Archetypes in fiction are not always clean cut. For example, a villain is an antagonist but an antagonist doesn’t necessarily have to be a villain. A monstrous antagonist like Frankenstein’s monster can be compassionate; or conversely inhumane like Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Today I’m going to focus on the latter. By delving into the anatomy of these…
Tag: #horror
Writing Folk Horror.
I thought there was room to squeeze in another Halloween special before the magic begins; and what better than an article on the hottest creepy subgenre of recent times! Now largely undefined by location or tropes, ‘folk horror’ was originally used to describe a particular genre of British films spanning the late 1960s to 1970s….
10 Halloween Creative Writing Exercises to Chill and Thrill.
I think I could possibly be Halloween’s number one fan. Watching the leaves change colour and the apples drop ready for a steaming autumnal pie are just two of my favourite seasonal delights. A time when the ancients believed the veil between the world of the living and the dead was so fine, humans could…
Introduction to Characterisation Part 2
Welcome back to my characterisation exploration! I trust you haven’t had any shark problems between then and now. I’ve been swimming in the sea between posts and managed to thoroughly creep myself out at the sight of a triangular shaped buoy. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I suggest you read part…
Introduction to Characterisation Part 1
After re-watching Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975), I realised that forty-four years have done nothing to remove it from its position at the top of the food chain. A feat of incredible storytelling, it contains some of the most memorable characters ever created; characters that have much to teach us about writing believable human beings of…