so, horror

[A-Q-Kabuto]

I don't like it when ALL of the monsters are pretty ALL the time. Some of them should be or need to be but just the same: some monsters need to be monstrous, awful, disgusting... things. I can forgive, say, a vampire who happens to be very skilled with his/her glamour/illusion magic.... but, you know, sometimes it doesnt hurt to remind us that his/her 'real' form might just be a discolored and bloated looking [magical/cursed] walking corpse with an awful mean streak and a wicked thirst, as they were sometimes depicted as this waaay back in the day when graves were dug up on suspicion of a vampire being inside (and in one early YA book series I'd read- the story wasn't that good but I loved the way the monster was done).

Monsters can and should be interesting, sure, but being interesting does not always mean being a sexmuffin.

[Black Gabriel]

A-Q-Kabuto

Monsters can and should be interesting, sure, but being interesting does not always probably never means being a sexmuffin.

We can fix it.

Luckily, you're not really talking about horror so much as the currently pervasive supernatural romances that some booksellers insist on putting on the same shelf as horror because way back when Anne Rice wrote Interview With The Vampire it seemed to fit there better than the romance shelf. Since then, the genre has entirely split off from any roots it may have had in horror. For better or worse, it took vampires and werewolves with it and more or less made them unsafe for actual horror.

[lppurplegirl11]

I hate seeing the "none of this really happens because it turns out the main character is insane" thing.

[MarigoldMari]

I hate that people expect all horror to be about some stalker killing somebody, or about some murderer or something. That's not all there is to horror. Be creative? And when we horror writers are creative, readers expected it to be something it isn't and have a b***h fit and give us bad ratings. I'm not communicating very well o.o

[Se4Queen]

lppurplegirl11

I hate seeing the "none of this really happens because it turns out the main character is insane" thing.

This is interesting because I particularly like this - given that it's done well - it can reveal a lovely twist.
What if the character is insane all along? And the character deals with the an internal struggle, wondering if whatever is happening, really is?

[Se4Queen]

Black Gabriel

A-Q-Kabuto

Monsters can and should be interesting, sure, but being interesting does not always probably never means being a sexmuffin.

We can fix it.

Luckily, you're not really talking about horror so much as the currently pervasive supernatural romances that some booksellers insist on putting on the same shelf as horror because way back when Anne Rice wrote Interview With The Vampire it seemed to fit there better than the romance shelf. Since then, the genre has entirely split off from any roots it may have had in horror. For better or worse, it took vampires and werewolves with it and more or less made them unsafe for actual horror.

I read a quote somewhere. 'Beauty is a curse on the world. It keeps us from knowing who the real monsters are' and I think it applies here.
Mary Sue characters - perfect, beautiful characters - are wrong all around. This is common knowledge. All these YA books I think A-Q-Kabuto is mentioning use such characters shamelessly and it is vile.
Buttttt. I'm going to use American Horror Story as a reference even though no one knows about. A main character - Tate Langdon - is appealing in a lot of the same ways as our recently sexy teenage vampires. But his beauty and charisma are used to deceive the other characters, make them fall and love for him, when (secretly) all along, he has been on of the main protagonists. Going around causing a lot of the stories focal intrigue.
I think it's good to be used in this way.

[lppurplegirl11]

fcking a

lppurplegirl11

I hate seeing the "none of this really happens because it turns out the main character is insane" thing.

This is interesting because I particularly like this - given that it's done well - it can reveal a lovely twist.
What if the character is insane all along? And the character deals with the an internal struggle, wondering if whatever is happening, really is?

I think that's a great idea because the struggle adds to the story. I guess I didn't clarify. My apologies.

I hate when they just dump the insanity thing on you at the end and that's it. It's used as some big reveal and the story ends soon after without showing any of the real struggle that would come along with finding out that one is insane. It just leaves me feeling unsatisfied but that's just my opinion.

[Kita-Ysabell]

Hrm... I think I'm pretty sick of the gothic = horror notion. Sticking blood or cobwebs or fiddly architecture about doesn't make it horror, it makes it regrettable interior design.

But then, I'm a big fan of surreal horror, where there's something unsettling in it's own right, not because you can't see it properly.

[wintia_blue08]

I like seeing a bit of madness in the characters, and I accept similar plots repeated over and over again, I can't really pinpoint what I hate but I noticed that it's always "a group of friends" or a bunch of children or a family moved into a new house .... and in some stories made by the same author, they're always trying to escape the horror and someone is a know-it-all... my stories are about the main character, consumed by hatred or misery, encounters something mysterious and unknowingly makes a decision that he or she will regret or a curse within the person that will be awakened and she must prevent it otherwise she'll be obliterated and her dormant, evil self will dominate and seek destruction.... bla bla bla.

[Saffron Bunny]

I hate whenever a character decides to run away from the villain, the forest seems like the greatest idea ever. Quite honestly, it's not. The bad guy is going to pull a magic trick and pop out from behind that tree right in front of the main character every single time, no matter how many times the character tries to use this alluring forest as an escape.

Or how about the stupid, innocent man? We, as the reader/audience, all can see through that little girl's tricks, and we know she's trying to have sex with him. We know she has stalker photos of him, and that she's bent on killing his wife because she's obsessed. Guess what, stupid man, that wasn't a fat, mutant owl up in your tree. Should've blasted her in the face with that shotgun you pulled out instead of crawling back into bed with your clueless wife because you don't have the balls to tell her what's going on.

I sometimes think I watch too much of Lifetime's brand of horror.

[Kita-Ysabell]

Saffron Bunny

I sometimes think I watch too much of Lifetime's brand of horror.

Ah, Lifetime horror. Where all the characters are dumb as a sack of bricks and all urban legends about weird manipulative behavior are true.

[Saffron Bunny]

Kita-Ysabell

Saffron Bunny

I sometimes think I watch too much of Lifetime's brand of horror.

Ah, Lifetime horror. Where all the characters are dumb as a sack of bricks and all urban legends about weird manipulative behavior are true.

Which makes it even more entertaining.

[Red Harlowe]

I hate slow build-ups in horror. Stephen King tends to use that tactic a lot (Pet Semetary comes to mind). Things should escalate, sure, but reading about Tina and Tommy and their daily activities for twelve chapters is boring.

I don't like predictable twists, either. 'She was the murderer all along!'

I like fantasy elements, as well. Houses that exist outside of time, foreign entities, so on. The supernatural is usually fun, done right.

[Tenshi Yaminade]

Saffron Bunny

Or how about the stupid, innocent man? We, as the reader/audience, all can see through that little girl's tricks, and we know she's trying to have sex with him. We know she has stalker photos of him, and that she's bent on killing his wife because she's obsessed. Guess what, stupid man, that wasn't a fat, mutant owl up in your tree. Should've blasted her in the face with that shotgun you pulled out instead of crawling back into bed with your clueless wife because you don't have the balls to tell her what's going on.

I sometimes think I watch too much of Lifetime's brand of horror.

rofl

You're awesome.

[Saffron Bunny]

Tenshi Yaminade

Saffron Bunny

Or how about the stupid, innocent man? We, as the reader/audience, all can see through that little girl's tricks, and we know she's trying to have sex with him. We know she has stalker photos of him, and that she's bent on killing his wife because she's obsessed. Guess what, stupid man, that wasn't a fat, mutant owl up in your tree. Should've blasted her in the face with that shotgun you pulled out instead of crawling back into bed with your clueless wife because you don't have the balls to tell her what's going on.

I sometimes think I watch too much of Lifetime's brand of horror.

rofl

You're awesome.

emotion_kirakira