Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Writing Horror Full of Motivating Inspiration, December 31, 1999
Morte Castle pulls the top horror writers together in this volume of inspirational essays on the art of writing dark fiction. This work does not go into too much of the blood and guts of practical writing tips on horror, which would end up as another mass of opinions that conflict with one another. No, instead Writing Horror trancends that writers' Purgatory and offers enlightening viewpoints of the various approaches and understandings of how good horror fiction is crafted by these outstanding authors. One of the most valuable resource this book provides is the light the multiple authors shed on what mistakes they and other beginning writers have made that kept their works from being published before finally making it into print. But more importantly, Writing Horror provides a truck load of motivation for writers stuck in that literary lull that overtakes us all at one point or another. There has got to be a scientific formula that determines how long it takes for the reader of this book to put it down and start typing because it happens every time. Perhaps Frankenstein will let us all know what the formula is after he's done playing with those usless corpses of his, surly those experiments will lead to a DEAD end. Right?
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The best advice on becoming a horror writer, May 21, 2002
I'm from Holland and I want to be a writer of horror fiction.
Seems like an odd choice, especially for someone living in a country which hasn't spawned a (good) horror writer in ages (if ever), but this book made me decide to go through with it.It is great how WRITING HORROR is divided into all these chapters/ articles in which known (and some lesser known)horrorwriters give advice and pointers on how to master the craft. I learned so much from this book. There are things I hadn't even thought of yet (and never would) which are explained here. A few examples: setting the mood, how to write believable characters, draw your influences from real life, avoid cliches, don't EVER try to copy Stephen King...etc etc. The best article for me was David Morrel's on writing dialogue. I knew him as the creator of John Rambo (of all characters). But from this book (and the real hard to find FACES OF FEAR, by Douglas Winter) I learned he's also a well accomplished writer of horror and suspense.
This man has such a clear voice and his words were so helpful to me. I'll be sure to read some more of his work in the future. In short WRITING HORROR makes me want to create my own stories, and I think that's the best compliment you can give the people who put this book together.
I have some minor critisicm in that most of the articles are very short (only a few pages), but on the other hand I guess the writers make every word count.
It's hard being an aspiring novelist and sometimes you have to drag yourself behind your wordprocessor. WRITING HORROR makes it a little less hard!
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Some thoughts opinions and a bit of fact take it as you will, December 12, 2001
I bought this book after Mort challenged me to write horror again, I had no idea when I bought it that he had edited it, I saw the title, thought I struck gold, and bought it right away.
The information inside has proved invaluable to me, if gives many different (sometimes opposing) viewpoints of many, many authors in the genre. I wholeheartedly recomend this book, not only for the up-and-coming horror writer, but also for the expert.
It is true that there are some portions of the book that seem to take up space, but it is nothing more than interviews from established writer's (like Stephen King) and the history of the HWA and horror itself. Although, most of these provide no writing advice, they let you know where horror has been, and how not to repeat it, so that you can sell your work to an editor, something that they, possibly, have never seen before.
If you still are not sure of whether or not you want this book after reading this review, or any of the others, log-off, get up and go to (...) whatever bookstore you go to, look for this book, and read through a few of the articles (not neccessarily in order, skip around if you want) and then decide for yourself. :)
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