Horror and Ghostly Tales

If the purpose is to frighten the reader, then yeah, that's pretty much the definition of horror.

Marlys said:

If the purpose is to frighten the reader, then yeah, that's pretty much the definition of horror.

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Pretty much one definition of horror fiction. By no means the only one.

There is more to horror than just fear, just as there is more to fear than simple horror.

Likewise, ghost stories need not be horrific - they can be gentle and elegant, melancholy and elegaic - even uplifting if done well.

I think it's all about the mood, rather than the presence of ghosts. If you aim to cause fear, creepiness, etc. then it's horror. But anything can be horror if it evokes this type of feelings, this atmosphere. But stories don't have to have ghosts to be horror, and not all ghost stories will be horror either.

WriterDude said:

Horror and Ghostly Tales. Are they the same thing?

I tend, at the moment, to be writing the creepy night noise and shadow form with a somewhat uncanny similarity with some past event type stories that serve to spook the reader.

Is that different to horror?

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The short answer, based on what you've described of your work there, is no; that's not any different. It's horror.

Expanding a bit, piggybacking off of William's comment, there are different types of horror stories and different types of ghost stories, obviously. For example, Dickens' A Christmas Carol is a ghost story. But while it has its creepy moments and elements, I wouldn't say it's primarily or even secondarily concerned with scaring the reader. Conversely, one of my favorite ghost stories is H.R. Wakefield's "Used Car," which is focused primarily on building a sense of dread and anxiety over what's to come next.

There are many ways for a work to qualify for the horror genre. Serving to scare the audience is, in my opinion, one of those ways.

Ghost Stories can be cliche. They all have to do with a tragic past that keeps the spirit earthbound. Poltergeists (noisy ghosts) are again the same but have their anger placed on a single individual.

Horror on the other hand can be written about anyone or anything and opens the door to interpretation by your reader. What you might think is scary may not be scary to everyone else. I grappled with this same idea a while back.