Book Review: On Writing Horror: A Handbook by The Horror Writers Association

Artwork by John Bolton
Artwork by John Bolton

Part Five: “Horror, Art, Innovation, Excellence” is comprised of five articles that examine ways to make the horror story a deeper, more creative and visceral experience for the reader. Douglas E. Winter’s “Darkness Absolute: The Standard of Excellence in Horror” stresses the need for the writer, especially new writers, to be original in their story creation and not just copy what is currently popular at the time.

Part Six “Tradition and Modern Times” has seven very interesting articles that look at how horror must change with the times. The rules and conventions that may have worked a few hundred years ago, may not be quite so effective in an age of cellphones and instant video. Vampires with no reflection or no breath; have no logical explanation in the modern world. The old idea that a mirror reflected the person’s soul and therefore a soulless vampire casts no reflection may have sounded logical during Bram Stoker’s times, but now we see that even a brick cast a reflection, does it have a soul? How can a vampire even talk if it doesn’t breathe? Air must pass over the vocal cords for sound to be created and words to be uttered and if you read any Ann Rich vampire novels all those vampires do is talk and talk and talk. Karen E. Taylor’s “No More Silver Mirrors: The Monster in Our Times” is a good example of the thought provoking articles in this section.

Part Seven is “Genre and Subgenre” and contains ten different articles discussing the horror genre and subgenres and how writers can use these to create better horror fiction. Knowing the elements and tropes of a genre or its subgenres is a great way for an author to be able to take what the reader or audience is expecting and twist and turn expectations into a new and surprising, entertaining plot. “Archetypes and Fearful Allure: Writing Erotic Horror” by Nancy Kilpatrick and David Campiti’s “Writing Horror Comic Books” are just two of the interesting genre explorations in this section.
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The final section is Part Eight: “Horror Business: Selling, Marketing, Promoting” and as the title proclaims, this section is about the business side of writing. To be a successful, published author, you must also be creative in how you market your novels and how to promote yourself as an author. The five articles in this section, like “For Love or Money: Six Marketing Myths” by Bev Vincent give authors some advice on how to take the creative process of writing to the creative process of marketing and selling your completed novels.

This is the kind of book that doesn’t have to be read in chapter order, you can skip around and find many helpful tidbits. All and all a very good book on the craft of horror fiction and for writing in general. This is one book that should be on your bookshelf or Kindle.
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This is one book that should be on your bookshelf or Kindle.
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