 Horror/Scary: November 01, 2023 Issue [#12243] |
This week: How To Write Horror Edited by: Gaby  
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Writing is like any other sort of sport. In order for you to get better at it, you have to exercise the muscle.
~ Jason Reynolds
Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you.
~ Marsha Norman
The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.
~ Robert Cormier
Writing is like jazz. It can be learned, but it can't be taught.
~ Paul Desmond
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Since I'm not an expert on writing horror I often wonder about the full aspect of it. I'm capable of writing a short story in the genre but everything else eludes me. So in order to help you and help myself, I do a lot research (google is a decent source) if you know where to look. I must tell you though that some things I find are rather humorous when it comes to the suggestions of writing in the horror genre even if they might be somewhat helpful.
Make your audience breathe.
Either the audience is part of the not-breathing zombie group or we have a problem. I'm pretty sure whoever made this suggestion meant to say to make your audience breathe faster. I also like reading books where I hold my breath without knowing due to its suspense.
Write long sentences.
While I understand that as writers we should use a mixture of sentences, as a reader, I have my reservations about this. Once a sentence reaches a certain length I tend to skip over it. My brain loses interest no matter how vital the information might be to the actual story.
Ask a question or set of questions.
In this instance you're asking the reader questions, while also trying to give them the best answers with certain information and yet still keeping them hooked to the story.
Then there's the things we should avoid, such as:
 The woman alone in the old dark house.
The kid who's Mom isn't Mom any more.
The experiment gone wrong.
The mob of villagers.
The priest who's lost his faith.
Running through woods in the dark.
Playing with dark forces.
The love of a good woman.
I'm pretty sure there are a few more out there but those are your basics. Does that mean you can't use them? No. If you give it a different twist, if you add more to it than the basic cliche, you can still use the same prompts.
With NaNoWriMo starting today/tomorrow, there's a lot to do to stay on point with your story, if you are participating. Main thing is fleshing it out, giving it structure. Horror is one of the toughest genres to write but it's not impossible. Don't overthink it. If you are attempting a novel in this particular genre, I do wish you best of luck and happy writing.
'til next time!
~ Gaby  |
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