Modern Good Reads discussion

Welcome authors of fear and terror. Share your thoughts about writing tales of evil, monsters, and darkness here. What is it like? What inspires you? Anything you like.

I just finished a paranormal book with dark elements - a demented sorcerer...a night numen who can split the atmosphere and draw forth all manner of evil. It's at the editors right now.

I was inspired thinking of the time when I faced my own darkness. I grew up thinking I was super sweet and then I discovered some not so nice traits inside. I know why they were in there. I've since healed from the things that made me so angry. But still...not fun to see inside and own oneself sometimes.

It was a stretch to be able to write about things that are evil, mean, demented. I'm kind of liking it though. I'm getting my newly dark feet very wet and so far, the water feels fine. I have to watch where I step though, because there are things that lurk in these dark waters that I may not want to encounter.

Calinda,
I tried writing a paranormal novel - but bogged down after a few thousand words. Might try again someday.
Read about my novel coming out soon - Darby is an Appalachian novel. A story of danger, suspense, romance, and intrigue interwoven with the history and culture of the Appalachians. Website: http://roypipes.com

I like to mix classic elements of psychological terror, a bad man/woman with the willingness/capability to do wicked, gruesome, painful, murderous things.

I like to build a villain everyone loves to hate.

In all my favorite films and novels, its the villain that carries the story. The credibility/believability and fear-terror of villains is what drives these plots and makes our heroes' journey-ordeal so meaningful.

Horror is all about the villains.

Interesting comment about the villains, Travis. I agree to a large degree, however, I deliberately set out with my just-finished novel to use a character that would normally be a villain as the protagonist. This is Drawing Dead I'm talking about. I did this because I wanted to let the reader have their cake and eat it too (me as well): they get the thrill of watching my MC do things that explore that dark side, but they also get the fun of rooting for him openly.

I do agree that a lot of the threat and tension of a horror novel comes from the villain, but I think the main character can be equally important. In Urban Fantasy and series especially, you've got to build a great main character. Harry Dresden isn't cool because of the villains he faces, he's cool because he's got a great personality, a sense of humor about himself, a code of ethics we can understand and admire, and problems we can still identify with despite his powers.

For me, the Anita Blake series lost me when Anita's powers began to overtake her personality. I loved the early books when her strict moral code made her life more difficult and she survived largely by her wits and a little help from her friends. I read that series for her, in the same way I read Dresden Files for Dresden.

If your main character is an average guy/gal, then I would agree that you need a fantastic villain to really up the stakes, but I think if you achieve the thrills while still making your "hero" the most interesting character in the book, then you've achieved something.

Brian wrote: "Interesting comment about the villains, Travis. I agree to a large degree, however, I deliberately set out with my just-finished novel to use a character that would normally be a villain as the pro..."

I hear you Brian. And its the hero/heroine's struggle through life, trying to survive or escape this villain that builds character, in part.

I still say the villain makes the story. In a series, this is a recurring villain or a new villain, whatever, but if the villain is not sufficiently villainous, the whole thing falls flat.

And I hear you about playing with morally grey heros/heroines who have villainous traits. Those are my favorite characters of all, because you never know if they will take the high road or the low road. And, of course, then we applaud them doing the right thing, being heroic.

All my characters are morally grey, with a few redeeming qualities here and there. So I have a constant battle between the light and dark sides of their personalities. And they make costly mistakes. People die because of their mistakes.

Hello all. I am a member of the HWA and also on the Bram Stoker Award® Committee. My first collection, Ad Nauseam 13 Tales of Extreme Horror was released in March of 2012 by Dark Moon Books. I have sold stories to Cemetery Dance Publishing, Nightscape Press, Evil Jester Press and several others. My first novel will hopefully be out sometime early in 2014.

It is a pleasure to meet you and I look forward to this group.

Well, I was a bit traumatized writing my first murder scene. lol. Horror writers are probably rolling their eyes. It just happened and I really had to pull away out of the character's head for a bit. After that, I found I had a scary knack for it. I'm totally okay with it now. =)

Elizabeth wrote: "Well, I was a bit traumatized writing my first murder scene. lol. Horror writers are probably rolling their eyes. It just happened and I really had to pull away out of the character's head for a bi..."

That's cool, Elizabeth. Everyone has to start somewhere and horror writers are no different. I started out doing science fiction with no understanding of science whatsoever!

One of the great things about horror and thrillers is that it gives us a safe place to explore the sick, dark thoughts and ideas that pop into our heads.

Elizabeth wrote: "Well, I was a bit traumatized writing my first murder scene. lol. Horror writers are probably rolling their eyes. It just happened and I really had to pull away out of the character's head for a bi..."

When I wrote my first horror/thriller, I did it at night. At the time I lived way out in the country. I creeped myself out sooooo badly, that I had to stop writing it and wait for my husband to get home from work so I could do some more work. I kept hearing strange noises, and as writers we all know we have active imaginations. It wasn't good. lol

lol...So true. I guess that's a good thing. Hopefully our readers feel the same.

Hey everybody!

As the new Horror Moderator, I'm planning to post some good writing-related articles and topics to get some more discussion going.

For now, here's a question: What made you choose horror as a genre to write in? Was it a love of being scared or just the appropriate label for the stories and characters you like to write about?

Brian wrote: "Hey everybody!

As the new Horror Moderator, I'm planning to post some good writing-related articles and topics to get some more discussion going.

For now, here's a question: What made you choos..."

I apologise for sitting on the fence, but it was half and half for me!!

R.M.F wrote: "Brian wrote: "Hey everybody!

As the new Horror Moderator, I'm planning to post some good writing-related articles and topics to get some more discussion going.

For now, here's a question: What ..."

No problem, that's a totally legitimate answer!

May I suggest a discussion topic: why are zombies/end of the world horror etc so popular? Does it point to some dark fear in the human condition?

Brian wrote: "Hey everybody!

As the new Horror Moderator, I'm planning to post some good writing-related articles and topics to get some more discussion going.

For now, here's a question: What made you choos..."

The former of your suggestions, but for me practicality was a big factor. I am (like many of us, I'm sure) writing in addition to a full time job and raising a family, so time is of the essence. In horror, you can break the rules of reality and create your own world with your own rules. This saves a lot of research time and allows me to write books without it taking forever.

I started out just trying to write what I guess would be straight literature and poetry. It was not very good, but for some reason writing horror never even popped into my head. After a few short years of trying that I gave up. I wrote nothing for years. Just recently something clicked in my head 'why don't i write horror?' I grew up watching horror movies and reading horror stories. (i read plenty of 'respectable' fiction also) I just suddenly realized how much I love horror.

I think the Lovecraft quote really sells it for me.

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”

So I guess I want to scare people, because I think being scared is fun and I want to share that with others.

William wrote: "I started out just trying to write what I guess would be straight literature and poetry. It was not very good, but for some reason writing horror never even popped into my head. After a few short y..."

The world needs more good horror authors, William, so best of luck with that!

My favorite part of writing horror: getting to be the villain. Maybe I have a lot of darkness and mischief inside, but it's so fun to write a scene from the villain's perspective, to put those goody goody good guys through hell.

Hmm, perhaps nobody should ever put me in a position of power... :)

I'm getting anxious for NaNo. I don't usually write straight horror, since I never want to scare the crap out of myself, or drive myself insane. But this year, I decided to do a psychological thriller, and in outlining it, I realized that it's probably far more horror than thriller. So now there's even MORE pressure on me to do it well. Should be fun, though. I love reading horror.

Good luck Nicolas. I've been wanting to do NaNo for the last few years but it always seems the busiest time for me.

Nicolas wrote: "I'm getting anxious for NaNo. I don't usually write straight horror, since I never want to scare the crap out of myself, or drive myself insane. But this year, I decided to do a psychological thril..."

Yes, good luck.

Thanks. NaNo's the high point of my year. My family knows I'm dead to the world, and my wife does everything she can to take the weight off me for a bit. I push myself harder than I usually get to, and get a baseline for how much writing I can reasonably get done the rest of the year. Keeps me from getting complacent.

I'm sure it'll be fine- I'm happy with the outline, and have a handle on the story. I'll feel better once I'm actually moving on it, though. Maybe it's just the anticipation that's getting to me.

I just love writing characters that transcend limitations, and horror is perfect for that. As others have mentioned, horror villains give the opportunity to write just such characters. For example, there's a werewolf hero, and a were jackal antagonist. There share a lot in common, rage, violent outbursts, primal instinct. The difference being, one fights his baser urges, the other revels in them. I find it very freeing to be able to write a scene where my villain burns down a building, kills the protagonists best friend and gallops away laughing his ass off.

What I like about writing horror and apocalyptic books is tat you can explore limitless ideas. Your imagination can roam anywhere. I like looking deep into the human psychy. Some of the really emotional bits leave me feeling a little haunted for the rest of the day. I think the reason I write horror is because in real life I'm such a coward. As a child I was so gullible and easily scared. I suppose it's a kind of anti-dote.

I have published two horror books, both of which are set in China. I think it's fun/interesting to bring a relatively untapped element into my novels (the Chinese angle). Chinese mythology has lots of cool gods/ghouls/monsters that I can play with. I tend to like books that bring another cultural element to the table. Fun stuff!

I'm lead editor at J Ellington Ashton Press (along with doing editing on my own) and the author of these books:



Most of my work is literary and works from a surreal character driven angle. I read all kinds of books, but I tend to prefer horror especially authors like Stephen King, Gary Braunbeck,Margaret Atwood, Clive Barker, Anne Rice, Poppy Z Brite, Jemiah Jefferson, and Jennifer Weiner all of whom influence my writing in various ways.

I like writing horror & werewolves because I've always had a passion for them. I don't do horror movies though. A book generally is all my imagination needs to wake me up in the middle of the night. With horror I can take any road I like. I like to write gore, and read it, I to like explicit sex, an read it, I like to shock, and love books that shock me.

My favorite books to read are horror especially werewolves and believe me I have a huge bookshelf full of them. I like every authors different take on them and get my ideas from all of theirs. I like to throw all the different werewolves into a mixing bowl, stir it up and then make mine from spoonfuls of theirs.

Here's my books:
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