Fiction Workshop

[Gribble]

So I'm taking a fiction workshop. There are about 20 or so budding writers and one established writer who lords over us all.

Last week I submitted my first story for review to glowing praise and greatly helpful criticism. I was very pleased. Today teacher/provost/whatever you wanna call her pulled me aside. She told me that she literally vomited while reading my story. For a hopeful horror writer there can be no greater compliment. She assured me that the violence was in no way gratuitous. It was just that vivid and disturbing.

I've been shaking and blushing since then. I can't even eat my lun.ch. I want to jump up and dance and scream and write. I think this summer or next I'm going to go out to Iowa and attend the famous Iowa Writer's Workshop, and if that goes well I may even try to get myself into the graduate program.

Jesus. This lady told me my writing made her puke and I couldn't be more thrilled, not even if a pair of playboy bunnies invited me to the mansion.

[Lovable]

Good for you Gribble! That must mean you are doing something right in writing a really good horror novel!

Keep up the good work!

[vashti]

You should post it.

[doppelgaenger]

I haven't read your stories, but I can tell you that simply being grotesque and coming up with vividly violent and perverted imagery is not accomplishing much. You should aim to use this imagery as a thrilling climax. True horror forces its audience to question its own morality and there is no question regarding validity or reality.

Props to you for attending the workshop. I wish that people were more inclined to do these things without needing some kind of authoritative voice. Are you lacking motivation to write on your own or are you just searching for constructive criticism?

[Gribble]

That's exactly what the story does. Like I said, she stressed that the violence wasn't gratuitous. There's blood and guts, but the meat of the story (heh) revolves around human nature and the darkest depths we are capable of sinking to when the shit really hits the fan.

I love horror because it's as real as it gets. Yes, it may be fantastical, there may be monsters and spirits, but horror gets up close and personal with the human condition. Horror strips all the layers of bullshit away and shows humans for what they really are, and it ain't pretty. Plus all bets are off. You never really can tell how a horror story is going to end.

Anyway, I'm keeping this story wrapped up tight. It needs to be revised heavily. Once it's right then maybe I'll share.

[doppelgaenger]

That can only be one piece to the puzzle you're putting together. Do you have a fundamental understanding of the morality you want people to understand? Is there an ultimate goal you have in using horror as a literary device? Perhaps it is moral objectivity (haha, oxymoron IMO) The way you speak of your story is analogical to my opinion of Kafka's works. Have you read a lot of Kafka? Where are you drawing your influences from?

[Mish]

I love horror because it's as real as it gets. Yes, it may be fantastical, there may be monsters and spirits, but horror gets up close and personal with the human condition. Horror strips all the layers of bullshit away and shows humans for what they really are, and it ain't pretty. Plus all bets are off. You never really can tell how a horror story is going to end.

I think you can write a pretty good horror story without monsters and spirits. Even when you have to swing that way you can make it about the human monsters or at least leaving it with a question was the monster really there or was it a symptom of human condition. Some of the best stories are presented like that.