Sometimes the best way to learn about writing is to see what someone else has done and why it worked. That is what Emma and I did today. She shared Joyce Carol Oates' short story with me, entitled, "Where are you going? Where have you been?" If you are interested in reading it for yourself, see link below.
http://www.d.umn.edu/~csigler/PDF%20files/oates_going.pdf
I learned one technique about creating fear in the reader from Stephanie More, which was that the audience knows more about the situation than the main character, because the main character rationalizes the danger away.
In this story, however, Oates doesn't do that. The reader does know more about the situation than the main character, and in fact, is probably one step ahead of her all the way, and the effect is terrifying. Oates also spends a lot of time setting the terror up, by presenting several pages of banality, and typical teenage angst and behavior, to the point that I started flipping the pages, wondering how long this story is. But when the danger sets in, I understood why she did what she did: the contrast between yawning boredom and the scary guy made the fear more tangible.
Em and I had a great time picking the story apart: noting all the foreshadowing, the close third person point of view (which allowed the reader to know more than the main character about her situation), the skill that Oates used at the climax of the story (incredibly awesome use of bodily functions as metaphors for murder), and the way she portrayed the antagonist's perception of reality.
We were confused about the secret code used in the story, and read several essays about it, and I wondered why someone just didn't ask Joyce Carol Oates what she meant by those numbers.
If you decide to read this story, I encourage you to read it in the light of day.
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Just thinking how nothing ever remains the same. The only constant thing about living is that everything changes. If what is here now might be gone tomorrow, then desire to keep everything exactly the same is futile. It just isn't going to work. You can't just assume it's always going to be there. People grow, animals die, the day turns to night, all is in flux. Even letters carved in stone will eventually fade by time, wind and water. If I can't keep it, why am I so attached? And if I want to stay attached, that means I have to adapt, to work on my relationships, to keep my body and mind healthy. I can't assume they will just be while I sit on my ass.