Tag: horror writing craft

The Rule Nobody Sees: How to Make the Supernatural Fair

The worst thing a horror novel can do is let the monster do whatever the scene requires.You have read this book. The haunting is patient for six chapters and then suddenly omniscient in chapter seven, because chapter seven needs a jump scare. The curse is selective. It kills the strangers and spares the family, until…

Why Your Hometown Is a Horror Novel

Somewhere in your town there's a meeting happening right now. Seven people sitting around a folding table in a room that smells like industrial carpet and old coffee. They're talking about a culvert. Or a setback variance. Or the renewal of a conditional-use permit for a property on the edge of the commercial district.Nobody's watching…

Institutions Are Scarier Than Monsters

A monster can be killed. A bureaucracy cannot.This is the unfair advantage of institutional horror, and it is the reason I keep coming back to it. The monster in the woods is a problem with a solution. You find the right weapon, you learn the right rule, you survive until dawn. The institution is a…