Skip to main content

Writer's Workshop: Horror Writing



Hey, everyone. I'm hosting T-giving tomorrow. I do every year. My family had a tradition of taking in all their friends who didn't have family nearby or were single and otherwise wouldn't cook a turkey. It's a tradition I really enjoy and a chance to give people little leftover containers to take home and enjoy the turkey overdose in good measure. Today, I'm making apple crumble pie, rum brownie pie, and pumpkin cheesecake, and managing to edit "The Thicket." (It's my day off from work). But, I thought I'd pop on this little informative post today. Enjoy!


I might be the blind leading the blind. I’ve never taken a class on how to write horror, although my major was English and creative writing from junior high through college. I have yet to be paid for my publication of horror, although I’m vigorously working to take it out of the “hobby” category and into the “professional” arena, finally (and thanks to your encouragement).

I’ve been a part of writing critique groups over the years and accumulated all kinds of helpful knowledge by instinct and observation. I want to share it with ya’all because I know that almost all my followers are closet writers. I see potential in each of you and your writing and want to encourage you to take your writing more seriously and do something with it, whether it’s short stories for your blog, letters of appreciation to family members and friends, or pursuing getting published.

I’ve had a hard time finding a critique group for horror, so if any of you are writing horror fiction and want to pass scenes for editing back and forth, let me know (psychic62@hotmail.com). I’m always receptive to input and I adore helping people figure out their strengths and how to showcase them.

Here’s a list of some “no’s” and “yes’s” that I’ve developed over the years of writing horror:

Passive versus active wording.


No: “She felt her heart pounding.” (We don’t need to know that she felt it. If her heart pounded and she’s conscious, she felt it.)
Yes: “Her heart pounded wildly.”

No: “His fist was knotting in her hair.” (avoid “was” and "that")
Yes: “His fist knotted in her hair.”

Too little information (aka, nouns need adjectives)


No:
“The room was dusty and dirty.” (Like grandma’s? Like an old library? Where the heck are we, by the way?)
Yes: “Layers of dust caked the counters, carrying the musty scent of a kitchen left unattended, possibly for decades.”

There’s too little information, and too much…

No: “He passed by the first door, turned on his heel and studied the next, and then the next. Pushing a door open, he wondered if he should enter, but turned and continued on. Every door was closed, except the next one. He decided to stop and peer inside.” (Are you out of breath just reading this in your head? We don’t need every single action of a tedious task.)
Yes: “With over a dozen doors to choose from, Stuart walked the length of the corridor; stopping occasionally to be certain the rooms were free of occupants."

Why are they that way? What motivates them?


No: “Bart didn’t want to enter the barn because it was dark. (Use these moments of personal challenge to provide some insight into their character and his dilemma by explaining why.)
Yes: “Bart paced before the barn, fighting the internal battle that he’d fought since he was six years old; fear of the dark. He knew he must enter, but he also knew it would be pitch black. And which scared him more, the unseen contents within the barn or the creature lurking in the pasture coming ever closer?”

Keep your senses—all six of them!


No:
“It started to rain and the room became dark.” (Set the mood—use the senses, make it real and atmospheric, in other words, put us in the storm.)
Yes: “The first plinking drops of rain were followed by a full-out pounding on the tin roof. The arriving storm brought with it a cloak of darkness, matching the mood of the family inside.”

Make it terrifying.

No: “The monster was large and intimidating.” (For heaven’s sake—larger than what? More intimidating than what? Give us a reference point and show how it intimidates by expression. And try very hard not to use “was”--passive)
Yes: “It loomed over her, swinging its beefy arms and casting a black shadow of icy cold.”

Who the heck are we talking about?


No: “She went to the store and peered into the window, her belly clenched in fear. It appeared she was the last person in the world. Everyone was gone and she remained all alone, nothing but her trusty cat to keep her company.” (Too many pronouns (six)! Occasionally insert a name, try not to use so many “her’s” and “she’s”)
Yes: Betsy went to the store and peered into the window, belly clenched in fear. With everyone gone, it felt like the end of the world. If I weren’t for her trusty cat, she’d probably go insane.” (two pronouns, one name)

One thing to remember about writing horror is that it involves three elements that must be the focus:

Characters: These must have a fatal flaw, some awful weakness, some inner strength that has yet to be challenged.

Mood/atmosphere: The five senses, making the most of the location, and putting us in that place where things are happening.

Fear: Some universal fear that we all can relate to. For every action, there is a reaction that needs to be shown and not told. If a woman is afraid of someone following her down an alley, there's no need to tell what's going on in her head. Show it! "She looked over her shoulder again and again as her pace sped up. Still, the dark figure pursued her. Angie broke into a run, desperate to reach her car."


I plan to write more posts in the near future about writing horror to help refine our skills. In writing this, I’m reminded to go over my recent editing and be sure I’ve adhered to the rules I’ve just touted. I believe these skills when applied can help even regular post writing to turn an informative subject into something more compelling. I've found when you have passion for a subject, it makes it easy to elaborate. I enjoy public speaking and one reason I do is that I choose subjects I love and so talking about it comes easily. If you pick a subject for a post, decide if you find it humorous, compelling, scary, informative, or curious, and write from that attitude and it will change the entire tone of the post. I have the feeling a great majority of you don't need this advice--your blogs are already thoughtfully written, but I hope that for anyone who's uncomfortable with writing or reading this and thinking of starting a blog, you realize that everyone has a story and that alone makes a blog!

Comments

RELATED POST

Don Monroe Case Files: Unusual Carving Unearthed!

Life-long explorer, adventurer and researcher, Don Monroe, has a million stories to tell, only he's been on the road nonstop, busy hiking the back country in dozens of countries, climbing the highest peaks and crawling in the deepest caves to understand this natural world we live in. He has hunted, tracked, trapped, cast footprints, talked to Native people, continued several-decade long ongoing research projects, devoured tons of research books, and ultimately sought answers about every aspect of nature and all the mysteries within. During those travels, he came across many unusual things. What I am presenting now is one of them -  Don Monroe and a researcher friend named Massey, were up at about 7000 feet on Anaconda Range in Montana. They were tracking a bear when Don noted something sticking out of the ground, just a bit of something, but didn't look like a regular rock.  In this remote area at that elevation, the idea of running across something man-made was unlikely. He s...

Terror of Doll Island!

Photo source Isla de las Munecas or "Island of the Dolls" (popularly coined "Doll Island") is a thing of horror for many. Why would an island filled with dolls for decades, laid to waste by the elements and neglect, be terrifying? Well, let me introduce you to its most unsettling beginnings. Don Julian Santana was unhappy with city life and moved to an island on a canalway south of Mexico City for peace and quiet. It was there that the legend begins and takes on a life that is animated enough to bring the dead to life. Don reported that a little girl had drowned in the canal 50 years ago and he believed her spirit to be troubled and haunting his little island.  He said that he was out one day when he saw a doll floating in the canal and scooped it out, hanging it up on a tree near the drowning spot to make the girl eternally happy so she would not haunt and scare him.  He then became consumed with finding more and more dolls, fishing them out of the canal, sorting t...

Monsters in the Deepest Ocean!

The ocean takes up the majority of the surface on our world and yet so little of what is in it is known to us. Upon occasion, we come across some real mysteries, tantalizing glimpses that make us wonder. For a long time, the giant squid (above) was a legend until it was finally filmed underwater. What other legends might tell us what is in the sea? One creative thinker in 1570 drew up the sea monsters that lay in the waters outside of Iceland. Scientist and artist, Abraham Ortelius had some very fanciful ideas of what awaited the seafarer. He also pondered what might live in the Pacific Ocean. In 1644, another artist/scientist drew up what he thought might lurk in the waters off of Africa. Willem Blaeu had quite an interesting vision. In 1727, Peter Kolb envisioned a sea lion of interesting characteristics - In present day, we still run across things in the sea that puzzle us. Here is one such thing photographed at Hook Island. It was estimated to be 75-80 feet long and to this day the...

Scary and Precarious Roads!

Summer road trip time - why not consider scaring the crap out of your family? The road to Big Sur (above) is sure to separate boys from men.  Highway 1  is an intense cliff hugging drive along the coast for 122 miles from Monterey to Morro Bay. Independence Pass from Aspen to Leadville in Colorado.   Highway 82  is a 187-mile white knuckler. And if that's not enough, you take the over 1000-foot tall highest suspension bridge in the world! Great Smoky Mountains National Park "Tail of the Dragon" in North Carolina/Tennessee  Highway 129  takes you on 11 miles of awesome views. Clinton Road , Passaic County, New Jersey.   Seriously paranormal , " If you are visiting the road at midnight, stop by the bridge at Dead Man’s Curve for a game of catch. Toss pennies into the water, and the ghost of a young boy will toss them back.  A gray wolf with red eyes will stalk you from the bushes.  Satan worshippers will hang hang up their bloody clot...

Obscure Horror Movies of the 70s and 80s

The 1970s and 1980s were horror movie lovers' heaven! There were movies about nature turning on man because of pollution, witches, devil worshippers, killers, insanity, revenge, demons, families moving into haunted houses, beasts attacking, and teens being slashed.  You might have missed some of the more obscure ones in the offering -  *Descriptions thanks to my favorite movie site IMDB (The Food of the Gods - 1976) The Food of the Gods:  A group of friends travel to a remote Canadian island to hunt, only to be attacked by giant killer animals which have populated the place. The People:   Kim Darby and William Shatner star in this 1972 made-for-tv movie. A woman is sent to a secluded valley to teach school to the reclusive residents' children. The citizens start showing some odd skills and pretty soon the teacher begins to wonder if the residents are human.  The Initiation:   Daphne Zuniga stars in this 1984 slasher that takes place during an initiation sta...

Desert-Dwelling Bigfoot: Yucca Man

There are well known reports of Bigfoot wandering the American Northwest, the Sierras, the Rockies, the Mississippi River corridor and even Florida and the Northeast, but there are Bigfoot reported in deserts too. The assumptions that hair-covered humans would not live there is wrong. We know they are resistant to cold, why not heat? And, if Native Americans could live in such conditions, then surely these denizens of the wild could, too. The Joshua Tree Monument Park and Twenty-Nine Palms areas in the California desert has long had reports of people encountering a tall hairy man, described as a Bigfoot-type figure.  In the early 70s, a man was supposedly being a guard officer at a facility in the Twenty-Nine Palms area. He saw something big emerge from the desert and poised his gun, warning it off. Instead of stopping, it stormed towards him and the man saw that it was a large hairy man. He was so shocked he didn't react and the hairy man knocked him unconscious. It was ...

The Most Bizarre Photographic Finds On Mars!

Mars explorers have sent back photos of some rather unusual, sometimes vague, and often times puzzling items on the surface of the "dead" planet.  This has us wondering, if our own planet no longer supported life, would all the evidence of our having been here be covered up by a millennia of earth, leaving only the occasional hint someone might have been here? Here's a look at a large gallery of photos from the red planet. You come to your own conclusions.... Th e one above, I will chalk up to optical illusion. The stone is actually on the ground in the distance. In the foreground is a rock casting a shadow.  Are we looking at a planet that seems to be dead and yet it has a history of life? What if a civilization that was quite advanced had the opportunity to leave a sick planet for a healthy one not so far away in terms of space travel? Is Mars a planet that never supported life or is it a planet that sustained life long enough to build an entire civilization now buried ...

Ghost Ships and Fata Morgana Mirages

Fata Morgana   Fata Morgana is a complex superior mirage. In this instance, in the horizon a narrow band seen can separate an image, casting what looks like another image superior to the original object. In the image above it appears as if the ship is in the air. Below, the image shows a repeat of it up in the air. Sometimes, the image can be inverted. This occurs when rays of light are bent when they pass through layers that are different temperatures.  Flying Dutchman This legend is talked about among sailors since the late 1700s. The tale says that there was a ship's captain sailing around the most dangerous ocean strait, the Cape of Good Hope. He cursed the elements and swore he would make it no matter what. The ship went down and all perished, but they are said to continue as a ghost ship for eternity in the region of the Southern tip of Africa because of the arrogance. In fact, the legend was picked up and modified for many countries and many sea locations. Perhaps it wa...

Monsters in the Sewers

There was a fantastic X-Files episode involving a sewer-dwelling monster. It was so creepy and distasteful that it almost fascinates the viewer to wonder, what the heck is down in our sewers? I grew up in the 70s when the talk of alligators in the sewers were rampant. The legend went, someone flushed a baby alligator down the toilet and it ended up occupying the sewers of New York City. There were a lot of variations of it, but one of those urban legends that leaves you checking out your toilet before you take a seat. In Florida, a man went out to get his male, heard something hissing at him, looked over at the sewer open and found an alligator sending him warning signals.  This popular video below made the rounds on YouTube and other sites. It certainly gives one the chills to imagine that during a simple camera survey of an ancient sewer works they came across this -  There are some explainable creatures that are still quite creepy that depend on the conditions found in sew...

The Urban Sasquatch Journal: Stick Glyphs

This is the reporting by a Bigfoot researcher of an ongoing study in the Southern part of the United States in a very large park area near homes and urban setting. LINK TO PRIOR INSTALLMENTS STARTING WITH #1 Journal Volume 3 Report #50 Saturday November 26, 2016 I arrived at the park approximately 9:52 AM. The temperature was 65 and cool. It was partly cloudy with high clouds. I had my bike with me and rode the trail first. This took 44 minutes. I was back to back to my car at 10:48 AM. I then got my pack then rode over to the site. The goal of the trail ride was to observe any new tree breaks, twists or limbs etc. broke over the trail. Also to see if any stick signs were along the trail in the grass. I did observe several interesting items on the east end. These I photographed. Trail ride observations with photos. These cover photos 1-8. #1. thru #3. Between mile markers 2.75 and 3.0 , on the north side of the trail, approximately 10' inside the treeline, these possible stick ...