On my computer I have a file called "story ideas." There are several paragraphs of different ideas with an asterisk in front of each one. Thankfully, I'm not short of any ideas. As a matter of fact, if I am to use them all I've got a lot of catching up to do. It's interesting to go back and look at the original summarizations and what they eventually morphed in to.
If you look at my list of ideas you'll notice most of them have one thing in common: The horror genre. I haven't read horror in several years (though I'm reading "House" by Frank Perretti now) and I very rarely watch horror movies anymore, yet it's what I come up with first. I ask this question to fellow writers: Is horror the "easy" genre or just something certain people are drawn to? At times I'll sit and think of other genres and I find it's so much harder to come up with what I would deem an entertaining plot that doesn't contain something otherworldly or fantastical. Would Nicholas Sparks struggle if he set aside his love stories and took a shot at writing horror or could "A Walk to Remember" just as easily been "A Walk Through the Woods At Night?"
I have noticed, however, that while nearly all the ideas I come up with for short stories are horror, the ideas for novels are always drama. Perhaps it's years of watching short stories like Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt, Night Gallery, Outer Limits, etc. or listening to ghost stories and campfire tales that have instilled the idea that short stories need to include both a spook factor and a disturbing/shocking ending....or is horror the easy way out?
If you look at my list of ideas you'll notice most of them have one thing in common: The horror genre. I haven't read horror in several years (though I'm reading "House" by Frank Perretti now) and I very rarely watch horror movies anymore, yet it's what I come up with first. I ask this question to fellow writers: Is horror the "easy" genre or just something certain people are drawn to? At times I'll sit and think of other genres and I find it's so much harder to come up with what I would deem an entertaining plot that doesn't contain something otherworldly or fantastical. Would Nicholas Sparks struggle if he set aside his love stories and took a shot at writing horror or could "A Walk to Remember" just as easily been "A Walk Through the Woods At Night?"
I have noticed, however, that while nearly all the ideas I come up with for short stories are horror, the ideas for novels are always drama. Perhaps it's years of watching short stories like Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt, Night Gallery, Outer Limits, etc. or listening to ghost stories and campfire tales that have instilled the idea that short stories need to include both a spook factor and a disturbing/shocking ending....or is horror the easy way out?
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