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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5 Tips for Publishing Your Own Book

Did you ever imagine ideas for a blockbuster novel? Did you plot out character sketches; divide the plot into three acts with five turning points each, and used pathos to create a mental image of your protagonist’s best friend or wardrobe or car that will later be revealed to be garish. 

If you have gotten to that point then, you are no amateur writer. Most of us have done this before we set out on actually putting pen to paper (or finger to key).

The next logical step for these dedicated writers is to try and get their books published. This sounds pretty simple, but then, it isn’t. 
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Systemic Injustice in Contemporary Horror: How It’s Used and What to Take Away As a Writer

Since the blockbuster success of Get Out, systemic injustice has become an increasingly prevalent theme in modern horror. And while certainly present in the genre prior to this era, 2016-2017 was when race, class, mental health, and other issues of systemic oppression really rose to prominence. Since then, we’ve gotten a wealth of horror stories tackling these issues from numerous angles — with varying degrees of success.

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Move over Plato: The Allegory of the Horror

By Rebecca Rowland

I see allegory in everything. Perhaps it’s a side effect after decades of teaching high school English. Perhaps it’s the curse of having chosen to pursue a graduate degree in literature after finishing college (not for any career preparation but in order to postpone joining the work force: I admit it!). Or, perhaps it’s simply a quality of being a horror writer. Though we’re often pushed to the back of the literary prestige line, authors of the scare-narrative are cultivators of a masterful magic show that both ignites readers’ imaginations and, quite often, pokes at their most tender trigger points like mad scientist filmmakers splicing subconscious images into montages.

No matter the reason, it’s a reflex I’ve developed, for better or worse, even if my analysis doesn’t always jive with the director’s. Akin to those hidden picture paintings popular in the 1990s, what is seen cannot be unseen (I’m talking to you, Ari Aster, who, much to my chagrin, insists Hereditary is a film about possession and not, in fact, a story of a genetic propensity of mental illness. He’s wrong, but that’s a guest blog for another time).

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How Do Horror Writers Popularize Their Content

It’s not uncommon to have writers create stories that never leave their personal computers. Sometimes, it is because they don’t know how to promote and popularize their content, so they leave it lying on their personal space and go on to writing the next one. If you’re one of such writers in the horror niche, then this article is for you. 

As a person, you probably use social for a variety of things. So who says you can’t use it to promote your content as a writer. These platforms have an audience and can connect you to a group of readers waiting to consume your horror stories.

If you are already a self-publishing author, then you’ve probably spent tons of hours online already trying to market your work. Thankfully, there are several popular outlets that you can use to promote your horror content and get the recognition that you deserve. 

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