Today we often think of horror as a single unified genre of writing, conjuring thoughts of ghost stories and monsters. But the reality is that there are different ways to write horror, and an author’s decision about the kind of horror story they want to write will impact the available markets for that story’s publication.

THE PROBLEM WITH DISCUSSING “GENRE”

There seems to be a widely held belief within the field of publishing (and even more so within MFA programs) that there are two kinds of prose writers. There are the literary fiction writers, whose stories grapple with the deepest issues of humankind, and whose characters feel as real as your favorite (or least favorite) family members. And then there are the genre fiction authors, whose stories have as much depth as a kiddie pool. Genre fiction can mean anything from romance to horror, but the defining characteristic in its perception is that it’s “bad writing,” or that, at its best, it’s a guilty