This is the third time I’ve posted about writing inspiration. The first two times I talked about how folklore is inspirational to my own writing, and then I wrote about why you may want to look for things that are inspirational for your writing, and times when it’s not a great idea. But for post number three, I would like to talk about a particular piece of folklore that I find bizarre, strange, and something that provides me with writing inspiration.
The Backrooms
The backrooms started as a simple comment on 4chan. The idea is that a person can accidentally ‘noclip’ out of reality. The person then falls into the backrooms. The original comment about the rooms: “If you’re not careful and you noclip[a] out of reality in the wrong areas, you’ll end up in the Backrooms, where it’s nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in
God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Backrooms)
There are a lot of pieces of media about The Backrooms. I find the idea fascinating (obviously, I am not alone). Thinking about a place that is maybe another dimension. But it’s full of empty spaces, ones that are supposed to be filled. The horror of the idea comes from the wrong-ness. Think about walking into your office one day and it’s empty. No people, no office equipment. Just you and the lights buzzing above you, and you can’t find your way out.
They say that the game Control was inspired by The Backrooms. Which I can see. Although, I think the spaces in the game are more haunted or infected rather than empty.
I think that falling into a separate dimension. One that appears empty, but has monsters lurking. It is fascinating, frightening, and ripe for story. The videos that you can find on YouTube all show people fall into The Backrooms. They then wander around as if they are okay with the situation. If I fell into an alternate dimension that was full of empty offices, I would be the opposite of okay.
I wouldn’t wander around until something ate me. But, that’s where good plot lies, it’s in those bad decisions. I think, that if I fell into another dimension. I would scream. And yell. I would ask for help. I wouldn’t wander around unless a lot of time passed. And I was hungry.
Writing Inspiration
There are a million different stories here. There is even a genre. Portal jumping, it’s called, when a person from one place lands in another. The portal that people fall into is malevolent. It wants to kill the people who fall into the world. The only thing that inhabits The Backrooms is a monster.
On my last post, I talked about making a list of things that inspire you. On my list would be The Backrooms. I will go back to it, when I am done with my current project. I’ll think about what I can pull from the idea of The Backrooms, how it can inspire my writing.
Thank you for reading, and please let me know if you would like to know about other pieces of folklore or other things that are writing inspiration to me.
