Where Genres Collide Traci Dowe YA Author

The Key to Writing Horror

Traci Kenworth

A lot of great tips have been given in interviews over the years, this blog attempts to

bring it down to the basics. Or, at least, what works for me. I like to begin with the setting. As in, making it almost a character within the work. Take my Echo Mountains. They have the mist-like drape of the Smoky Mountains. My Akara village is isolated, and yet it thrives as a community, offering shelter to those in need, strengthening their melting pot. It has just the right amount of “foreboding” about it. Anything can happen…and does.

There are a lot of fascinating real places to use in your story. Dean Koontz usually sticks with Orange County in California, and Stephen King with Maine. Others move from city to city, township to hills. When I picked my own location, I already loved the state of Tennessee and felt that it was the perfect combination for what I needed. At first, I started off with the town of Backwater, one of those small, ordinary towns, on the verge of growing pains. Then I added the mountains, giving it a sheltered environment. The rock/forests go on for miles making it a grueling place to live.

And what kind of people inhabit the area? Well, there are the townsfolk. They contain all the complexities of the everyday man. Some want to break out into the world and become a larger part of everything around them. Others are small-minded, wanting to limit what “outsiders” come into their day to day routine. They are racially diverse but there is a sprinkling of hostility or downright hate among them for those different. Thus they fear the Akara.

The Akara themselves are parts of what made America strong. Those who believe in freedom, truth, justice and all the good things wrapped in one. However, they fight hard to maintain this way of life as it is encroached on daily from intruders. They do welcome additions to their way of life, but usually they are the broken-down, weary souls given a new chance. This, however, doesn’t weaken the whole, but indeed gives all the more to fight for. Not that there aren’t those who go evil; in all of society, murderers, rapists, and other vermin exist. It’s all in the weeding out.

Among the people are the guards, sort of a combination of a throwback to their Native American dog soldiers and today’s military units. They hunt down demons, creatures, and evil personified that those outside their realm wouldn’t know how to handle. To be one of them is an honor, a duty for which to look forward. Others within the village are civilians, who go throughout their day with the knowledge that the guards are there should harm befall them. They are the farmers, the small businesses, the homemakers of the land, and the workers of the hive.

The roles given to the Jetu are quite unique. They are the chosen, the blessed, or cursed should you look upon them that way. They don’t live long. Instead, they often give their lives and talents in a last sweep to bring down their foe. Born within the village, or on the rare occasion outside, they are the final stand against the darkness, their work often falling under sacrifice. Once their terrible power is loosed, it brings them to their knees and they are at the mercy of their enemies.

As all writers must, I work hard to give my characters flaws. It makes them human, something attainable for us to identify with on the journey through the book. Thus, in going over their background, I insert the things they fear the most. This, again, brings them down to our level. Someone who shares our fear of heights, rodents, or freak storms pulls the reader closer to them. Thus, we can introduce the key ingredients to bring our horror to light.

Once you’ve covered the basics of your setting, characters, and what makes their hearts beat with fear in their chest, you’re on your way to the promise land of horror. Here, you must open that door for your reader, invite him into the spider’s web, make him hang from the rafters. All in the name of terror. When Annie brought that sledgehammer down, we all blanched at her victim, Paul Sheldon’s, pain. Ticktock’s chase sequences as the creature hunted down the one he’d been brought into existence to torment and kill enveloped chills to our flesh.

It all comes down to the key. When you pick it up, insert it into the door or lock, be careful to tend its nightmarish qualities. For once you do so, there’s no turning back. It’s all in the putting yourself in your characters shoes. How would you feel to find the shadowed stairwell thick with blood? Become aware of a ghost in your house that plans to do you or your loved ones harm? Handle a pet turned killer? Recognize your elderly grandmother was possessed? If you can imagine it, the horror will become real for your reader. And that’s what true horror is all about.