HORROR WRITING

Play me!

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

• Week 1 – exploring the genre and understanding conventions

• Week 2 – setting the scene

• Week 3 - exploring characters and stereotypes

• Week 4 – plot planning and the importance of suspense

• Week 5 – how to scare people with words

• Week 6 – showing off

THE MAIN AIMS

• Throughout this creative writing course, we will be building up skills and pieces of work that

will be used when we get back to school and you are in S4.

Main aim 1:

The pieces of work you produce will be used to create your first folio piece. The folio is two

pieces of work of 1000 words which are sent away to the SQA as part of your N5 English. It’s

really important to engage with the written tasks as well as you can, so that we have a solid

basis for your folio.

Main aim 2:

To enjoy the creative writing process! Reading and writing are two of my favourite things and

I’d love for you to enjoy them too. ☺

WHY HORROR?

Horror has been one of my favourite genres for as long as I have been

reading independently. I started off with Goosebumps and Point Horror,

before sneaking copies of Stephen King and Dean Koontz’s books home

from the library. I’ve always loved the fear and adrenaline rush of not

knowing whether the main character will survive.

More often than not, you’ll find me cheering for the ‘bad guy’ and the

best kind of horror story (in my opinion) is the one where you don’t

know who the villain is until it’s too late!

“The category into which a story fits.”

Character archetypes

Setting

Narrative conventions (things we expect to

happen in order to move the plot of the story

along)Story arc

Ben screamed and screamed. They had left him there

to die, entombed in the cave now that they had sealed

the entrance. When his screaming subsided and the

echo vanished, Ben heard another sound. A low

growling sound which seemed to be coming closer…

The purpose of a horror story, as well as to entertain, is to create terror, usually through more

blatant methods than the ghost story. Often horror stories contain some kind of monster (such

as vampires, werewolves, etc.) whose only purpose is to prey on the human characters.

The protagonist often is the one who rids the world of the threat of this monster, or becomes a

victim trying.

THE HORROR GENRE

• Horror can be loosely defined as speculative fiction – a story that

has elements which do not exist in the real world.

• These elements could be supernatural, futuristic, magic or many

others!

• Why is horror popular? Play me!

GENRE MARKERS

Genre markers are people, places, events etc. that we expect to see in

particular genres. These help us identify the type of fiction that we are

consuming.

For example, in a horror, we would expect the main character to have

to face an adversary (enemy) and that the setting would be

somewhere abandoned at night.

SUBGENRES

• Subgenres split the genre further. Each subgenre has its own

unique set of conventions which make it unique, whilst also sharing

the main conventions of horror. These include:

• Slasher horror

• Survival horror

• Psychological horror

• Supernatural horror

• Gothic Horror

• Science fiction horror

• Comedy horror

TASKS FOR THE WEEK

• Now that you have a bit of background to the genre, have a

look through the following slides and complete the tasks. You

can tweet me work at: @mrsgalbraithlhs OR

@libertonenglish or email me at

Rebecca.mckenzie@Liberton.edin.sch.uk

• Have fun finding out about horror!

TASK 1: WHY HORROR?

• Why do you like horror?

• Favourite horror film? Why?

• Favourite horror story? Why?

• What would you like to learn about the horror genre?

• Something you like about writing?

• Something you dislike/struggle with when writing?

TASK 2: LEARN MORE ABOUT THE GENRE – PICK A COUPLE OF THE SELECTION BELOW AND READ/WATCH TO YOUR HEART’S CONTENT!

Stories

You can find these ones online:

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

The Monkey’s paw by W.W. Jacobs

The Rats in the Walls by H.P. Lovecraft

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Grimm fairy tales

Other recommendations:

The Fade by Demitria Lunetta

The Sacrifice Box by Martin Stewart

Anything by Darren Shan, R.L. Stine or L.J, Smith

Films/TV shows

Most of these are 12 certificate, but please

check with someone at home that it’s ok for

you to watch it!

The Others

The Woman in Black

The Haunting

The Mothman Prophecies

Corpse Bride

Coraline

Jaws

Warm Bodies

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Sabrina

Websites/articles

http://horr

https://www.masterclass.com/classes/rl-

stine-teaches-writing-for-young-

audiencesor.org/

https://www.darrenshan.com/

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/childr

en/2018/how-to-write-a-horror-story-by-

dave-rudden/

TASK 3: GENRE CONVENTIONS

• Create a piece of writing (mind map, PowerPoint,

infographic, essay, leaflet, whatever you fancy) to express

what you’ve learned about genre conventions. You should:

• Give examples of the conventions in general

• Relate those examples to things you’ve read/watched

• Try to explain the impact on the reader/viewer

CHALLENGE TASK: SUBGENRES

• Research more about one of the subgenres from the slide

above. Look at:

• Conventions of that subgenre

• Examples of films/books/poems/TV shows/plays etc. of that genre

• Any notable settings or characters