horror

I have been trying to avoid revealing my writing style for the past number of years — in part, because I try to do everything. Yes, I do see how that is bad for me. It is impossible to write without taking tone into account.

The other day, I tried my hand at horror writing. It was far from conventional, and yet was the interest was the same as prior things I have written. The one positinve for Twitter that I can find is instant gratification for projects, even if the word count is very small.

Realizing that I enjoyed the freedom of classifying something as horror but still getting to explore the topics that I enjoy demonstrated to me that my organic style was closer to horror than most other themes and topics. I don’t mean the classic “oh shit the killer is going to kill me” style, but more the marriage of psycological discomfort mixed with unhappy endings.

Yes, it could be argued that I have given myself a distorted label of horror. Yes, applying one genre to myself is a bit constrictive. I have gone a very long time writing, trying to stay in this grey area of not being classified. Once I noticed that I use horror elements and bleak descriptions and allowed myself to lean into that field, it was more relaxing than constricting.

When I call myself a “horror writer”, please realize that I am taking it more from a Lovecraft angle than a Steven King one. I am exploring sadness, rather than a carnel expression of fear and anguish.

This is a strange post, objectively. I think that the best way to explain it for everyone is the idea that I tried, for years, to fit into a small sized shirt. I finally accepted that I am a medium, and now everything is very exciting for me. I even looked at a project I started just shy of a year ago that was completely NOT something I would normally write, and changes that I have to make are minimal.

Going forward, know that my books are supposed to make you uncomfortable. I am going to be writing books to highlight just how dark somethings can be. I want to make the turning of a page only possible though the idea of morbid curiosity.