Well, I've gotten it into my head that I want to try my hand at writing horror and/or dark fantasy. To this end, I've checked out a couple of books from UNC Library in order to jumpstart my brain and also, since I'm an absolute beginner, to get some idea of the basic process of writing. The four books I ended up with in my big Swiss-Army backpack were:

Writing Horror, A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association (edited by Mort Castle)
Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
(edited by Gardner Dozois, et. al.)
Creativity and its Cultivation (Harold Anderson, editor)
Quantum Creativity: Waking Up to Our Creative Potential (by Amit Goswami, Ph.D.)

So far, I've only had the chance to read a few chapters of Writing Horror but hope I'll have some time for the other three books in the next four weeks. In any event, in the next few paragraphs I plan to simply note a few of the useful things I gleaned from my brief reading of the above list's first book.

The first chapter, entitled "The Madness of Art", by Joyce Carol Oates is simply a personal and fairly impassioned treatise on why Gothic fiction - her brand of horror - should be afforded just as much legitimacy as that which mainstream writing receives. While I certainly sympathize with all those who - justifiably - feel like literature's nether-genres have gotten a bad rap, her three short pages offered little more than three selections that the aspiring horror writer should consider reading:

Franz Kafka, "In the Penal Colony"
H.P. Lovecraft, "Shadow of Our Time"
Henry James, "The Turning of the Screw"

Granted, she did insist that all good writing, no matter in what area of literature, should have a basis of "originality of concept, depth of character, and an attentiveness to language." I'm tempted, however, to say: Well, no duh!

The second chapter, "A World of Dark and Disturbing Ideas", by J. N. Williamson, while somewhat more helpful and surprisingly esoteric (apparently, Williamson generates his "useful ideas" out of a "hypnagogic state" that he can induce at will), struck me more like a self-aggrandizing rant than a beginner's bible to developing a story. His major contribution is to define a "useful premise" as "a concept that 1) may be new, or not developed into a plot for quite a while, 2) that the writer is comfortable with, and 3) one for which it can be reasonably assumed an accesible market exists. I'm not sure this is particularly helpful, but I do think the following sentiment is valid:

Study the fiction being currently bought, and attune your imagination in that direciton.

The "Hypnagogic State," to which Williamson ascribes the generation of most of his creative work, is "simply" when the mind "lingers in a twilight realm just before passing into unconciousness." Apparently, if certain seeds are planted (potential storylines, ideas, and moods) at the right time, they can grow into more fully developed plots during one's day-dreaming. The author's instructions for attaining this mental state are as follows:

For your voyage to the twilight realm, you need to make arrangements not to be disturbed even for the usual important call or visits Unless you do it at night and your bedmate is never restless, you'd be wise to choose a part of the day when your home and your neighborhood are customarily quiet. A vital point: Never is this a case of forcing anything. Your conscious mind should be void unless your need is to get an original, useful premise for a specific "theme" anthology or issue, or to find a way to complete chapter six, or perhaps to begin a book or story for which you already have a basic concept. Wandering off mentally in those instances to thoughts on what to have for dinner or how well your team's draft choice will fit in is the equivalent of asking your neighbors in for a party!

To finish off his "guide," Williamson demonstrates his ability of attaining the hypnagogic state and rattles off 10 story ideas (not all useful premises, he admits) that he developed in 20 minutes while visiting the "twilight realm." I'd like to think that arrogance and self-adoration aren't necessary for being a good writer.

Finally, Wayne Allen Sallee and his chapter "Mirror, Mirror" offered me the best advice. He cites newspapers and television as good sources of inspiration, pointing also to local television news as a possible creative petri-dish. Use your own experiences and point of view, Sallee says, and put yourself into the scene (again, as a bystander in the local news, perhaps). "There is a potential tale to be told in the eyes of any single person you encounter." Also: atmosphere is everything -- a reader can take a story with a thin plot if the description is spot on.

Sallee even gives examples of writing exercises: Find a person, somewhere, anywhere and "write a thumbnail sketch about that person. Describe his appearance, his speech pattern, make some mention of his gestures and body movements. What is your subject eating or drinking, what is he playing on the jukebox?"

Other advice: "Surround yourself with the commonplace and prosaic." "Write everything down, no matter how banal it seems." "Most of us write about what moves us most, and I believe that is true in the field of horror." "Your characters must be timeless." And his last suggestion, referring back to the title of his chapter, is use the mirror.

OK, that's it for the first three chapters of Writing Horror. I doubt I'll be able to maintain my enthusiasm for such summaries of subsequent chapters, but I wanted to have a written record of some of the things that might actually be helpful.

Additionally (and finally), to further steep myself in "the stuff," I went out today and bought Steven King's The Shining, The Vintage Ray Bradbury short story collection, and a Henry James collection featuring "The Turn of the Screw."