Horror
Writing Mistakes Writers Make: Trying to Shock Without Value
The Writer's Digest team has witnessed many writing mistakes over the years, so we started this series to help identify them for other writers (along with correction strategies). This week's writing mistake writers make is trying to shock without value.
FightWrite™: Why Writers Should Copy Fight Scene Formats
You should never copy anyone else's work ... right? Trained fighter and author Carla Hoch explains why that's not necessarily the case when writing a fight scene.
3 Do’s and Don’ts of World-Building for Writers
In this article, WD editor Moriah Richard tackles 3 important do’s and don’ts for writers as they tackle the world-building in their works-in-progress.
FightWrite™: Fighting Multiple Opponents
When it comes to writing fight scenes with multiple opponents, a writer can become overwhelmed quickly. Author and trained fighter Carla Hoch is ready to help you.
Organization for Writers and World-Builders
World-building can be a complicated and extensive task for a writer, especially when you’re on your second or third draft and your story is fully fleshed out. Here are some quick tricks for keeping yourself organized.
FightWrite™: How Do People Who Don’t Know How to Fight, Fight?
If your character isn't a trained fighter but the scene calls for a fight, how can you make the scene realistic? Author and trained fighter Carla Hoch has the answers for writers here.
What Is World-Building?
You might have heard the term before or are even an expert at it without realizing. WD editor Moriah Richard is here to lay out exactly what world-building is for writers of all genres.
Crafting Animal Characters like an Expert
Whether your work-in-progress features a witch's familiar, a talking animal sidekick, or a companion pet, WD editor Moriah Richard gives you the basics on how to create an animal character.
FightWrite™: Knife Fights, Part 1
In this article, author and trained fighter Carla Hoch explains the basics of various types of knives and the implications a knife fight may have on your characters and plot.
Making Magic, Part 1: Defining and Selecting Magic Systems
In the first of a two-part series, WD editor Moriah Richard explains how magic systems exist on a spectrum and gives you some tips on selecting a system that works for you.
Building Better Worlds: Five Tips to Guide Your Planning Process
Writer and WD editor Moriah Richard shares her top advice to help you fight world-building overwhelm and organize your story.
Evie Green: Imaginary Friends and Allowing Change
Author Evie Green explains why she was surprised to end writing a horror novel and how she learned to trust the editorial process.
5 Tips for Writing Scary Stories and Horror Novels
Bestselling and award-winning author Simone St. James shares five tips for writing scary stories and horror novels that readers will love to fear.
On Writing a Horror Novel Without Intending to Write Horror
Novelist Evie Green shares how writing a story for fun without a genre eventually turned into her horror novel, We Hear Voices. This is her experience of writing a horror novel without intending to write horror.
Plausible Scares: Blending the Real and the Unreal in Horror Fiction
Using examples from William Peter Blatty's iconic horror novel The Exorcist, Dustin Grinnell explains how to craft truly frightening horror fiction by blending the believable and the unsettlingly extraordinary.
Vintage WD: Six Steps to Salable Horror
For fans of the terrifying and macabre, this article from 1989 features horror, Gothic, and science-fiction author Matthew J. Costello's advice on top-notch horror writing that sells.
Hurts So Good: How to Make Your Horror More Interesting
In this excerpt from his book Writing in the Dark, author Tim Waggoner discusses the three types of pain all horror writers should consider inflicting upon their characters.
10 Newer and Terrifying Horror Books for October
Get in the Halloween spirit by reading these contemporary horror novels recommended by WD editor and horror fan, Moriah Richard.
Inside the Mind of a Villain: 8 Journeys and Motives Behind Evildoers, Antiheroes, & Antagonists
Using fictional and human examples, Dustin Grinnell takes a deep dive into how and why evil develops in story and in real life and how you can apply these concepts when writing villains.
Mick Garris: The Horror Stories That Reside Within Us
Award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter Mick Garris shares the writing process for his collection (These Evil Things We Do), what surprising thing happened during the publishing process, how writing a story is different than a script, and more!
Plot Twist Story Prompts: Release the Monster
Every good story needs a nice (or not so nice) turn or two to keep it interesting. This week, writers get to release monsters in whatever forms they may take.
Done to Death: How to Avoid Horror Genre Clichés
Author Tim Waggoner explains how to avoid clichés and create an inventive horror plot in this excerpt from his book Writing in the Dark.
3 Tips for Writing Cosmic Horror That "Goes Beyond"
Cosmic horror is unlike any other fiction genre, even in terms of horror. Author Scott Kenemore shares 3 tips for writing cosmic horror that goes beyond the norms of writing fiction.
Scott Kenemore: Finding Horror in Historical Fiction
In this author spotlight, Scott Kenemore, author of Zombie Ohio and The Grand Hotel, shares his experience of writing Lake of Darkness, how he uses historical research to write horror in historical fiction, and more.