Customer Reviews

Dark Thoughts on Writing: Advice and Commentary from Fifty Masters of Fear and Suspense

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
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As an aspiring writer, I was especially interested in these writers' basic influences, fears, and drives. After the first chapter, I was glued to this book, absorbing the thoughts of writers such as Stephen King, Jack Ketchum, Anne Rice, and many others. This is a great gift for a horror fan.

Excellent compilation of the thoughts, theories, tips and tricks of some of the best horror writers of our time. Especially interesting is the way Wiater juxtaposes conflicting opinions from his subjects. The book is slightly marred by a lack of biographical material on the writers and an index (so I can locate and reread especially interesting quotes)

...and quite possibly the best collection of quotes from the broadest range of leaders in the field that I have ever devoured. I started reading it with a highlighter to cover the best advice. Excluding the front and back covers and the title page, the book is now entirely yellow. From veterans to fresh meat on the hook, this is the bloody book to read if you want to take your craft seriously. What more can I say to rave about this? Buy it. Read it. Then read it again. Keep it within reach of your desk for inspiration when the words just don't seem to flow. It's like a horror convention in your brain!

This book is so inspirational it amazes me. It is quote after quote by famous authors on different topics that apply to horror writing. I think this is one of the most inspirational books on horror writing. I love this book!

A great assembly of quotes from the top horror writers of the last century. Wiater has culled writing instructions from his myriad interviews with the leading writers/filmmakers of the genre. Of particular interest to horror writers who'd like to snap up some useful writing tips and learn a little about the business side of writing. Highly recommended. My only complaint: There's no index.

If you're looking for one person's perspective on Horror, like so many other Horror apologist or philosophy books. I'm not sure whether this is a good or a bad thing.

Rather than being one man's exegesis, or his own considered opinion on the topic, it's a collection of thematically arranged quotes and quips from others.

Whether or not you like this may depend on your own personal preferences... It's kind of somewhere in between being good & bad, in approach. I guess one might just say it's a different approach. Basically taking the exegeses of others and chopping them up then rearranging them into a pseudo-narrative on topics of your own choosing.

On the one hand, it's not precisely "original insight" or "original research," since it's just a collection of stuff that others have said. But, on the other hand, it is kind of an original approach to basically tell the story of the Horror genre in the collected words of its own authors.

Original or not, much of the content is regardless quite interesting and perhaps it does amount to more than the sum of its individual parts (short quotes arranged by theme). For those who like the horror genre and would like to know more abbot its approach and themes, this is a pretty interesting and lively read, since it skips around a bit and gives many slightly varied perspectives on the same topic(s) in the relatively short space of a couple adjacent pages.

Do you wonder what scares your favorite horror writers? Would you like to know who influenced them, or where they get their ideas? Wonder no longer--the answers to these and other intriguing questions can be found in Dark Thoughts On Writing. Editor Wiater, drawing on interviews he's conducted with fifty writers of horror and suspense, presents their responses to these questions and their opinions on censorship, the affect of fame and fortune, and why they choose to write in the genre. The result is a plethora of colorful opinions, surprising anecdotes, and useful advice from a wide selection of horror writers, including Stephen King, Anne Rice, Jack Ketchum, Ira Levin, Clive Barker, Matthew Costello, Charles L. Grant, Nancy A. Collins, F. Paul Wilson and Richard Matheson. Must reading for horror fans and aspiring writers in all genres.

This is a book that will be of interest to the struggling writer and the devoted fan alike: the author culls thought-provoking, helpful, and at times highly amusing quotes from his series of interviews with the giants of dark fiction and distills them into one handy volume.

As a writer, one topic I found particularly interesting was the matter of influences: discovering who inspired the authors and artists who inspire me was fascinating.