| Course Title: | The Art of Writing Horror |
| Instructor: | Laurie E. Notch |
| Curriculum: | 6 units, plus Final Exam |
| Textbooks: | None |
| Prerequisites: | None. All students may enroll in this class. |
| CEU Eligibility: | Yes, 2 CEUs |
| Enrollment Fee: | $20.00 |
| Start Date: | Enroll now and start learning today! |
About the Instructor
Laurie E. Notch is an international educator and author who has published nonfiction, fiction and cyber graphic novels.
She has lectured at Tufts University among other colleges in the U.S., Europe, Africa and Asia. She is the Managing Editor of the print and online
Adventures for the Average Woman Magazine whose mission is to promote women in the literary and visual arts, and president of Wasted Minds
Entertainment, a media production company that has produced television pilots including Strange Attractors (a reality TV program that investigates the
odd and extraordinary), Ghost Quest (with an all female ghost hunting team), and Supernatural Hotspots (another paranormal show). She is the author of
the novel The Spoiler and writes articles for eHow and The Examiner, among other Web publications.
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What This Course Will Do for You [show]
What This Course Will Do for You [hide]
Whether you're fighting off hoardes of blood-thirsty zombies breaking in to your home or being chased through the woods by an axe-wielding maniac, this course on horror writing will teach you how to scare people for fun and profit!
Tales of horror have been with us since the dawn of time. They give us a healthy respect for danger, teach values, and help us face – even mock – death. While terror is rooted in conditions that exist in the external world, horror comes from the darkness that dwells inside us. What is it that makes us want to hear, read, watch, and write horror stories?
In this workshop for aspiring and working writers, distinguished author and international educator Laurie Notch explores the art of writing horror fiction that will get published. The course presents detailed instructions on how to write horror fiction that will keep readers turning pages, eager for more. Learn how to structure your plot so that the story flows from beginning to end; create tension, conflict, and cliffhangers; use dialogue to reveal a character’s evil motives, set a frightening mood, create fear, and heighten suspense. Whether you yearn to write about ghosts, creepy dolls, insane asylums, or terrifying maniacs, this writing workshop will help you discover the horror in everyday life and turn it into a potential bestseller.
Every horror story uses tried-and-true elements to weave a great tale, and this is true of thriller themes, classic characters, spooky settings, diabolical dialogue, gut-wrenching plots, and chilling conclusions. This course will walk you through the steps of writing great horror fiction.
When you have completed this course, you should be able to:
- Recognize the elements of a horror story and how it differs from other writing genre
- Understand why the horror genre has remained so popular down through the ages
- Identify the various elements that make horror classics like The Exorcist, Nightmare on Elm Street and Dracula so chilling
- Try new techniques for writing the things that scare you, eerie events, and horrible happenings
- Analyze the masters of horror and understand why they wrote what they did
- Explore the Gothic Movement and the works of Mary Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe, and Bram Stoker
- Be familiar with the three main groups of horror: psychological, allegorical, and sociological
- Spin a tale that will be so gripping your readers will be afraid to venture out into the night
- Effectively use the essential ingredients of horror writing to create great settings and atmosphere
- Artfully use words that spark anxiety and panic in readers
- Invent creepy, twisted characters and riveting action
- Learn how to structure your plot so that the story flows from beginning to end
- Intensify story conflict, create tension, dilemma, cliffhangers, and suspense
- Use dialogue to reveal a character’s evil motives, set a frightening mood, create fear, and heighten suspense
- Break bad habits such as cliches, mixed metaphors, vague language, redundancy, and passive voice
- Get helpful tips on submitting your stories for peer review, benefiting from critique, writing queries to publishers, and posting on blogs and horror literature sites.
- Gain insights on how to market & promote your horror story
Lesson Units
(click any lesson title to view)
