What I Learned from Writing Horror Last Year

Over the last year, I have written a lot. It’s with a great degree of satisfaction that the first draft of my short story collection has entered the initial editing stage. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’ve specifically been writing horror of late.

It’s a curiosity because I don’t really like horror on the movie screen (there are some exceptions) although admittedly I do love horror in videogame but in written form, I think the format really thrives!

I guess the reason for this is the overwhelming potential of horror and the fact that it can be absolutely anything. It can explore the terror of living with mental health issues, the repulsion of toxic masculinity or even just adopt the form of a good old fashioned ghost story. The possibilities of horror are limitless and it fits well into just about any genre-typing you can imagine and the written word is the perfect frontier to explore this terrifying world of potential.

So, on that note – let me share with you the most important piece of advice I can based on my venture into the realms of terror…

Write About Your Own Fears

The phrase ‘write what you know’ is nothing short of cliché at this point; we’ve all heard it and as is common with rules and there are exceptions (for example, Stephen King admits being out of his depth when writing Carrie) but fear is a very human and it ranges from the rational to the entirely irrational.

It’s this human element that can make the abstract and impossible relatable to your readers. This isn’t to say that you can’t write speculatively but if you make the root of your premise something you understand and build from there the foundations of your project are much sturdier.

Allow me to finish on an example; a two pretty common fears as children are the unknown and the dark. Hence, the boogieman. Most people can remember and relate to that and it is possible to explore at all stages of development. If you start with that feeling as a child lying in bed scared of the shadows, can you remember that? Maybe you can. How can you take that context and apply to something else?

If you can’t, then maybe it’s worth exploring something you do know… heights, spiders or maybe even something less common like silence, driving or multi-dimensional killer clowns.

I guess what I learned writing horror last year is that it comes best when it really scares you, and there’s a lot that scares me! Which is fantastic!