yourself.
I once wrote a room for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign (warning: extremely disturbing):

Spoiler

You walk into the dark cabin. Lighting a torch you can see that all the furniture has been stacked up against the windows. A man hangs by a noose from the rafters in the center of the room, tongue hanging out and eyes staring straight at you. The walls are covered with bloody carvings of the statement "the noises" all over the cabin. The man's fingertips are worn through to the bone and covered in dried blood. His ears seem to have been hacked apart with a blade, and blood runs down the sides of his face. A bloody knife stains the sheets of the only bed in the room.

For me the fear is the shock that something so disturbing can be born of your own mind. And a bit of questioning of your own sanity. But to see the look on a player's (or reader's) face if you are able to capture the same image in their mind, is incredibly rewarding.

 

[KefkaCultist]

Crap! I accidentally voted "no" thinking it was "no you're fine." Sorry, I'm tired and was distracted by facebook so you can chalk the jackass that voted "no" as a "yes"

 

[Spoon E11]

thats some disturbed imagination you have to think of that guy. Would I bescared of it? no not if it's text and certainly not if I thought of it.

If it was a movie and that guy was in it, then perhaps depends if he's nice...

 

[chuckman1]

It's your creation so it should scare you since you made it to scare.

 

[rutger5000]

Sure wetter or not horror figures scare you has hardly anything to how they look, they are scary or not because you feel connected to them or not. You came up with this character, so naturally you feel very connected, and therefor it's normal to be scared by it.