Monster Complex ™

View Original

Joe Hill Tells You How To Write A Horror Novel

“For horror to work you have to love the characters.”

The author reveals how he starts a book, what makes the best horror stories, and why some horror films just don’t work.

Joe Hill is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels, short fiction collections, and graphic novels. Much of Hill’s work has been adapted for film and TV. Hill also has many writing awards.

How does Hill go about writing a horror bestseller? In the video below, the author reveals how he starts a book, what it is that makes the best horror stories, and why some horror films just don’t work.

“For horror to work you have to love the characters,” Hill says. “I don’t want to root for the bad guy, I want to root for the good guy. And so you look to create characters that have full lives.”

Monster Complex uses Amazon affiliate links.

About Joe Hill

Joe Hill is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels Heart-Shaped Box, NOS4A2, The Fireman, and Horns. The book Strange Weather is a collection of novellas. Hill’s other works include the short fiction collections Full Throttle and 20th Century Ghosts, plus several graphic novels, including Basketful of Heads, Plunge, Dying is Easy, and The Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland (which continues the story of NOS4A2’s Charlie Manx).

He is also the Eisner Award-winning writer of the long-running comic book Locke & Key, with artistic maestro Gabriel Rodriguez. In 2011 Hill won the Eisner Award (Best Writer) for his work on the series. The six books in the Locke & Key saga formed the basis for a hit TV series on Netflix. A seventh volume, published in 2022, married the world of Locke & Key to the epic Sandman universe.

Much of Hill’s work has been adapted for film and TV, including Horns (Lionsgate), NOS4A2 (AMC), In the Tall Grass (Netflix), and The Black Phone (Blumhouse).

More about Joe Hill online:

Further reading:

More from Monster Complex

See this gallery in the original post

Further reading online