  Horror/Scary
This week: The Origin of the Beast Edited by: Ben Langhinrichs  
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Greetings! I am a first-time guest editor for the Horror/Scary Newsletter, and I hope to share some of my thoughts on writing Horror.
~ Ben Langhinrichs
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The Origin of the Beast
When you set out to write horror, whether it be a novel or short story or play or poem, you have lots of wonderful choices of styles and content. Today, I am going to focus on creature horror, stories of vampires, werewolves, zombies and such. These do not simply go bump in the night. They come out biting and slashing and munching. Run for your life!
Of course, you can come up with your own monster, which is fun and creative, but what if you want to write about a familiar monster?
There are advantages and disadvantages to familiar monsters. An advantage is that you can rely on your audience to accept that silver bullets kill werewolves and crucifixes are anathema to vampires and zombies don't die easily unless you bust their heads open. A disadvantage is that you have to work harder to make the monster your own if you want more-aware zombies or weaker werewolves or glittery vampires who are not afraid of the daylight.
But if you are willing to mold the more traditional beastie into your own, you can help recapture the original horror. When a reader can instantly say, "Yup, typical vampire", it is harder for them to feel that original, visceral fear that the vampire evoked. (The surge in sexy vampires makes it harder as well, and now I have a friend who is publishing a story about a sexy zombie cleverly called Lucky Stiff. Argh!)
But start back at where your creature comes from, the origin of the beast, and you may be able to jolt the reader back into the primal fear of the unknown that is the true root of most horror.
On the website, Werewolves.com, they talk about some of the ways over the centuries that people have imagined how a man or woman could become a werewolf. In traditional Russian lore, any child born on Christmas Eve or any adult who offended God could become a werewolf. Other stories held that men who slept outside on a Wednesday or Friday night with the full moon shining on them all night. Camping anyone?
I just heard that my werewolf story, Without Remorse was accepted in Pill Hill's Silver Moon, Bloody Bullets werewolf anthology. Without giving much away, I can say that the werewolves in my story were caused by a gypsy curse, and only for the males in one cursed family.
Think about how you can differentiate and personalize your creatures. Instead of just accepting that vampires have been around and always come from other vampires, what about a vampire virus (it makes more sense to me than a zombie virus). Make your reader imagine that he or she could be facing this personally.
Write on, and have a horror-filled day!
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Horror/Scary: May 19, 2010 Issue [#3742]
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