How fantasy built the foundation for my horror stories

I’m frequently asked how it is that I became interested in horror as a creator.

It’s one of those questions that I tend to immediately internalize as if it’s coming from a place of judgment (in fairness, more than once it has).

But it’s an honest question also, and the answer is rather mundane, but I think it is useful for us as creators.

Here’s the big (read: boring) reveal: I come to horror by way of fantasy. If anything, fantasy is homebase for me and horror came a bit later.

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Read what you love, not what you think you should love

By Joel McKay

Read what you like, write what you like, not what you think you should like.

Sounds simple but it’s hard to do in practice. Let me unpack this a bit.

One of the more annoying habits of social groups—particularly in the arts, but I’ve witnessed it just the same in sports and athletics—is the impression a newbie is left with by some that they need to have a certain amount of knowledge or experiences to gain entry to the crowd.

I’ve seen this pop up in literary circles, sometimes horror, whereas readers or new writers are led to believe by some that they’re not “legit” or don’t have anything meaningful to “contribute” unless they’ve consumed certain texts, typically it’s obscure stuff but also classics such as Mary Shelley, Shirley Jackson, H.P. Lovecraft or Henry James.

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Tips for Terror: Find the Beauty in the Horrific

Author Joel McKay borrows wise words from horror writers to illustrate how exposition and lyric bring another dimension to horror

“Describe horrific things beautifully,” author Hailey Piper told our local Horror Writer’s Association chapter several months ago.

The words lodged in my head like a mantra and have since been tattooed to a pink sticky pasted to my monitor for daily reference.

Piper was one of three guests on a panel discussion about all things horror fiction (joined by Eric LaRocca and Gwendolyn Kiste) when she uttered those words. 

They were pronounced as a passing thought but immediately became something that resonated deeply with me as a writer.

Describe horrific things beautifully.

That sums it up, doesn’t it?

(Thanks Hailey, Eric, and Gwendolyn – P.S. you’re all awesome. For all you readers out there, get their stuff. Same goes if you’re a writer).

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“Where do you come up with this sh%t?”

That’s the question I’m asked – we’re all asked – more than any other. My brother. Parents. Friends. Readers. Co-workers. Strangely, not my wife (that’s how you know you’re with the right one).

I’ve seen writers get frustrated with it. I think it’s because they’ve been asked it so many times they just want to get onto the next part of the conversation, but it strikes me that for a reader – someone who appreciates the art – this really is the most obvious and perhaps interesting question.

While working as a freelance journalist, I used to get magazine assignments where I had to profile a tech company or CEO about their new-fangled creation. Some of the tech was pretty cool, most of it leading edge. Invariably I asked, where did you get the idea from?

As a business journalist, I interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs and innovators, and that question was always part of the interview. Sometimes I already knew the answer and just wanted to hear them say it so I could quote it; other times, I didn’t. Regardless, I asked and then often printed the answer because it was interesting, and I knew my audience wanted to know the answer. I was asking the question for them.

The desire for people to understand one another, to communicate, to draw out the secret sauce that spurs creation and generates success is timeless. If you happen to meet a magician, I bet you’ll ask – or want to ask – how the trick works, even if you know the answer will ruin it for you. Same with a bridge engineer, or someone who builds power plants. Heck, even my contractor – I was floored with a solution he came up with for part of our roof replacement, and asked him, how did you come up with that?

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The thing about writing is, you have to actually do it to get anywhere with it. 

There’s no cheat code, shortcut, or cheese method to being a writer. 

You have to sit down, put one word in front of another and go until the end, whenever or wherever that is.

I’m a distance runner, so I think of the two as being very similar.

Want to be a runner? You don’t need much except a pair of shoes and an area to put one foot in front of another at a pace that’s faster than a walk. 

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