I did it?

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blisswriter

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Hello dear writers,

I have a couple of questions for anyone who would take time to read and answer. My sincerest "thank you" in advance. :kiss:

In the past several months I haven't been writing much. I was mostly re-reading previous works of incomplete fiction and touching up a few poems.

Suddenly, a few days ago, I got a bit of inspiration in the wee hours. It resulted in 11 single-spaced hand-written pages of what I'll call "Part II" of a previously-written story.

I wrote Part I about a year ago, as a contest entry. I didn't win but I did get a very encouraging note from the editor. He said my story was "good and well-written".

Part I is an angst-filled piece that introduces my MC, a woman in an ugly but financially rewarding co-dependent relationship. She spends the greater part of her day agonizing over whether or not she should read an e-mail from the other co-dependent. When the MC finally gets the nerve to read the e-mail, it's surprisingly nice. Part I ends there.

When I picked up Part I the other morning, I saw that I'd re-written the ending sometime after my wonderfully-worded rejection. I had changed the e-mail from a nice one to a nasty one then added a few sentences about the MC's fury over it.

I think I showed how the MC's mental state was already questionable, both in the mental and physical actions she performs while getting up the nerve to read the e-mail (Part I) as well as in her actions immediately after she reads the e-mail (Part II).

To me, a progression from neurosis (Part I) to fury to murder (Part II) is logical. What say you?

But is the murder enough to make this a horror story?


There are elements in the back story (for example, another family member who was a murderer as well) that lend a bit more to the murder plot, but this is the first horror piece (bad writing attempts aside) to flow from my pen, and an unexpected one at that as the story was in no way intended to be about a murderess.

I wrote in what I thought was a bit of dark humor as well, just because I like a good laugh.

Also, has anyone else here started out with a story of a different genre and some how ended up with horror?
 
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preyer

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i try not to think in terms of writing for a genre. not to say it doesn't turn out that way, just it's not a conscious decision most times. but, yeah, i've started off with one thing and through the course of writing it, since i don't use an outline, it might change to something else. this doesn't happen all too often, though, as i tend to write the ending fairly early on in most cases.

what you've described doesn't sound like horror as much as suspense or mystery to me.

it sounds logical to go from neurosis to fury to murder. why not? you've got to reach a killing intent somehow and as long as you do so logically from point A to B to K, i don't see a problem.

good luck with it. :)
 

Vuligora

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You are thinking way to much. Way too much. Don't worry about whether it will be horrific or not. Write it. It will decide what it wants to be. But seriously, don't write horror for the sajke of horror. Write the book for the sake of itself. And yes, the transformation to murder makes perfect sense.
 
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