Writing horror that LINGERS

THERE’S AN UNDENIABLE ART TO WRITING PULPY HORROR.

You, the author, create a terrifying monster, the monster terrorizes everyone, and maybe one person survives – maybe. But as the horror landscape changes and grows and reinvigorates, the tropes of the genre are finding root around new, potentially more sustainable qualities.

Sure, there are new monsters to create, new motivation for vengeful ghosts, but much of modern horror has found new life in shaking off some traditional, B-movie horror tropes and moving toward multifaceted stories that stick in your craw and don’t let go, ones about friends, family, love. Oh, and there’s a monster, a demon, a ghost as well, of course. But the primary attraction, the name in lights, isn’t the terror; it’s the heart of the story that the