I've read a ton of how-to-write-fiction books including a number of texts on writing horror, but Tim Waggoner's WRITING IN THE DARK is the best of them all.
It opens with an intro by Tom Monteleone of Borderlands fame demonstrating why Waggoner is qualified to write the book. He's a prolific writer of both horror and media tie-ins. In the preface, Waggoner reveals why he writes horror. We're of roughly the same age, and his journey in many ways mirrors mine. (It's great to meet a new member of the Horror Family. Weirdos unite!)
He progresses through chapters such as "Why Horror Matters" and "Things Unknown" and turns a corner with "Everything You Know Is Wrong." He covers various subgenres of horror, generating unique ideas for stories, and building one-of-a-kind monsters. I especially enjoyed the chapters "The Horror Hero's Journey" (Poor Bastard's Descent into Hell) and the importance of including an emotional core relayed through immersive POV.
Every chapter is insightful, helpful, and entertaining. Each ends with exercises to enable eager writers to implement what they've just learned as well as three or four "voices from the shadows"--accomplished horror writers--who discuss what makes good horror and best advice for beginning writers.
Waggoner teaches college-level writing, so you're getting a college course in a book. I love to study, so I consider it a textbook that's also a tasty morsel of how-to darkness.
My review is actually 4.6 stars. The book lost a few tenths because the type is so small. As I read through, I was hoping for a workbook that expanded the exercises. Well, Guide Dog Books recently announced a companion workbook IS coming, so I'm excited about that. I'll be buying it, too, when it comes out. But I hope the type is a little bigger for those like me over 50.
I can't recommend this text highly enough. Whether you're a beginning, intermediate, or advanced horror writer, you'll get something useful to take your writing to the next horrific level.
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WRITING IN THE DARK includes excellent advice from the award-winning author of this book, Tim Waggoner, who has thirty years’ experience as a writer and teacher, and includes tips from some of the best horror professionals working today, presented at the end of each chapter.If you are new to the genre or are unfamiliar with the different sub-genres of horror, Waggoner takes time to explain each and gives examples of authors to read who excel in that type of writing.It is often that I feel, after reading a book, including those that center around the art of writing, a compulsive need to highlight every favorable and remarkable detail to include in a review and for future reference.After reading WRITING IN THE DARK on my Kindle, I found myself highlighting almost the entire book, which was evidence enough for me that I needed to purchase a physical copy for my library on writing, and so I did.Now, that brings me back to the question of what quotes to include in this review; as I said, there are many excellent tips and advice to choose from as a means to entice you without revealing too much, I hope.I will start with a couple of my favorites from Waggoner:‘Horror writers are like dark clowns that caper in front of our readers, making grotesque faces in the hope that the audience won’t look over our shoulder and see the true darkness of existence behind us.’‘Any type of fiction can teach us more about ourselves and our fellow humans by showing us how particular characters deal with conflict—both external and internal. But horror turns up the conflict all the way to eleven.’ (Exactly!)One of my favorite horror novels is Stephen King’s NEEDFUL THINGS, a story that taps into human behavior by way of external and internal conflicts that result in ‘What would you be willing to do?’ scenarios to get what said character wants—or rather—Needs. Consequences be damned?Yep!‘Kill them all. Let God sort them out.’ –Leland Gaunt, NEEDFUL THINGSFor me, as a writer, reader, and viewer of horror, the following quote sums up my viewpoint and interest in the genre perfectly:‘Horror stories allow us to confront our deepest fears through the buffer of fiction. Wrestling with the darkest questions of human existence—why is there violence, pain, cruelty, and death?—can be emotionally overwhelming. These questions can be too intense to deal with directly. Like an eclipse, the only way to safely view these aspects of life is indirect. Horror allows us to do this.’Bryan Smith, the author of MERCILESS, is one of the writers who answered a couple of interview questions for this book regarding writing tips hit home to the point I said aloud, ‘Hey now, I feel attacked!’ ;) But, he’s right.:‘[D]on’t get hung up on finding the exact right word to perfectly describe a thing in your first draft. Just write and get the story told. If you can do that, you’ll have an easier time finding that perfect word in the revisions phase.’Have you ever spent an insane amount of time trying to find that perfect word or sentence structure only to go back to the original version…hours later.*raises hand and sighs*Craig Spector, the bestselling author of TURNAROUND, said (and I wholeheartedly agree), ‘To me, good horror is something that gets under the skin of the characters: it has an intimacy, regardless of the scope and scale of the ghastly events. Good horror shocks and unsettles and lingers long after. It can be “loud” or “quiet,” but it resonates either way. Good horror rocks.’And…‘Write from the inside out. Crawl inside your characters, make us care about them living, then we’ll care about them dying.[…]’I love the advice Michele Garza, co-author of THOSE WHO FOLLOW, gives beginning writers about adding a build-up of suspense in horror writing while allowing the reader to use their imagination to fill in the blanks.Here's a snippet of what she said:‘Though it can be fun to go into every gory detail, and we do quite often, letting your audience’s imagination fill in some blanks can be effective […] It’s not the maggot falling out of an undead attacker’s maw and into a squirming protagonist’s screaming mouth, it’s imagining watching it dangle from his dry lip and knowing where it’s going to end up that will leave someone thinking about your story for a long time.My apology for barely scratching the surface of WRITING IN THE DARK, as there is so much more to this book for you to discover about writing horror; I want you to experience it on your own.Whether you’re a newbie to the horror writing genre, a seasoned pro, or somewhere in between, I highly recommend reading this book.I want to close with my favorite quote from Tim Waggoner, that made me laugh out loud in agreement:‘So if anyone ever asks you why you’re wasting your time writing horror instead of “real” fiction, tell them, “Horror is as real as it gets, baby.” For good measure, hiss and bare your fangs, then get back to work.’Thank you so much Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi and Guide Dog Books, for providing me with an eBook of WRITING IN THE DARK in a request for an honest review.
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writerchris
Excellent read for Horror Writers
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 12, 2020
Stephen Howard
An easy-to-read guide
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2021Steph Ellis
Mine of Information for every Horror Writer
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 11, 2020
Marcelo Augusto Galvão
Um dos melhores livros sobre escrita de terror
Reviewed in Brazil on June 25, 2021
Marcelo Augusto Galvão
Reviewed in Brazil on June 25, 2021
Felizmente, WRITING IN THE DARK, de Tim Waggoner, não se encaixa nesse tipo. Waggoner é um autor veterano e premiado de contos, novelas e romances de terror (além de professor de escrita criativa) e que usa toda a sua experiência para guiar o leitor (e provável escritor) na tarefa de escrever um bom texto, analisando desde o motivo de se escrever terror, como evitar clichês, técnicas literárias etc. Além disso, cada capítulo traz exercícios para ajudar a desenvolver a escrita, assim como também duas perguntas feitas a autores e editores da área: 1) o que faz uma boa história de horror/suspense/dark fantasy e 2) qual é o melhor conselho que você pode dar a um escritor iniciante. As respostas tão diversas se transformam em dicas valiosas aos leitores.
WRITING IN THE DARK é um verdadeiro curso de como escrever uma boa história de terror, tanto para os que estão começando quanto para os que já tem algum certo tempo de estrada, como é o meu caso.
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