Guest Speakers: Valjeanne Jeffers, Bobby Nash, Delia Remington, Alex R. White, & Kenesha Williams – Geek Horror Program Director: L. Marie Wood
How much does Setting contribute to the Horror genre? In some cases, a normal, non-frightening environment can be more unsettling due to the familiarity and unexpected elements involved. Think of a basic furniture warehouse, like IKEA (or the shopping mall in Stranger Things 3 – https://theravensquarter.com/stranger-things-season-3-part-1/ .) Consider making villains breathtakingly beautiful instead of hideously repulsive for a similar effect of putting the audience off-guard.
When writing a twist in the horror genre, it needs to make sense – as it would in every other genre. You don’t want the audience questioning the validity of the course of events in your world. Tie up those loose ends!
While it may be gratifying to put your characters through every gruesome ordeal imaginable, it’s critical that your audience cares about your protagonist(s) first. Accomplish this by giving them traits that your audience can relate with. Place the reader in your character’s shoes… and then break their legs! Or kill them – this is Horror after all. 🙂
Tone is important, and remember – Horror lives in our hearts. Sometimes the greatest monsters aren’t creatures of the night, but those who walk in human flesh… There’s things we would never do… but there’s things we all want to do – if pushed far enough. The difference lies between self-control and “snapping” to unleash that burst of fury or insanity. (A great example of this would be the recent “Joker” movie with Joaquin Phoenix.)
On the matter of World-Building, play with the idea of tropes, and experiment with flipping them to make a brand all your own. Start with the basic framework of the genre, and mold it into something that is unique to your imagination. The goal is to subvert the audience’s expectations. Give them a fresh experience of something new – or something that’s already been told, but in a different light or perspective.
How can you enhance Horror with Sub-Plots? Romance and Horror frequently go hand-in-hand. Perhaps one of the love-interests dies… perhaps both? How dark do you really want to go? Bear in mind, in order to make something truly horrifying, there must be some semblance of hope for the characters to grasp at – hope of escape, survival, or redemption just to name a few. Split-personalities is another concept for Psychological Horror. Compare real-world fears to supernatural fears.
What are you personally afraid of? Don’t be scared to delve deep on this one. Think about what your character(s) fear most, and are the least equipped to deal with – then sic that on them! Take things that are familiar and normal, like fog – and give it a strange feature (making the texture like slime instead of mist.)
Consider leaving some of the pivotal scenes of Horror up to the audience’s imagination as opposed to gruesome detail. Often times, the unknown can prove to be even more frightening! Maybe a switch of POV (Point of View) from the victim to the beast pursuing can manifest a haunting experience! If you do have the POV in the mind of the victim – do they know that they’re about to die or not? What are their last thoughts? Are they terrified, pissed, accepting their fate? Or is it something mundane such as “Did I forget to turn the stove off?” Comedy is another frequent merger with the Horror genre…
Speaking of which, how do you avoid being cheesy? (Unless of course, that is your goal) but remember that “cheesiness” often comes from over-use. A lot of the Horror stories we consider laughable today were genuinely scarier during the time they were initially released – which could have been decades ago. A different time, a different audience, and different levels of cinematography equipment.
People often think of Horror in the sense of Film – so how would a writer translate something like a jump-scare to pen and page? If you think this can’t be accomplished, then you are in for a surprise my friend! The trick is to write a paragraph (or several) building up to a pivotal moment – then the next paragraph should consist of a two-word sentence. Example: Running through the woods, fleeing a monster hot on her heels, arriving at the edge of a broken bridge and leaping for rope her friend has thrown out from the other side.
“She missed.”
Overall, this was an AMAZING panel for a quick introduction to the Horror genre in writing! The speakers were all very kind and experienced in the craft, having written books of their own! I had the unfortunate fate of cosplaying Harley Quinn without foreknowledge that one of the speakers’ greatest fears was of clowns! Talk about ironic, lol! Again, these people were wonderful, and I’m so glad to have met them at the FIRST Multiverse Convention in Atlanta, GA ever!
As always, I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts in the Comments Section below! What was your first introduction to Horror? What brand of Horror is your favorite – Slashers, Psychological, Supernatural, Religious, etc? What scares you the most?
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Great write up, Ion. It was a pleasure meeting you at the con.
Bobby