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Monsters in Our Fiction

Not just for Horror

Alison Acheson
The Unschool for Writers

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Photo by Yaopey Yong on Unsplash

Horror fiction is most quickly described as “stories with a monster.”

Some of us write what is often referred to as genre fiction, and some actively resist such labels.

I tend to neither write nor read “horror.” But I remember — clearly — reading that definition years ago, and even my “no horror, please” mind was piqued, and images and sensations began to come. So did a few story ideas — and a shift in my thinking.

Monsters can take many shapes, sizes, qualities. Monsters are within and without; monsters might live in a short story or long, or hide between the lines of a poem.

A monster might be the answer to a hole in a story you are working on right now. Or maybe it’s already in your words, waiting for recognition, wondering What are you going to do with me now?

Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral

Let’s place ‘tech/robotic’ under ‘mineral.’ ‘Human’ is ‘animal’ (or vice versa).

As for vegetable: once, we were replacing a falling-down fence in our backyard, and I spent days struggling to rid the yard of the ivy that had grown thickly over long years. I remember cutting my way though layers of that miserable thing, to the fence corner where someone — I had words for this person —…

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