We horror writers draw inspiration from everything. Every. Thing. Wes Craven credited A Nightmare on Elm Street to a story he read in the local paper. While the paranormal portion of The Amityville Horror may have been fictionalized, the shootings that occurred were not. Sometimes a real tragedy or mystery can act as a vehicle […]
Category: On Writing
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10 Horror Plots That Need To Die
Last month, we at Horror Writers successfully hosted our first horror flash fiction contest. We received a slew of entries covering every horror sub genre imaginable. Goreporn, southern Gothic, dark fantasy, even zombies made their way into the submissions inbox. I had the honor of judging the entries and while some submissions never made it […]
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7 Ways to Lose a Writing Contest
It’s done. You’ve finished your beautiful, haunting work of art and for once, you’re happy with the result. You’re confident enough to not only share your story, but to put it up against countless others in a competition to see who has the best storytelling skills. You decide to enter a writing contest. Entering […]
Most folks today are at least aware of Reddit. “The front page of the Internet” is both an endless source of information, and a notorious time-waster. You can find whole communities dedicated to even the tiniest of niches, and it turns out that horror writers are no exception. When we previously posted a list of […]
Last month, I talked about movies that all horror writers must watch to help them become better storytellers. Learning what makes good horror stories work so well can give an incredible boost to your own writing in the same way that absorbing more books (both good and bad) can help you hone your craft. Here is another roundup of […]
A.M. Novak is here to help you with some great resources for finishing your next great work of literary art.
As a reader and scary movie fanatic, I love a well-told story. A few weekends ago, I sat down one evening and had a marathon of, IMO, some of the most well-written horror/suspense films in my film library. As I was taking notes on what made these movies so damn good, certain storytelling elements stood […]