Horror

New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones discusses how his new horror novel, My Heart is a Chainsaw, is his love letter to the slasher films of his youth.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Writer and WD editor Moriah Richard shares her top advice to help you fight world-building overwhelm and organize your story.

Author Evie Green explains why she was surprised to end writing a horror novel and how she learned to trust the editorial process.

Bestselling and award-winning author Simone St. James shares five tips for writing scary stories and horror novels that readers will love to fear.

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.

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.

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.

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.