Where Does Horror Come From?

Where horror comes from – There was a certain type of atmosphere in the old fire station when listening to the panellists talk about fears and how they used their fears in there own writing. Both Sean and Keri agreed that the reason they liked reading and writing about horror was because it was kind of a safe way to deal with it. That they themselves were not immediately confronted by what they were really afraid of and as such made the stories they read that much more thrilling. Each of the members mentioned what they were afraid of. Keith hates cotton wool, Sean hates spiders (which is fair enough in my opinion) and Keri hates ledges. They discussed an interesting theory whereby Keith asked them is there such thing as a universal fear. And the answer they came up with is really shocking. Most, if not all, people fear being left alone.

I am now going to go on and mention some of the things that they said that were really interesting. Keri hated the fact that in the old horror and fantasy books that the woman needed saving and sought to change that in her own writing (see the Riley Jenson Guardian Series for more.) People like to read about the fear knowing that they are completely safe from it. There is nothing wrong with using a trope (cliché?) so long as you do it well.