Do you want to be a horror fiction writer? – Part IV

Do you want to be a horror fiction writer? – Part IV

Know your Genre

Why is it important to read stories in the genre you wish to write?

In order to present your story in an original way, you must know what has come before in that particular genre. Did you ever have a friend that knew nothing about a genre come to you with a great idea for a story?

Mike, I got this great idea for a horror story. See, there’s this real estate planner and he’s living in this new area in the mid-west with all new homes, but what he doesn’t know is there was a cemetery there and they moved the headstones but never moved the bodies – so now all the dead spirits are angry…

Apparently, Jerry has never seen Poltergeist.

On the other hand, just because it has been done already, doesn’t mean you can’t make it your own. Before Chucky, there was Talking Tina. Before “Christine” there was “The Car” and before that there was “Duel” and the Twilight Zone episode, “You Drive“. Your life experiences are unique and are going to make your characters, point of view and your presentation of the story different than another person. The only thing is – you have to know what has come before, so you don’t write it the same way others have and people don’t think you’re just copying another author. You need that ripple, you need that twist, you need that different angle, or people are going to give your story the ‘yawn’ and dismiss it.

An important clue is often found in the submission guidelines to publications and e-zines you plan to submit to. I had recently read on a submissions page: We’ve seen way to many zombie love stories lately…”  Who knew there were dozens of zombie love stories published in the past 5 years? Horror fiction is usually on the cutting edge. If all you do is watch horror movies, be aware that the films market is usually about 10 years behind the horror fiction market.

So, it is important to read. It is important to read stories in the same genre that you are going to write about. If you are going to write a ghost story, read a bunch of ghost stories – from the classics to new and underground writers. If your going to write Lovecraftian horror, read all the Lovecraft disciples – the Lovecraft inspired anthologies and the Cthulhu Mythos collections. If you’re going to write a comedy novel, read a bunch of comedy novels. A Western? Read westerns.  Got something really bizarre, read Bizarro fiction!

There’s a good chance your totally unique idea has been used already, more than once. You will have to rely less on ‘the gimmick’ and concentrate on the hard work – interesting characters, strong plot, and engaging dialogue – to carry your story.

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” – Orson Scott Card

Do you want to be a horror fiction writer? Part III

Do you want to be a horror fiction writer? Part III

Proper Presentation

A couple of articles back I had mentioned that some of us just need to polish our presentation in order to get published. So, here is my 1^st tidbit of extremely useful information when it comes to presentation:

Most editors prefer stories to be third person, past tense.

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Examples:

I run to the door and see the commotion through the window. This is first person present tense
I ran to the door and saw the commotion through the window. Now it’s first person past tense
He ran to the door and saw the commotion through the window. And now it’s third person, past tense

Even better: James ran to the door and saw the commotion through the window.

An important byproduct: Using third person ensures that you will name your characters early in the story. Some first person stories start with ‘I’ did this and ‘I’ did that…By the end of the story we still don’t know who ‘I’ is.

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We have all read stories written in first person – HP Lovecraft, Poe, and some of Stephen King’s short stories. When I build  a name and have my books being edited by my own personal editor, I will do more work in first person. However…

First person presents problems that writer’s don’t always realize. When providing information for the set-up or to move the story along, an editor will immediately ask, How does your character know this? And, How was this other scene being played out when your character wasn’t even there? In a first person story, everything the character knows about and all the events taking place, have to happen with your main character present. This is just one of the challenges that go unnoticed by the writer when writing in first person.
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Another way to look at it is this: Do you get annoyed by all the found-footage, first-person POV films that come out? To an editor, that is exactly what a first person story is like. How many FF films are actually good? Out of the dozen or so that come out each year, only a handful have been good in the last 25 years.

One more frequent problem with first person stories – if the main character dies at the end of the story – how is he/she telling the story? If he’s not telling the story, and someone else is, then it should be in third person.

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One more tact when using past tense – every part of your story should be in past tense. If there is a flash back it needs to be in past tense. If someone is telling a story to another character – keep it in past tense. Even though a lot of people will relay an event in present tense (so, I walk through the front door and my girl is mad as hell…) you should keep everything past tense so there‘s no confusion for the reader.

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Naturally ‘third person/past tense’ is not a hard rule. One editor told me straight out, “I won’t even read a story unless it’s in third person.” The publication eventually accepted one of my first person stories, but only after I built trust by submitting a few quality stories in the format they prefered.

Several times, I had changed stories from first person to third person on recommendations by editors. I’m lucky they liked the stories enough to even ask for a rewrite. If they were on the fence with the story they would have just skipped it and I would have never even realized or learned that:

Most editors prefer stories to be third person, past tense

So why take a chance at having an editor skip over your story because of it?

related articles:
Do you want to write horror fiction? Part II

Get Them Reading and Keep Them Reading

Secrets to Successful Fiction Writing – a reader’s point of view

     

Great fiction authors have a knack for getting us, the readers, quickly interested in the story, invested in the characters, and keeping us ready to turn each page and continue upon a journey they have set up for us. I spent some time taking a closer look at how they do this, methods for immediate involvement in the tale, and have found a few helpful devices and techniques to use in my own story-telling. Some aspects seemed incidental, until I noticed these same parameters used in almost every book and story the particular author had written.

Dean Koontz
– When I began reading What the Night Knows, I noticed on my first night of reading I had easily progressed to the 5^th chapter. Once I am that far in, there is no turning back – I will read the whole book and not stop until I am finished with it. But it did make me curious. How had I advanced so far into the book with, what seemed like, so little effort? I will tell you how: In the first chapter of the book, there was barely a paragraph over three sentences. In fact, a majority of the paragraphs in the whole book are short, 3-10 sentences. That is streamline – that is succinct. It makes for easy reading. Secondly: Many of the chapters are between three and eight pages, with many being only four or five pages long. Before you know it, you’re at chapter ten and well engaged with the story.

Michael Crichton
– Crichton keeps his chapters short, also. One thing I noticed about Crichton when reading Jurassic Park, which differs from Koontz, every chapter ends in a cliff-hanger. I mean real cliffhangers; a girl dangling from the ceiling as raptors jump at her feet, or, a worker saying, “What are those alarms?” and John Hammond turning to him with alarm in his face and saying “This can not be good.” Now, you are compelled to turn the page and start the next chapter to see what those alarms are, or, if the girl is going to have her foot chomped off by a hungry raptor. This is probably the exact opposite of what you or I would tend to do at the end of a chapter. We like to close our thoughts to a segment, make it well rounded and resolved before starting a new chapter.

Dan Brown
– Dan Brown uses these same two methods, short chapters and cliffhangers to keep the reader turning pages.

Stephen King
– King always works on immediate empathy. He will start a story with a character doing something very common, some mundane task for which we can all relate; the morning jog, trying to get reception on a cell phone, getting chewed out by the boss, waiting for a bus, walking the dog, or just watching a thunderstorm forming on the horizon as the character sips a cup of tea – things we have all done in our lives’ that make us feel instantly associated with the character. This puts us in the character’s shoes, ready to feel and experience what they do.

Clive Barker
– Mr. Barker will often start his stories with a character on a quest. Quite often they will be on the verge of finding the prized item, perhaps in the next few pages. Whether it’s a quest for a puzzle box, a quest for the perfect photo, a quest for a fabled creature or hidden land of wonder, your curiosity is peaked, usually in the very first chapter. You want to know if the character will find this treasured item, don’t you? Keep reading and you will find out.

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These are some of my observations. These are some of the devices, techniques and styles that have kept me reading. All of these methods will lure the reader deeper into the story and into the depths of danger. Use these ideas in your own writing.

Perhaps you have noticed some other methods that keep readers turning pages in a book. Or perhaps you use an approach or two in your own writing to captivate your readers. If you would like to share these ideas, post them here in the comments and point us to a story of yours that uses the idea. (***please do not post a whole story in the comments). I would like to hear your thoughts, feedback and ideas.