I set myself the task recently of setting down in writing why it is that I personally write horror. I found it a more challenging task than I anticipated — because my thoughts on the matter were numerous and muddied. But as I delved deeper my thoughts and reasons became clearer.
My first reason for writing horror, is that it’s what I enjoy reading most. I love getting lost in a good Stephen King novel…and reading the works of other such horror luminaries as Dean Koontz, Joe Hill etc. I read other genres too, but, horror, for me, is the genre that deals with the big all-important themes the best. These are themes such as ‘Death,’ ‘Good vs. evil,’ ‘Courage & heroism,’ ‘Revenge,’ and, yes, even ‘Love.’
My second reason is that horror stories are all really character driven stories, filled with interesting characters. As a writer you try to flesh out some interesting 3 dimensional characters and then throw them into horrible situations to see if they can survive the big bad, and emerge triumphant. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. But this is true about life too, no?
Horror stories also have the ability to stay with the reader for many weeks and months after reading. They are stories that make you think over and over again about their underlying meaning, and leave you with a sort of cognitive dissonance. And so in this they are successful.
Horror stories allow us to live vicariously through the characters, experiencing ‘thoughts and emotions beyond ordinary experience’ (the idea of the sublime in literature) — and from the safety of an armchair, without the repercussions. They are cathartic and the ultimate form of escapism.
I write supernatural horror specifically, and this is because of my fascination with the supernatural. The supernatural (and paranormal) have always interested me — but they also terrify me. I guess that somewhere along the line, when deciding what to write, I had the realisation that what really fascinates us, as human beings, is what scares us the most.
