Merry meet all,
Today’s post will be about monsters in the modern world. Or, rather, in our stories. We are all familiar with vampires, werewolves, and flesh-eating zombies. The most common tropes in horror movies and fiction have grown rather staid. Readers and audiences have seen everything under the pale blue moon. It is more important to reinvent horror tropes. In fact, it is not just necessary, it is absolutely vital. Creating your own monsters or breathing new life into the monsters that are too common today is the best way to get published.
I created a new monster for my novella Cult of the Spider People. One way to reinvent a horror trope is to take something very mundane and make it weird. I know many people are scared of spiders but I made spiders my own way for my novella. I gave the spider creatures- the smaller ones – human head on their shoulders. See how I did that? Then once the mortal characters are held captive in the realm of Arachnall, they encounter more spider creatures that are part human, part spider but they are one hundred percent my own creation.
Be original in your efforts and it will get noticed. We all know that Freddy Kreuger lurks in our nightmares and that other ominous serial killers lurk in shadowy alleys just waiting for an unwary prey. What if one of these monsters gave something instead of taking something away- what if someone was begging to die and was forced to be kept alive then they encounter one of those serial killers who grants them their wish? Or makes them omnipotent.
Another suggestion is the current state of the world. War, genocide and environmental degradation are rich with material to fill the pages of a novel. The idea of nature turning on us while frightening is not new but maybe you could find a way to put your own spin on it. There are reference books that can help you figure out how to reinvent the horror tropes.
One good book to refer to is The Horror Trope Thesaurus by Jennifer Hilt. Here is what Amazon had to say about this amazing book:
“Join me as we examine:
1). What is horror? What’s a trope? Some applicable definitions and examples. How to avoid stereotypes and cliches.
2). An extensive look at how the amnesia trope in horror.
3). Fifty plus trope entries with definitions and examples in current horror movies and series.
4). Practice using goal, motivation, and conflict in conjunction with tropes to create unique horror-centric characters. By analyzing tropes in various horror subgenres, you will learn how to identify tropes.
The horror genre is the study of our relationships with monsters. Personally, I can’t think of a better thing to study! Join me as we figure out what goes bump in the night.
From the USA Today Bestselling Author of The Trope Thesaurus comes a unique approach to crafting horror stories.
The Trope Thesaurus has over 200 Amazon reviews. Here is one sample review:
A Customer
Fuel for thought Jan 1, 2022
Forget everything you think you know about tropes. The author does a fantastic job of illustrating that not only do the obvious tropes exist in entertainment media, but if you dig deeper, you see a fast treasure trove of tropes bubbling beneath the surface.
She does a fantastic job of breaking down the bigger genres into their tropes, proving that, honestly, all genres share the same story beneath the trappings of the genre. It’s about characters and tropes and GMC.
With humor and a deft touch, she explains how to find tropes, twist them, wiggle them, jig them to work for you in a story, and, most importantly, that not all tropes are All Important. Many secondary tropes can do some heavy lifting, too, to create compelling stories that readers will lap up like sugar.
This book is going into my writer toolkit.” (Amazon.ca)
I am sure there are other reference books to use while brainstorming a new monster into your fiction. That book is just a start. It is hugely important to create your own tales that only you can tell. That is what makes your fiction stand out from the slush pile.
The character from the movie Jurassic Park said that creation was an act of sheer will. Let your act of creation be uniquely yours! You may just see your book selling on Amazon and keeping readers awake late at night.
Blessings, Spiderwitch
#horror #horrortropes #horrormonsters #monsters #horrormovies #horrorstories #werewolves #vampires #zombies
