This is taboo, even in the industry!

Be The Bite Interactive is a multimedia studio, specializing in horror narrative 🕷️📓My name is Izaak & I mentor industry revolutionizing horror fiction in every medium, resolving narrative issues thoroughly. This blog is for motivation, full of evidence based methods for mastering scary storytelling. If you want to become instantly effective in horror, my 1-1 narrative consulting is available now, sign up for it here: Be The Bite Interactive's 1-1 Narrative Mentoring – Fill out form 

First, I doubt they'll sue me for saying this. But the horror industry needs a big kick up the butt. 

If you're like me, finding a good movie/series/book in horror becomes a bit of a chore. I believe the genre is in dire need of back to basics storytelling, what makes stories unique and brilliant. That my freaky friend, is: Mythology.

If there isn't mythic elements in horror story, I'm sorry but you are wasting everyone's time, including your own. 

People have got limited brain space. Authors, creators, audiences, readers...their minds work all mostly the same. Today with endless streaming, endless gratification it seems that we retain even less. So stop playing the game that everyone else is playing, stop trying to make your horror story like everyone else's horror story. Stop trying to fit in, because it's time to stand out.

If you dress your stories in a 'horror' or a 'horror sub-genre' coating, then sure you get to have the label.  You are providing content for investors. But this is the reason horror feels stale at times. 

Don't depend on what other horror movies are doing. Because people always want the next best thing. And everything is moving much faster with streaming, the internet and A.I. 

Its really hard and backward to implement what's worked before in horror stories, that it hurts your creativity, and leaves audiences feeling like you just 'ticked a box'. 

Instead, insert mythology. Set a base for your horror project with mythic qualities. Jig the mythology around, subvert the qualities to your liking. But here's the industry tidbit everyone misses:  

Narrative structure is about standardization. Think of it like blocks to a foundation. If the basic story qualities aren't there, the building will fall down. The story will fall apart. And the best, most basic stories that exist are: Myths & Legends.

You can dominate the industry by lazily following this:

I'm not trying to tease you, making good horror is effortless. I'm sighing at the the typical 'make it scary' advice out there, because the approach is really tough to implement. Tension, atmosphere, tropes to fulfill. These are skills that you learn whilst telling your story, because the idea is what drives everything. 

I set out on my own journey to make horror stories, and realized that the issue wasn't 'I'm bad at horror' it was, I didn't feel confident writing horror. Why? Because I was filling my brain information, and that pushed me further from my horror idea. I've got several horror projects in the works, that are becoming much larger than I ever thought possible. Stay tuned for these!

I'm saddened by the lack of creativity in horror these days. I know a lot of people are feeling the same, but capitalism is real, and banking on existing IP's/horror tropes seems to generate enough ROI for people.

But the journey there is bitter, and the audience can taste the bitterness. Something just feels kind of off, because we humans are intuitive beings.

 

And the thing is, no creator should ever feel like their things don’t really fit. They should feel empowered that they are letting their ideas out into the world. So if you are stuck trying to fit your horror idea into a box, hear me out.

In my journey, I’m gonna be doing the heavy-lifting for you creators. Because I keep losing it every time i see a creepy doll/monkey/girl without established lore, or respect for the mystery of its existence.

A sub genre becomes a formula instead of an exploration. 

And formulas hurt creativity, they also set you up for stress of not 'being good enough', not meeting expectations and the result is...FORMULAIC.

 

The answer is letting your ideas breathe, not fit a mold.

The repeating patterns in stories are important...Here's the thing, you can steal an existing horror vibe or plot line, but you need to think about why they work and if they are relevant to your idea. 

The industry of all entertainment relies on 'stealing ideas'. And this, again works to an extent. But I personally think that you should more concerned with borrowing existing audiences. 

Make your ideas bankable, the easy way:

By filtering your ideas through proven structures, sieving things a bit at a time is kind of therapeutic. Here's the things you should be filtering your horror ideas through: 

• Fear defined- is it scary to me? Why, and how can i express this?
• Mystery- Work with the end in mind and reverse engineer the beats for maximum engagement
• Emotional throughout, to make untold horror feel relatable
• Rely on repetition to enhance dread i.e. symbols.
• The incomprehensible, this is the 'nope' gulp moment that makes us do irrational things

These are identifiable narrative structures, across myths for millennia. The best thing about using these as filters is, you only really need 1-3 of them to make effective horror. And you can drive them home as much as you like.

I would advise to rewrite sections with these in mind, one at a time to make things easier. There is no formula to stick to, just bankable structures to embed into your storytelling.

Get to work! Because horror bloomin' needs your ideas now! See you next time. 

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