"What scares you?" is the wrong question.

Hi friends!!

I just finally got something out that I’ve been building in my notes app for a LONG time: 30 questions worth considering before somebody sets out to scare you on purpose. If you’ve read my older Questions and Considerations for Bottoming to Degradation (here), it’s basically the same thing… but for fear! (And here’s the Fetlife version, if you wanna join in on the comments or give it a “Love”, but it’s the same thing either way.)

Why? Well, because fear inherently messes with some of the machinery we usually rely on to keep play working: attention, language, judgment, the ability to notice you want something to stop and then say so. Typical negotiation frameworks can still be useful, but I’ve also found they don’t often account for that. So these questions are designed to help you build better language, ask better questions, and figure out where you might want more information or capacity before you go balls-to-the-wall adrenaline-seeking.

It’s not a readiness test and there are no wrong answers. It’s more… well, exactly what it says on the tin, questions and considerations (: It covers three areas: what kind of scared you actually want, what fear does to YOU specifically, and what’s true for this scene today.

Aaaaaaand if you’re interested in the other side of things, not the what or the why but the how… I’m teaching a brand new class this weekend that uses horror movies as a lens for scene-craft and I can’t wait. Honestly, probably the most top-oriented class I’ve ever done, but any fear nerd will likely find something of interest there.

Check it out if that’s of interest to you?

Fear By Design: Crafting Cinematic Horror Scenes with Intention
Virtual with Black Thorn; live only
Saturday, July 25 · 2:00–4:00 PM ET (11 AM–1 PM PT)

🎟 Get your ticket to ensure you receive your Zoom link: https://forbiddentickets.com/events/black-thorn/47d11f517d

xoxo,

v