Author's Notes: The Waving Girl

It may have taken two years, but I finally managed to come up with another Nosleep story idea.

I'm glad I was patient, though. I feel like if I had tried to force an idea, it wouldn't have worked out the way it did. With this story, I've gotten 1.1k upvotes on Reddit during a few days. The reception was overwhelmingly positive.

When it comes to author's notes for this story, I don't think I have many. Compared to my previous story, I personally don't have the same attachment to the characters, or desire to develop them. It is a one-shot story, and that's alright.

For starters, much of this story was inspired by my own childhood and elementary school experience. Well, except for the murderous pedophile part.

My elementary school's recess area was the main inspiration for the setting in this story. It was a blacktop area with a small woodland area surrounding it on one side. The main character's experience with recess mirrored my own as well.

I remember playing kickball, in the same position as the main character, getting bored as no balls come in my direction. I'd find myself looking around and eventually leaving the game for something more fun.

This story was definitely more inspired by classic Creepypastas. The biggest inspiration was the story "1999". It's a classic Creepypasta about a young man's research of a local Canadian children's channel that only broadcasted to older TVs. The channel itself was run by a serial killer who lived in a rundown house in the middle of nowhere. The man would lure children to his house through the TV channel, eventually posting the house's address on the TV. Eventually, it was discovered that the man killed all the children by burning them alive in a pit.

I've always found the concept of luring victims, as well as creating a false sense of security for them, to be incredibly scary. The false, child-like innocence, as well as the effort to conceal his identity, helped make my story's antagonist shocking. I could've easily went with the classic ghost girl trope, but I knew making "Sarah" an adult man would provide both a shocking twist, and provide fridge horror to all the previous descriptions I've made.

Ultimately, this story proved to be successful with the Nosleep audience, and gave me a boost of confidence to continue writing and developing my stories. Sometimes, it really does just take patience. Let your ideas come naturally, and don't rush yourself when it comes to writing.

Thanks for reading!