@Lady sentence structure is also a fantastic avenue for fucking WITH your reader, which I also wish more authors understood
@Lady smut fans 🤝 horror fans
weird sentence structure
@coriander i keep trying to convince people that smut, romance, and horror are more similar genres than different
@Lady A lot of people compare horror and comedy, which is technically also accurate but has gotten boring, but THIS is a very good take
@coriander yeah i mean
romcom
so i GUESS i’m including comedy in this too, but it’s a lot more than just situationalism and setup and delivery; the whole genres have a certain affective sensibility to them; your goal is to make your audience feel things in a way which is both immediate and mysterious
@Lady Yeah, the horror/comedy comparison seems mostly to focus on moment-to-moment stuff, gags etc (like there IS a reason we call jokes and scares "gags" both), but I think looking at them with a broader scope and bringing in the stuff you mentioned does bring it more in line with romance stuff
@coriander it’s a real shame there aren’t more horror/romance crossovers like either it’s a monterfucker fic OR it’s a spooky scary fic but i want BOTH
@coriander do you have any good horror novel recommendations maybe i should study up to write them
@Lady It's an incredibly bog-standard answer but honestly some old-school Stephen King is a fantastic place to start. Something like The Shining or 'Salem's Lot.
House of Leaves, of course, if you haven't already read it. I truly consider it the greatest work of art of the 21st century and yes I am well aware we are only 22 years into it. We won't see it topped.
Let The Right One In is great and despite focusing on children I think actually does come the closest I've seen to being a true horror-romance.