I recently finished writing a fantasy novel that I’d been working on for some time. A beta-reader sent some feedback and asked if this story was really a fantasy. I was puzzled at first; I thought it was obviously in the fantasy genre, about ghosts and witches, but then I realized (to my horror) that I’ve been writing a horror novel and did not know it. I’d never thought of it as a horror story, and I’ve never thought of myself as a writer of horror.

The story starts out with a murder, but it was a murder by magic, not by a weapon. I’ve been immersed in the story for so long, maybe I did not see it clearly. I looked up the definition of a horror story and found one that explains the conflict in horror often centers on survival and overcoming a terrifying threat. That is definitely a large part of my story.

This has me rethinking many things. Fantasy seems much tamer, more peace and flowers, and therefore more socially acceptable than horror. My primary goal is not to shock, scare, or repulse my readers. It is to tell a story of redemption and ultimately love under the oppression of a terrible creature. The story ends well, with good overcoming evil, but it contains evil and dark magic and despicable characters.

The realization that I choose to create horror, that my imagination conjures the darkness that emerges in my writing, leads me to the fact that I must update the premise of this blog (which was aiming for happier stories).

I am reluctant to feed fear. But the conflict of a story must be strong and deep enough that it pushes characters to have to change. I’ve heard “keep the drama on the page,” which leads to not entertaining drama in real life. The same can be said for horror. Words are powerful. Perhaps a horror story is the best place to contain them.

See you next space. . .