Hi all,
Tha last time I wrote a story was at secondary school (about 15 years ago?!?) and I am thinking of taking pen to paper again.
I think I would like to dabble in horror. Do you think this would be a good market to write in?
Also, where do I start?
I was thinking a short story to begin with - are there magazines/publishers interested in short horror stories?
Some general "where do I begin?" advice would be great!
Thank you for help in advance.

Hi, Freespirit and welcome to Writewords

Yes, there are magazines, and online ezines which accept Horror - this is a useful website for finding such publications:
http://www.duotrope.com/
Most ezines, however, don't pay for stories they publish, but they are useful for writing experience and confidence building.

Short stories and short writing exercises are a good place to start if you haven't written for a while - you might like to take a look at how-to-write books such as Margret Geraghty's The Five Minute Write.

However, the best way to write a novel is to get stuck in and write the novel.

There is a lot to learn and you should treat it as a marathon, not a sprint - the majority of published authors wrote several novels before finally managing to get published.

Good luck,


NaomiM

<Added>

oops, typo: The Five-Minute Writer

Hi Naomi and thank you for your advice - I have ordered that book from amazon and hopefully it will get the creative juices flowing!
Thank you!
Free

In general, the horror fiction market is in decline (overtaken by urban fantasy for the most part). However, there are still a fair few paying short story magazines. Naomi's right, Duotrope is an excellent market source. You could also try:

http://ralan.com/

http://www.darkmarkets.com/

http://www.specficworld.com/

The first two are free; specfic charges but it's very good.

Black Static is probably the leading UK horror magazine (sister to Interzone).

You should also think about getting out and making contacts. The World Horror Convention is in Brighton next year. Also, FantasyCon attracts lots of horror writers, editors, publishers etc.

Terry

Thank you Terry- That has certainly given me food for thought!
Thanks
Free

There is also a growing amount of fan fiction written online - eg, on websites devoted to Twilight, Harry Potter, etc - which is excellent writing practice, because the scene setting and characters have already been done for you, you just place them in scenarios of your own imagination.


- NaomiM