Horror is meant to frighten & disturb the one reading it, but not only that - it often discusses dark, harsh topics, and can give feelings of adrenaline or make you wonder about existence.
Let's look more into it!
Horror is a perfect genre for discussing topics that normally wouldn't be appreciated - such as abuse, murder, losing to one's past or one's mental disorder, drug abuse, cults, slavery, etc.
EMOTIONS are very important here. The descriptions of fear, anxiety, disgust, hopelessness, rage, all the hard emotions we usually don't like to discuss - here is a perfect place to give space to all of them.
Play with the fear of the unknown, fear of losing life or someone dear to us, unmanaged trauma.
Emotions that do not make any apparent sense can also cause shivers - like laughing while being in chains, or crying when someone comments on the weather.
In this genre you have to stay one step ahead of your reader.
That means that the reader should stay in the feeling that they're not entirely sure about what is happening and why it is happening.
Uncover layers of your story one by one, and leave the most shocking and important ones for last.
Consult with others before you publish - make sure the things you think are mysterious really are mysterious and can't be resolved in a minute.
Remember about tension gradation.
Don't settle for themes that are already overused in the horror genre - like zombies, vampires, haunted houses, enchanted dolls, psychopathic killers, mad doctors, mental institutions from hell, cannibals, “satanists”…
If you still want to use them, make sure you bring something new into the game and make your story unique!
DO NOT deepen harmful stereotypes!
Don't be scared to write positive moments in your horror story as well. Good things happening only strengthen the tension, because we make the readers root for the characters.
A positive moment will also highlight the importance of whatever is coming next.
It also gets people to wonder: what happens now? Is it just silence before a storm? Is there more to the situation than we're being told?
People these days are not so easily scared anymore. A lot of us are really desensitized, and find reality much more haunting than concepts such as mythical creatures or haunted items.
I'm just leaving this information here, so you can think about it and draw conclusions yourself. I don't want to push mine on anyone🩵
Now let me describe some of the horror subgenres:
GROTESQUERY
• genre characterized by the use of grotesque for comedic effect or in order to repulse
• famous authors: H.P. Lovecraft, H. Wakefield, M.Counselman
BODY HORROR
• about gross or creepy things happening to the human body. This could be a gruesome torture scene, but it could also be a weird transformation or disease
• examples:
“Uzumaki”, Junji Ito
“Rosemary's Baby”, Ira Levin
“Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke”, Eric La Rocca
SCI-FI HORROR
• combines sci-fi elements (like space travel and futuristic societies) with common horror elements (like creatures and aliens)
• examples:
“Blindsight”, Peter Watts
“Contagion”, Erin Bowman
“Nightflyers”, George R.R. Martin
romance • science fiction • adventure • fantasy • mystery • slice-of-life • historical fiction • folklore • inspirational • western • thriller
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