Archive for Writing Horror
Ty-Ing Up The Genre – Up-and-Comers
Posted by: | CommentsMarch 2010: Up-and-Comers
Ty Schwamberger
I recently sat down with three individuals whom I consider ‘Up-and-Comers’ in the horror genre – Adam P. Lewis, Tom Erb and Dean Harrison. While not all published, yet, I consider their work to be of high quality and a fun read, which is why I invited them to answer the following questions. I hope you enjoy hearing their answers as much as I did.
When and why did you begin writing?
Adam P. Lewis - I wrote my first story in second grade in the early 1980’s about a melting snowman. The story was published in the school newsletter because of its complexity and my age. Since then I wrote mainly short comedy stories and about three years ago I began writing horror and children’s story book fiction. I write the picture book stories on and off but never tried to get anything published. The horror stories however, they consume the majority of my writing and I find them to be more pleasurable to write. With horror, I can dive into my own fears and fantasies. I began writing horror fiction after reading H.P. Lovecraft’s story, “The Lurking Fear”. This story was very inspirational. It created a sense of fear that I haven’t felt while reading another horror story. After reading I sat down and wrote my first horror story called, “Between the Anchor and the Air.” I haven’t stopped writing horror since.
Tom Erb - Wow, believe it or not, both of the questions are hard to pin down. I’ve always written. Whether it was creating new comic book superheroes around the age of three or four, or creating role-playing character’s for games in my early teens. Writing seems to be something I’ve always done. Now writing seriously and wanting to take it to the professional level started only a mere three years ago. I’d had this idea flitting about my noggin for many years then it seemed the perfect storm of events happened and I sat down a started writing. It would turn out to be my first novel, (a coming-of-age zombie book actually) and I haven’t looked back since. It turns out the written word was my passion all along.
Dean Harrison - When I was a junior in high school, I had stories running through my head that I wanted to get out on paper, and so I began writing them out.
Do you have a specific writing style?
Adam - My writing styles aren’t specific. It changes from story to story. It all depends on the voice I want for my story. Am I writing from a 1st person or 2nd person point of view? What time period do the stories take place? How smart are the characters? Also, how am I to describe the action and the settings? Do I wish to be extremely frightening with this story or just suspenseful? These questions and many more regarding the stories create the style I use from story to story.
Tom - I’m not sure if it’s a style really, but I tend to gravitate toward a stripped down approach. I don’t usually go into long paragraphs of description. I think I prefer to give just enough detail and let the reader finish the image in their mind’s eye.
Dean - My writing tends to reflect what I read. Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of Tom Piccirilli, Michael Laimo, John Farris, and Ramsey Campbell. When I started off in high school, it was Douglas Clegg, Robert McCammon, Stephen King, and Dean Koontz.
How do you develop your plots and characters? Do you use a set formula?
Adam - My story, “Some Words with a Corpse”, used Edgar Allan Poe as one of my characters. From what I learned about him, I already knew how he should act and interact with the other characters. The remaining characters are all fictional. I had to think like police officers and think like a doctor to make the plot I had stored in my head work. This is typical for all my characters in all my stories. However, as far as direction of the story, I just have a simple plot written out for all of my work. Still using, “Some Words with a Corpse”, as an example, the plot was written out as:
Fact: Edgar Allan Poe died mysteriously. Fiction: A doctor who practices electrical revivification is called upon by the police to find out how Poe died.
Other than that I had no direction or how the story would end. I like to leave my options open so I am not tied down to direction.
Tom - My ideas come to me out of the blue. It could be a song lyric or a phrase I overhear someone say. I sometimes come up with a story/book title and jot it down and later, while I’m looking over my list, a story may come flashing out to me and I start writing. All my stories seem to be character driven. I’ve always loved the underdog, so I’m sure that is one common element in all my characters and stories. I will also say that many of my characters come from inspiration I find all around me. I’ve been on this planet for a few years and lived in many places, worked many jobs so the “creative palette” I have is pretty colorful and rich.
Dean - I keep a notebook of character sketches, story notes, and plot outlines. Generally, I’ll start with the characters and build the story around them. So, I guess you can say I strive for character-driven stories.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
Adam - Every story I write is a challenge. The next story has to be better than the last.
Tom - Well, I think any creative pursuit is rife with struggle and challenges. I think that no true art comes easy. It were easy, than everyone would be a best seller or hanging on the wall in the Louvre. For me, it’s mostly staying focused on one project at a time. My creative mind is always looking and exploring for new ideas and “fun” things to write about. I may also from time to time find it hard to capture a certain scene or piece of dialogue the exact way I want it. But I think that’s normal.
Dean - Trying to decide on the amount of description necessary for a particular scene, and trying to create believable dialogue (especially among teenagers), is what I find particularly challenging in my writing.
Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?
Adam - At least once a month I suffer from writer’s block. To reverse writer’s block, I read, watch tv, listen to music, play with my kids, and anything else that gets me away from writing for an hour, a day or a few days. I don’t force my writing. I let it flow. If it doesn’t flow then I have to stop until my head is clear and a new direction or story is thought of. Some of my best work has been created after a stint of writer’s block. I think I am unlike other writers, I like writer’s block. It keeps me from forcing my work.
Tom - I do… but I think all creative people do. I find that anything I do, whether it is literary, visual, musical, whatever has an ebb and flow of passion and production to them. Sometimes it rains, other times; it’s as dry as Sahara. So when those dark times come, I usually just pick up a book, play my drums for a while, go for a long drive. (In warm weather, I take a walk). And I tell myself it will all be okay and that this too shall pass…and the best part is that is always does.
Dean - Whenever I suffer from writer’s block, I tend to refer to the many books on writing I own, or the many copies of Writer’s Digest, for inspiration. Or I’ll step away from the laptop, pick up whatever book I’m reading at the time, and find inspiration that way. I’ll also go through the notebook full of notes I keep on the story I’m working on and see if there is anything in there that might assist me in getting through the block.
What draws people to horror novels and movies? Why do we, as readers, like to be scared?
Adam - “Supernatural Horror in Literature,” an essay written by H.P. Lovecraft, published in 1927 states, “Children will always be afraid of the dark, and men with minds sensitive to hereditary impulse will always tremble at the thought of the hidden and fathomless worlds of strange life which may pulsate in the gulfs beyond the stars, or press hideously upon our own unholy dimensions which only the dead and the moonstruck can glimpse.”
In other words, fear is an emotion that inherently exists and cannot be lost, forgotten, and overcome. We can fall in and out of love, grieve but come to terms with the death of a loved one, and go from happiness to sadness and back to happiness again like a stretching rubber band. But fear, created on paper, film and reality, stays with us. Our bodies itch after seeing spiders, we’re jarred awake by noises, and we peer over our shoulders at shadows as we walk down dark streets. It’s our own personal fears, that frightening paragraph in a story, and image burned into our minds from a movie that keeps us scared. We are, collectively as humans, continuing to explore our world and galaxy. We seek out new creatures and planets. We don’t know what we’ll find and what we find may frighten us. If a neighbor’s house is broken into then we think our house will be next. We don’t look for love but we look for fear. It goes hand in hand with exploring, writing fiction, watching movies, starting a new job and many more everyday tasks that we put ourselves into.
Tom - Escape. We all love to be scared. But it’s a ’safe’ scared. We all know when we put the book inside a pillowcase and chuck it deep under some sweaters in our dresser, turn on all of the lights in the house, or walk out of the theatre and are safely locked inside our car and on the way home, that is was a just a fear dripping fantasy. Pure, unbridled darkened fun. The true horror is what we see on CNN or read in our daily newspapers.
What horror films and novels offer us is controlled fear. Our brains thrive on that. Our fight or flight responses kick in and our adrenaline rush through our bodies. It’s a fun, legal high that keep us headed to the book store or local movie theater. And I for one am sincerely grateful for that.
Dean - For some it’s a thrill, like riding on a roll-a-coaster. For others, it’s a fascinating study of the human condition-observing how people react when facing their fears.
Are your works based on someone you know or events in your life?
Adam - Everything I write is based on my personal fears, family, friends, news articles, historical people and places, and old folklore. For example my story, “Halloween Hootenanny”, is based on a thought I had while looking at a sound effects CD cover. “Help Wanted” is based on a carnival poster I saw at a fair, “Trophy Room” is based on trophies I won when I played Little League. Ideas come from everywhere; you just have to pay attention to your thoughts.
Tom - I’m always deeply inspired by both the great and horrible things that have happened to me in my life. It’s all just grist for the creative mill and if I’m ever stuck for a new character for a story, all I have to do is take a walk outside my door or hang out at the local mall. There is plenty of inspiration everywhere.
Dean - I think every character and every story I work on contain bits and pieces of people I know (or have known) or from events in my life, from my experiences. The golden rule of writing fiction, from what I can tell, is to write what you know, and I think that comes pretty naturally to writers.
What is your favorite horror novel?
Adam - Savage by Richard Laymon, it’s an historical-fiction / adventure / horror novel. I’ve never seen or read anything else like it before. I don’t think I ever will.
Tom - Wow, that’s a real tough one. To be honest, I would say Brian Keene’s Ghoul. It’s that perfect combination of a coming-of-age story, mixed with all the trappings and memory blasts of my growing up in a small town in the 80’s. It’s an amazing book on its own merits, but it was also one of the books that made me want to write.
Dean - John Farris’s Son Of The Endless Night
What are you currently working on and/or where can folks check out your work?
Adam - I am currently working on a novel based on the Lizzie Borden murders. Along with that I am working on various short stories, book and movie reviews. My work can be previewed at http://www.adamplewis.com. There I have posted fiction, bio, essays, contact information, list of publications and links to where my work can be read online.
Tom - I have a zombie novel (Aeternus Umbra), which is almost ready for submission and I’ve started work on Snow Black – A Monster Novel and I have a few short stories submitted and I’m about half-way finished with a novella entitled, “Tones of Home”, which is part of an anthology with two amazing authors. And over course, I have a myriad of other projects in various stages… it’s that Wandering Muse of mine. At least I’ll blame it on her.
Dean - I don’t have anything published yet, but I’m currently working on my first novel, which is a combined ghost story and psychological horror.
Note: Next month will feature the article, ‘So You Want to be an Editor’ by Maurice Broaddus.
Ty is an author in the horror genre. To learn more about his work, you can visit his website at: http://tyschwamberger.com
Ty-ing Up The Genre – An Introduction
Posted by: | CommentsFebruary 2010: An Introduction
Ty Schwamberger
The first two questions I get asked when I tell someone that I write horror are; when and why did you begin writing and why horror?
The simple answer to these questions would be; because I’ve always enjoyed writing and that I’ve always been fascinated with scary stuff.
Some people are ok with these answers, while some are not. To the people that want to really know I tell them the following.
“The first time I remember writing anything was back in the 5th grade in Mrs. Rudy’s English class. We had a notebook that we had to write so many story stories, poems, etc, each week for credit. My stories were always of the scary variety. I still have the notebook. Perhaps one day I will expand from the story I began back then and make something more out of it.” (a side note – I just completed a novel based on that story)
And
“I like writing scary stuff simply because that is what I have always been into. I like how a horror writer can make pretty much anything into something scary.
You can start a story with a man walking a cute dog down the street, enjoying the outdoors, his life and his dog. Now, you can make that scary by having a madman in a car jump the curb and taking them both out. Say the dog dies but the guy ends up in the hospital and has to fight for his life. Then after getting out of the hospital, perhaps the guy goes on a mission to find the reckless driver and put him out of his misery.
Even the everyday things we enjoy can turn into someone’s nightmare.
That is what writing horror is all about. Trying new angles on a classic story or character or writing about something no one else has ever thought about before.”
See what I mean? It’s basically the same answer but just a very different way of explaining it.
Essentially this is what writing is all about.
It’s about the trials and tribulations that you, as a writer, will face when you are first thinking about writing something and throughout the entire writing process.
This is also the basic premise of this column – ‘Ty-ing Up the Genre’.
We are going to take a journey together down the wonderful river of writing and I’ll be your riverboat captain. We are going to explore the ins and outs of writing and finally how to go about getting your work published.
But wait a minute – I’m not the only one that will be your guide throughout this journey. Oh no. Coming along with us will be some the most well-known and highly respected writers, editors and publishers in the horror genre today.
Exciting, huh?
But wait, there’s more.
What if I told you right now who these people are? That would be even better, right?
Sure it would.
Ok. I guess I’ll fill you in who will be joining us over the next year. Some of these well-known folks will include: Maurice Broaddus (horror author – and will be featured in the April column), Tim Deal (publisher of Shroud Magazine), Jason Sizemore (Apex Books), Scott Sandridge (Fear and Trembling Magazine), Jack Ketchum (horror author), Michael Knost (editor and horror author), among many others.
Quite a lineup wouldn’t you say?
It should be quite an exciting journey that you and I are about to undertake.
So I hope you join me each and every month right here on Hellnotes to explore the world of writing and publishing. Not only will these articles and interviews be fun to read but very informative as well.
Ty is a published author in the horror genre. To learn more about his work, you can visit his website at: Ty Schwamberger
Gray Matter – The Three Requirements of Dialogue
Posted by: | CommentsBy Robert Gray
As writers of the macabre, we know how important it is to wrap the fantastic elements of our stories with as many truths as possible. Perhaps this is what makes dialogue such an interesting beast. It serves to add a layer of realism to our stories, yet to be convincing, dialogue must ring true and feel natural without being as meaningless and chaotic as everyday speech can be. In essence, we are attempting to take the spoken word and convert it into coherent symbols in order to create a sort of virtualization of the truth. And, yes, there is a whole lot of room for error.
There are dozens of styles and effects you can use to improve your dialogue, but often enough authors get so concerned with the stylistic aspects that they forget what dialogue is supposed to do, which is:
- Reveal character
- Build tension
- Advance plot
Just like in real life, much of what you learn from a character is revealed through dialogue. In fiction, good dialogue becomes the character. It shows the character’s motivations, intelligence, social status, and personality in such a way that readers can draw their own conclusions about the character without having to be told. It’s not enough to say someone is good or bad. As authors, we must show it, and good dialogue does just that.
Take this passage from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens for example:
“Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.”
Dickens doesn’t say that Scrooge is mean-spirited and hates Christmas, but rather he implies it through a conversation between Scrooge and his nephew. The effect works so much better than just saying that Scrooge hated Christmas and thought that anyone who celebrated the holiday should die.
Dialogue should also evoke foreshadowing, which is essential, especially in horror, in building tension. Good dialogue should keep the reader wondering what’s going to happen next by providing those subtle hints of things to come. The benefit of using dialogue to build tension is that your characters can respond to a situation emotionally, letting the reader know what is at stake for the characters, thereby keeping the reader emotionally involved, too.
Look at the opening lines to E.B. White’s classic Charlotte’s Web:
“Where is Papa going with that ax?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.
“Out to the hoghouse,” replied Mrs. Arable. “Some pigs were born last night.”
From the very beginning, E.B. White creates tension with just two simple lines of dialogue.
Often enough, dialogue becomes flat and wooden when it comes to advancing the plot. Amateur writers will often turn to expository passages, which seldom engages the reader. If you try to force your plot in a certain direction, your dialogue and your story will suffer as a result. Remember: You want to set your readers up for an emotional climax, not force information down their throats. In many cases, revealing character and building tension will naturally advance the plot, making an almost mathematical equation: Revealing Character + Building Tension = Advancing the Plot.
I’d like to suggest to you that if you want to study dialogue, you should of course read great dialogue writers – Elmore Leonard comes immediately to mind – but you should also read screenplays. I find screenplays can offer better examples of good dialogue because the story only exists through dialogue, whereas a good novelist can compensate for bad dialogue with other techniques. Screenplays are also useful when learning how to hide expository information within dialogue because screenwriters don’t have the luxury of narration. Be careful of one major difference between screenplays and novels, though. Screenplays often needlessly repeat character names, because there is no other way to know who is being spoken to: Thanks, Robert, for the advice. In novels, this isn’t the case and should be used sparingly.
If you are not establishing at least one of the three requirements within your dialogue, then you would do best to revise, no matter how beautifully you’ve crafted that nonessential conversation with Mom about the increase in sales tax. However, if you do find that your conversation has a purpose but may be boring to the reader, try using indirect quotation to paraphrase the speaker. Maybe that sales tax conversation does serve some small purpose to the overall story. You can simply use indirect quotation and move on:
His mom gabbed for over an hour about the sales tax increase.
Good dialogue has to be realistic, but it cannot be exact speech. It has to reveal information about character and move the plot, but it can’t be too expository. Walking those fine lines can be tricky, but with lots of practice and a solid understanding of what dialogue must do – reveal character, build tension and advance plot – you will be writing effective and professional dialogue in no time.
Gray Matter – Leaving Your Monster in The Closet
Posted by: | Commentsby ROBERT GRAY
It’s happened to all of us: You’ll be reading a horror story that starts off great, great characters, great storyline, even a great monster that scares the hell out of you in Chapter 1, but as you move through the story, the monster gets less scary. By the end—if you’ve made it that far—you decide the book wasn’t very good at all. What happened? In many cases, the monster that roamed the story was overexposed. Effects that worked once didn’t work on you again. After the umpteenth death, you figured the monster was out of stamina, then it kills another dozen people, and at this point, you’re just rolling your eyes. Or worse, you feel like you’ve just been robbed twenty-four bucks, or whatever that book cost, because you paid good money to be scared and that didn’t happen.
The more times your monster appears, the more careful you should be about breaking that spell you’ve worked so hard to weave over your readers. Give your monster too much presence, and you run the risk of making your monster laughable. In order to find that perfect balance of how much your monster should appear in your story, you must study a lot of horror, both novel and film. You need to find what works for you and what comes off as cliché, boring or just flat out silly. Look back to those lasting works, classics like Dracula and Frankenstein. Compare how little Dracula appears in Stoker’s novel versus how frequent Frankenstein’s monster appears in Shelley’s work. Which one works better for you? Which one is scarier? If you ask me, Frankenstein’s monster became a legend more from Boris Karloff than Mary Shelley.
Even bad horror is good for the beginning horror writer. Bad horror often provides more insight than the good stuff does. A well-written monster is hard to imitate because those skilled authors know exactly how to hypnotize you without you realizing it. In bad horror, it’s easy to see where the story goes wrong.
Because horror movies almost always reveal too much, it’s sometimes easier to find flaws than it is in fiction. On the other hand, with good horror movies it’s often easier to visualize effective techniques that you can bring to your story. Look to modern horror movies like The Blair Witch Project, which uses very subtle yet very effective hints to create fear. Compare that to the comedy Freddy vs. Jason in which the monsters get most of the screen time. Do I have to ask which one is scarier?
Keep in mind that while you are trying to instill fear into your reader, you are also trying to move your story along and hold the reader’s attention. If your monster is integral to the overall plot, you’d do best to pose big questions about your monster and answer them a little a time, stringing your reader along. Give the reader too many answers too fast, and you’ll have a third act full of characters running around in circles, not doing much of anything.
Here the old mantra of reading outside your genre can help greatly. Consider looking at some of literature’s greatest monsters, characters like the great white leviathan from Melville’s classic Moby Dick. The Pequod and the reader don’t finally encounter Moby Dick until the end of the novel, but the whole time Melville is finely compounding that suspense, mostly through Ahab’s lunacy over finding his nemesis.
What about the serial killer Anton Chigurh — his name’s sugar? — in Cormac McCarthy’s brilliant novel No Country for Old Men? McCarthy builds suspense by having Chigurh murder off nonessential characters, working his way towards the main characters like pieces on a chessboard. You can do much worse than to emulate McCarthy’s technique.
So, unless you’re filming porno, please try not to expose your monster too much. And as much as you’ve probably heard this advice, you’re gonna hear it again: To write effectively you need to read a lot and write a lot. Monster building is just another reason why.
