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What is a theme, exactly? A theme is, as my English teacher put it, an element of the human condition. A humane concept that man enjoys reading about because he feels it, can connect with it. Or possibly because he's never experienced such an element before, and feels the need to integrate it into his persona. Either way, one such element of the human condition is--

People like horror for the same reason they like roller coasters. It's thrilling. That fear that crawls up your spine that you always said you could really do without? You lied. You love that feeling, even if you don't know it yet. You relish the thought of being utterly terrified, and though you want to banish the feeling, you just have to turn the next page. By the end of the night, you're shivering. But it's hot. Yet there you sit, under the covers, shaking wildly, telling the monster in the closet to get away from you, and yet a voice inside your head keeps telling you--

"Read it again."

There are a plethora of ways to write horror. The only guideline is it has to be scary--and even there, you have freedom. Fright can be interpreted in several ways, none of which I will name because they are entirely up to you to discover. Ye blooming writer, be inspired, and scare.

RM's Weekly Tips

[submitted by RM]--From my experience with horror, among the innumerable varieties within the genre, two encompassing themes are apparent. In English--There are two popular kinds of horror, and pretty much everything else horror falls into one of the two categories, or somewhere in between.

A--Take something that the reader is already familiar with, and scare them with it. While it doesn't have to be staunch realistic, it's more real-world then fantasy or sci-fi by a landslide. Stephen King does this in pretty much all of his horror (though there are always exceptions). Take something the reader knows exists--murder, religious fanatics, accidents, bad neighborhoods, cars. It can be obvious, everyday items, or it can be the kind of things you know exist in the corners, in the shadows of the world's shadows, but you simply refuse to accept they exist. Whatever you choose to be the object of your horror, bring it into the light. Show a truth about that object, and scare the reader with it. An abnormal murder. A possessed car. A loved one gone mad. An unexplainable fire. A stalker. These things are real. The world is filled with terrifying things, and horror takes them and shoves them in front of your face. Or rather, pulls your face into the shadows.

B--It's a safe bet to say most of you WA participants are fantasy/sci-fi writers. The reason that fantasy appeals to people is because it's such a foreign concept. People like reading about things that they can't ever actually experience, because they revel in the alien. This is more Lovecraft--Fantasy horror. Take things that couldn't possibly exist, and turn it into a horror. Shroud it in shadow and mystery, or gore, or truth. You have total freedom.

Know your choices, and choose wisely.

[submitted by RM]--Some excellent, applicable, and unbelievable useful advice was given to me by [insert title here] Humva in an old horror epic of mine. Scaring is always great--but it's not the only way to write horror. Don't necessarily scare--haunt. One technique to haunt I like to use is this--When you write, don't tell the reader much. Say what you need to say, and nothing more. Just enough to haunt him a bit. It's a lot of fun, and you may thrill yourself in the process. In this sense, there will be a lot of emptiness, hollowness in your story that the reader will instinctively fill in himself. If you did a good job haunting him enough, the holes in the story he fills in will be scary holes--he'll actually make up a horror story for himself based on the guideline you wrote. Be vague. Be empty. Be alien. Be haunting.