Imagine if the creators of the Silent Hill games, David Lynch, Shinya Tsukamoto, David Cronenberg, Takashi Miike, Junji Ito and Hitchcock had nightmares. Merge them together, you get me.
What is your style of horror?
- Thread starter CatharsisChild
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Oh, I think I'd love your work!
My stories usually merge the styles of Vonnegut, Palahniuk, King, Poe, Hemingway, and my own.
I don't try to write any one type of horror, and I've had stories come out sounding psychological, literary, weird, in-your-face, and all other ways. Depending on definitions, certain stories may be urban fantasy, Lovecraftian, thriller, magical realism, and well, the list goes on.
I like to think all my stories, no matter how blurred the genre lines, all have my voice and style. But really, I don't know.
I love supernatural horror. Think Susan Hill's Woman In Black or Stephen King's Bag of Bones. However, every time I sit down and think "I'm going to write a good old fashioned ghost story," something else entirely floods out of me. Sometimes I feel my writing controls me, rather than the other way around!
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My favorite horror stories involve a normal or even ordinary person who's thrust into mysterious-horrific-weird-bizarre situations. I think I like the ordinary person so I can identify with him/her. But I love him/her to go through hell...and survive. I like it when the MC gets to live. You can bloody him up and even cut off a leg or two, but I like to have him survive the ... whatever.
I write icky bug. By that I mean monster horror, B-movie horror. The monster (icky bug) can be something from outer space, created in a lab, or supernatural. Whatever it is, it's unnatural, it's usually big, and it eats half the characters. Think all the B-movies from the 50's and right up to the SyFy channel today. Whatever it is, by the end, the hero prevails and you should be left with a smile on your face.
Are there any other writers out there I compare to? Who knows? Whenever an author comes to mind, I can think of maybe one or two of their books, then they veer off in some other direction, some other style of horror (or not). When it comes to my icky bug, I write this genre specifically for THAT purpose. If I want to write something different, I also write in three other genres. However, I have been known to write the occasional short ghost story.
Are there any other writers out there I compare to? Who knows? Whenever an author comes to mind, I can think of maybe one or two of their books, then they veer off in some other direction, some other style of horror (or not). When it comes to my icky bug, I write this genre specifically for THAT purpose. If I want to write something different, I also write in three other genres. However, I have been known to write the occasional short ghost story.
I like Lovecraft, Derleth, Bishop, Hammett, Chandler, Doc' Savage, the Amazing X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, Spiderman, Pollota, Keene, King, Koontz, and dozens of others. I think my horror writing is heavily influenced by King, Koontz, Lovecraft, Chandler, and Hammett with a sprinkling of Clarke, Bova, Sturgeon, Saberhagen, Laumer, Schmidt, Gerrold, and Heinlein (I actually once received a very high compliment from a friend who once said my work "was very Heinleinian".
However, with all that said, I think my style and that of most other authors is uniquely their own.
Nobody, for example, has written a PI story with vampires quite the way I did in The Light Of An Oncoming Train. Nobody's written a tale of revenge with a horrible twist in the law quite the way I did in The Interview. Nobody's written an icky bug quite like HATCHINGS. Nobody's written a scifi/zombie crossover quite like my story After Action Report.
I write like I write, not like anyone else, but my writing is heavily influenced by the thousands of book's and tens of thousands of short stories I've read since I could hold a book and understand the words on the pages.
However, with all that said, I think my style and that of most other authors is uniquely their own.
Nobody, for example, has written a PI story with vampires quite the way I did in The Light Of An Oncoming Train. Nobody's written a tale of revenge with a horrible twist in the law quite the way I did in The Interview. Nobody's written an icky bug quite like HATCHINGS. Nobody's written a scifi/zombie crossover quite like my story After Action Report.
I write like I write, not like anyone else, but my writing is heavily influenced by the thousands of book's and tens of thousands of short stories I've read since I could hold a book and understand the words on the pages.
Jeez, I dunno. It's been described as cute, twisted, disturbing, funny. Those words don't really go together. My husband pointed out that there tends to be a lot of bad men meeting horrible ends, often at the hands of a woman.
*looks innocent*
*looks innocent*
The style I shoot for is "Walter Mosley or Elmore Leonard as horror authors." Whether or not I can actually accomplish that, or if my efforts are sabotaged by my proclivity for wordiness, is entirely subject to.... dammit, I'm doing it again.
JP Walters
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I love reading horror that is more psychological. As far as I'm concerned, once you see the actual monster or serial killer or whatever it is, there is little left to tell. A slow, dreadful burn toward the unspeakable horror that lies ahead works much better.
As for writing, I don't really know that I've developed a style yet. I'm working on it I guess. If nothing else, I guess my horror tends toward the unresolved. I love writing stories that leave with a number of interpretations and unanswered questions at the end. What were the spirit's true intentions? Was this guy really the killer all along? And just how reliable is this apparently insane narrator?
True horror lies in the unknown and unknowable, so I always aim to milk that for all it's worth.
As for writing, I don't really know that I've developed a style yet. I'm working on it I guess. If nothing else, I guess my horror tends toward the unresolved. I love writing stories that leave with a number of interpretations and unanswered questions at the end. What were the spirit's true intentions? Was this guy really the killer all along? And just how reliable is this apparently insane narrator?
True horror lies in the unknown and unknowable, so I always aim to milk that for all it's worth.
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With respect to novels, I'd have to say my story style is character-driven supernatural horror. My characters are all fairly normal people caught up in chaotic situations. My short stories run the gamut from horror to dark fantasy to soft sci-fi, but again, those are still character-driven. I do my best to develop strong and engaging plots, but I prefer to focus on how my characters deal with, feel, and react to the chaos instead of just the chaos itself.
As far as writing style, I'm not sure who I write like. I prefer to say I write like me
As far as writing style, I'm not sure who I write like. I prefer to say I write like me
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I tend to write horror and fantasy grounded in the real world. So my characters are often going to the pub or worrying about the bills before something hideous happens.
I love the contrast between the real world and the world just outside it. Call that what you like.
I love the contrast between the real world and the world just outside it. Call that what you like.
I like to read suff like Koontz, King, Poe, Dickens. That out of the corner of your eye type horror. Not a fan of gore just for the sake of gore. To that end I have not watched a single Saw, Hostel etc movie, nor do I plan to.
As for my style of writing? Like FOTSGreg said, everyone's style is as different as fingerprints and I think an author does a disservice to themselves to in trying to emulate (unless of course they are paid to).
I like to play in the dark corners of the human psyche. Psycological horror is my current path. Double sided stories that make the reader read it twice and get two totally different takes on it.
As for my style of writing? Like FOTSGreg said, everyone's style is as different as fingerprints and I think an author does a disservice to themselves to in trying to emulate (unless of course they are paid to).
I like to play in the dark corners of the human psyche. Psycological horror is my current path. Double sided stories that make the reader read it twice and get two totally different takes on it.
BjornAbust
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By and large I gravitate towards supernatural horror. My language tends to be preachy, somewhat convoluted and mildly Lovecraftian.
Darren Frey
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With my first story being my trial run, it was a vampire love story with a bit of shock value to it. I am at a point now where I cannot decide if I want to continue with the story or leave it as is. A part of me wants to go on to bigger and better things than vampires since the market is oversaturated with them already. I guess to answer the question of the thread title, I would next write some sort of psychological horror story with twists and turns and all that good stuff.
I've written Vampire stories with a twist, but many of my stories involve a touched individual (and I don't mean touched by an angel), how their mind works, and the results of said warped thinking.
I love Lovecraftian horror. Most of the short stories I write are sort of Lovecraftian or melancholy-horror but I tend to emphasize 'horror within the mundane'.
'Horror within the mundane' is a great phrase. I usually emphasize the everyday horror, or at least horror that millions have been through. Many times I do it with magical realism, to emphasize the bizarreness of the mundane.
Sometimes I can't help but go full-out Southern Gothic, though. It's amazing what can be mundane to folks, eh? It depends on the story. Sometimes, the creepier, the better
'Horror within the mundane' is a great phrase. I usually emphasize the everyday horror, or at least horror that millions have been through. Many times I do it with magical realism, to emphasize the bizarreness of the mundane.
Sometimes I can't help but go full-out Southern Gothic, though. It's amazing what can be mundane to folks, eh? It depends on the story. Sometimes, the creepier, the better
What I do is turn something normal, something mundane like waking up in the morning and going downstairs into a horrific event. Though I've written a lot of stuff like that, I can't say I've mastered it yet. I'm not sure if any of my short fiction has magical realism in it but most of the characters I write about are confronted by things that they are not entirely sure of and in most cases, are powerless to stop from happening.
I'm not too familiar with southern gothic as I don't live in the U.S. =/ But I can hazard a guess that it's horror within a rural setting? Cause if that's the case then most of the traditional horror I grew up with is sort of like that.
Sometimes life just gets boring. A little injection of horror is well appreciated and that's what I'm trying to do with my stories. Can't say I'm good at it, but I try!
Southern gothic is rural, but with a heavy, almost exotic setting and a creepy edge to it.
It includes the scary little old ladies who live up the street by the traintracks, casting spells for folks for money. I can take a picture of their trailer if y'all gave me 5 minutes (in the daylight). And the nearby trees are very old, tall, and covered with vines, so as a kid I couldn't look at them at night
Realizing that not everybody had fortunetellers in their neighborhoods was strange as a young kid. Add in all of the posionous or fanged things, and ghosts, and you can see why folks have to write that stuff down around here!
It includes the scary little old ladies who live up the street by the traintracks, casting spells for folks for money. I can take a picture of their trailer if y'all gave me 5 minutes (in the daylight). And the nearby trees are very old, tall, and covered with vines, so as a kid I couldn't look at them at night
Realizing that not everybody had fortunetellers in their neighborhoods was strange as a young kid. Add in all of the posionous or fanged things, and ghosts, and you can see why folks have to write that stuff down around here!
Oh wow, that sounds exactly like the traditional horror here in the Philippines! There are tons of local tales like that from ranging from witches, tree demons and and even malevolent dwarves. Superstition plays a big role in the society here even if the country is slowly shifting into a more urban setting. I think it's cause nearly everyone in the city came from the province.
Some of the provinces here are really rural compared to the big cities and I guess it's not hard to imagine why some people here still hold on to their rural beliefs. Most of the far-off provinces are really old and when I say old, jungle-old.
One of my old memories from the province was a warning from my grandparents never to cross trees that had fireflies buzzing about cause it's actually a tree-demon smoking tobacco.
Some of the provinces here are really rural compared to the big cities and I guess it's not hard to imagine why some people here still hold on to their rural beliefs. Most of the far-off provinces are really old and when I say old, jungle-old.
One of my old memories from the province was a warning from my grandparents never to cross trees that had fireflies buzzing about cause it's actually a tree-demon smoking tobacco.
That is so cool!
My neighbor's boys, so modernized, made me smile by insisting that they were afraid of stepping on zombie teeth at night -- the fallen sticks in my yard
And they can't look at one old tree that scared my sister as a young girl. I love how some things never really change
My neighbor's boys, so modernized, made me smile by insisting that they were afraid of stepping on zombie teeth at night -- the fallen sticks in my yard
And they can't look at one old tree that scared my sister as a young girl. I love how some things never really change That's so amazing. It must be awesome living in your neighborhood. ^_^
Sad to say, I live in a pretty urbanized area where the chills and horrors of the province are far-off from the people's minds. Still, like you said, some things never change. My father for example insists I drive home via the crowded main road instead of going through a tree-lined avenue that is pretty much deserted. He says it's full of spirits. xD
Sad to say, I live in a pretty urbanized area where the chills and horrors of the province are far-off from the people's minds. Still, like you said, some things never change. My father for example insists I drive home via the crowded main road instead of going through a tree-lined avenue that is pretty much deserted. He says it's full of spirits. xD
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