Appetite for Short Story Horror? > Likes and Comments
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I've written four collections of short stories (The Vermilion Book of the Macabre, Why All the Skulls Are Grinning, In the Heart of the Garden Is a Tomb, and Echoes From a Shoreless Void) and I've gotten pretty good reviews on them. Since I tend to be drawn to classic horror, I read mostly short stories. I think a good weird tale is largely about setting a tone and writing in scenes where something interesting happens. As far as lengths go, it depends on the story. Some like them longer. Some like them shorter. I don't really care as long as a story holds my interest.
Joe wrote: "I've written four collections of short stories (The Vermilion Book of the Macabre, Why All the Skulls Are Grinning, In the Heart of the Garden Is a Tomb, and Echoes From a Shoreless Void) and I've ..."Interesting feedback. Much appreciated.
Does anyone remember GAMUT, the online fiction magazine from 2017-2019? They are coming back in 2024.I received an advanced review copy of THE BEST OF GAMUT and it's too damn good not to share . . . . . .
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I love reading short, weird stories both in speculative fiction and horror, so that tends to be what I write as well.
I love short stories, especially when a favorite author publishes a collection of them. I subscribe to Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock and Cemetary Dance just to read new short stories on the ground floor. It's so much fun to catch one in there from an author that later becomes very popular for their novels.
I love short horror stories too! Karl Wagner and Daphne duMaurier are two of my favorites. I just read Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny and wow what an imagination she has, every story completely different. I like being taken into scary worlds with collections also; seeing what different authors come up with and to maybe intrigue me enough to read their full novels but either way it’s often a refreshing mind break from a long intense novel.
I like short stories because I can go back and forth between two or three collections (and enjoy different styles/settings/moods) without losing the narrative thread. It's almost impossible for me to do the same with e.g. two novels.That said, I'm not a fan on short-short fiction (2-3 pages). A short story, for me, still has to have enough substance to sink my teeth into. There are very few authors who can deliver that sort of content in 2-3 pages.
When I write a short horror story, I feel free to be mean. So my shorts are often way more horrific than my novels.
First literary love! Many of us of a certain age grew up on the short stories in the Hitchcock, Derleth, and Ellery Queen anthologies. I used to eagerly pick up the annual “Best of F & SF” anthology as soon as it appeared at the local library. And of course the magazines: Hitchcock, Queen, F & SF, all early favorites of mine, are still in business today, 50 years later. I love novels, don’t get me wrong, but I have a special feeling for a story that can, in just a few pages, hit me right between the eyes (or in the heart) and leave an unforgettable impression. Poe could do that. H.P. Lovecraft. Ray Bradbury. Richard Matheson. Charles Beaumont. Shirley Jackson. Joyce Carol Oates. Many others.What I find today is that young people are no longer really connected to the short story form. I think of it as the Harry Potter Syndrome—nothing against H. Potter at all, but the phenomenal success of those books ushered in an era when young people wanted huge epics, not little stories that can be read in minutes. As a result many don’t know how to respond to short stories—they don’t feel like “real stories” to them. (Actual student quote.) And the creative writers among them all tell me they’re writing, or want to write, fantasy trilogies. Nobody says they want to write short stories.
Today I use episodes of Twilight Zone and Hitchcock Presents as a “way in” for my students to the short forms. Without that preparation I find that some students will finish reading a short story—even a stone-cold classic like, say, “Monkey’s Paw”—with a puzzled look on their faces, saying, “That’s it? That’s the whole story?”
Christopher wrote: "First literary love! Many of us of a certain age grew up on the short stories in the Hitchcock, Derleth, and Ellery Queen anthologies. I used to eagerly pick up the annual “Best of F & SF” antholog..."It's sad that supposed horror fans have turned away from short stories. The best horror is usually in the short form. The sudden impact that horror requires to be scary is best conveyed in the fewest words or images.
Not to knock Frankenstein, Dracula, the works of Stephen King, etc., but while those are great novels, they really don't have the highest scare factor. The short stories of Poe and Lovecraft among others, hit the reader much harder. Today, the best horror movies I'm seeing are short pieces of 10-20 minutes on YouTube. That's all one needs to set up the premise, deliver a theme, a pull the rug out from under the viewer. Also, Hollywood has forgotten how to make real horror movies--today they make action movies with monsters.
I write novels--of a sort. Technically, they're collections of short stories about the same characters or themes, yet they gather to form a larger work as well. I just wish there was more of an audience for them.
Christopher, we're in the same age group, I think. Like you, I cut my teeth on short stories, from Sherlock Holmes' adventures, to Poe, to Lovecraft, Bloch, Leiber and others, and it started in grade school with "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell. Somewhere in the middle grades, or maybe my first year in high school, I came across an old anthology, 101 Years' Entertainment: The Great Detective Stories, 1841-1941, which pretty much solidified my love of the form for genre work.It's a shame that young readers don't appreciate the form, since most of what they enjoy in reading was first formed in the short story and expanded upon later.
Perry wrote: "Christopher wrote: "First literary love! Many of us of a certain age grew up on the short stories in the Hitchcock, Derleth, and Ellery Queen anthologies. I used to eagerly pick up the annual “Best..."I certainly agree with you, Perry—Poe did too, in his “Philosophy of Composition,” where he argued the value of a work being readable in a single sitting and aiming at a single effect. Obviously that’s not the only way to do it (I just finished Drood, which is 800 pages long!), but it’s one highly valid way that has gotten buried under the endless trilogies and series favored by both publishers and readers now.
Randy wrote: "Christopher, we're in the same age group, I think. Like you, I cut my teeth on short stories, from Sherlock Holmes' adventures, to Poe, to Lovecraft, Bloch, Leiber and others, and it started in gra..."Holmes! Yes indeed, those stories were among my first loves too. And Bloch, who I came to via the Hitchcock anthologies. Leiber came later for me. (Did I tell you that I finally found The Pale Brown Thing serialized in a couple of old issues of F & SF that were in a box in our bedroom closet? I’d thought about buying the limited-edition book for months, not realizing the story was a few feet away from me the whole time!) 🤣
Obviously I agree that it’s a shame young people don’t read short stories (unless they’re required to in school), but that’s the world we’re in now. In a way it seems counter-intuitive. Since everyone is in such a rush nowadays, you might think short stories would be naturally appealing. But I think the problem is that every new story requires the reader to go through the process of building a new world in their minds, as opposed to a huge novel series which only requires that that work be done once.
Christopher wrote: "Holmes! Yes indeed, those stories were among my first loves too. And Bloch, who I came to via the Hitchcock anthologies. Leiber came later for me. (Did I tell you that I finally found The Pale Brown Thing serialized in a couple of old issues of F & SF that were in a box in our bedroom closet? I’d thought about buying the limited-edition book for months, not realizing the story was a few feet away from me the whole time!)."I don't think you mentioned that, no. That's funny, and something similar happens to me now and again, like buying a second copy of Travels with Charley, only to find the copy I knew I had but couldn't find previously.
Short stories maybe aren't as popular now as a hundred years ago, but there are writers who can't stop themselves from writing them, and I think some readers, even younger readers, who enjoy them. We've become a niche audience, though, I guess.
Short horror stories are great because you can fit them in more easily over lunch or before bed. And because they are quite likely to get you right between the eyes in the short time you have with them, in a way that stays with you forever.
I like stories of all lengths, but Horror is especially given to shorter forms, IMO (Don't tell Stephen King I said that).I often prefer a novella over a doorstop, but short stories are also good.
One of the better collections I've read, besides Stephen King's various short story collections, is the Elements of Horror series, which consists of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. They cover pretty much all the subgenres and some of the stories are amazing.
Short story horror is my absolute favorite, perhaps because it doesn't tend to mess around with too much exposition and just jumps right into the story- but also because those are the stories that tend to stick with me the most. The Screwfly Solution by James Tiptree Jr. is one of my favorites of all time because I end up thinking about it pretty frequently, and yet it's so short it wasn't published as a book on it's own.
Sayaka Murata is also a favorite author of mine (in general) and her short story collection Life Ceremony had some pretty solid horrific stories (more in concept than anything else- it's all treated as "normal" in the worlds she builds).
I'd love to hear other peoples recs, since short stories I find to always be worth the read! ^^
Worm, apologies if you already know of these, but there are some terrific anthologies that offer an overview of the growth of horror as a genre. The first ones that come to mind are, Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural (Modern Library (Hardcover)), The Dark Descent, Foundations of Fear, and The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories.I'm pretty sure at least one those includes that Tiptree story, as well. It's a good one.
Randy wrote: "Worm, apologies if you already know of these, but there are some terrific anthologies that offer an overview of the growth of horror as a genre. The first ones that come to mind are, [book:Great Ta..."Thanks for the recommendations! I'll give them a look! I'm especially looking forward to reading The Dark Descent since it has been recommended to me by a couple of friends as well ^^
I really enjoyed reading the collections of Stephen King's shorter stories. There is one that has stayed with me all these years, about a man stranded on a totally empty island, with no food, etc. I don't want to spoil it for those that haven't read it, so that's all I"ll say. My memory has started failing me a lot more lately and I usually have to go back and reread some of what I read the previous day before I can get back into the book. To stop this, I have started reading shorter stories that I can finish in one day. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm listening!
Anne (w/ an E) wrote: "I really enjoyed reading the collections of Stephen King's shorter stories."I often enjoy his short stories more than his novels.
Speaking For Melos is a collection of short stories, covering multiple genres. It does contain 1 or 2 short horror stories, which is why I am posting it here. The horror stories have African roots though set in the UK.
I have a book called The Paranormal Reader. Has a slew of great creepy short stories. In my opinion, the best of the bunch is Shottle Bop by Theodore Sturgeon. Honestly my fave all time short story of any genre.
I don't think Sturgeon wrote a lot of horror, but what he wrote was pretty good: "It"; "Killdozer"; "Bianca's Hands"; "The Professor's Teddy Bear"; Some of Your Blood; among others.Just to toss another writer into the mix here, I read A Maze for the Minotaur by Reggie Oliver not too long ago and I've since picked up a couple more collections by him. If you like the old fashioned, M. R. James style ghost story, Oliver is great at ringing changes on that theme.
One of my favourite unknown authors has a good short story on Inkitt that I think might get expanded into a novel.https://www.inkitt.com/stories/15277
Short spooky stories are fun and remind me of sitting around the campfire sharing tales of the Jersey Devil and all that. Four Past midnight comes to mind as a favorite and many of EA Poe's shorter works are good reads.
When I have time and I'm not working, one thing I plan on doing this summer is writing six short horror stories on my blog. I came up with them since the start of this year and each is a different sub-genre of horror and also each story is more intense than the next. I hope to get started on it soon.I genuinely like for a short story to do what any story does, introduce the plot but condense it in a reasonable way since its going to be short. Then give us the suspense, action, horror, etc in a subtle way so its not sudden or quickly happens and then the stories over.
What do you look for in a short horror story? Anything in particular?
I generally read novels but have been known to enjoy short stories. From time to time I like a bite-size read that I can wrap up in one shot.
I wrote a series Nightmare Fuel: 5 Horror Short Story Collection which contains a few stories about 30 pages each, nice quick stories, the type that I look for when reading short stories.
Do you like this sort of thing or the really short stories like 2-3 pages each (I've seen books like this where there are collections of 50 stories but they're each only 2-3 pages).
Thoughts from fellow readers?