I wrote my first narrative fiction in 1969 during the 8th
grade, a short tale of star-crossed lovers reunited in a deserted school
lunchroom as nuclear Armageddon descends. A year later the piece ran in my high
school’s prestigious annual literary magazine.
For a freshman to get published was quite the coup. How did I manage
it?
By tapping into my anxieties, I reflected the anxiety of my times. Then
by writing to purpose, I struck a
chord with the editors.
‘Horror’ is the most elastic & inclusive of all literary genres and
enjoys a long, meritorious history precisely because it so often successfully
reflects the collective anxieties of the time. Never in the history of horror has
the genre been more popular. Variations saturate the media delivery machine,
from film to television, from hard copy to e-book, from Stephan King to
Sharknado.
Yet for all its market penetration, horror’s grand literary tradition feels
sadly diminished.
Perhaps that’s because too many contemporary horror writers work
backwards. That is, they write to the hypothetical expectations of some
theoretical audience instead of writing directly to their own purpose and trusting that readers will
find resonance in the work as a result.
Of course, to do that you must actually have a purpose for writing and understand what it is. The biggest
surprise to me as an editor of horror fiction is that when hundreds of
submissions come in over the transom, the only apparent purpose of most is merely
an ambition to be published.
That’s not near good enough. And why anyone would go to all the trouble
to write a story without first having sufficient reason to do it is a mystery.
For your work to gain traction in a filled to bursting marketplace
that only grows more crowded by the day, first you must be brave. Pursue only
your own distinctive voice in the
service of your proprietary purpose and see where that leads.
The world is awash in anxiety and fear. When you sit down to write,
remember what it was that first drew you to horror. Not just the delicious
taste of vicarious fright but the deep down, inchoate thing inside you that
horror made restless and fed back to you through cold sweat nightmare.
Then hit the keyboard and go for
it, because while the beginning of the 21st Century ain't
exactly the Dark Ages, we now know that Mommy lied when she said there’re no
monsters under the bed and the truth of that can be made to count for
something, if you try.
Besides, for all the advice you’ll get about the various paths to getting
published -- the dos & don’ts and whys and wherefores -- when you write first
to please yourself, you’re assured of doing your very best work.
And there’s no better, more assured formula for success than
excellence.
Frank J. Hutton is a writer, photographer and editor of horror stories,
including the Stoker Award nominated anthology “Tattered Souls 2”, published by
Cutting Block Press. A current collection of his images and essays can be found
at http://frankjhutton.blogspot.
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