Welcome friend! It is my pleasure to host author August Hill! We are going to learn about writing horror comedy from him today. I haven’t read much from this genre – I tried reading John Dies at the End for the dark comedy horror prompt last year when Ariel and I were reading a Horror A Month but it wasn’t for me at that time. If horror comedy is a genre you love to read or write, this post is for you. First, let’s get to know August a bit. 🙂
“Who doesn’t like a good story? Whether it be a movie, show, game, book, or a chat with friends, storytelling is an essential part of entertainment. I always wanted to be a storyteller, to entertain, and writing just always felt right to me. It also happens to be cheap.”
After receiving an education at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, August Hill started writing Division X, a supernatural horror filled with dark humor, adventure, and sinister creatures that leap off the pages.
His love for all things spooky and scary was unleashed when he discovered Jurassic Park at four years old and the R. L. Stine Goosebumps collection in elementary school. He holds a huge appreciation for 80’s horror and is partial to fun, dark, and witty ensemble casting with younger heroes. Some of his favorite influences include The Lost Boys, Aliens, Gremlins, and An American Werewolf in London to name a few.
Hill’s knack for writing fiction emerged at an early age when he wrote stories for his own enjoyment. He is a collector of horror films and is a board game enthusiast. When not writing, he can be found walking trails with his dog, enjoying movie nights with friends, spending time playing video games, and camping in Maine.
Writing Horror Comedy
Guest post by August Hill
Young Love
I don’t remember the first time I was scared out of my pants, but I remember the nightmares. My parents tell me I was four years old when I first saw Jurassic Park. I don’t recall watching it; however, I do remember dreaming of velociraptors in my house, on my street, eating my family, and all that craziness. The Nightmare Before Christmas quickly became the next subject of my nightmares. Then The Mummy. These movies have stuck with me my entire life, and I still watch them to this day, but they each scared the hell out of me when I was little.
I wouldn’t say I was in love with being scared. What kid would be? It was scary to be scared, but I’ve always enjoyed the feeling, just a little. Just enough to dive head over heels into R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series. And this is where my love for horror truly began.
Fear is all well and good in a horror story. What creator doesn’t want to scare their reader? However, telling a good story should always take priority. If you can scare your audience along the way, then congratulations, you’ve done your job well. Goosebumps did this for me. Stine scared me and showed me a good time. His books were always laden with adventure, monsters, heroes, and misfortune. The good guys didn’t always win, but that wasn’t the point. The point wasn’t even the fear factor. Stine valued his reader’s entertainment above all else, and that’s how horror hooked me.
Even as a young lad, the horror genre gave me the greatest adventures. I’d read Treasure Island and Tom Sawyer, seen the Disney catalogue of movies, and loved Pirates of the Caribbean, but I’d take Goosebumps over them all. I think my exposure to movies like Jurassic Park, Jaws, The Mummy, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Halloween when I was so young veered my interest toward horror more than anything because it did what no other genre could. It scared me and entertained me, and when I was scared, my imagination would run wild.
At night I’d stay up late listening to all the noises of the night. I’d think something was in my room, hiding in the shadows, unseen but there. I’d conjure up what these illusions would look like, and my imagination was more terrifying than anything I ever saw in a movie or read in a book. That sensation of creativity inspired me at that young age in so many ways. I’d always be in charge of games of pretend. They’d always eventually steer into the realm of horror because that’s what I found most fun, and the reaction I would receive from horrifying my friends would all be worth it. They’d be entertained, scared, and having fun, and so would I.
It got to a point where I started to realize nobody else would want to play pretend unless I was the storyteller. We had played pretend for years, but it didn’t occur to me until 5th grade, when I was at a friend’s house. I remember downright refusing to start the game unless someone else was in charge, but nobody wanted to be. Eventually, my stories found their way onto journal pages, and then into a trash can, but still, I remember writing them down. I remember knowing why one was better than another. What I learned from all my years of writing, reading, and watching horror, is that the most entertaining horror stories are the ones which make you laugh and jump in terror.
Horror Comedies
There are so many sub genres in horror. My favorites being sci-fi horror, body horror, slashers, creature features, and above all, horror comedies. I’d always been familiar with the genre of horror comedy. Goosebumps was practically all a horror comedy, and An American werewolf in London was already very near and dear to my heart at a very young age. Yet, it wasn’t until I stumbled across The Evil Dead franchise that I understood why this was my favorite subgenre of horror.
I was having a high school party at my house, and we were watching Evil Dead 1 and 2 back-to-back. None of us had ever seen either, which couldn’t have made the experience more perfect. We were drinking, we had snacks, and we were laughing along to the first Evil Dead as if it was a comedy. The whole film was very amateur, but the passion was clearly there, so it was the perfect target for us to rip apart with our drunken criticisms. However, once Evil Dead 2 came on, everything changed. Here was a horror movie, so blatant in its ridiculousness, we couldn’t help but laugh along to it. Its slapstick humor was intended, and so were its laughs. To this day I can’t think of a better horror comedy or party viewing experience. This film is why I decided to write my first book.
Depending on who you ask, my first manuscript was either great or terrible. It was named Barking Madness. My storytelling was greatly inspired by An American Werewolf in London, but the reason I don’t think it’s very good is because it takes itself way too seriously. I’m not going to go into details, but needless to say, it wasn’t very funny. It was very angsty, and violent, like a teenage horror should be, but it wasn’t funny. I had written, by accident, a run of the mill horror story. One you’d find every January in the movie theater. There was nothing special about it.
I would watch horror movies for years after this trying to decipher what I had missed until it struck me one day when I was watching She-Wolf of London, a terrible 90s horror T.V. show. She-Wolf was 100 percent in the realm of ‘so bad it’s good,’ and I quickly fell in love with the show. It made me laugh so frequently I remembered why I had started writing in the first place. To entertain.
Writing Horror Comedy
I was a senior in college when the idea for Division X struck me. I spent weeks writing jokes down, thinking of monsters I’d love to play with, and the character’s who’d fight them, until I had 30 pages of outlines. My notes read more like standup comedy material, but with some modifications I was able to turn them into viable drafts. Soon I was writing my next book, and this was going to be as funny as it was scary. It took me a little under a year to write Division X, but by golly I did it.
Flash forward four years, after a three-year querying process and a year long editing phase, and my book would be out and on the market. I’m not a big hit or anything, but I did what I set out to do. The reviews are coming in, and they’re everything I could hope for. Some say the characters are one note, others gush about how much they like them. Some say it’s too gory, others think it’s not gory enough. But all of them think Division X is funny and above all, entertaining. I’m not saying I’ve written a masterpiece; I’m just glad I’m making people laugh along with me.
Writing horror is the best. You get to be violent, suspenseful, downright scary even, but you also can make people laugh, and you should. Laughter is the best medicine. Horror is elevated by levity, the moments in between the scares. Use these moments to relieve tension, to make people smile. It’ll make them care more when the horror returns for their favorite characters, and it’ll keep them reading.
A Message for Fellow Authors
Look to your favorite novels, movies, and shows. Understand why you like them. Is it the characters? The humor? The premise? Don’t steal but emulate. Reinvent what you like to read and watch. Expand on the themes you find most entertaining. But above all, be yourself. Let your own voice carry the story. It’ll naturally warp into something unique, for better or worse, and you’ll find your audience. There isn’t one thing for everyone, and there shouldn’t be. As long as you entertain your readers, they’ll stick around.
Tell us your thoughts on this post in the comments. We would love to hear from you!
Thank you for hanging out with us today. Connect with August on his website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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