This image from Futurama (found on the wonderful TvTropes.com) cracks me up, but it also encapsulates every horror writer’s dilemma: escaping the conventions and the dominant trappings of the genre.
This is one of the reasons why I continue to publish the Instigation series of “dark prompts for sicko writers,” even if my tongue is sometimes in my cheek. But here’s a few for you now, inspired by this comic:
+ Imagine what lies beyond the side of the frame. What is chasing the creatures? Or where are the characters being chased to?
+ Take a page from King: Write about a writer haunted by his own creations.
+ Take any character from the Stephen King universe…and make it worse. Go where King wouldn’t go.
+ List as many iconic characters from your genre as you can come up with. Now mash them together and dream up a fresh reason for their outrage — the reason for their assembly.
Fun! I’ve been a Futarama fan for years. They never got stuck in the formula and I wish every horror fiction author — me included — keeps writing outside the box and skipping past the formula.