I am no longer in the habit of indulging in self-fright by reading books that are too alarming or watching movies that terrify. But that’s today. When I was young and foolish, I took chances. Back in the day, I read several Stephen King novels that have stayed with me forever. Cujo was the first. Pet Sematary was even worse. I still read Stephen King from time to time, but I read the synopses very carefully before I buy. And I don’t read King novels after the sun goes down. As far as the movies made from King novels, I think the only one I dared to watch was Carrie . If I had watched the others, I might have been scarred for life. My friend and critique group co-member Brian Kaufman wrote a few horror novels and ran the chapters through our meetings. I had to “woman-up” and read critically without freaking out. I can safely say that’s the only way anyone will persuade me read about zombies ( Dead Beyond the Fence: A Novel of the Zombie Apocalypse ) or a creepy haunted hous...

Right on the heels of our month exploring humor (September) is our month on FEAR (October). So hang onto your hats, turn on the lights, and muffle the screams (or not), because I've rounded up some lists of scary reads for you to indulge in (or avoid).  Let's start at the top and go all out with Daryl Chen's 20 Scariest Books of All Times over at the Reader's Digest site. The post includes covers and short summaries, so you can pick and choose how you prefer your frights. Stephen King is well represented in the previous list, and his works appear as well in Buzzfeed's 23 Books That are Actually Really, Really Scary . ADDENDUM : King also appears prominently in another Buzzfeed article: 23 Books That Actually Freaked People Out So Badly, They Had To Stop Reading. (And here's a shout-out to my local indie bookstore, Towne Center Books , for mentioning this particular list. Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay Okay, I'm officially freaked o...

Let’s just get that word out of the way now because it and all its ugly friends—worry, doubt, and anxiety to name a few—often play a role in how or why we write (or don’t). We all at some point have fears, and it seems that we creative types have them in constant, overpowering waves. As I moved into my twenties and began to write in earnest, fear was my constant companion. Every year, there is a plethora of stories published. How was I going to compete? How was I different from or better than those who were already published? Those two questions swirled inside my head all the time. Who did I think I was to think that I was good enough for other people to want to read my work? It didn’t help that some editors recommended that I “write blacker.” The fear of writing expanded to me wondering if and how I could pander to the publishing world my blackness for the sake of being published. When you let fear in, it becomes a squatter. It comes not to visit and have some tea, a little ...

Looking ahead to Halloween, a holiday I love by the way, we're writing about fear on the Blood-Red Pencil all this month. This is a time we think about all the things that used to scare us on All-Hallows Eve - ghosts and goblins and witches and now zombies – as well as other things that grab us by the throat and hold us immobile. Jason wrote about his fear of being able to get back to writing after the birth of his child in a two-part series that began with Fear Beyond Words . An apt title for a topic to which those of us who juggled kids and words can relate. Will we ever have time to write again? However, that is not what I want to write about in this post today. A Facebook friend recently advised me to be cautious about what I post on social media that could be controversial, such as political issues, as it may not help my career to get in the middle of contentious debates. Not that I want to get in the middle of an ongoing rant, but I do like to speak my mind, and perhap...

This post has been reprised and updated from one that first appeared Oct. 17, 2011. False Evidence Appearing Real Having suffered from insomnia in the past and now facing a new journey of life alone after the loss of my husband, I know fear can raise its ugly head during the wee hours when you are between awake and doze. You are most vulnerable then and negative things keep running through your mind in a continuous loop. As writers, we all experience this to some degree at various stages of our work. First it might be “I can’t come up with an idea.” Then, after a great start where the story flows effortlessly, there is that sudden stop and “Oh no! Where do I go next? What if I can’t finish the story?” The fear seems real. After you finish the story and polish it to a high sheen, then fear sets in again: “What if I can’t get it published? What if nobody likes it?” Any small word of critique becomes that F.E.A.R. OK, say your book gets published and after the happ...

Afraid of success? We can fix that. Are you tired of succeeding in this writing game? Below is my tried-and-true 12-step method of making sure you don't get stuck working as a professional writer for the rest of your life. 1. Turn off grammar and spellcheck in your writing program. Spell words however the hell you want to spell them. It's your work. Be exprimental and break boundaries. Rules are for suckers. 2. Don't write more than two drafts of any particular work. More than two and you'll lose the magic. Be raw. 3. Disregard critical comments your critique group partners and beta readers make. It's all due to jealousy anyway. 4. List all the agents you've queried on your blog, and their response times, so other writers will know not to query agents who take too long. 5. When you query an agent and the agent declines to read a full or a partial, let her know what a golden opportunity she has missed out on. When you're famous, instant karma w...

I remember a movie I attended in a theater many years ago. It was a romantic thriller. I munched from a container of popcorn as the tension ramped up and love scenes grew steamier. Then the female lead, for whatever reason, crept down the stairs in the dark toward the front door. No. Don’t. Not a good idea. The front door was glass at the top, but fogged so the character, and the audience, could not see what was on the other side. Was there a shadow? Maybe. Did the shadow move? Not sure. A fist slammed through that glass panel. The audience expected something to happen, but the impact of fist with glass was so sudden and so loud, there was a collective gasp. I jumped. My right hand flew toward my mouth, flinging popcorn at the moviegoers sitting behind me. I’m not sure anyone noticed. That’s why characters do stupid things in books and movies. Fear…or terror…leads to bad decisions, often making a situation worse instead of better. The reader or movie fan is happy with th...

Photo courtesy of Jason Odell It's October. Halloween comes to mind, which in turn leads to thoughts about scary stuff. Goblins, Zombies, Vampires and things that go bump in the night. We all have our fears. As writers, of course we're afraid we won't be able to finish the book. When we finish it, we're afraid nobody will buy it. Or that it's got mistakes we missed. Or that it'll get bad reviews. Or we'll never be able to write another book. But that's not what I'm talking about today. I'm talking about things our characters are afraid of. Nobody's perfect. And nobody wants to read about a perfect character. We want them to be flawed, because that makes them easier to identify with. And we want to see how, despite their flaws, they can overcome obstacles and can conquer their fears to emerge victorious at the end of the book. I write a lot of action-adventure themes in my books. I put my characters in tight spots. In their action sce...

By Dani Greer, Chief Red Pencil When I first heard about Peg Brantley’s new novel, The Missings , I wanted to know the Gore Meter Rating. Most of you know my weak heart can’t handle much more than a good cozy mystery when it comes to spine-tingling reads. It turns out the first chapter was about as gory as it got. The thrill level was definitely alive and well in this fast-paced novel though. But what thrilled me most of all is something we don’t see all that often in a plot-driven read: great character development. All of us feel fear, but I recently read in Psychology Today that we are born with only a few, such as fear of falling and fear of starvation. That means humans have acquired a lot of other fears through learned behavior. Some of the most common ones include fear of insects; fear of water or fire; fear of public speaking; fear of rejection; fear of nuclear war; fear of success or failure. In The Missings , Brantley plays on common fears many of us ha...

Considering that I'm now retired, you'd think I'd have plenty of time on my hands. Still, I have what some might say is a surprising fear, others not. My fear is not getting everything done when it needs to be done. I have lists everywhere of what I need to do that day, the next and other dates as well. I have a calendar to tell me the guests for my blogs, whether they've sent in their information, and whether I've set everything up yet. Still, sometimes I forget to check the calendar, because it gets buried beneath the lists and important notes on my desk. I'm so bombarded with e-mails and blogs and social media sites to check each day, it seems time slips by so fast that I don't know where it went. God forbid if I had a full-time day job, because being an author has become a vast encompassing and time consuming operation. Maybe I bite off too much, but it seems that every author I know does the same. Not only that, somehow they manage, while I seem t...

Writers need talent. We all know that.   They also need to learn and master the skills that go into fashioning great fiction and nonfiction. Again, no news flash here! But one of the hidden attributes a writer must have, which isn’t apparent going in, is courage. Because one of the biggest bugaboos pretty much all writers face is fear. Is my work good enough? Do I have talent? Can I make it in this business? Universal questions, all.   Almost every writer I’ve worked with has been plagued by that internal voice that says: What makes you believe you can be a writer? In many cases, this is followed with that snippy little Puleese!   Funnily enough, the folks I’ve worked with who had tons of confidence , and no self-doubt, almost always proved to be not as talented as those who question themselves. Kinda like the old saying that it’s the healthier people who go into therapy. Especially when searching for their sea legs, new writers become terrified when i...

To be a writer you have to be fearless. You're delving into new, un-thought-of ideas, creating characters, surprising characters with twists and turns, writing scenes that make even the writer laugh or cry. And yet…most writers are not all that fearless. They worry no one will like what they write or the book won't sell or what they consider a sentence or plot point that will capture the reader will actually cause them to close the book. But, despite all that, writers are still fearless. They keep moving forward, sitting at their computer or notepad and writing, day after day. They read and re-read what they wrote and make changes, a word or two here and there or even erasing an entire chapter or character. Personally, I don't know of any writer who writes from word one to The End without reading, re-reading, writing, and re-writing. Writers are fearless, but not because they have no fear, but because they face those fears and keep moving forward. If they're stuck o...

It's that time of month again for What's Your Answer . Today's questions are based on The Blood-Red Pencil's topic for October, which is Fear . It's easy to participate. I'll present three questions and my answers. You can answer one or more of them. One answer means you get more room to expand on your answer. For more than one, please limit your space for each. Only one website or blog link, please. My questions and answers are: Q: When you start a book, are you afraid your inspiration will vanish and you'll never make it to that last page? A:  Yes. I usually have an idea how a book will begin and how it will end, but I need to count on my imagination and perseverance to fill in the blanks. I've never written an entire book while in the flow, but wish I could. At times I have to force my mind to think plots through, and ask myself if what I've written makes sense. Q: After you've finished a manuscript and it's about to be relea...