GREAT EVENING!

A splendid, shivery time was had by all yesterday evening when Alex Davis held his horror writing workshop. There was a great turn-out of members and we also had three new visitors to swell our numbers. So, it was one of the largest workshops we have held to date. Alex talked us through the archetypes of horror and the aims of horror writers – mainly to scare the pants off us! He eased us into digging deep to identify the underlying reasons why horror writing and film can be so disturbing, to the extent that it can stay with us for a long time. Some members shared memories of watching or reading horror and the impact it had on them. We talked about the importance of atmosphere, using the everyday to introduce more unsettling events, and the importance of letting the reader use their own imagination by not giving too much away at a time. The big reveal needs to be built up to gradually. After a couple of writing exercises, we ended by each writing a short piece based on one of the archetypes we had discussed. The end results were very good and in several cases raised goosebumps in the audience. Our very grateful thanks go to Alex, who, once again, gave us much to think about and the inspiration to write in a different genre.