Strange Horizons Fiction Department: Horror Stories We've Seen Too Often

Strange Horizons Fiction Department: Horror Stories We've Seen Too Often

Horror Stories We've Seen Too Often


The following list is an attempt at classifying the kinds of horror-story plots that we receive too frequently. We have a separate page for non-horror stories we've seen too often.

Note that we're not generally interested in horror of any kind; this page simply lists some particular kinds of horror stories that we see especially often.

Main plot types are numbered; subspecies and variants receive letters.

This is not a canonical list of bad stories or story cliches. This is a list of types of stories that we at SH have seen too often; it's not intended to be a complete list of all types of bad stories, nor are all the items on the list necessarily bad.

We recognize that horror stories are often more about mood or tone than about original plots. Still, these plots and ideas are particularly common in the horror stories submitted to us.

for the full article go to http://www.strangehorizons.com/guidelines/fiction-common-horror.shtml