With the recent launch of the Absent Willow Review I have received quite a few inquiries regarding the content of the site. While it is open to horror, fantasy, and science fiction there seems to be a lot of interest in the horror aspect. I’m a fan of horror fiction. I have my opinion on what I consider to be good and bad examples of genre. If someone were to put four books in front of me my eye would fall onto the horror novel first before moving to the next. Yes – I do sometimes judge a book by its cover…
But why the interest in horror? What is it about a good piece of horror fiction that keeps us coming back for more? Especially when we happily “discover” an author with a knack for giving us chills (Bentley Little does that for me).
To write a good horror novel you want to scare your reader into turning the lights on. You also need a story. One that can help the reader suspend their disbelief. Bottomline line is that you need to scare yourself. So how do you do that? Make a list. What are the things that fill you with the most dread? What are the things that haunt you when you wake up at 3:00 am and can’t fall back to sleep because your mind fixates on them? The next time that happens try to weave those thoughts into a story. Scare yourself. The next morning I guarantee that you will have the beginnings of a horror story.
Keep in mind that scaring your reader in today’s world isn’t easy. We’ve almost become immune to all things scary unless they are real and happening on a personal level. Horror movies have become more over the top in order to make their audiences jump. They usually succeed in making you more queasy than scared. That’s the special effects. In writing, avoid the special effects. Concentrate on the characters, their interactions with one another, and how they react in the face of the horrific situation you’ve placed them in. Creating characters as fodder for the literary equivalent of Jason Voorhees isn’t scary. Creating characters where the reader has a glimpse into how their daily lives and loved ones are affected when Jason visits their town can be. What are they thinking when they see the hockey mask and their eyes drop to the machete? They may scream but while they are screaming their are a million thoughts racing through their heads. Capture those thoughts and tell the reader about them. Believe me some of those thoughts are extremely terrifying. Especially when you realize the thoughts are yours.
Stephen King once wrote that writing Pet Cemetery frightened him. Why is that? Because it hit home. He wrote about his own nightmare. The loss of a child and the parent’s willingness to do almost anything, no matter how horrible, to reclaim that child. That is what you as a writer are looking for. Scare yourself. It won’t be long before your reader will be hiding under the covers with you.
{ 2 comments }
I completely agree that horror is best when it’s about characterization and setting above special effects. I recently read Stephen King’s short story, Chattery Teeth, and started off wondering how a cheap wind-up toy could possibly scare me (although in the hands of SK, I had faith). But it was really the actions and reactions (as you mentioned) of the central character, Bill, (and yes, the teeth!) that made the story. In this case, when Bill is nearly killed by a hitchhiker, it is the chomping teeth that kill the villain and drag the body away. The novelty toy is no longer a thing, it becomes a character in its own right. (A scary badass one). And the reader can bet money that Stephen King was frightened off those wind-up teeth as a kid! I don’t think I’ll be going near a pair of them anytime soon.
Those chattering teeth… I once had a halloween mask of a hobo as a child. I made the mistake of hanging it on the closet doorknob. Whenever I woke up it was staring at me and I had to turn my back to. Sounds like the setting of a good horror story, huh?
Comments on this entry are closed.