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Searching for ghost posts on the NaNoWriMo forums today and found this one:
Ghost Story?
Hi. I’m writing a ghost story this year, I think, and I’m wondering if anyone has ever met or heard a story of someone meeting a ghost. I would like to interview you or them. And also if anyone has heard of any ancient stories of posessed items bringing a ghost with them, please let me know. Thanks.
My answer:
In 2008, there was a ghost story thread. I saved my post from it, just before the relaunch, and it should have some info to help you out. Part of my answer, includes an encounter I had. I’ll paste it here for you. Uhm, because it came off last year’s forum though, I don’t think the links are still clickible though, because they went to posts from last year’s forum, while has since been deleted. 
Oh well. Anyways, here’s the copy of the post I saved from last year’s forum. Hope it helps.
[quote=EelKat]
[quote=
Anyone Working With Ghosts?]
I see plenty of zombie and vampire themes, but is anyone else working with ghosts? Mine sort of glow in the dark – or rather they can if they want – is that typical?
[/quote]
I’m planning on ghosts for 09, still trying to figure them out though. I think they died in a train accident, and now 100 years later a town has built up on that spot, so they are “haunting” the town.
I’m thinking that they can change appearance “slightly” by that I mean from solid to transparent, so that when people first see them, they don’t realize that they are ghosts.
I’m thinking that they avoid physical contact with the living though because their bodies are cold as ice and “freeze” humans when they touch them, thus giving away their ghostliness.
I’m also thinking that when they go all transparent that they have a pale blue glowing mist around them.
[quote=Vinxman]MMy ghosts glowed to some people, but not to everyone. Everyone saw them differently, based on their fears.[/quote]
That’s sort of what I’m doing – my ghosts “feed” on the fears of the living – sort of like how vampires feed on blood, so they appear different to different people depending on what that person’s fear is.
[quote=
Why are ghosts scary?]
You know the old Scooby Doo episides, they always run away from the ghost. Why? What makes them scary? What do they think the ghosts are going to do to them?
If you saw a ghost, would you be afraid? Why? (Or why not?) What is the fear of?
[/quote]
[quote=Laura1013]If I saw a ghost, and was aware that was what I was seeing, you would have to pry me off the ceiling afterward. Ghosts are scary because:
1. They might want something from you
2. You can’t kill them
3. If you lock the door, they can float right through it
4. They look creepy
5. You can’t always see them. So they could be watching you and you not know it. How do you fight against THAT?[/quote]
[quote=Mistress Sekhmet]You have to remember that ghosts can be confined to certain areas, banished, trapped in mirrors or water and easily removed if causing trouble. Most often, from my own experiences, ghosts don’t tend to bother folk without being provoked. I know a guy who does paranormal research and gets into so much trouble because he just doesn’t listen and his crew is not trained properly.After a particular investigation, all members of that crew became ill, went through losses, had automotive troubles and other nasty stuff happen. Why? Because the dummies wanting to catch something on film and evp, provoked something in the house improperly by being rude. If I were a ghost and someone came into my space being nasty, they’d get nasty sent right back. It’s not to say that all ghosts are not indifferent or unfriendly, because ghosts, like people vary. Overall, it’s best not to provoke any being when you don’t know what you’re dealing with and approach any situation with caution.
It’s best to use common sense at all times and if you are afraid, leave.[/quote]
[quote=BHeins69]I’ve never seen a ghost myself. But my husband used to have a ghost in his house when I first met him. It seemed pretty harmless, mostly did little pranks. It scared the hell out of my husband. He’d call me to come get him and I’d find him walking blocks away from his house. His mother liked the ghost, she named him George and came to discover that a man who died in the house was named George. He whistled like his ghost. He’d do things like rearrange her slippers when she’d get into the shower. Once she ‘bumped’ into him in the hallway. It was dark, but she could feel the presence of a big man. She thought it was her husband and she called his name, but when Jim answered it was from inside the bedroom not in front of her. When they turned the light on the presence was gone.The ghost did hold my husband down. He was face down in the bed and he could feel someone pressing him down so he couldn’t move. He couldn’t scream either. He just laid there until he relaxed and then when he opened his eyes it was gone.
Other times they’d hear knocking on the walls. Once a fire extinguisher flew off the refrigerator. Maybe some ghosts are mischievous or just want to make their presence known.I’m writing a ghost story and it totally creeps my husband out. He’s very sensitive to this ghost stuff.[/quote]
[quote=NotAnotherExit]Ghosts don’t exist in the same sort of world that we do. They’ve been dead for who knows how long. Their wants, their needs, their desires… these are all consuming and unknowable. Ghosts don’t care how we feel. They don’t care that we will die. They might even want to help us make that last little journey beyond mortality. And who knows? Maybe they can.If I saw a ghost, it would depend on the type, as to whether or not it frightened me. A rough looking gentleman, a dead looking soul, those would scare me. A nice looking lady, however, might not.
Little girls have such a bad wrap from horror movies that no matter how nice and peaceful they look, it would probably terrify me.[/quote]
[quote=MartianMenace]I think ghosts are unsettling, because by their very existence they seem to be a negation of the religious beliefs a lot of us take comfort in. If ghosts exist, does that mean there’s no heaven? No other afterlife? Why do they exist?And the most frightening idea of all – when we die, is that going to happen to US?[/quote]
I think ghosts are scary because you don’t see them every day and even when you say you believe in them, deep down you don’t truly believe in them until you actually see one. I think it’s like anything else that is unusual or rare or thought to be a myth: (vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc) your first response is always to freeze, than run, than stop and ask yourself why you were scared, than go to investigate. It’s just the whole *unknowness* of it, which startles the senses.
once when I was very young maybe 10 or 12 years old, around that time, I woke up to see a man walk through my door, go straight across the room, and than stand staring out the window. He was transparent and had a neon blue glow all around his body; I couldn’t see his feet, it was like at the top of his head he was more solid, but his body got more transparent as it went down until his feet were invisible; He had a very old style dress – late 1300′s era possibly Flemish or German or French. I got the impression that he was very sad, that he had died a long time ago and that he was “alone” (alone in that he could not see or hear any one around him, and had no idea I was there, or that any one else was anywhere either; like every one on the planet had vanished and there was no one left but him – or at least that is how he felt.)
I was not afraid. I don’t know if it was because I was too young to be afraid, or it was because I could tell I had nothing to fear, or what.
I think it is because of this “sighting” that I write about ghosts and describe them as semi transparent with a blue glowing mist around them, because that’s what the one I saw looked like.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[quote=
Do Ghosts Speak?]
I’m writing a ghost story. And as I was describing the plot to my mother, she asked, “Is the ghost going to tell him that?” And I paused. Well, I don’t think the ghost can talk. But I don’t know. It would help my plot. But it seems silly.So…. if the ghost in the book you were reading spoke, what would you think?
[/quote]
[quote=Frank_Haba]In literature ghosts speak or try to communicate a great deal. Think of Shakespeare or Dickens, or go back to “Castle of Otranto.” Even the Bible has a talking ghost…(King Saul did some summoning and spoke to the departed spirit of Samuel, remember?)In modern culture, a great example of scary ghost talking to the living is in the del Toro film “The Devil’s Backbone.” In the film the MC asks the ghost directly what it wants and the ghost replies very specifically (a fantastic scene in a fantastic movie BTW).
The bottom line is that yes there is a history of ghosts communicating with the living characters to achieve some end, but ultimately it is up to you. What is your ghost’s purpose, and what would it achieve by communicating? If done right, it can be a chilling moment of realization for the MC. Just some food for thought. Hope it helps…
Frank[/quote]
In popular culture ghosts speak (literature, movies, etc.) but how many REAL documented cases are there of ghosts that talked, or for that matter – how many documented cases are there of ghosts even acknowledging that they know you are in the room with them? Real non-fiction cases with talking ghosts or ghosts that even acknowledge they can see/hear the living are exceptionally rare. Most actual cases report the ghost doing the same ritual movements again and again (walking to the same window; pace on the same porch; siting in the same chair) and doing it completely oblivious to their current soundings.
Only in books and movies do ghosts speak or otherwise interact with the living.[/quote]
Hope that helps. I’m doing ghosts this year too. The ghosts in my novel, as mentioned above are cold and glow blue. Since writing that post originally, I have since determined that my ghosts are “frost ghosts”, in other words, the ghosts of people who froze to death, and came back as sort of ice demons.
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