Things That Go Bump: Ideas for Horror Writers
- tkswriter
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
An irregular series spotlighting 13 useful and inspirational online reads and resources for horror writers everywhere
Feel free to share your thoughts here or go to the Discord and discuss.
PROCESS
🛜What Kind of Writing Monster Is Lurking in Your Brain? Writers Helping Writers || 10.2.25
"You wouldn’t think a productive writer would have to worry about monsters. But sometimes, just when you’ve cleared your schedule, opened your laptop, and promised yourself you’ll finally get that chapter (or email or video) done, something cold and invisible slinks up behind you. ... Suddenly, you’re scrolling instead of writing, reorganizing your Scrivener folders, and researching branding fonts for the fifth time this week. ... If that sounds familiar, here’s your diagnosis: There’s a monster in your brain. ... Below, you’ll meet the four most common types that plague writers. These horrific beasts are drawn from the real patterns ... Each monster represents a different conflict zone in your creative brain, and each comes with a set of tricks and a few treats to help you fight back."
SUBMISSIONS
🛜A publishing submission Bill of Rights
Nathan Bransford || 9.29.24
"The submission process in the publishing industry these days is increasingly broken. Many literary agents have long had a 'no response means no' policy on query letters, but now the shoe is on the other foot and many editors at publishing houses are straying into 'no response means no' policy, leaving agents in the lurch. ... While in some ways it’s tempting to revel in agents getting a taste of their own medicine, ultimately 'no response means no' is bad for authors coming and going. Authors are left in a mind-numbing limbo, unsure whether to move forward or keep waiting for a response that may never arrive."
DEEP DIVE
🛜Lincoln Michel || Shirley Jackson and the Eerie Omniscient Narrator
Counter Craft || 10.8.25
"If you aren’t familiar with Hill House—or are only familiar with the not-a-real-adaptation Netflix adaptation*—then you should probably close this article and go read it. Hill House is a classic of the horror genre for a reason, and in many ways it set the template for haunted house novels. Jackson’s characters, from the creepy caretakers to the 'scientific' investigator, have become archetypes of the genre."
BOOK SALES
🛜We’re in a Book Affordability Crisis
Book Riot || 10.21.25
"Book Riot has long covered the affordability of books, noting issues with the paper supply in 2018. In 2023, Kelly Jensen crunched the numbers tracking the difference in the cost of books from 2019 to 2023. In 2025, Jensen also explained how tariffs will impact the costs of books. While the prices of books from hardcovers to trade paperbacks across all age and genre categories are still on the rise, I am specifically spotlighting a new challenge to book affordability: the removal of mass market paperbacks, currently the lowest price point physical book format for readers."
CHARACTERIZATION
🛜When Good Guys are Bad Guys and Vice Versa: Contradictions
Writer Unboxed || 10.8.25
"Good people do bad things every day; bad people occasionally startle us and do something heroic. We are complicated, and the characters we create need to be complicated too, in order to give our fiction real emotional truth."
YOUNG READERS
🛜Author Guest Post: “Scared Safe: How Horror Literature Can Comfort Young Readers” by Ann Dávila Cardinal, Author of You’ve Awoken Her
Unleashing Readers || 6.22.25
"In his paper entitled, Scaring away anxiety: Therapeutic avenues for horror fiction to enhance treatment for anxiety symptoms, behavioral scientist Coltan Scrivner, PhD states, 'Horror media may provide a unique avenue for individuals to manage anxiety by offering controlled exposure to fear, opportunities for cognitive engagement, and experiences of mastery over negative emotions.' He goes on to talk about the benefits of “scary play” for juveniles, 'Much of human play takes place in the cognitive playground of a fictional world. Through fictional play, people can learn what a particular situation looks like and imagine how they would react and deal with it. As with more physical types of play, cognitive play with fiction can also serve as a rehearsal for negative emotions and how to manage them.' So, horror stories give young readers an opportunity to practice their responses to trauma in a safe and fictional environment."
RESEARCH
🛜Plumbing the Depths: Archaeology in Horror Fiction
Nightmare Magazine || 8.27.25
"Archaeology produces wonderous knowledge, but at what cost? Gothic and horror writers have drawn on the imaginative potential of once-hidden knowledge, remote tombs, and cursed artifacts to animate tales that slither under our skin and haunt us with questions about who is allowed to rest in peace and who is consigned to rest in pieces."
AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT
🛜Yearning for History: A Flooded Mexican Town and the Horrormance Stories of Isabel Cañas
The Lineup || 8.28.25
"Mexican-American author Isabel Cañas digs up the historical and family inspirations behind some of her best novels and short stories."
HORROR FILM
🛜The Ghosts We Grow: Horror Kids and Trauma
NightTide Magazine || 8.15.25
"Horror has a way of putting kids through traumatic hoops. Some even shine in those horrors. They’re portable, photogenic, and prone to saying deeply unsettling things without meaning to — the perfect prop for a good jump scare. But in The Other (2025), Bring Her Back (2025), and Weapons (2025), the kids aren’t here to hand over ominous drawings or whisper about things on the walls. They are the story’s core, each carrying a trauma so heavy the adults around them can barely stand to face it."
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
🛜Prologues That Work and Why
Jane Friedman || 10.30.25
"Many authors and industry professionals have cautioned writers against using prologues, perhaps because they’ve seen them done poorly—as information dumps, meandering attempts to provide background, or vehicles to show off research. But prologues do have a place in some novels. Done well, they can intrigue readers and ignite interest in the story to come. Several different types of prologues are reviewed here, along with examples of effective ones."
FOR YOUR TBRs
🛜‘It’s insanely sinister’: horror writers on the scariest stories they’ve ever read
The Guardian || 10.25.25
"Bloodthirsty ghosts, sadistic supercomputers, creepy childhood games ... Mariana Enríquez, Paul Tremblay, Daisy Johnson and others on the tales that kept them up at night."
POETRY
🛜The best horror poetry books to devour in a single autumn afternoon
Shepherd || 10.29.2025
Seattle HWA member Brianna Malotke shares six dark poem collections worth perusing this November.
WOMEN'S VOICES
🛜8 horror books written by women
Seattle Times || 10.21.25
Seattle HWA members Sadie Hartmann and Genessee Rickel share two lists featuring chilling tales written by women.
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