Today's cosmic horror writers bring a diversity of experience to crafting novels that are lyrical, thought-provoking, and sometimes funny in addition to being suffused with measureless dread. If you want to read it, however, you should know that the genre has evolved immensely since Lovecraft's heyday.
#HOW TO WRITE COSMIC HORROR HOW TO#
If you want to learn how to write Lovecraftian horror, there's no one better to study that its namesake himself. Thanks to his outsize influence over the subgenre, it's often referred to as "Lovecraftian". Lovecraft's extensive work in cosmic horror gave us the tropes associated with it today: paranoid protagonists, helplessness in the face of nature, and humanity as the plaything of grotesque, dispassionate gods. It’s the blood-freezing vacuum of outer space, and the sinister maw of the deep, dark sea. Instead of jump-scares and gore, it trades in subtler, more psychological form of fear, thanks in large part to the precedent set by its progenitor, H.P. It forces you to confront a terrifying suspicion: that you are nothing, in an unfathomable universe full of forces you can’t control.Ĭosmic horror is vast in scope. Knife-wielding slashers might set your heart racing, and a vengeful ghost can make the hair rise on your arm, but cosmic horror is bigger than these tangible fears. What is cosmic horror? This spine-tingling subgenre is all about the mind-bending terror of the unknown. Cosmic Horror: 15 of the Most CHILLING Titles to Start You Off