Horror is an underwritten genre. It feels like most writers dabble in a lot of different genres, but for some reason, they skip over horror. Perhaps some people feel like there isn’t really a reason to write horror unless they can fully commit to the genre. Have a similar mindset? Well, here are three reasons why you should try writing horror.
It Teaches You Story Balance
Believe it or not, the skills you learn from writing horror translate into almost every other genre. Think about it: writing horror is a delicate balance. You need to decide where to spend your precious words in order to make the story, well, scary. If you spend too much time on the plot and the terrifying descriptions but don’t develop the characters, people might not really care about the story. After all, it’s hard to care about people in a story if you don’t even remember their names, let alone understand their personalities. However, if you develop your characters too much and forget to focus on the plot and the descriptions, your story just won’t be very scary. The balance in writing horror is important: you have to develop your characters enough so that your readers get attached to them (so that it’s terrifying when they die) but not enough that the scary elements of your story get lost.
Does this sound familiar? Almost every genre has a similar balance. Getting readers attached to characters in fantasy, for instance, is important so that readers care about the story. Still, too much character development can cost you the plot and the world-building. Story balance is important in every genre, but it’s accentuated in horror— you should focus on it if you want to master this skill.
It Has a Defined Point
A lot of genres are really opened ended, and while that freedom can be great, it’s sometimes overwhelming. In genres like fantasy, it’s hard to know exactly what readers are looking for: wonder? A good adventure? A cool world? But when you write horror, you know exactly what your readers want, and that’s an advantage. In horror, even common tropes can be rewritten to be chilling and terrifying, so when you’re writing in this genre, you already have a foundation on which to start.
It’s Fun
Writing horror is a unique experience. How do you write in a way that scares a multitude of people? Which words and descriptions evoke which types of reactions in different people? Finding the differences between the impact of phrases like “rotting bodies” and “festering corpses” can be a really interesting (and, dare I say, fun) experience that can increase your descriptive writing across genres.