Writing Horror

[MacAl Stone]

So why do you?

I never thought of myself as a "horror" writer. In fact, I'm a copy-writer (among other things) for a smallish sportswear manufacturer.

Now that I've started writing fiction, almost everything I produce seems to take a twisted and macabre turn. The odd part of that equation is that I'm actually a bit of a Disney character, in real life.

So I'm perplexed. I suspect I find writing dark spec-fic a useful catharsis. But I've always been particularly susceptible to a scary story. Writing horror lets me explore what happens if we don't check those particularly nasty impulses.

More than that--I get to play with the complete fascination of "what if"..."What if" the boogeyman hiding in the closet is real...What if the actual forces that array against our better impulses, our altruism, our heroism, our generosity actually have a real and powerful embodiment?

Perhaps it's as simple as "good vs. evil" resonates for me, in an unusually strong fashion.

I dunno. But it got me wondering about ya'll...:grin

[LiamJackson]

According to my brother, I don't write horror. I just write horribly.

[ChunkyC]

:lol , Liam!

To you Mac, and to Spooky, congrats on your Mod-ships!

[spooknov]

LJ, I've read some of your stuff and I think you're faboo babe!

Thanks CC!

Okay, now where were we? Ah, yes. Why do I write horror? Hmmm. Because I've got a warped sense of taste and humor, I suppose. I was nine or so when I read my first young adult horror book by Christopher Pike. I was eleven the first time I watched an SK movie (Pet Cemetary at a slumber party.)

I was bitten by the horror bug and it wiggled around my brain until I could no longer resist the urge to write about the tormented souls that lurked in my head.

[Cary]

Its quite like an addiction, It is:evil ...get yourself a little taste an before ya know It your a full blown goremeister !!! Yeeeeha !!! Sides, Its fun bein a sick puppy....really !!!!! Ha!!
Love an bitemarks, Carybelle

[Writing Again]

I write horror for the same reason I write any other genre. Or to put it another way; I don't write horror. I write stories. Some of those stories are horrible. I mean horror.

[stormie267]

I write horror because there's a different side of me that needs to come out and play. Writing horror stories satisfies that need. He,he. :ack

[NickolausPacione]

<Div align=justify><font face="book antiqua" size="3">There are differences in reasons for writing horror, but if you ask me this question there is one reason that some horror writers write horror. It is their way of giving the middle finger to what is going on around them. Call it explicit but that is how I see it as a horror writer, I like to create creatures that scare the living crap out of who ever reads what they are writing. Some might not see what I am doing with the genre but there are some who see it and are scare as hell because they don't know what the hell is going on. Especially when the horror fiction gets darker and darker these days, there is a difference in styles of horror from age to age. The 25-34 age range will have a style of horror ranging from Stephen King to Clive Barker pending on who you ask, and what generation of horror they grew up in. I've been publishing writers who are R.L. Stine generation.

[maestrowork]

I don't read either horror or fantasy. From a reader's pov, I just can't get into those worlds and sustain my disbelief enough to enjoy these stories. Too far-fetched for me (dragons and wizards, for example) or just too dark ("I escape my RL for this evil stuff?")

As a writer though, I can see the fascination of creating a world so unlike ours, but based on our myths and folklores or stories. I also see the fascination of creating something that is so fundamentally horrific.

For me, I think sci-fi is a good middle-ground. As a reader, I can understand those worlds as plausible (Alien civilizations? Sure. Time travel? Of course) and at the same time, the concept of world building and creating these out-of-this-world characters can be fascinating for the writer in me.

[LiamJackson]

Many people love a good scare. I like scaring people. A match made in Purgatory. 8o

[MarySangiovanni]

Horror, like fantasy, entertains the possibility of worlds beyond worlds. That's always appealed to me.

It just happens to be that my worlds beyondd worlds are dark places, populated by sometimes awful things. :)

[Cussedness]

I never set out to write horror and dark fantasy. My earliest published material could be considered dark fantasy because of the horror elements to it, like werewolves of various types, but only in that way. Then, somehow as I grew older, it simply grew darker and darker, possibly because my view of the world changed.

Mostly I like the tension and suspence that I can get into it more than a hard scare. I want the reader to be troubled and disturbed, not frightened. :hat

[drgnlvrljh]

Everything I write seems to have just a slight twist to make it off-kilter, no matter how hard I try not to,

So, I just gave in to the muse and admit to writing horror, and do it openly.

Maybe it's my age? I've also gotten to the point where I don't care if people catch me talking to myself, now, either. :lol

[BlueTexas]

So why do you?


I dunno. But it got me wondering about ya'll...:grin

This is an old thread, but I liked the question so I thought I'd bring it back up. I don't know if I'd exactly classify what I write as horror...but creepy and disturbing, sure.

That wasn't what I meant to happen. But that's what's been coming out lately. Maybe it's my revenge on the happy endings, the perfect-life TV shows, or maybe the tendency of our society to push the distrubing realities of life away until they're just some plasticized trinket that can be safely stored away.

I went to a funeral once where no one showed any real emotion--no one even seemed to choke it back. It was just...empty. And at least half of the people there loved the woman. Honestly and truly loved her.

I want people to feel something...sometimes anything, it seems like. And I guess creepy stuff is the best way I've found to do that.

Or maybe I've just heard "It's all for the best, dear" too many times. Sucky things happen, and people seem to have this need to pretend they needed the sucky thing, rather than facing the horrible utter randomness of awful events.

[Fractured_Chaos]

I like that reasoning, Blue. :)

Sad that the mourners did that. But that's a very good example of what I see around me all the time, too. Not to put too much of a political face on it, but I wonder, if the push to make our language more "Politically Correct", has also forced us to try to make our emotions the same way?

I see it happening all around me, and it seems to have gone too far, IMO. There are too many people now who allow themselves to be easily offended, or are too afraid to offend, that we watch every thing we say and do.

I mean, seriously, how real is it when someone says in the heat of an argument, "You are interfering with my personal well-being"?

:Wha:

Yes, I heard someone use those exact words recently. I honestly thought maybe they were joking, but come to find out later, they weren't.

And if people are talking like that, then sure as sh**, they're "feeling" like that (or acting like they feel like that...which is worse, really).

And that's the wonderous thing about horror. It's -NOT- politically correct. It's filled with negative, and unpleasant things, words and feelings. It's a visceral, knock-down, drag-out, dirty, grimey, dark, and creepy place.

It's positively delicious, because it's "real" and raw.

[BlueTexas]

I mean, seriously, how real is it when someone says in the heat of an argument, "You are interfering with my personal well-being"?

:Wha:

Yes, I heard someone use those exact words recently. I honestly thought maybe they were joking, but come to find out later, they weren't.


Oh my. This is exactly what I mean! That's frightening.

[Solatium]

I love to read horror, but every time I try to write it something goes wrong. As an example, three stories I recently wrote for a class I was taking:

#1 was meant to be an homage to The Colour Out of Space. Everyone thought it was an adventure story, and an adventure story only. (How the hell did that happen?)

#2 was a fluke -- a sci-fi* romance that didn't pretend to be anything else.

#3 I started as a horror story, but by the end the horror and science-fiction elements were about equal.

And since then I haven't been able to think of another "horrific" plot that doesn't involve vampires (which I'm sick of reading, and would hate writing) or historical settings (which I'm too ignorant to write about). From my track record so far, it looks like SF is my genre -- but I'm too ignorant for that too.

Maybe my problem isn't genre instability, but lack of education.

* Sorry to use the word; the sentence wouldn't flow without it.

[Spookster]

From my track record so far, it looks like SF is my genre -- but I'm too ignorant for that too

The great thing about writing fiction is it's fiction. Just make it up as you go along and hash out the problem areas in the re-writes.

Maybe my problem isn't genre instability, but lack of education

This is an easy remedy. You've got all the education you need at the click of a mouse.

Long story short... just write. If it sucks, do some editing, fix 'er up. It's all good!

[Samuel Dark]

I write horror because my friend, Dallas, said he doesn't like horror for one reason: The way people (sometimes) go about making books scary. And, really, I agree. When if comes down to it, books are generally not as scary as movies, because its hard to see books (sure sure, there ar 'word paint', but how far can that go?) So this presents me with a challenge. A challenge I can take on. Thats why I write horror. And its fun creeping my friends out, making them wonder if I am sane or not. hehe

[Spookster]

And its fun creeping my friends out, making them wonder if I am sane or not. hehe

A sure sign to question your sanity. You'll fit right in here. My friends all know I'm insane, but they like me just the same. ;)

[Jamesaritchie]

I write horror because my friend, Dallas, said he doesn't like horror for one reason: The way people (sometimes) go about making books scary. And, really, I agree. When if comes down to it, books are generally not as scary as movies, because its hard to see books (sure sure, there ar 'word paint', but how far can that go?) So this presents me with a challenge. A challenge I can take on. Thats why I write horror. And its fun creeping my friends out, making them wonder if I am sane or not. hehe

With the possible exception of "The Ring," I find books much easier to see than movies. Movies show far too much in some ways, and far too little in other ways.

I think most who love books would say they see books much clearer than they see movies. I certainly do. The movie that plays in my head when I read a good book is always far superior, and always easier to see, to the movie I see made from the book.

[Fractured_Chaos]

And its fun creeping my friends out, making them wonder if I am sane or not. hehe

That's something I enjoy, tremendously!

To meet me face-to-face, you would think I'm a very nice, and very stable person. But then you read what I write, and start to wonder. And usually at that point, all the stuff you hear about serial killers pops into your head ("She was so normal, and nice!" "She was so quiet!" "She always kept to herself, and never seemed creepy at all!" Buahahahahahahahaha!).

Of course, tapping into that dark half, and channeling it into a work of fiction helps keep me sane.

[Samuel Dark]

Hey! I love books! You see, I agree with you -- movies aren't scary. But, I think with the music, with the visual effects -- if use right, like in 'The Ring', and just seeing it -- you can get a lot more involved, and forget ur watching a movie. Yet, with a book, you are holding the book, you can't use music to spark the tension, the person is thinking everything in their head -- so there goes the possible thing where the person looses the sense of reality, so there is no real threat. But -- there are ways to make ppl scared, depending on who is reading your book. I think the best way is to mess with the persons mind, using psychology :). Anyway, I personally just don't think a book can be scary. lol, funny I am writing a horror book, then, isn't?

[Nick Fletcher]

I mainly write fantasy or action stories.

I have attempted writing horror before but for some reason I could never keep it going. I enjoy reading horror and I am actually working on a new story that will be based in the horror genre!! But not the kind of bloody, gory horror most things are about, mine is more a spiritual psychological horror story!!!
I just hope that I can see it through to the end!!

[MacAllister]

For me, it's just the big "what if..." My mind seems inclined to turn towards dark places, when I pose that question.

What if, when that guy sat down to take a dump, a big hand with teeth snaked up out of the sewer and grabbed him by the balls...?

What if the boogeyman under your kid's bed was REAL?

What if that normal-looking woman really is neither normal, nor a woman...?

What if...

[ScottAJohnson]

I'm new here, but here's my $.02...
I write horror because it's what interests me. For some reason, I've always been a little "bent," and I find horror much more entertaining than any other genre. That doesn't mean I don't like the other genres, but we'll written horror is the best way to my heart...besides through the ribcage...

[MacAllister]

Hi Scott! Welcome :)