How a Story’s Genre Influences the Role of Fear

By Angela Ackerman

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Fear is at the heart of so many stories, because it’s often what’s keeping the protagonist from whatever it is they want in the story. It has so many potential uses in writing great fiction, and Angela Ackerman is here to share some genre-specific ones for us today.

Take it away Angela…

No matter the genre, fear is always present. It anchors readers in the character’s experience by closing the gap between story and reality. Fear taps into our instinct for self-preservation and the universal struggle to manage it without letting it take over.

But fear doesn’t look the same in every genre. Reader expectations shape the kinds of dangers characters face and the fears that drive their choices. In some stories, fear centers on emotional vulnerability and relationships; in others, it comes from danger, secrets, or the loss of control.

How Your Character’s Internal Conflict Can Help You Plot

Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

If you've been struggling with a plot, or you're looking for ways to deepen an existing plot, try looking at how your protagonist's internal conflict is driving her external actions.

A lot of focus gets put on the core conflict of a novel—the main problem the protagonist has to solve to win—and for good reason. It's the whole point of the book. But sometimes, when we look too hard at the external problems, we miss out on opportunities to let the internal problems muck things up. This is especially true in a character-driven novel, since that inner journey is what's driving the entire book.

While you can’t plot with a character arc, you can use it to create your plot, because what a character has been through and fears, if what determines how they face their problems and make decisions.

At the heart of every good internal conflict is a fear created by trauma.

A Few Foundations of Fear in Fiction

By Bonnie Randall

Part of The How They Do It Series

JH: A lot of skill goes into making stories scary. Bonnie Randall shares five ways to put the fear into your fiction.

It’s that season again! Fears, frights, and bumps-in-the-night. If you’re like me, you’ve saved every scary book on your TBR list all year till finally you could crack the spine on October 1st. Or, if you’re really like me, you’re in the mood to brainstorm creepy plots and supernatural situations that could coalesce into a sensationally scary story of your own.

But what makes things frightening—and why the heck do we enjoy being scared in the first place? Isn’t that whole notion counterintuitive?

Yes…and no.

The Scary Season: Tips on Bringing the Scary to Your Novel

By Bonnie Randall

Part of The How They Do It Series 

JH: We can learn a lot by studying other authors' novels. Bonnie Randall shares two novels that taught her a lot about tension and making readers crawl out of their skins. 

Halloween and horror. One cannot be peeled from the other, and we expect to be scared during this spooky season. Seems to me though, that some of the best—or perhaps most effective—frights happen when we are not expecting them. 

This month I’m going to do a quick deconstruction of two novels I’ve read this year, pointing out the elements that made them such effectively horrifying reads—devices to be stored on the index cards we keep in our heads which build our own stories’ scaffolding. 

*Caution: Spoilers abound here, so if these novels are on your TBR pile, you might want to bookmark this post until after you’ve read them. 

The Core of Every Novel: The Big Want & The Big Fear

By Spencer Ellsworth, @spencimus

Part of The How They Do It Series

JH: As complicated as novels are, they really do come down to some very simple things. Spencer Ellsworth shares two of them.

Spencer Ellsworth has been writing since he learned how. He is the author of The Great Faerie Strike, a tale of the Otherworld’s first labor union, from Broken Eye Books. He is also the author of the space opera Starfire Trilogy from Tor, and many other short works. He lives in Bellingham, WA, with his wife and three children, works at a small tribal college, and would really like a war mammoth, please.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Take it away Spencer…

Scaredy-Pants! 4 Breeches-er- BREACHES That Elicit Fear in Your Characters

By Bonnie Randall

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Fear is a powerful tool for writers and helps us create stronger stories. Bonnie Randall takes her month place at the podium today to share tips on how to scare the pants off our characters. And if you're in the mood for some good old fashion scares for Halloween...checkout her short story No Vacancy. It's creepy and scary in all the right ways.

Take it away Bonnie...

When something happens that shouldn’t happen OR when something that should happen doesn’t, the results range from feeling mildly jarred to all-out terrified. Breaches to different cognitive constructs are the underpinnings of fear.

Here are four that may resonate if you’re crafting (or watching) frightening fiction this spooky season:

Creepy Clowns and Haunted Hotels—Unspooling Why Our Characters Get Scared

By Bonnie Randall 

Part of the How They Do It Series (Monthly Contributor)

Open up the internet any time over the past few months and you’ll see a recount of some poor soul’s encounter with a creepy clown either crooking a finger at a small child, or offering balloons from the mouth of an isolated forest trail.

Chilling, right?

But why? Clowns are bastions of merry-making, staples at kiddie parties, and the slapstick buffoons who are far more likely to hurt themselves rather than anyone else. So what’s scary?

Guest Author Anton Strout: Suck-tion Power

By Anton Strout

Please help me welcome fantasy author Anton Strout to the blog today, to chat with us about a few things we all experience at some point in our writing careers--fear and suckage. And why this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Anton is the author of the Simon Canderous urban fantasy series and Alchemystic, book one of the upcoming Spellmason Chronicles for Ace Books, a division of Penguin Group (USA). Anton is also the author of many short tales published in anthologies by DAW Books. The Once & Future Podcast is his latest project, where he endeavors as Curator of Content to bring authors and readers together through a weekly news show format. He has been a featured author guest of honor, speaker and workshop leader at San Diego Comic-Con, Gencon, New York Comic-Con, the Brooklyn Book Festival and many other conventions.

Take it away Anton...

Guest Blogger Julie Anne Lindsey: Writing the Terror Scenes

By Julie Anne Lindsey, @JulieALindsey

Please help me welcome Julie Anne Lindsey to the blog today, to chat with up and scary stuff. Or actually, writing scary stuff. Even if you don't write spooky stories, these tips can help add tension to your own scenes.

Julie is a multi-genre author who writes the stories that keep her up at night. In 2013, Julie welcomes five new releases in three genres including her newest title, DECEIVED, a YA suspense from Merit Press, and her first cozy mystery, MURDER BY THE SEASIDE, book one in the Patience Price, Counselor at Large series from Carina Press (a digital imprint of Harlequin).

Julie is a self-proclaimed word nerd who would rather read than almost anything else. She started writing to make people smile. Someday she plans to change the world. Most days you'll find her online, amped up on caffeine and wielding a book.

Julie is a member of the International Thriller Writers (ITW), Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI), Sisters in Crime (SinC) and the Canton Writer’s Guild.

Take it away Julie...