Sources of Incongruity as Inspirations for Horror Plots

Copyright 2019 by Gary L. Pullman

I've written about movie misconceptions, bizarre explosions, Viking inventions and innovations, disciplined photojournalists, horrific acts that are legal in some countries, the first Christmas card, strange phenomena that have stumped experts, famous writers' accounts of public executions, strange and mysterious islands, Halloween pranks gone awry, an innovations coming soon to a mall near you, among many other topics.

My writing has been eclectic, to say the least, although most of my articles have been, like many of my novels and short stories, concerned with the bizarre, the grotesque, and the exceptional. In fact, the site for which I wrote most of my articles specifically requests such fare. To sell, I worked out an approach, listing sources of incongruity from which to draw ideas for such stories.

It's occurred to me that these same sources of incongruity can help writers of horror fiction develop premises for novels and short stories. Here, without further ado, is the list of my sources for incongruity, together with, by way of example, a few of the titles of the articles I derived from them.

Polarity Pendulum: going from one extreme to another: passengers who became pilots midair, lost and found objects, disasters that sparked new safety regulations. 

Prediction Regarding Everyday Life:  futuristic visions of everyday places

Recent Discovery: recently discovered animal species, recently discovered secret caches

Secrets: secret laboratories, secret caches

Incongruous Placement of Objects or Event Location: bodies at the bottoms of wells, objects found in porta potties, underwater rescues, creatures living in people's ears

Ridiculous + Sublime: elaborate gingerbread houses

Great Waste: government boodoggles

Unusal Purpose: objects made from human skulls, dioramas, dollhouses that aren't for play, items made from human corpses

Bizarre Role: bizarre positions in royal courts, stained-glass windows (with various unusual purposes)

Mysterious Phenomena: mystifying mountains, occultists, bizarre skeletons

Sophisticated Early Technology: early special effects, antique prostheses

Precursors: cabinets of curiosity (precursor to museums)

Misrepresentations: deliberate historical errors and misrepresentations, deliberate map errors, accidental map errors

Confusion of Categories: insect imposters

Irony: a hospital stay can make you sicker

Threats to Safety: snake invasions

By categorizing the types of incongruity, a writer can tap a number of sources, ensuring that his or her writing doesn't bog down with only one or two such sources, becoming predictable and less interesting than it could (and should) be. Simply select one of the above categories as your inspiration and develop a story along the lines the selected category suggests.