: Re: What are conventions of ghost stories? When I realised I needed a ghost story for a class I found out that I don't know what the conventions of this genre are. Conversation with a colleague

@Sarah872

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Henry is entirely correct, but I would add a couple of things that seem to be common in ghost stories. First is that there is a sense of escalation, so that at first things just seem odd or mysterious but not supernaturally terrifying. There may be some possible non-ghostly alternative, i.e. "My brother is trying to drive me insane!". Many characters in ghost stories refuse to believe they're dealing with ghosts until they are confronted with iron-clad evidence. This refusal, coupled with some mystery about what's really going on, can lead the reader down the garden path so that the final revelation of the ghost is much more effective.

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