8 Tips & Tricks on Fighting Through Scary Titles

“We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.” – Stephen King.

Do you happen to have a list of books that you’ve never been able to finish because they’re too scary? Having nightmares just because you inadvertently read through a scary chapter? Afraid of sitting beside the window fearing that a vampire might fly through and caught you off guard? Here we have a few good tips that might help out in overcoming that fear and finish that title once and for all.

1. Timing

Never ever read anything scary before going to bed. You’ll just end up with nightmares and interrupt your sleep throughout the night. If you insist on doing it before bed – considering that is the only time slot available for reading, then try reading something lighthearted or funny prior to engaging into a more hair-raising, spooky adventure. Alternatively, try reading in the morning, preferably after waking up, in a bright, sunny room. The environment and overall setting around you are essential in building up that courage, pushing yourself through the tough parts.

2. Familiarization

Element of surprise is always a form of multiplication on the intensity of your emotional reactions. If you’ve been reading a lot of books by a particular author and is well versed with his or her style of writing, then the level of scariness can be minimized if not completely removed. Although writers usually have creative ways of presenting their ideas, the least we could do is to prepare ourselves in anyway possible in any unanticipated turn of events.

3. Imagination

More often than not, certain bad things are the results of our own doing. When things about to get scary, our imagination runs wild and we tend to challenge ourselves further by visualizing sounds and things which do not exist. It might be hard but it is imperative to stay focus on the issue at hand and not making it worse. Do not check what’s behind you or deliberately painting pictures in your head that shouldn’t be there. Focus on one thing and one thing only, the book you’re reading.

4. Cheat

This defeats the purpose of reading and the spirit of maintaining plot continuity, but if you’re willing to skip important parts of the story and avoid going through the scary areas, then by all means go for it. Although not recommended, you may want to skip and return to this area of the book later at a time where you feel more comfortable.

5. Company / Environment

By far, the easiest and simplest solution to this problem. With company, you can read it anytime of the day, anywhere you want, provided of course that your reading buddy does not abandon you in fear as well. Another solution is to get your friend to read it out loud to you instead of you reading it on your own. Upgrade that experience by going to a public area like a park or a library – a crowd does create a sense of security to proceed with any scary parts of a book.

6. Music

Sabotage the scary atmosphere by putting on a nice upbeat music, preferably something which is uplifting and keeps you in high spirit. Imagine reading Stephen King’s IT while listening to Queen’s We Are The Champions – you get the idea.

7. Influence

You don’t really need to rely on alcohol everytime you read a scary book, but due to its altering effects with the human brain’s communication pathways, it gives you that temporary boost in courage levels to brave through those difficult parts. Of course if you need to drive later, save the book and drink for consumption at a more appropriate time.

8. Escape

Lastly but not least, we save the best for last – just dump the book in the freezer and move on with your daily chores. As exactly what Joey Tribbiani did in one of the episodes of Friends, it turned out pretty well for him. 😉