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Horror Tropes to Avoid?

8K views 75 replies 45 participants last post by  geronl 
#1 ·
I write the kind of stuff I would like to read. I've always thought that to be good advice. If you don't enjoy what you are writing and wouldn't want to read it yourself, I would guess that type of thing might show through and readers may be disinclined to enjoy it just as much as you were disinclined to really want to write it. Or something. Sorry, I went off a bit there.

Anyway, the bottom line was that I thought it was good advice to write the type of stories you would want to read.

But, it occurs to me that if you tend to buy books from the bargain bin, the aforementioned may not be the best advice to follow. I shall leave it to the astute readers of this post to figure out why.

On that note, well, not exactly but you'll see where I'm going . . . A couple days ago, I was inspired to start a new horror novel. Writing one, that is, not reading one.

I know what I would want to read as far as a horror story goes but, as mentioned in the aforementioned, I obviously cannot rely on that for the aforementioned reasons.

So, what are the things readers are tired of in horror? What tropes should I avoid? I've already decided on no vampires: shiny, dark or otherwise. Maybe a nice werebunny. That would be weird. Probably not enough to carry the story though. But, maybe the big bad can have one as a pet. Or maybe scratch all that. And don't let the werebunny scratch you!

Okay. Now I've got to have a werebunny. Now, please, tell me the stuff I should avoid before I think of more ideas.

Ooh. Ghost maggots. That would be bad. How could you get rid of them? You can't spray them with anything; they're already dead. Okay, I'll stop now.
 
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#3 ·
Don't have the only survivor be the girl who's a virgin.

Seriously, let's all show some appreciation for the chicks who put out. :-*
 
#4 ·
A large cast that's only there to be eaten/hacked apart.

A cast that is character archetypes, instead of actual characters.

People being dumb, and going against common sense (unless that's an established character trait).

Splitting up when there's danger.
 
#5 ·
It may just be me, but it seems like tropes are whay people want, especially in horror. The story is already suppose to scare the reader. The tropes help establish norms that are already expected and allow for reader to solely focus on the parts that scare them.

As a reader I enjoy certain tropes as do most others. My particular favorite is the old tough guy with lots of guns. As seen in every action flick this side of sunday.
 
#6 ·
I don't read horror, but I've seen enough Bad Saturday Night Movies on SyFy that I feel like I've seen it all.  Good stuff here to avoid, especially the beautiful-virgin-only-survivor.  And the story begins with a group of teens/college kids going out drinking or doing drugs, hooking up, etc., in a place they're not supposed to be to begin with (abandoned house, old mine, deserted cabin in the woods, etc.).  Seriously, don't people who live in uptown lofts ever experience horrific things???

Also, I have no idea what your audience is, but why not write a horror story featuring middle-aged people.  They can sit around talking about mortgage refinancing and blood-pressure treatments until the first ghost/werewolf/vampire/chainsaw killer guy shows up.

Oh, almost forgot....  the scantily-dressed afore-mentioned virgin running through the woods and tripping and hurting her ankle.  Or maybe that would be the scantily-clad class 'tease' who trips, and then falls victim to whatever is hunting them down.    ::)


Okay, on a more serious note, a couple things I think have been overdone are the "ten little indians" thing, with people suddenly disappearing mysteriously one by one.  Another one is the spirit or ghost or alien thing that can "inhabit" people, and the characters all start suspecting each other of being possessed by the thing.  I've seen too many of both of those scenarios.
 
#7 ·
C. Michael Wells said:
It may just be me, but it seems like tropes are whay people want, especially in horror.
I couldn't agree more. For every person who says they hate teen slasher with Big Boobs McGee running for her life, there's another person who is desperately seeking one they haven't read/watched.
 
#9 ·
SB James said:
There would be no horror genre if characters didn't do illogical things like split up, stay overnight in the haunted house, etc.
But isn't a far more terrifying thought that even if you do everything "right", and the evil still comes for you? That you could just be doing the dishes or the laundry, and you're killed by a man in a badly painted William Shatner mask?
 
#11 ·
Rin said:
But isn't a far more terrifying thought that even if you do everything "right", and the evil still comes for you? That you could just be doing the dishes or the laundry, and you're killed by a man in a badly painted William Shatner mask?
:eek: Oh, noes!
Jena H said:
Or William Shatner, badly made up? :eek:
:eek: :eek: Double Oh noes!
 
#12 ·
I'm a huge fan of Stephen King, but it seems to me that whenever he has a kid as one of the main characters, the kid has to possess some sort of extraordinary power or ability. It would be nice to read a horror novel with just an average, normal kid as a main character. Or better yet, make the kid dumber than a box of rocks. :D
 
G
#13 ·
SB James said:
There would be no horror genre if characters didn't do illogical things like split up, stay overnight in the haunted house, etc. If there is one particular trope that makes you groan when you see it in the book, that is when you should omit it.
Just my thoughts ;)
I take it you haven't seen Tremors.
 
#15 ·
I don't think there are any tropes to avoid, but you should try to write them better than anyone else. Put your own spin on things. There are no new plots, only new ways to tell them.

Like many writers, I have my own vampire story waiting to be told. I'm hoping to put a couple of twists in it, but how well I do will be the decision of the readers.
 
#16 ·
I remember reading an interview with Bryan Bertino (writer/director of The Strangers) and the interviewer asked him the question of whether he purposely tried to avoid horror movie cliches and his response was that he did to a point, but ultimately the story wasn't about things going right, but how things went wrong. I always dug that thought. I think if you can take the story or the character right up to this line it perhaps makes the story more believable and could possibly avoid the horror tropes. Just a thought.
 
#19 ·
Kboards really needs a "multiquote" feature.

EelKat said:
You want to know the funny thing. I thought were-turkeys was an original idea, I mean, who'd ever think to write were-turkeys? Than I went on amazon to see what came up for that keyword, and I found there are already at least 5 other were-turkey stories out there?!? :eek: well, so much for that being an original idea! LOL!
I thought the same about werebunnies but those have been done. Then I just came up with weresquirrels! Surely, no one has done anything with weresquirrels! Nope. Those have been done too. Very disappointing. I guess I'm left with ghost maggots.

EelKat said:
Another trope that is so over done that I'm going to over do it in triplicate, is the "cursed object", you know how the guy steals the mummy's amulet and than mummy's curse kills everyone until jewel is returned sort of thing. That's why I'm spoofing this troupe in my were-turkey story.
Ooh, yes! A cursed amulet or whatever. Thanks!

Jena H said:
Oh, almost forgot.... the scantily-dressed afore-mentioned virgin running through the woods and tripping and hurting her ankle.
Thank you! That is so cliché that I had almost forgotten about it!

Brandon Shire said:
OMG I love this thread!
I loved horror and finally put it down because it became so riddled with teen angst, were-anything and zombified.
What happened to stories that sacred the sh&% out of you?
We have real life for that these days.
 
#20 ·
I miss psychological horror. I quit reading it because too much  of it depended on gross-out violence instead of getting in my head. I don't care for werewolves either, and only like vampires when they act like vampires are supposed to act. (Um, yeah. No sparkle. No falling in love with a teenage virgin and being good.)
 
#22 ·
Caddy said:
I miss psychological horror. I quit reading it because too much of it depended on gross-out violence instead of getting in my head. I don't care for werewolves either, and only like vampires when they act like vampires are supposed to act. (Um, yeah. No sparkle. No falling in love with a teenage virgin and being good.)
Me, too, Caddy. It seems you have to be the grossest thing to sell horror, but I write more Twilight Zone stuff and focus more on the characters than the gore.

I don't mind werewolves, but they seem to be mostly in erotica now. I've got a book bubbling along in the back of my head that I thought was about vampires, but it seems it's more along the werewolf line, or some combination of the two species. I don't know, it will work itself out eventually. ;)
 
#24 ·
I'm tired of teenagers as they're portrayed in horror films. The group that goes out to be massacred is always such a cliched bunch: the jerky jock, the good girl, the bad girl, the nerd, the decent guy... really? Is that all we've got to choose from?

I'm also tired of beautiful women. Never thought I'd say that, but I'm really sick of the brainy and beautiful female scientist, especially when she teams up reluctantly with the rebel three-day-bearded mercenary/hunter/cop who "plays by his own rules."

Horror literature is much better than the crap Hollywood generally serves up, but I guess that's true of all genres.
 
#25 ·
Don't worry about tropes. You can't avoid them entirely. They have become tropes because they work as story elements.

Having said that, you can't rely on tropes, either. The tropes are not what make a story work on a fundamental level.

It's about the characters. If you truly care about the people who populate your stories (even the villains), then you'll want to give them a certain dignity. You'll grant them their own perspectives and intelligence. You'll be unwilling to let them do patently stupid things for the sake of getting to the next plot point.

As long as the characters are real, living, breathing people to you and not just game pieces being moved around on a board, the tropes won't matter, because the characters will be acting from real, believable motivations, and that's what the readers will care about.
 
#26 ·
Jan Strnad said:
I'm also tired of beautiful women. Never thought I'd say that, but I'm really sick of the brainy and beautiful female scientist, especially when she teams up reluctantly with the rebel three-day-bearded mercenary/hunter/cop who "plays by his own rules."
If he didn't play by his own rules, he'd never be able to defeat the undead serial killer because he'd never get a judge to sign off on a search warrant to search the house of a child murderer that was burned to death by angry townsfolk fifteen years earlier.
 
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