Author: Horror Tree

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Short List of Books that Aspiring Horror Writers Must Study

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels

Short List of Books that Aspiring Horror Writers Must Study

If you have a vivid and active imagination, perhaps, there’s no better work for you than fiction writing. Words possess extremely potent power, allowing you to tell nearly anything you can imagine. And when there are no words to describe what you want to tell, you can always make up words and even languages to have it your way. One of the most important things for every writer and creative person overall is, of course, inspiration. To write a good story, it’s a good idea to read one first. Now, if you’re a horror writer or aspire to be one, you’re in luck because there are lots of stories both classic and less known for you to get your daily dose of inspiration.

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‘Tangents & Tachyons’ Blog Tour: An Exclusive Excerpt

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT

Eventide

 

I felt a little sick. Okay, a lot sick—like something had wrenched my stomach out of my gut and pulled it halfway to Mars.

Not far from the truth, as it turned out.

I reached for my stomach. My furry belly was a little thicker than I would have liked—too much processed sugar, Peter said. That and the whole no exercise thing.

What did I eat this time? My memories were a bit fuzzy.

I remembered bright lights and a sharp smell. And a keening whine.

I opened my eyes. The light above dimmed of its own accord.

That’s weird. And the smell… kind of antiseptic?

I sat up, and my fingers sank into the soft blue mat beneath me, leaving an impression when I lifted them up which just as quickly disappeared.

I was naked. What the hell?
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Pushing Past Writer’s Block – The Discipline of Inspiration

Pushing Past Writer’s Block – The Discipline of Inspiration

By: Jennifer Lieberman

Have you ever been stuck in a story and still forced yourself to stare at a screen for hours to fulfill a required time limit of ‘work’? Or have you ever forced out pages of nonsense to feel like you were being productive only to delete them soon after? I don’t know about you but I hate when I’m told that to be a writer I have to write everyday. The advice usually comes with a required page amount (5-10 pages a day) or a time requirement (2-5 hours) and although I know it’s well meaning, I just don’t buy it.

I don’t write every day. There, I dared to say it; what many writers are afraid to admit. Granted I wear many hats, and have another career outside of writing, but so do most of us. Sure, we’d all love to get to the point in our careers that all we do is write for a living, but that isn’t the reality for most writers and creatives in general. My writing style and forms fluctuate from plays to scripts, poetry to books; no matter what I’m writing, the process of conjuring worlds, characters, arcs and emotions is the same. Some of us write intuitively where we don’t know exactly where we’re going when we sit down and some of us need to have everything mapped out. No matter what your process, I’m sure you’ve had those moments when you just don’t know what comes next…and if you haven’t you’re a superhero of your craft and please share your secret.

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Horror – Writers – Ink: Community and Your Writer’s Toolkit

Community and your writer’s toolkit

One thing I’ve learned is that community is one of the biggest assets available. It’s community that pulls you through, holds you up, and keeps encouraging you to persist. Writing is a solitary craft, and sometimes writers need more than the fictional voices in our heads to help us succeed. While community isn’t for everyone, I’ve certainly seen it true for most. There are many ways of being part of a community too. 

I’m a Melbourne-based author and I write in several genres with my nonfiction covering topics from hauntings to spelling to sport, and my fiction either literary or speculative. But the horror writing community is the one I have been most connected with since I started my writing journey, and it is for them I hold the greatest soft spot.

In 2012, I commenced studying writing and editing, and as a part of my course, I was given a yearly membership to Writers Victoria, the state writers’ organisation. This was the beginning of writerly me being part of something bigger than myself. Around this time I also joined the Australasian Horror Writers Association (AHWA), and since then I’ve joined more organisations, subscribed to newsletters, Patreons, and volunteered as well. I do this for two reasons: to keep informed and to pay it forward.

This article is about what I’ve learned about community and what resources I’ve come to use or rely on as a horror writer. It’s an article for aspiring authors as well as a checklist for established ones. 

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What Skills to Highlight in Your Writer Resume

What Skills to Highlight in Your Writer Resume

The irony befalls hard when a writer has to sit down and write a resume for themselves. 

Given the nature of their job, everyone including the recruiters has high expectations from a writer’s resume.

However, writing a resume can be confusing irrespective of what your job profile may be. That is until you learn about the basics of a resume, or like in this case, a resume for a writing career. 

Currently, almost 75% of the giant companies use the Application Tracking Software (ATS) to streamline their recruitment process. The software scans through the resumes for a particular set of keywords that are common to the job profile and just like that, it filters out the most relevant resumes for the position.

The notable point here is that the skills that you mention in your resume are crucial if you want to rank high in this ATS system and get shortlisted.  

So what are the skills that you must highlight in your writer’s resume? Well, that’s exactly what we will set forth in this blog.

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Enter To Win A Digital Copy Of ‘Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth, And Babies’

Deborah Sheldon is back with another amazing digital giveaway with Horror Tree! This time around, she is providing 10 digital copies of ‘Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth, And Babies‘ and you have two weeks to try and win a copy! From today until the end of December 20th, 2021 be sure to visit this post with multiple ways to put your name in the hat to win yourself a copy of this fantastic anthology.

ENTER TO WIN A DIGITAL COPY OF SPAWN: WEIRD HORROR TALES ABOUT PREGNANCY, BIRTH AND BABIES
 
The Horror Tree is giving away TEN ebook copies of Deborah Sheldon’s anthology, Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, released by the award-winning press, IFWG Publishing Australia.

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Video Recap: Will authors be replaced by robots?

Today, we’re revisiting Ken MacGregor’s recent article where he asks the very important questions: Will authors be replaced by robots? It really was a fun read and we’re highlighting some of Ken’s views in this one.

(Editor’s note: To be honest, I’m still not convinced he isn’t a robot writing this just to fool us all into believing he’s a human. He refuses to take a Captcha Test for me… -Stu)

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Top 7 Tips For Writing Ghost Stories

Top 7 Tips For Writing Ghost Stories

Read on for our top tips on how to write a ghost story. Your first step should always be to define a ghost story to yourself, but you should know how to proceed afterwards. The best ghost stories are ones that are well-planned. Use our tips to plan yours now.

 

Choose Your Tone

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