On Writing Horror: A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association

On Writing Horror: A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association

Mort Castle

Language: English

Pages: 272

ISBN: 1582974209

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


The masters of horror have united to teach you the secrets of success in the scariest genre of all!

In On Writing Horror, Second Edition, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Harlan Ellison, David Morrell, Jack Ketchum, and many others tell you everything you need to know to successfully write and publish horror novels and short stories.

Edited by the Horror Writers Association (HWA), a worldwide organization of writers and publishing professionals dedicated to promoting dark literature, On Writing Horror includes exclusive information and guidance from 58 of the biggest names in horror writing to give you the inspiration you need to start scaring and exciting readers and editors. You'll discover comprehensive instruction such as:

  • The art of crafting visceral violence, from Jack Ketchum
  • Why horror classics like Dracula, The Exorcist, and Hell House are as scary as ever, from Robert Weinberg
  • Tips for avoiding one of the biggest death knells in horror writing—predicable clichés—from Ramsey Campbell
  • How to use character and setting to stretch the limits of credibility, from Mort Castle

With On Writing Horror, you can unlock the mystery surrounding classic horror traditions, revel in the art and craft of writing horror, and find out exactly where the genre is going next. Learn from the best, and you could be the next best-selling author keeping readers up all night long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

instance, in our story about the loud upstairs neighbors who have been discovered brutally murdered in their apartment, perhaps our protagonist goes on to discover that there is a crawlspace between the apartments—and someone has been living there. This clues both the protagonist and the audience in; the murderer is somehow linked to the people who died, and there is probably a damn good reason (perhaps an utterly logical one—if you’re a psychopath) that those people had to be dispatched.

promoting their works extensively in our bookstore catalog with interviews, news, etc. The natural progression was to continue my interest in promoting books, and start producing some of them as well.” Overlook averages press runs of 500 copies in hardcover and trade paperback formats, and has issued around 30 titles to date. Hinchberger says Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door has been a key title for the press. “It’s like the Energizer bunny, it just keeps going, and going, and …” Overlook

Web sites are hungry for content, and more and more people get their fiction fix via the Internet every day. However, be aware that while there are some truly professional Web sites that publish horror fiction, such as the horror site ChiZine, which pays a respectable seven cents a word for fiction, there are so many amateur horror sites out there, it’s sometimes hard to identify the quality markets for your fiction. And a page-long list of Web site publishing credits won’t impress a magazine

Aruba, watching palm trees sway, and I was thinking about a hot, humid, pine-tree littered, sandy soil, clay road region back in Texas. East Texas to be exact. I was born and have lived in East Texas most all my life. (People from this region generally spell East with a capital instead of a small letter. It’s almost like a separate state.) I haven’t always written about East Texas, but mostly. And without a doubt, my best work has taken place there. First off, it is so unlike most of Texas.

“shouted” or “screamed”—although, isn’t that why exclamation marks were invented, to indicate that someone is shouting or screaming? But let’s include the latter two anyhow. And maybe “whispered” or “murmured.” Not many. Dialogue Without Tags If you limit your speech tags accordingly, you’ll discover some interesting consequences. One is that your tone will be less likely to be melodramatic. Another is that any weakness in your dialogue will become more obvious once the crutch of an

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