How I Got To Writing Horror

Hey guys, how's your morning going? I was looking over my writing portfolio the other day and I noticed I've been writing more non-fiction more than anything because of my involvement with the newspaper but it also had me wondering why I chose horror in the beginning.

I've hated romance ever since I was a little girl. Maybe it was because my parents were divorced for as long as I know and so my outlook on love has been a little bit depressing. Or maybe it's my luck when it comes to relationships but I just was never able to write a good romance story or novel. It's one of those genres I couldn't click with.

Drama is pretty self explanatory. It may be somewhat interesting but it doesn't captivate a lot of people because hearing a whole bunch of he said she said can get tiring and repetitive. I wrote a little bit of drama in my earlier years and I still dabble in the genre but it's not my favorite.

I decided to write horror because it touches the vulnerable part of the human brain: whether it's the fear or spiders or the fear of love. I always liked the psychological twist horror can do to that fear. It can turn the most innocent thing and give a person nightmares.

You can probably guess that yes, I am afraid to fall in love. Not just because I had a abusive relationship but because I was opening myself up to someone who can take advantage of that vulnerability. That same person can also turn around and say they don't have the same feelings or worse: they'll ignore you and cheat on you. But romance off to the side, it's that feeling in your brain that makes you go into a corner because you don't want to deal with it or talk about it.

Horror shows what's true about the world. Just look at Stephen King. He knows how stupid and corrupted politics can be and yet he still tweets about it because he thinks it's hilarious. Dean Koontz knows imagination can get wild so might as well let it loose because it's going to consume the person. That's what I want my writing to be like. I want it to tickle that part of the brain to make you look over your shoulder because your brain is giving you those feelings.

One of these days I'm going to be as amazing as these horror/thriller writers but until then keep reading!

~A.B. Manago