Our Cofounder Dustin is completely fascinated by the horror genre. He loves a good scare! As for me? A good scare stresses me out! Dustin argues that THE point is to be on the edge of your seat with fingered covered eyes stressed out. The viewer MUST worry about the one being terrorized, and inwardly curse yourself because you somehow, in some way, see a snippet of you in the terrorizer.

One thing we are in agreement with- this genre doesn’t receive the recognition it deserves in the writing world.

During a 60 minute interview, Leslie Stahl questioned Stephen King’s literary tastes (lowbrow thriller writer, Dean Koontz, as King’s favorite). Stahl also questioned him as to why he isn’t more respected in the literary world:

“Here you are, one of the best- selling authors in all of history,” Stahl continued, “and the critics cannot find much that they like in your work.”

Stephen King replied, “All I can say is — and this is in response to the critics who’ve often said that my work is awkward and sometimes a little bit painful — I know it. I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got.” -1997, 60 Minutes interview.

I’ll take his best in my writing! Keep in mind, during that time he’d just finished The Shawshank Redemption and critics were on the verge of being proven wrong about King’s literary prowess. By 2013 critics began to look at King in a much different light.

Three Types of Terror

Currently, we are open to submissions for the Ghost & Horror Short Story contest. We’re excited to offer these contests and want to give a few horror writing pointers- not from us- but from the Master of Horror.

Stephen King discusses a little about the three types of terror:

• The Gross-out
• The Horror
• Terror

Hopefully this helps you to brainstorm ideas:

“The 3 types of terror: The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it’s when the lights go out and something green and slimy splatters against your arm. The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it’s when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm. And the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It’s when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there’s nothing there…”

-Stephen King

On Characters

What’s remarkable about Stephen King’s writing? Hands down- it’s his characters. He makes memorable characters that once we meet them we never forget them. King guides us on the job of writing solid characters and what that entails:

The job boils down to two things: paying attention to how the real people around you behave and then telling the truth about what you see.

-Stephen King

It’s all about complicated characters and our investment in them. King, in a subtle way, sheds light that in that the art of horror it’s about what we can’t see. Terror in our own lives is often fear of the unknown, or what we don’t see.

King crafts his words in order for us to identify with the characters who are experiencing terror. I also argue- he crafts his words for us to also identify in some way with the character that terrorizes. In my opinion, that is more frightening.

If we don’t care about the characters, then it won’t matter how many jump scares you write in your horror story. As readers, to some degree, we have to be invested in the fate of the characters.

“It’s also important to remember that no one is ‘the bad guy’ or ‘the best friend’ or ‘the whore with a heart of gold’ in real life; in real life we, each of us, regard ourselves as the main character, the protagonist, the big cheese; the camera is on us, baby.

If you can bring this attitude into your fiction, you may not find it easier to create brilliant characters, but it will be harder for you to create the sort of one-dimensional dopes that populate so much pop fiction.“

-Stephen King

Terrorize Us

Submit to our Ghost & Horror Short Story contest!

Prizes Awarded:

• 1st place $70.00
• 2nd place $40.00
• 3rd place $25.00
• 4th place $20.00
• 5th place $15.00
  • All Winners – Ghost, or Horror piece published on Indie It Press
  • 5 winners – Interviewed for a special feature on Indie It Press
  • Honorable Mentions awarded at the discretion of the judges.
• ALL PRIZES AWARDED THROUGH PAYPAL.

We accept short stories from all writers. We highly encourage new and emerging writers as well as those who identify as LGBTQIA2s+ writers, BIPOC writers, and disabled writers to submit to our contest.

Please read the contest rules prior to submitting.

After you pay $12.00 for the contest email your submission as an attachment to contests @ indieitpress [dot] com. Please include your bio in the body of the email along with the title of your story. In the subject line have it read “Ghost & Horror and Story Title”. Remove all personal information on your story attachment.

Feedback

Want feedback on your submission? We love to give Feedback! However, it takes time and energy for our judges to do this and we would like to pay them for their time. If you would like feedback for your piece it will cost an additional $5.00. Purchase $5 Feedback.

About Our Judges

I enjoy creating complex, multifaceted characters that rise to discover themselves and what they are capable of.

I reside with my husband, Wally, who is my greatest supporter. 

Coaching with KC website: kcloesener.com

IG: @kcloesener