Tim Waggoner’s Writing in the Dark is an excellent guide for any writer of dark fiction. It covers a range of topics in detail providing clear, well-explained examples. Throughout, Waggoner refers to a range of well-known and less well-known texts in order to make points incredibly clear. In addition to this, the exercises in each chapter are well thought out and build upon the ideas of the chapter. I’d recommend this guide to anyone interested in improving their writing.
To go into a little more depth, I’ve spent the last three months with this book, slowly working through it, reading each chapter and having a go at all of the exercises in the notebook pictured above. The exercises challenge your own preconceptions and ideas and sometimes ask you to write in a style or on a topic which you are not familiar with. I constantly found myself thinking about things I’d written, reflecting on some things I’d done well, but more often about how I could have done things differently or improved what I’d done.
Subjects of chapters start with a focus on horror – why it matters, the aspects of a horror tale, different types of horror and from here branch out into areas which would benefit all writers: characterisation, style, suspense and perhaps most importantly, emotion.
Those familiar with the blog in recent weeks will know how much it has influenced me. Here are some links to three recent posts which started from exercises or thinking from the text.
The Busker: An exploration of sub-genre
The Emotional Core in The Walking Dead
While I’ve read the book from cover to cover now, I know that I’m not done with it. The appendices will be revisited often to consider pain and psychology, and there are great starting points for stories too. But more than that, I can see myself revisiting certain chapters when I’m drafting stories and editing, because I know there’s so much I’ve already benefitted from and so much more to come if I revisit those lessons and apply them to my own writing.
Thanks for writing this, Tim. I’ll be keeping it close to hand for a long time.