Share an iconic horror film shot 🖤

I know we usually save promo stuff for the outro, but I actually have a discord server of other authors which doubles as a horror book club and a writers' accountability/feedback/research/humblebrag community. Feel free to join. We have a lot of fun there. #HorrorWritersChat discord.gg/gc5rYvjXhu

Definitely physical isolation. Part of why I moved "The Woods" to Alaska is because it raises the stakes so much if you can't just escape by driving away. If help is coming at all, it's several hours away by helicopter. Even the local police are just as isolated as you are. #HorrorWritersChat

#HorrorWritersChat Never trust your negative thoughts after sunset. I know this. I feel most isolated when I can't talk to anyone, when it's super late at night and most everyone is asleep. Sometimes I send a text anyway. Sometimes I try to distract myself. Sometimes I sleep it off. Sleeping helps.

I'm Sophia! I write psychological/supernatural horror. Currently preparing to query a book about a fake medium haunted by her own grief, and also by a hungry ghost. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, such a chilling exploration of two deeply isolated sisters. #HorrorWritersChat

I'll often use environmental cues to signify isolation in combination with the senses. A lot of my work takes place in nature, so I'll employ the character's hearing being amplified with the sounds of a storm for chaos or minute cracking in the forest for tension, for example. #horrorwriterschat

I think I connect to nature foremost. It keeps me grounded. I take walks! I read and go to libraries. The only aspect of social media I like is communicating and having a community of writers to talk with. Chats like this! And I love helping fellow or new writers navigate. #horrorwriterschat Q4

Since I often write eco-horror, I'm most likely to use the setting. The thing is, nature abhors a vacuum. Even the starkest landscape has an intricate acoustic tapestry if you know how to listen. So I often use *complete* silence to build unease. Or an unnatural pattern of sound. #HorrorWritersChat

Hit up your friends either online or IRL. I promise you're not being a bother. If any of them are writers? Bitch and moan at each other over how lonely a craft it is. Not feeling talkative? Send them a meme, or just sit in silence. Shocking how a mere second presence helps. #HorrorWritersChat

Right now? Cats. Moving to a new city recently has left me a bit lonesome, but finding a low-stakes Shut Up And Write group and (oddly) an LGBT martial arts group helped. Both are things that don't require sociability but it's good to see people and be seen to be about #HorrorWritersChat

I often enjoy being alone but once a week, I join a writer friend's game night. It's a bright spot of my week to be able to chat and catch up with them. Otherwise, I try to engage with my community by highlighting other creators. Show support and enthusiasm for fellow writers! #horrorwriterschat

Honestly, I haven't felt lonely since I started sharing my work. The community has been wonderful. I was an extremely lonely youth, and the memory of that time informs what I write, but I find myself now surrounded by lovely people. I also have a big garden full of wildlife. #HorrorWritersChat

#HorrorWritersChat Grief. Nobody understands it. Even if you've gone through something similar. And the anger, the resentment, when others are just living life, and not caring, is overwhelming. It's an emotion that can really change a person. Not always for the better.

#HorrorWritersChat I always feel a little bit lonely. It's like building up a tolerance over time; after a long enough period of not being acknowledged, it takes something drastic for it to be too much loneliness, which hasn't happened in a long while for me...

#HorrorWritersChat I tend to only feel lonely when I have the loss of purpose, or the lack of a dream of some kind, however small. I'm quite comfortable in my own company, because being lonely in a crowd is far more debilitating for me. Physical touch helps. Small things. Being intentional, to you.

#HorrorWritersChat I'm Shannon. I write across genres. I've released two horror books set in the PNW. Both are psychological and deal with isolation differently. The Alien films hit me hard. No one can save you in space.

#HorrorWritersChat Q4: I have a few people and communities I rely on when writing gets lonely. My wife is my go-to, though I do try my best not to bother her about marketing! I have a critique group I see once a month and sprint partners. And of course, this chat, the best part of my Wednesday! 😉

Writing may be quiet but a wise professor told me once, writing is social. We read to know we are not alone. We write to communicate. Even when we listen to music alone we engage w/ the expressions of others. But I do struggle. So I read others, and reach out, however much I can. #HorrorWritersChat

#Horrorwriterschat Q3: I think it really depends on subgenre, tone, etc (as well as character voice and premise). In my horror comedy, the main character becomes increasingly isolated--a lot of that's baked into his experiences, so is less about technique in that case and more about the

I don’t often feel lonely but I do find my mood picks up when I go out and am around people. I know not everyone can always do that but if you can, it helps. It also helps with writing. The thing my newspaper editor used to tell us rings true: there’s no news in the newsroom. #HorrorWritersChat

(I got distracted. Sorry for the late response!) I like to use the environment to show how isolated the character is. Maybe the space seems to stretch on forever. Their destination seeming farther away. Maybe it’s a bit too quiet. Their breathing sounds louder. #HorrorWritersChat

Ooo good question. I let the MC start monologuing. Aromantic Frankenstein is a Gothic in 1st person POV. I evoke religious imagery as we spiral into Victor’s god complex. Descriptions of intimacy/ vulnerability hold more unfamiliar terror than descriptions of creation/control. #HorrorWritersChat

Oh, #HorrorWritersChat. I uh...well. I have friends online (hello, friends) so talking to them is an option. Writing also helps as distraction and vicarious living. Walks too, I may not communicate but knowing people exist is nice. Snuggles with cats and bothering family are good too.

Repetition, both on the narrative and syntactic level. I didn't really notice until rereading, but of the eight tales in my new book, half deal with entrapment and isolation by routine. I took this to extremes in one story in which I deliberately pushed all the way into tedium. #HorrorWritersChat

The indie writing community is lovely because I've made a few great friends who I yap at about WIPs/writing struggles. I'm rather introverted and wait for someone else to reach out before we get on a more conversational basis but I think just taking that first step is important #HorrorWritersChat

I had my sole protagonist in my first book have his thoughts be in direct conversation with the prose May be a simple technique - even gimmicky - but it got across how lived in his head he was He views his life as a narrative, and commenting on it keeps him sane #HorrorWritersChat

If I can, I hang with friends or family. If not, I try to get out of the house or find some other way to distract myself. And not that any are near me, but professional cuddlers are great for helping with social isolation. I tried that once, and it was lovely! #HorrorWritersChat

Q4 #HorrorWritersChat - What do you do when you feel lonely or too isolated? Working mom my whole life (retired now, kids grown)—I took silent retreats for peace/quiet. I 💜isolation. Peer groups are great fuel for motivation, accountability, sharing wins/losses/dreams. My creative pals = 2nd fam

Lots of things. Spending quality time with my cats. Listen to music. Go out for walks. But if I have to be honest with myself, playing video games is probably the big one. #HorrorWritersChat

Sorry, got distracted by work stuff. 😅 I tend to focus on the setting for sure, but I think I also like to go deep with the chatacter’s interior monologue. #HorrorWritersChat

Good question. As much as I like environmental isolation a la The Thing, I’ll rarely say no to an “outsider in an isolated community” story. #HorrorWritersChat

Hello #HorrorWritersChat, my name is Rami Ungar, I write horror and dark fantasy, and a few of my favorite horror movies do involve isolation. "Perfect Blue" has an MC who feels isolated and alone on multiple fronts, leading to a partial breakdown, for example. 1/2

Social/psychological/moral. An excellent example is Cormac McCarthy's work, particularly 'Child of God' and 'Outer Dark'. Another is Poe's "The Man of the Crowd". Merely physical isolation is something that I enjoy, though of course it leads to the other kinds if too prolonged. #HorrorWritersChat

#HorrorWritersChat Due to my own mental hangups, what hits me the hardest are social and psycholical isolation. Physical can be managed via various methods, but if someone doesn't want you or you can't express why you feel so alone in your head, that can be more desperate than any distance.

I always attempt with combining all three in my writing, but I feel they always end up with location and psychological. #HorrorWritersChat

#HorrorWritersChat THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER by Stephen Graham Jones has ALL the layers of isolation and it works so well. Forced to seek physical isolation and remain socially alone, the MC develops psychological isolation all of which provides the forward momentum of this amazing story.

I have always enjoyed physical isolation stories. “Clovercore” movies include Alice in Wonderland, Labyrinth, or any other involving wandering around another world alone and lost. Of course, physical isolation can lead to psychological over time. #HorrorWritersChat

Probably social and then location. Having moved around a lot growing up, I never fully got to feel like I was a part of much or gain life long friends. Mental isolation feels real for me now as I live in an area where most people aren't exactly what I'd call forward thinking. #HorrorWritersChat

Oh all three That's the cocktail that produced my first book Because I lived it Cut off from friends and family, living in my head for months on end I recommend the book that came from it, but don't recommend the experience itself It's boring more than anything else! 😒 #HorrorWritersChat

Hi, #HorrorWritersChat! I'm Trish Wilson, Media Director for The Horror Zine. I interview famous horror writers & I write quiet & comic horror.. Isolation? "Buried", starring Ryan Reynolds. It's about a truck driver in Iraq who is captured & buried alive. It's so harrowing I can't watch it again.

Greetings #HorrorWritersChat I’m Mary from Greater Manchester, UK. I write cosmic, gothic, and weird horror, which thematically could be considered Pink Horror. Not to be confused with Pink Horrors, the Lesser Daemons of Tzeentch. Fave isolation horror: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter 300 Days of Night

'Ello, #HorrorWritersChat! I is a sad monster what writes disturbed fictions. I think this means weird, I write weird horror. 'Decarnation' is a horror game featuring isolation, it is also disturbed and unsettling and light on actual gameplay but will probably break you into tiny pieces.

Hi #HorrorWritersChat community. Tom Coombe here, writer of weird/apocalyptic/sometimes religious horror. My pick for book and movie would be the same, even though they are actually very different, if that makes sense.

Hi all, I'm The Last Something and I write supernatural horror, usually about some kind of creepy monster. I like to get weird with it. I really enjoyed Send Help. It's a lot of fun. Wild, a bit gory, and featuring a couple of really good performances. #HorrorWritersChat

Q1: #HorrorWritersChat I'm A.C. Cross, I write all kinds of horror but tend to do mostly cosmic because I think it's neat. A great isolation movie is Session 9. It just seeps into your bones!

Hi y'all, I'm Hazel, I write weird gay cryptid horror (y'all probably know me by now), and a book that features isolation that always stuck with me is "The Call Of The Wild" by Jack London. Maybe that book specifically is why my first book was set in Alaska. Who can say for sure? #HorrorWritersChat

Hi there, #HorrorWritersChat! I’m A.C. and I write all kinds of horror, but have lately been focusing on interactive stuff. Favorite piece of media that features isolation? Easy. John Carpenter’s The Thing.

Sorry responsed to the wrong post. #HorrorWritersChat My name is Rosé Black. I write horror and horror comedy. You want isolation? Try Alien. Know what? There is also that game that came out a while ago where you are in a plane crash and end up on an island of cannibals. Anyone know the name of it?

#HorrorWritersChat Q1: Hello, my name is Jacob Marsh, and I write horror and supernatural thrillers. I love stories about isolation, so I'll pick a recent one. "The Gorge" is a movie about two people tasked with guarding the gorge that separates their encampments. It isn't perfect, but it's fun!