A well-written horror story for me is one that reaches inside the mind, makes the skin tingle, and often draws the reader into the life and world of the protagonist and/or antagonist, whether based on today’s world, known myth or history, or a world created by the writer. I’m thinking not of the slash and chop stuff of film where gore and violence are the plot. I’m thinking of the type of horror where I am pulled into a world peopled by believable characters, facing impending terrors, in a believable story made whole by rich characterization and setting. Though gore and blood and violence are often vital components of the tale, those elements are parts of the story, not the story itself.

I am thinking of literate horror based on thoroughly plotted scenes, where the characters are brought to life through their interaction with other characters and with the environment in which they reside. We are given a look into the mind, insight, and perhaps hopes and fears of the characters, and how they react to events occurring in their world.

Both Stephen King and Dean Koontz write horror novels that offer terror and visual blood and gore, but also provide detailed, vivid portraits of the characters and how they view and live in the world created for them by each of the authors.

Dean Koontz, for example, brings Frankenstein into today’s society, blending serial homicide, cloning, plastic surgery, with mysticism and magic. The apparently normal often are revealed as horribly abnormal (i.e., storing body parts in the refrigerator), while some of the technically abnormal characters end up joining forces to unmask the illusion and stop the horror.

In Odd Thomas, Mr. Koontz creates a believable town peopled by characters one might see walking down any street, and relates the story of one who stands out by having a ‘gift’ that is Odd, like his given name. I can see myself walking with Odd in the mall as well as talking with Elvis.

And, again, in an outwardly 'normal' family setting, Mr. Koontz takes an apparently normal person in Life Expectancy, with nothing more uncommon than syndactyly (described in verifiable detail), and adds a ‘gift’ prophesied by a dying family member. Much of this story deals with anticipation of the predicted events and how the family reacts and prepares for them while they go on living (most of them do live on).

Each of the above three stories offered well researched, verifiable facts, woven with creative imagination into the lives of believable characters interacting in the scenes, chapters, and plot, as they survived (or didn’t survive) horrors impending, anticipated, and occurring.

An Editorial offering tips on setting the stage for horror

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Kate - Writing & Reading


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