I'll just open this with saying: I'm not a big reader of horror literature. Aside from a couple of Stephen King novels, and what little I've read of Dracula, I haven't really read a lot of horror novels. I offer this as piss-weak justification for why I feel the need to seek assistance with this.
I'd always been told that when it comes to writing horror, you should write what personally scares you the most. And courtesy of some homophobic dick who I unfortunately happen to be in regular contact with, I have an idea in my head of what is probably the most nightmarish scenario I can think of that I just can't un-think. So I figured I would basically just write it. Mostly as a kind of therapy for myself to try and purge it from my mind.
I'm thinking I'll improv most of the finer details of the story as I go, the basic premise is this: a young gay couple live in a small, closed off rural community out in the British countryside somewhere. One day a new family moves into the vacant house next door to them and while the family at first seems perfectly friendly when they finally learn that the couple are, well, a couple, they kind of snap. What follows is increasingly obvious and horrifying psychological torture inflicted upon them by the family, who are motivated by the belief in an idyllic community and the thought that gay couples living nearby will ruin their local area.
See I'm very defensive of my sexuality. Like, I get very uneasy when people try to insult me based on it, and that, combined with living in a pretty homophobic area, is where this idea got most of its evil, taloned grip on my mind.
The issue is, I'm not sure how to pace it out. I want it to start out like a normal, non-horror story but then gradually escalate into full-on "these new neighbours are trying to kill us" territory. My main fear with it is that if I start it out slow, it'll be too slow and nobody will be interested. Plus if I take too long to get into the escalating horror elements it might lose some readers, and if I rush into it then it won't feel natural. Well, as natural as gay-murdering rural families can be.
I guess I'm just looking for advise from people who know horror, read horror and/or write horror on what the appropriate pacing for this kind of book might be.
Maybe I should have put this in "Basic Writing Questions" or something... oh well.
I'd always been told that when it comes to writing horror, you should write what personally scares you the most. And courtesy of some homophobic dick who I unfortunately happen to be in regular contact with, I have an idea in my head of what is probably the most nightmarish scenario I can think of that I just can't un-think. So I figured I would basically just write it. Mostly as a kind of therapy for myself to try and purge it from my mind.
I'm thinking I'll improv most of the finer details of the story as I go, the basic premise is this: a young gay couple live in a small, closed off rural community out in the British countryside somewhere. One day a new family moves into the vacant house next door to them and while the family at first seems perfectly friendly when they finally learn that the couple are, well, a couple, they kind of snap. What follows is increasingly obvious and horrifying psychological torture inflicted upon them by the family, who are motivated by the belief in an idyllic community and the thought that gay couples living nearby will ruin their local area.
See I'm very defensive of my sexuality. Like, I get very uneasy when people try to insult me based on it, and that, combined with living in a pretty homophobic area, is where this idea got most of its evil, taloned grip on my mind.
The issue is, I'm not sure how to pace it out. I want it to start out like a normal, non-horror story but then gradually escalate into full-on "these new neighbours are trying to kill us" territory. My main fear with it is that if I start it out slow, it'll be too slow and nobody will be interested. Plus if I take too long to get into the escalating horror elements it might lose some readers, and if I rush into it then it won't feel natural. Well, as natural as gay-murdering rural families can be.
I guess I'm just looking for advise from people who know horror, read horror and/or write horror on what the appropriate pacing for this kind of book might be.
Maybe I should have put this in "Basic Writing Questions" or something... oh well.
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