The Ready Writer

So I am still on hiatus from my main project, but that doesn't mean I'm not writing. In order to keep my horror writer brain sharp, I am doing the following: Working on my "affair" or "backburner" project .  This allows me to distance myself from my main project so that I can come back to it ready to edit critically (and next week I'll talk about what those edits will entail). Reading.   I'm a firm believer (but not the only one that believes it) that in order to be a good writer, you have to be a good reader (and by good, I mean participating in the act of those activities). So I am reading a lot of horror and seeing what the greats (as well as the newbies) are doing in the world of horror.  If you want to see what I'm reading, you can friend me on Goodreads.  You can find me under my full name: Brystan Strong. Research. This may fall into both the previous category and the next one, but I'm doing scholarly research on the genr...

I don't have any numbers for you this time, I will next time though. I do have a pretty dramatic (okay, maybe not dramatic to you) update about my project.  When I was writing that short post about horror subgenres I mentioned that my current piece is mostly apocolyptic horror with a sprinkle of occult horror mixed in. Well, my biggest struggle with my project has been that I haven't thought that it was scary enough, or scary at all.  And I think that is because I was writing within a subgenre that I don't think is all that scary.  Apocolyptic horror doesn't really scare me.  Occult horror definitely does.  So, I have decided to make a tonal shift.  I am going to make my novel an occult horror with some themes of apocolyptic horror sprinkled in.  The world isn't going to end, but the world as my characters know it, will, and this will be at the hand of a cult like entity.  This also allows for the slight supernatural elements of my story to be...

Form B "So, is this treatment going to be painful?" Moira asked. "There is a very mild discomfort." Dr. Webb said, leaning back in his office chair. It creaked under his weight. "Some say it is like  slight burning sensation." He smiled. "It's nothing you have to concern yourself with." Moira had been seeing Dr. Webb for the last 6 months for treatment for her eczema. She had spent thousands of dollars on other doctors, creams, and homeopathic remedies all to no avail. Dr. Webb had contact her on a web forum. She was part of a message board community for people with skin conditions. He told her that he could cure her. And he had. His method was a combination of medicated baths, pills, ointments and even meditation.  Her skin was glowing. She couldn't remember the last time her skin was this clear.  Today was her final session. A heat treatment. She wasn't sure exactly how it was supposed to help, but Dr. Webb had ...

Hey guys!  No stats blog or horror genre post this week since I am on vacation.  Normal posts will resume next week.  I'm also gonna to try to figure out the scheduling features so that this doesn't happen again. However, I couldn't not post my Freaky Flash Fiction Friday piece (even though I'm barely making the deadline), so here it is. A Day in the Life of Harold Abrams "It's supposed to rain today." Laurel said to her husband, Harold who sat in his armchair on the other side of the living room.  "Good thing we are staying in today." She said, putting the newspaper down onto the table beside her.   A whistle came from the kitchen. "Oh, looks like the kettle is done, I'll get us some tea." She stood up slowly and carefully and puttered her way into the kitchen. Harold stayed in his armchair. Laurel came back with two steamy cups of hot tea. "I got you some Chamomile. It was the last box in the store, you sure are l...

Hey readers!  Sorry this flash fiction story is coming out so late.  I hope to not make that a regular thing. Anyway, here is my Freaky Flash Fiction Friday story #1. Til (Un)Death Do Us Part He looked at her with a hunger.  He had always though she was beautiful, but today, there was something about her that made him crave her even more. They were High School sweethearts. Neither of their families thought they were going to make it together, but 6 years later, they were going strong. They had survived post High School retail jobs together, college together, and even living in their tiny one bedroom apartment together. They had hoped to survive The Outbreak together. And for the last 9 months, they had. He had managed to kill the zombie and secure their apartment once again, but not without injury.  An hour later she had locked herself in the bathroom, hoping he'd get tired and move on. It wasn't long before he was able to break through the door....

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear, is the fear of the unknown." - H.P. Lovecraft Horror is a fascinating genre for a lot of reasons, but mostly because of its relationship with other types of fiction or literature.  Horror is most often held on the bottom of the ladder.  Most of this is due to the fact that history does have a long history of being pulp, or cheap (think of the penny dreadfuls, horror novels that were literally sold for a penny), and yet many grand works of literature, stories that are on reading lists in high schools and colleges across the nation are also horror (Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, and all of Poe.). Hell, even Alice in Wonderland had some horror elements in it, and it was written FOR CHILDREN. But even so, even with so many great pieces of work within the genre, whenever I tell people that I write horror, especially other writers or people in the literature ...

Sorry for the late stats post this week.  I'm battling a cold and we had a big remodel in our apartment on Monday.  But here it is! Monday: +135 words Tuesday: +137 words Wednesday: +138 words Thursday: No Writing Friday: +128 words Saturday: +121 words Sunday: +222 words AND I finished Chapter 2! Total Words Written This Week: 881 Total Project Word Count: 5,084 Yay! Hit 5k! Also I accomplished ALL of the goals I set for the week. You know the old saying "If it aint broke, don't fix it."?  Well, I'm going by that this week.  Goals are the same: 6 days a week, 100 words each session.

Hello everyone! Okay, so the first week of Camp NaNoWriMo is over, and I have written....0 words. BUT I do not count it as a failure. I've spent the last week really creating a solid outline and plot.  I have a rough outline for my entire book, and I have a scene by scene outline for Act I. I have also created lore, backstory, really solidified my characters, and thought long and hard about my overall goals for not just this project, but all of them. As many of you know, I've been working on 2 projects.  A Haunted House project and a Haunted Hotel Project (which is getting a new name). Some things are changing. Haunted House is on the back burner for a TBD amount of time. I'm still loving the idea of that story, it will get written, and now that I actually have an idea about how to outline and plot etc. I'm excited to start that one over and make it better. But for now, it is on the back burner.  This is for a couple of reasons. First of all, I really want t...

I was really moved by the Easter sermon that my pastor, Christina (yes, my church has a female pastor, its awesome) gave on Easter. She began by telling the story of when Mary, the other Mary, and Johanna went to tend to Jesus in his tomb.  They were just planning on paying their respects (as you do with the dead). "But something happens at the tomb that goes against everything they know to be true." The tomb is empty. There are 2 sparkly messengers there, telling them that there is dead among the living. The women go rushing back to the disciples telling them what they have just heard.  And the disciples considered these "idle tales", and they did not believe the women. An Idle Tale. The Greek word is Leros, usually reserved for the ramblings of someone who is suffering from delirium. And this is when I started thinking about my writing. We as Christians believe in this "Idle Tale". We believe in a lot of them. "The dead come bac...