My approach to horror

I thought it might be a good idea to explain myself.

I have been writing stories of all kinds since 1986. In 2017, I decided to concentrate on the horror genre. After seeing so many horror movies, reading so many horror novels over the years, I started noticing certain tropes, as I’m sure others have, too. Some of these tropes were okay and kind of inescapable in some cases, but a lot of them started to get on my nerves.

Granted, these tropes I am referring to is regarding movies, not books, but they affected me nonetheless. In a negative way. Why do so many movies have to have the kid with the ghost friend that makes them do things they shouldn’t? No one thinks anything is up until they notice all of the demonic drawings the kid is making? This is just one example, but you get the idea. This particular trope is still being used ad nauseum and it really drives me crazy.

Where is the originality in horror films?

Now, I am not a film-maker, so I am not going to go out and make a unique horror flick. I’m strictly a writer.

That said, I feel like I need to put my money where my mouth is and create stories that go against the tide, stories that are unique and don’t go they way people would expect. Granted, I can’t avoid all of the tropes, but I try to avoid them when I can. There may be some tropes I’m not aware of and — Imaginary Supreme Being forbid — I may be creating some of my own and repeating them. I don’t even want to think about that.

So, to boil it down to one sentence:

I write horror that’s different.

No tropes.

There. I said it.