WOW: it came from the blogs...
Oct. 20th, 2009 09:05 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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writercisesOriginal posting 1 October 2009
Over here http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/09/genre-root-of-all-evil.html there's a discussion of cross genre and what do we mean by genre and all that stuff.
Down in the middle, there's this section about horror:
"HORROR is defined by the Hero or main POV character being an innocent victim of something huge, overwhelming, unstoppable, unbeatable. The key plot element is that the Hero can NOT WIN (which is the exact nuance that turns a dream into a nightmare). It's not that the Hero is not capable or brave or strong. It's that the Evil stalking the Hero is a part of Nature and by definition can't be destroyed. At the most, it can be immobilized for centuries, (silver chains, sigils, incantations, magic jewels, djinn bottles) but never destroyed. The Hero can not win but only put off defeat to future generations."
"Take a regular Action/Adventure story, but make the adversary an Elemental that can not be destroyed, and the Hero can not win. Leave out "winning" and that turns A/A into Horror."
Ho, ho, ho. So the defining characteristic of horror is that the climax -- where the protagonist faces their fears and dangers and all that stuff -- ends up with the hero failing. The grim reaper, the evil that has stalked the hero throughout the story, wins! Oh, the hero may manage to capture the evil one, but... there's a hand coming up through the dirt, there's a brick falling out of the wall, something shows us that the evil will be back.
And since we just happen to be writing halloweenie horrors... you might want to think about that.
Over here http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/09/genre-root-of-all-evil.html there's a discussion of cross genre and what do we mean by genre and all that stuff.
Down in the middle, there's this section about horror:
"HORROR is defined by the Hero or main POV character being an innocent victim of something huge, overwhelming, unstoppable, unbeatable. The key plot element is that the Hero can NOT WIN (which is the exact nuance that turns a dream into a nightmare). It's not that the Hero is not capable or brave or strong. It's that the Evil stalking the Hero is a part of Nature and by definition can't be destroyed. At the most, it can be immobilized for centuries, (silver chains, sigils, incantations, magic jewels, djinn bottles) but never destroyed. The Hero can not win but only put off defeat to future generations."
"Take a regular Action/Adventure story, but make the adversary an Elemental that can not be destroyed, and the Hero can not win. Leave out "winning" and that turns A/A into Horror."
Ho, ho, ho. So the defining characteristic of horror is that the climax -- where the protagonist faces their fears and dangers and all that stuff -- ends up with the hero failing. The grim reaper, the evil that has stalked the hero throughout the story, wins! Oh, the hero may manage to capture the evil one, but... there's a hand coming up through the dirt, there's a brick falling out of the wall, something shows us that the evil will be back.
And since we just happen to be writing halloweenie horrors... you might want to think about that.
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